European / Liberal Logic:

Americans with Guns = Ignorant Knuckle Dragging Barbarians

Suicide Bombers = Freedom Fighting Holy Men

Only a liberal would be stupid enough to propose that only government should be allowed to legally own firearms.

BTW, they still have shootings in Europe, too, but you don't here very much about them in the MSM, there or here.

Homeland Security is you, at home, with a loaded firearm.

In Britain, there was shock at the scale of the killings, but many people said they were not surprised, seeing the United States as a nation obsessed with guns, where firearms are easy to obtain." The article chronicled European disgust...

As if to say Amercans are not shocked at the scale of these killings - and to use the term - the United States as a nation obsessed - , as if  270  million diverse people are one big monolith is certainly not an intelligent analysis

• security

I have a 20 year old daughter in college, this past weekend we were on her college campus to watch her receive an achademic excellence award. It was also "parents weekend" at the college. The college has 45,000 students and 10,000 faculty and employees. This past weekend there were over 100,000 parents and family on campus. Short of turning a college campus into prison, there is no way to keep a campus totally safe from a crazed gunman. My wife and I are licensed to carry a conceal handgun, but because it is against the law to carry a concealed handgun on a campus we did not bring one with us while we visited our daughter. Fortunately, there has never been an incident on my daughter's college campus.

Even if laws were passed to allow guns on a college campus it would not stop crazed gunmen from shooting people. But it would allow a law-abiding student to pretect themselves and others. That really is the best we can hope for, too bad that libs don't see it that way. Criminals don't abid by the law (that is why they are criminals). So any laws that restrict where you can carry a gun only provides a criminal more opportunity to commit a crime.

"Liberals love America like O.J. loved Nicole."-- Ann Coulter

Are they upset because of this too?

COLUMN: Law school, guns, and a media bias

By James Eaves-Johnson

The Daily Iowan (U. Iowa)
01/24/2002

TODAY’S HEADLINES
01/24/2002

COLUMN: Law school, guns, and a media bias

(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa — Last week, a disgruntled student at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., went on a shooting spree. Peter Odighizuwa tragically shot six people, killing Dean Anthony Sutin, Associate Professor Thomas Blackwell, and student Angela Dales.
Most news reports pointed out that the situation ended when several students "confronted," "tackled," or "intervened." However, Tracy Bridges, Ted Besen, Todd Ross, and Mikael Gross did not merely "confront" Odighizuwa. Bridges and Gross separately ran to their cars to get their handguns once the shooting began. Bridges approached Odighizuwa with Besen’s and Ross’ aid. Gross was close behind. According to Bridges, "I aimed my gun at him, and Peter tossed his gun down." Bridges, Besen, and Gross had previously received police or military training.

Unfortunately, the media did not point out that the "intervening" students were armed. A Lexis-Nexis search revealed 88 stories on the topic, of which only two mentioned that either Bridges or Gross were armed. A Westnews search exposed worse results. It revealed 112 stories, of which only two mentioned the armed students.

With media bias like this, it is no wonder that people fail to see the benefits of gun ownership. This was a very public shooting with a lot of media coverage. Even here, reporters rarely presented the positive side of firearms. Instead, they preferred to default to the politically correct story portraying guns as something only the bad guy uses.

Of course, this media bias is not unprecedented. A more thorough Lexis-Nexis search by a Yale researcher revealed 687 articles on the school shooting in Pearl, Miss. Of those, only 19 mentioned that Assistant Principal Joel Myrick retrieved a gun from his car and stopped the shooters four-and-a-half minutes before police arrived.

Few will remember that an armed guard helped many students at Columbine escape and was thwarted only when shooters began using explosives. Fewer still will remember that a restaurant owner who was hosting a school dance for students in Edinboro, Pa., stopped a student shooter 11 minutes before police could arrive.

Our myopic view of guns leads too many of us to believe that if we disarm people, we will be safer. Unfortunately, mandatory disarmament only disarms those who are interested in obeying the law. Laws against gun ownership and possession are ineffective against those who would do us harm.

No one would believe that people in Iowa City don’t smoke marijuana or that underage college students don’t find ways to procure alcohol. Why should we be any more naïve when it comes to rules against firearms?

I was unable to discover Appalachian School of Law’s weapons policy, but if it is like almost every other law school in the country, it probably prohibits students from possessing guns on campus. That is probably why Bridges and Gross did not have their guns on their persons. Imagine what these men might have prevented if they could have responded immediately, guns in hand.

