Lamentation of Virginia Tech: the non-education

As sad as it was to hear, read and see about the shooting at Virginia Tech, it was even more sobering to find that so many people were killed with essentially one handgun (2 guns were found, one was 22 caliber which is a pea shooter and nearly impossible to kill anyone and the other was 9mm, not the most powerful handgun to use for mass killing, but good enough to kill unarmed and unprotected people).

There are many ways to analyze this crime: if the teachers and even students were armed (aka Israeli style), not much more than 1 or 2 would have been killed before the shooter was stopped. (More gun control would be detrimental, since it will mean more law abiding citizens would be unprotected and criminals would be less inhibited to do their evil deeds.) Or, why it's better to study at home, even if it is online degree program, as Key-Word likes to tout. Or our school system is raising a flock of sheep that become immobilized during shooting and can't deal with unusual situation without authoritative directives (rather than running away or fighting back on their own: based on the little news release as of date, several were killed in one room, much like what happened at Columbine or Amish school house).

Unfortunately, changes which will take place would be minor, mostly restricting our freedom. For example, California is pushing a new bill to require instant background checks for handgun ammo. The fact is, criminals will get their ammo anyway they can, by theft, black market or going out of state. No law's going to stop them. This law will only tax the law abiding citizens with more paperwork and more fees (that is, tax on our time and money).

In the U.S., we would need some horrific crimes like what happened in Israel before teachers and students become armed, since it's impossible to police all school rooms. Somehow, I have a feeling America will become a police state like Nazi Germany or 21st century U.K., rather than gun touting Israeli citizens....

Copyright 2007, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.