While Keteyian failed to consider what part restrictive anti-concealed carry policies on the Virginia Tech campus may have played in ensuring Cho faced no opposition from armed civilians, he found a former ATF agent to criticize current gun laws as too little to thwart terrorism.:
“The incident just gets us to think how vulnerable we are,” says [Joseph] Vince, who now runs Crime Gun Solutions, a Maryland-based consulting firm. “We leave ourselves open for people like al Qaeda. If we saw this individual, who’s a student, killing 33 people and wounding 30 others, how could trained al Qaeda people react when they’re able to buy this kind of weaponry and ammunition?”
Keteyian doesn't inform readers that in 2002 following the D.C. sniper killing spree, Vince had been a proponent of ballistic "fingerprinting" schemes in New York and Maryland, both of which have since been proven ineffective.
What's more, while Keteyian consulted research on state gun laws compiled by the pro-gun control Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, there's no indication the investigative reporter even approached the National Rifle Association or other pro-gun rights groups for research or comment.
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I am completely baffled that
April 18, 2007 - 00:52 ET by lnthompI am completely baffled that these people think that words written on paper are going to prevent Al Quida or any criminal or terrorist from getting guns.
Lee T.
U.S. Navy (ret.) / Hillsboro, Oregon
The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.-- Mark Twain
Exactly, Inthomp. And a bette
April 18, 2007 - 01:16 ET byExactly, Inthomp.
Had the college shut down after the first two killings, the other 31 killings would not have happened.
It is a lack of respect for life that is behind this, on the part of the killer and the college, on the part of the college because the college tried to go on with school 'as usual' after two kids were murdered that morning.
Out of respect for the two kids who were killed, alone, the college should have been shut down. But, the college was too scared for its image and wanted to play down the first two killings.
The lack of respect for human life, is the cause of those killings.
Debra...
I dont see how the actual mec
April 18, 2007 - 08:36 ET by ahusserI dont see how the actual mechanics of shutting down a school which is as large as some small cities possible. First the campus police, probably believed, that this was some kind of domestic violence incident at first and the perpetrator(s) fled the scene, as is usual with most criminals. They had no reason to believe at that time that the killings would continue. Also the police were probably very busy at the first crime scene. You know securing the area, finding and interviewing witnesses trying to figure out what happened looking for evidence etc. Looking at the numbers of Police on campus I believe there were no more than 11 or 12 officers on duty and in my experience as a police officer that would be optimistic and probably all of those were at the initial crime scene. The decision to warn the other students would have rested with the Prez or his designee after being briefed by the police. How to respond to the first shootings would have been problematic. Trying to close the school may have initiated a panic. BTW I checked the police website. There is a total of 29 patrol officers at VT with another 6 not in patrol. There were probably a total of 5 patrol cars and maybe 2 or 3 others from the Admin ranks on the day work shift. Im reasonably sure that some officers from either the City, County or State were coming to investigate the homicide as per some memorandum of understanding they have with one of the local agencies. But a look at their numbers of officer available in the City, County and State there were probably no more than 25 officers available to respond when the second shooting happened 2 hours later. This aint a big city folks it is a rural area and some of those officers would have had to stay behind to answer calls in their districts and most were probably coming from some distance away.
ahusser,They should have done
April 18, 2007 - 16:10 ET byahusser,
They should have done a 'lock down,' where they order all the kids to stay/go in and lock their dorm doors. I know the first two killings were in a dorm, but the other kids would have been much safer behind locked doors, than all together in open classrooms. Also, there should have been roadblocks, stopping people from entering the campus.
I would like to see routine checks for guns on campus. And I would also like to see campus police with guns, so that they could take down a gunman and not have to wait for the keystone-cops, who took an hour to get there.
Debra...
Are we feeling safe yet?
April 18, 2007 - 01:53 ET by NiftySwellApparently they thought the law was all that needed to be passed to prevent these types from setting foot on campus. Here is a link and an excerpt that pretty much points that out.
http://www.roanoke.c...
Gun bill gets shot
down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
In the text of this story -
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was
defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the
General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students,
faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
Well, I wonder if anyone has asked Larry if he feels safer?
CH
Good find Nifty. I'll bet L
April 18, 2007 - 02:10 ET by radiofitz34Good find Nifty. I'll bet Larry is not sleeping too well tonight.
I notice that the left never
April 18, 2007 - 02:24 ET by USA4freedomI notice that the left never minds that we loose the right to carry arms, actually written in our Constitution, but will have complete meltdowns over the “supposed loss of a right” to have an abortion… Because of the loss of life with the second amendment??
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc.
Ronald Reagn- 40th Anniversary of D-Day
Well said USA4freedom. I al
April 18, 2007 - 02:33 ET by radiofitz34Well said USA4freedom. I also find it annoying (at the least) when judges throw out this word "unconstitutional" as if on high from Mount Olympus.
Can't you just picture it?
April 18, 2007 - 05:12 ET by motherbeltFor liberals, the answer is ALWAYS more gun control.
Can't you just picture it? Al Queda cell planning a mass murder on a college campus. Ahmed says "Can't do it in Virginia. It's illegal to buy guns there. And even if you can get some, you can't take them on campus."
And is anyone else besides Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily asking why it took 2 hours for the police to arrive? But the anti-gun people say people don't need guns...you just call the police.
