Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Boortz on the VPI Shootings
Neal Boortz has a long post on his blog about the shootings. Here are the two points that ought to get wider coverage:
Now here's something that I have yet to see reported in the mainstream media. Earlier this year the Virginia General Assembly failed to act on House Bill 1572. The citizens of Virginia are permitted to carry concealed weapons if they get a proper permit from the state government --- unless you are on a college campus. This bill would have allowed college students and employees to carry handguns on campus --- with appropriate permits, of course. It died in subcommittee. After the bill was thrown out up steps Larry Hincker, a spokesman for Virginia Tech, the site of today's carnage, who says "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
So .. how safe did these students and faculty in Norris Hall feel yesterday?
Allowing good honest citizens to carry concealed handguns is an imperfect solution, but it's better than nothing, which is what the law allowed--a gun free zone where the crazy shooter had no fear of armed resistance while he executed one after the other.
The second point took some guts for Boortz to ask it:
One more thing. I have a question here. No answer .. just a question. Why didn't some of these students fight back? How in the hell do you line students up against a wall (if that's the way it played out) and start picking them off one by one without the students turning on you? You have a choice. Try to rush the killer and get his gun, or stand there and wait to be shot. I would love to hear from some of you who have insight into situations such as this. Was there just not enough time to react? Were they paralyzed with fear? Were they waiting for someone else to take action? Sorry .. I just don't understand.
I'm pretty sure I'd just stand there waiting to be shot.
Labels: Neal Boortz, Virginia Tech Shootings
