Letters to the Editor
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I don't have a particular stance on guns either way
I just enjoy watching America implode.
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More Gun Carnage
Or, as we call it in America, "Monday".
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Firearms and the punishment of others
It's seems that only firearms cause some people arrive at the highly illogical conclusion for of punishing others for the crimes on another.
Someone used a firearm to murder 30 people, and some people then want to punish people not in any way remotely involved in this henious act.
It would be as if people called for restriction on homesexual intercourse arguing that it contributed to AIDS an the deaths of hundreds of thousands. It makes no sense.
No law is ever going to stop firearm violence just as no law is ever going to stop murder.
Trying to punish people who have no connection to the crime is not justice, it's tyranny.
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American insanity about guns
My son just returned home after nearly 3 months as an "exchange student" at a French university. In this business school program, he was the only American among a much larger group of students from Germany, China, Sweden and other countries.
He was obviously full of stories about his experiences, including comparing and contrasting the U.S. with other countries during late night discussions with his new friends. One issue that reportedly enjoyed unanimity among his foreign friends was complete bewilderment at gun "worship" among many Americans.
I share that bewilderment. It simply doesn't compute in MY poor American brain. While the mantra is always "Guns don't kill, people do", it is indisputable that today's deranged killer wouldn't have been able to murder as many at Virginia Tech with ANY other weapon but a gun.
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We already have gun control laws. They didn't work.
I don't know VT's exact firearms policy, but I'm sure that today's events fall under the "illegal" category already. More gun control laws won't make it any more illegal to shoot people.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
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Just Wait for the Xenophobes
Acc. to CNN, about half the student body at Va. Tech is foreign born, including many Muslims.
How long before the wingnuts chalk it up to Al Qaeda? (Even though the killer's probably yet another yeehaw, gun-toting wingnut himself.)
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happy pills?
How likely is it that the shooter has been treated for depression?
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Americans
do not have an individual right to keep and bear arms. It's a collective right for the maintenance of militias. Any law that doesn't impinge on this collective right is constitutional.
The Second Amendment refers to "arms" not "guns." If it were read to grant and individual right to bear arms, it would necessarily mean that each individual had the constitutional right to keep and bear H-bombs, M-1 tanks, Stinger missiles, chemical and biological weapons, etc. Even gun nuts don't want that.
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If only
I wonder how many students would have been shot/killed if they all had the right to keep guns in their dorm rooms. Or even if the school allowed those students who had proven personal responsibility to possess guns on campus.
On the other hand, maybe we could ban swords, bats, and all the other things folks use to kill each other.
Or maybe all rooms and houses can be kept locked against entry and egress so that people can only interact in an approved manner that is determined on a case by case basis. Ahhh, there's the solution. Lets get rid of that freedom of assembly.
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Mr Franklin
We also only have a collective right to freedom of the press. It only applies to organized and officially recognized media outlets.
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Guns have nothing to do with murderous rampages
They are just innocent tools manufactured for the express purpose of killing things.
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Gun Control is not the answer...
...if it were, Germany would have never had shootings.
Guns are mechanical tools, they can be used for good or evil just like a car. An angry SUV rampaging through San Francisco, slamming pedestrians like so many mosquitos does not bring cries for a car ban.
For those who say the 2nd Amendment does not cover individuals or guns you have every right not to possess one.
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Gun control is a non-issue.
As long as the Second amendment exists in the US Constitution, any attempt at "gun control" is going to be stymied. Yes, I understand, "Well organized militia" has been taken way out of context. But the fact is that we're never going to be able to take on guns in a legitimate way unless we have the courage to go after the Amendment. At some point, the peacemeal erosion of gun "rights" (what an abusrd term) is going to come under Constitutional fire.
What is necessary now as a public is to address the root causes of gun crime: poverty. The idea that the risk of gun crime is worth the economic pay off is what causes guns being used in petty crime. Let's start making jobs pay wages that give people an excuse to NOT engage in gun crime. With the wage deflation going on in this country, people have a reason go become criminals. Two hours of work pays more than a years worth of wage-earning. Why not commit a crime? We'll never stop crime until we address the underlying causes of it, the economic disparity that turns good citizens into criminals. Of course, that would mean going after the system of wage earning in this country. and it's just easier to throw people in jail for using guns.
Democrats need to approach the issue from a wage-earning, economic standpoint. Being "tough on crime" or "tough on guns" is just going to create another loser issue for us.
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Anything but a Gun
"it is indisputable that today's deranged killer wouldn't have been able to murder as many at Virginia Tech with ANY other weapon but a gun."
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Not only is that conclusion disputable, it is demonstrably wrong. The largest mass murders have always been and will always be done by arson.
If some deranged person wants to maximize the number of deaths in a dormitory, using a firearm is not close to the best weapon.
Instruments that can and do cause large numbers of deaths are commonly available to anyone in the United States and few require any training to cause mass deaths.
Are we supposed outlaw pool cleaning supplies because someone can easily create a cheap version of chlorine gas, or outlaw automobiles because a gallon of Gas contains the explosive equal to 5 sticks of dynamite?
Had this murderer simply taken a gallon of gas and poor it down the hallways of the dormitory at night and ignited it, more people would be dead.