When the Police Don't Come
One whack-job psychotic colle
April 18, 2007 - 07:07 ET by BeowulfOne whack-job psychotic college kid "shows us how vllnerable we are" and "leaves us open to people like al Qaeda"? When was the last time an actual, for real terrorist used a handgun to kill numerous people? From this moron's perspective, we should be glad this kid only had two small caliber handguns. Think what damage he could have done with a full auto rifle and a few bombs...
This is the same mentality used for Columbine. The two psycho kids there did have explosives, but didn't use them. I would say the death toll would have been a wee bit higher if they had.
This attack at VT was not a terrorist incident. It was a madman with a gun, a madman who would have found another method of mass murder if he hadn't been able to get those guns. This kid was going to kill people, and the only way to have stopped him was to identify the so-called "warning signs" everyone is spouting off about and lock him up before he went on his murder spree. And let's disregard the fact that "Minority Report" was just a movie and we can't really do anything in a situation like this until after something bad happens.
Should come as no surprise -
April 18, 2007 - 09:25 ET by FastEdShould come as no surprise - they have TOTAL belief in "The pen is mightier than the sword", as well as "self protection is not worth it if you have to carry a gun".
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
Gun Control
April 18, 2007 - 03:07 ET by buckhiloIt should surprise no one that the liberals -- i.e., the media and Democrats -- would jump on this issue to take our guns away, leaving us helpless to protect ourselves from the mass murderer on campus. Imagine what could have happened if even one student was allowed to carry a concealed weapon when the murderer appeared. One shot to the head, game over.
There ain't no cure for stupid -- Ron White
What's coming out about thi
April 18, 2007 - 03:33 ET by sarcasmoWhat's coming out about this nutcase is that his English class actually discussed whether he'd be a likely school shooter BEFORE this incident. That, plus the antidepressant drugs the media will once-again ignore in favor of hi-cap magazines, means a lot of people knew or should have known this guy needed human -- not drug -- help. It's ironic, since I'm usually the one railing here against government policy prohibiting illegal drugs, that now I'm one of the few (only one?) here questioning the pattern of school shooters taking antidepressants over and over, and asking whether "mainstream" politicians and the media are effectively paid-off by the huge pharmaceutical companies to repeatedly-ignore the very dangerous effects of their products. 9mm handguns & .22s have been around a LONG time, but "Prozak" hasn't. Mass school murders were around, too, but until antidepressant drugs got popular they were quite rare, despite the huge number of firearms in the USA. Follow the money and start thinking, folks, and you'll find a scandal here. I sure did...
JMR
Guns in this country have alw
April 18, 2007 - 08:55 ET by ahusserGuns in this country have always been readily available. More so in the past. These school and other mindless massacres are a relatively recent phenomenon it may well be the prevalence of drugs legal and illegal. I don't know. I wrote the following in a blog yesterday:
I've owned firearms for over 30 years. I have never got up in the morning and looked the weapon and said let's go and see how many innocent people we can kill no matter how bad I felt. The argument will again focus on the "Gun" rather than the peculiar American way of dealing with life's little disappointments by the mass slaughter of innocent people and the worm-brained individuals that are responsible. The gun is an efficient tool to do the job these wack jobs want to do. But I chalk up the real reason behind these continuing episodes of mass slaughter as an extremely permissive society condoning almost any kind of behavior with no consequences, extreme self-absorption and extreme narcissism breeding a malignant form of selfishness and sociopathology. Add victimology brought to a high art, where others are always responsible for one's shortcomings, disappointments and any other adverse event's in one's life. The result is a warped sense of revenge and hatred culminating in extreme violence in some instances.
Since When
April 18, 2007 - 09:08 ET by NiftySwell...do terrorists use handguns as a preferred method to kill? Not to tip my hat too much but I had the dis-privilige of guarding the first World Trade Center bombers in Englewood PFC, Colorado, the day I left that miserable thankless career was the day McVeigh came in. I saw social worker and humanity majors come into the field of law enforcement thinking these people just needed some love and direction...after 6 months the same people would complain that these terrrorists, rapists, and murderers were a waste of body parts for perfectly good humans stuck in wheel chairs. Once a person becomes evil, and from my 10 years of law enforcement I believe in that term, they can create as much death and devastation as they can imagine. No law saying you cannot buy a gun, or build a bomb, or carry a firearm here or there will stop these people. They will plow into crowds in trucks, set fires, build bombs, attack with knives in the middle of the night. There was a story a bit back about someone who committed a mass murder in the middle of the night ovesees with a knife on Drudge- I cannot seem to locate it. It all comes down to that argument between meathead and Archie about gun control where Archie counters if he would feel better if people were pushed out of windows instead? Would the press have preferred the guy locking all the doors and setting a fire instead? Then who would they look to blame?
CH
As a former Military Police I
April 18, 2007 - 08:51 ET by Airforce_5_OAs a former Military Police I find it amazing how it is that the law abiding citizen who owns a gun is the first attack by the media. The fact that they think gun control will stop the criminal or terrorist from getting weapons is ridiculous and asinine. People have the right to protect their property and person. Taking that right from them only sets them up as victim. If you take the guns out of the citizens hand s you empower the criminal/terrorist. What do they have to fear if they know the guns are not out there? Nothing.
It would be interesting to see a comparison between city’s with gun bans and those without and look at the crime rates and the number of gun related crimes.
Reduce the U.S. Carbon Footprint. Send Rosie to Iran. Airforce_5_O 04/04/2007