Unfortunately, at the University of Iowa, we are more defenseless. The university prohibits the possession of firearms. At our law school, as on most of the campus, people would be unable to run to their cars to fetch their guns, as the only available nearby parking is on university property.

Even worse, our Public Safety officers would be unable to protect us. Only last week did the state of Iowa Board of Regents decide to arm Public Safety officers with air Tasers. Most Tasers are ineffective at more than 21 feet, and they can be defeated with a heavy coat. The UI officers are trained to use firearms, like ordinary police officers, and they have the authority to do almost everything an Iowa City police officer does.

The university should allow responsible individuals with defensive

The Euro-Weenies sadly got it wrong.  MORE GUNS WOULD HAVE HELPED. The sad truth is that some of these people at VT should have been carrying firearms, concealed or not.  As is so often the case,  most people see this case as a case of an armed person causing havoc.  Another armed person could have caused this incident to be less deadly.

The headline was "Shock, Sympathy, And Denunciation Of U.S. Gun Laws: British Newspaper Asks, 'What Price the Right to Bear Arms?'"

Yes we have gun violence.

  But in Europe the prefered method of attack is by bombs.  Bombs have gone off over much of Europe for decades.  The 2005 London transit bombings killed 37 and injured 700.

  So are bombs legal in Europe?  Because if they are illegal I don't know why anyone would use them.  It would be against the law.

My heart goes out to the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy. I couldn't help but cry at the loss of life of those just beginning theirs. What makes me even more heartsick are the inevitable calls of blame, more gun control laws, and second-guessing. We all need to stand down while the police and the FBI finish their investigation. I find it just as amazing that there are European and American press and politicians as well as the Columbine parents who will use the VT massacre as a call for more gun control. What I have to tell these people is this: more gun control will not solve future incidents like this. Learning how to profile and identify those who may be psychologically troubled and looking to end their pain through murder and suicide is.     As a gun owner myself, people who pull the trigger are the problem not the gun. Most gun owners are peaceful, law-abiding citizens who would never hurt anybody except in self-defense if they felt their lives were in danger. What galls me the most is that many who don't support the second amendment in the first place or have a political/cultural agenda will try to deny that right to their fellow citizens. Instead of knee-jerk reactions, let's remember those who died and get at what caused the massacre in the first place. Europe has its own problems to solve so they need to sort out their own houses before judging a country they've never supported and take for granted when they do.

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.  Air Force Motto

emjem says: When your brain's stuck on liberalism it self-destructs.

Many years ago I inherited an elderly uncle's collection of American Rifleman magazines from the 1920's up to the early 50's.. It was and is the official publication of the NRA.  They were bound in order and I read them all from start to finish.  I recall reading the ads before we got into the war from the Brits begging American Sportsmen to please donate their personal guns and binoculars to aid them in keeping the dreaded Huns from crushing them.  They neither had the guns nor the capacity to produce them.  It fell to American gun owners reach in their own gun cases and pockets to save their sorry ungrateful butts.  Next time they are on the ropes don't count on us for  help-- i'm savin mine to take care of business at home.

Many folks on this thread are jumping to conclusions just like the MSM if only from a different direction. I went online and found that there are approximately 30,000 students at VT. The City of Blacksburg (the nearest city) is approx. 40,000 people and the County (Montgomery County VA) has a population of approximately 50,000. After going to the websites of the Law enforcement agencies. I gleaned that there are maybe 50 patrol officers in Blacksburg (estimate). 40 patrol officers in the Sheriff's Office and maybe 40 more in the nearest State Police Office (estimate probably optimistic). The campus police patrol listed at 25 strong with 4 officers in other status. (2 detectives, 1 K-9, 1 community officer). The campus had probably 4 cars working the dayshift, the city 5-7 cars, the county another 5-7 cars, with the same for the State. Folks this is a rural area. I can almost guarantee you that all the campus officers available were at the first crime scene which appeared to be a domestic violence crime with all the myriad details that a major crime can summon. Sheriff's or city police were being called in depending on jurisdictional mandates on campus with other authorities in charge for major crimes. The first crime scene probably stretched the campus authorities thin much less locking down the campus. When the second event happened the first responders probably were in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 officers total coming from great distances. This ain't New York or Chicago folks with thousands of Officers this is a rural area that maybe has 2 or 3 murders a year. The decision to notify the rest of the campus probably rested with the Prez or his designee. The problem would be how do we do this without causing hysteria and panic. Second guessing is not productive. I am sure the witch hunt is just beginning with many ambulance chasers waiting in the wings.