Grim news
The news from Blacksburg, Virginia, couldn't be worse. A lone man apparently went on a rampage and killed 30 people before he either killed himself or was shot by police.
Trying to draw lessons from a savage amok attack like this is often pointless--dedicated killers will always find a way to arm themselves and attack their victims. But I can't help but contrast this situation with the 2002 shooting at the Appalachian Law School, which ended when two armed students drew their weapons and disarmed the shooter.
My understanding is that Virginia Tech University doesn't allow its students to carry weapons. I sincerely wish at least one student had defied that rule.
Trying to draw lessons from a savage amok attack like this is often pointless--dedicated killers will always find a way to arm themselves and attack their victims. But I can't help but contrast this situation with the 2002 shooting at the Appalachian Law School, which ended when two armed students drew their weapons and disarmed the shooter.
My understanding is that Virginia Tech University doesn't allow its students to carry weapons. I sincerely wish at least one student had defied that rule.
Labels: firearms/Second Amendment
posted by J.D. Tuccille at
2:00 PM
3 Comments:
I can't help but shake my head when I see that the "Ads by Google" ad at the top of this page is for a "Gunshot Ringtone"
Apparently, one did!
It is difficult to argue either for or against gun control with a single horrific incident. The fact that this was the worst such event of its kind suggests that circumstances were "just right" to allow for such a tragedy. Perhaps if circumstances had been slightly more "propitious" for the shooter at Appalachian Law School more people also would have died there as well. Fortunately that wasn't the case. However, to make a somewhat more meaningful comparison to Appalachian Law School, it would be useful to not make it blindly, but rather to examine the overall rate of violence using guns on the two campuses. Does the possibly wider availability of guns at Appalachian Law School result in more incidences with guns? Perhaps there are many more incidences of shootings, rapes using a lethal weapon, robbery, etc., than at Virginia Tech where guns are banned. Another important consideration is that it is probably much more symbolic of a ban to regulate guns on a campus than to regulate guns in an entire country. It is not far to travel from Virginia Tech's campus to reach a place where guns are widely available; it would, however, be a far distance to travel to reach a place where guns were more widely available, should the U.S. find a suitable means by which to regulate guns more tightly: both Canada and Mexico already do.
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