Tête-à-Tête-Tête

so you really think that others having guns would have solved the problem?

Sorry, Buck, but giving concealed weapons to a bunch of young stupid, irresponsible students with drama-filled social lives who spend their days binge drinking, doing drugs and generally making asses out of themselves* would not improve the state of affairs on college campuses. The result, overall, would be to make the death toll at VT look small by comparison.

*for the record, I do speak from experience, and I’m so glad my friends and I did not have guns when we were in college.

Dave, I think that if a clear-headed individual on the same floor with Cho student had a gun, some time to think, and decent gun training, there’s every possibility that he or she could have saved a lot of lives.

Alice; you have a point. I’ve known precious few college students whom I would feel very secure around knowing that they were strapped.

One idea would be to allow professors who qualified for concealed carry permits to do so. Another idea would be to double check your concealed carry permit regulations to be sure that they include mental health background checks, lots of gun-training hours, and whatever other safeguards, and make campus rules such that whoever can qualify for one can pack.

Two brief anecdotes:
When I witnessed a co-worker having a heart attack in the parking lot, waited interminably for an ambulance to arrive while a variety of people including myself stood helplessly watching, unable to do anything, and finally learned that he died on the way to the hospital, I immediately enrolled in the next available CPR class. Not sure that CPR would have helped in his case - but there are cases when it would. There is no point in being needlessly powerless to prevent a preventable death.

I guess the second anecdote is obvious from the first. The second is that when I watched the VA tech coverage live that Tuesday morning, my first thought was that I need a concealed carry permit (and don’t have one). No, I don’t fancy myself a hero. But I’ll be damned if I am going to experience that same helpless feeling as I felt for my coworker, while dozens of people (possibly myself) are murdered needlessly.

giving concealed weapons to a bunch of young stupid, irresponsible students with drama-filled social lives who spend their days binge drinking, doing drugs and generally making asses out of themselves* would not improve the state of affairs on college campuses.

So many folks immediately jump to this conclusion. That I advocate a no-holes barred pistol packing society where anything goes. That is not the case. I am very much for sensible gun control. Most gun owners are. There are already countless thousands of laws on the books regulating guns and gun ownership.

Smijer makes the exact recommendations that I would make. In my opinion any adult who can qualify for a concealed carry permit should be able to carry if they choose to do so. I don’t believe that a concealed carry permit should be available to any and everybody who has $150.00 to spend on one.

And you have to keep in mind that the criminally insane are going to ignore gun laws anyway. Only law abiding citizens pay attention to laws. And when the lawless show up they will be shooting fish in a barrel.

I abhor violence. But I consider myself a realist. The very simple fact of the matter is that in a gun free zone the man with the gun is king and there is nothing that can level out the playing field other than another gun or at least the possibility of there being other guns in the area. Even the criminally insane will have weigh that possibility if that possibility exists.

There is no real solution to the problem Dave. At least not one that I am aware of. But I think that statistics will bear out the fact that most mass shootings occur in gun free zones.

There is a reason for that.

so you really think that others having guns would have solved the problem?

Apparently, only if those “others” are government employees (police) who are trained and licensed to carry would be an impediment.

Citizens who are trained and licensed to carry? Feh.

Folks, people who are willing to murder don’t adhere to local gun ordinances. No, giving every bong-head a gun isn’t what people are suggesting. Wow, making the case that allowing responsible ADULTS the ability to protect themselves is even being argued really stuns me, especially NOW.

To answer the question: yeah. If others had guns, the dirtbag mighta been dead & lives mighta been saved. Maybe, maybe not. The alternative is known, though: 32 dead.

Question: if you were to walk down the streets of Baghdad, would you want to be surrounded by 20 year-old Americans with guns or without guns? Last time I saw Hillary & McCain over there, they preferred the kids with guns.

The sentiment is expressed intelligently, but I’m not convinced that the solution to the single largest episode of gun violence in America is — MORE GUNS.

Just look at every other western society for a model. We do not see these kinds of incidents there. Why not?

NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg made an excellent point when he noted that, despite the VT shooting being a horribly tragic affair, the same number of people are killed in the United States, by guns, EVERY DAY (Jersey City, NJ, April 18th).

Does that not indicate that guns are all together TOO prevalent in our [American] society?

-Axl

hand guns, 174 shots, cho was a master gunman, yeah right

it was only recently made into a gun free zone, WHY!?

Fools for obeying the new law and agreeing to be unprotected

powerless and inanimate is a personless gun!

the minds of our children have been won, thanks to our prescribing teachers, and willing idiot parents!