Reply #147: Then don't read this post... [View All]

[gorfle]

But the fact is, they are rare.

I don't want to hear that we ought to concentrate on the root causes of this violence, but let everybody keep being armed to the teeth without anything remotely like effective gun controls. Those root causes need to be dealt with, but meanwhile the ability of sociopaths to get guns and cause tragedies like today's is completely unacceptable. How many campuses in other countries had a slaughter like this today?

I think you will find that everyone would like to keep guns out of the hands of sociopaths. Find a way to do it without affecting everyone else and we'll be all ears.

I don't want to hear the standard huffing that if there had been an armed individual among those students, this wouldn't have happened. Contrary to what you believe, there are some places where guns shouldn't be allowed, and school campuses are one of them. If enhanced security is needed to prevent these incidents, so be it; raise tuitions and get it done.

No one claims that if there had been an armed individual present at shootings like this they wouldn't have happened. We claim that at least the victims would have had a chance. Just like the church shooting not so long ago. As soon as the shooter encountered armed resistance, the show was over, and a much bigger tragedy avoided. Guns don't guarantee the ability to resist. They simply provide the means.

I don't want to hear the usual cars vs. guns comparison, a transparent effort to direct attention away from the atrocious level of deaths involving firearms. Yeah, lots of people die in cars, but guess what? The ratio of active use of automobiles vs. active use of guns in this country has got to be around 10,000,000:1, so of course there are more deaths.

But the fact is, more people still die from cars. I bet you anything it is also true that the ratio of number of times of use vs. number of injuries/deaths is still far lower for firearms. Most firearms are probably used without any injuries or deaths. Why? Because most firearm users are extraordinarily careful when using firearms.

I don't want to hear the ridiculous statement that a bloodbath like this could have been caused by someone wielding a baseball bat or a hunting knife, instead of a gun. What horse shit.

You're probably right. These people are bent on mass-killing, and a gun was the most convenient device to do that. It is not, however, the only way. Ask Timothy McVeigh.

I don't want the usual whining about the media not describing the murder weapon is excruciating, perfect detail. This is yet another deceptive maneuver, zeroing in on the gun rather than the violence it was involved in.

We probably would not do that except that the anti-gun crowd is constantly using the details of particular firearms as an excuse to ban them. Consequently we've been conditioned to be very attentive to the details.

I don't want you telling all of us that this kind of thing is inevitable, that Bad Guys will always get guns, that we're powerless to do do anything about it, that the only response is to arm up---and then cop an attitude when you're accused of having a Guns For Everybody outlook. That's exactly what you have.

This kind of thing is inevitable. Bad guys will always get guns. But you are not powerless to do anything about it - you have the power to take personal responsibility for your own safety and arm yourself.

I don't think any of us have a "Guns For Everybody" outlook. None of us want lunatics or criminals to have firearms. But I'm not going to sacrifice my freedoms for the sake of lunatics or criminals. If you can't find a way to restrict only their right to bear arms, then you are going to just have to accept that sometimes they are going to get their hands on them.

And I don't ever want to hear a college campus referred to again as a "target rich environment." Think of how a statement like this makes you look.

That's exactly what schools are - target rich environments. Think about how it looked to the murders. You don't see them running down to shoot up the local police station, do you? I wonder why? Could it be because of the easy pool of defenseless people to shoot at? I think it might be.