Two things
First of all, more gun control would have made no difference. The fact is that anyone who wants an item -- really wants it -- can get it regardless of what the law says. See also: prohibition.
Second of all, concealed carry would have made no difference either. The odds that someone with a concealed carry license would have been in the classroom, ready, and actually able to take out the shooter is somewhere in the realm of near fantasy.
To summarize, although people on both sides of the gun issue will certainly try to make hay out of this event, the fact is that both sides really have nothing useful to add. The shooting today was an outlier, and a tragedy, and you don't make public policy choices based on outliers.
Second of all, concealed carry would have made no difference either. The odds that someone with a concealed carry license would have been in the classroom, ready, and actually able to take out the shooter is somewhere in the realm of near fantasy.
To summarize, although people on both sides of the gun issue will certainly try to make hay out of this event, the fact is that both sides really have nothing useful to add. The shooting today was an outlier, and a tragedy, and you don't make public policy choices based on outliers.
Labels: current events
posted by Mike at
10:33 PM
7 Comments:
/me nods a lot.
By
Keith Sader, At
8:05 AM
I was going to site Bowling For Columbine's argument about gun control. Basically Moore claims that Canada has just as many guns, but none of the problems.
However, I ran accross this interesting blog post. It's a particularly well written article about gun violence in Canada vs. the US.
By
mattjustmull, At
4:57 PM
If someone really wants something they can get it, sure. But first off, gun ownership and usage is nowhere near as pervasive, internationally, as alcohol consumption. Second, while all laws can be circumvented, laws can certainly be enacted to make it more difficult to obtain guns. That's not to say that someone like this guy wouldn't be patient enough to wait out the rules before he amassed an arsenal, but surely more hurtles would slow down at least a few more people from stocking up and doing something stupid or deadly.
I mean, by all accounts VA has some of the most lax gun laws in the country. You can buy automatic weapons at guns shows with no wait or background check. Even if you don't make guns illegal, you can definitely make them tougher to get than that! If this antisocial loner was required to go through back channels to get guns, maybe he never would have gotten those guns. But then, I don't know how he got his guns. Does anyone?
By
Josh, At
7:42 AM
OK, about $500 bucks buys you a Glock 9mm and 50 bullets. There you go. Should over the counter guns be illegal? Maybe not. But should the guns sold be automatic? I don't see how that can be defended.
By
Josh, At
7:53 AM
I'm pretty sure there's a federal 3-day waiting period for handguns from stores (this guy didn't go to a gun show), so this guy would have had to go through that, and since he bought the gun a month ago, it wouldn't have made a difference; the waiting period is designed to elimitate crimes of passion, of the moment, not premeditated stuff.
Also, you can't buy automatic weapons anyhwere in the USA, at gun shows or elsewhere. This guy used a semi-automatic, which requires a separate pull of the trigger from each shot..."automatic" guns are like machine guns where you hold down the trigger and it keeps firing til you run out of bullets...those are military guns, and the Supreme Court has ruled there is no 2nd amendment right to own those.
By
Mike, At
9:08 AM
You know, Mike - if people can always get around gun laws, then why should it matter if they enact more of them? Semi-automatic, automatic, whatever. The real issue is that the harder it is to get any these kinds of guns, for whatever reason, the better. Just because there will always be ways around gun laws doesn't mean the gov't has to make it easy to get around them (as it stands today). Just make it illegal to sell guns meant to fire as many bullets as possible in as little a time span as possible. Sure, keep the six shooters and revolvers on the shelves for anyone who really, really wantsor needs to shoot someone. But don't make their job easier if they want to shoot a lot of people even faster.
By
Josh, At
10:49 AM
Mike,
Your argument on the likelyhood of a carry conceal person not being there is specious.
You, AND I, don't honestly know. However, we do have some evidence that at least suggests that there was a possibility of that very thing. The school, and the state has said no to a rule allowing those who have them (Remember ther eare 26000 students and more faculty amd staff) that are on that campus and a goo dnumber of people got the ball rolling towards permission to excercise ther permit on campus. It failed and oddly enough may be revisited.
Truth is this, even if law enforcement had reacted with great speed, they, at best, would have been 7-10 minutes away from proper response. There is a catch phrase that makes this argument clear, 15 seconds...15 minutes...do the math.
On hand, a gun could have been the difference between 2 and 32.
Dave
By
Anonymous, At
7:33 PM
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