That does not compute

Yesterday I received an email from Josh Horwitz at Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:

Recognize VA Tech Anniversary by Saying “NO GUNS ON CAMPUS!”

As many of you know, April 16 will mark the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. This weekend will be a time for survivors to remember their lost loved ones and pay tribute to their lives, and for America to reflect on the causes and meaning behind this horrific tragedy.

While the Virginia Tech families have emerged as some of the strongest proponents of tougher gun control laws, the gun lobby has exploited the massacre to push extreme legislation that would force colleges and universities to allowing the carrying of loaded firearms on their campuses.  Such NRA-drafted bills are now being considered in 18 different states.

Today, Friday, April 15, the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus is recognizing the fourth anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings by conducting a National Call-In Day.

Please call your governor today and ask him/her to oppose guns on campus legislation in your state. If you are in a state with no pending guns on campus legislation, please call and ask your governor to oppose any future attempts to force colleges and universities to allows guns on campus. To find the phone number for your governor, just click here.

Thank you in advance for participating in this important action. If we are to build a safer future for our children, keeping guns out of the classroom is a must.

What Horwitz doesn’t say is that Virginia Tech had rules against guns on campus and it didn’t stop the shooter. There were also laws against murder which didn’t stop the shooter either. The only thing that would have stopped the shooter was another person with a gun. This was, in fact, the response of the police dispatch when they got the call about an active shooter on campus. They sent people with guns to confront the shooter. But they took a few minutes to arrive and of course they were much too late to stop the carnage.

Yet Horwitz want to “build a safer future” by ensuring that all campuses have the same policy in place that enable the shooter at Virginia Tech to be “successful”. Had Virginia Tech not had such a policy and the shooting took place it would almost make sense (there would still have been the law against murder in force) for his call to action. But that wasn’t the case. He is advocating for the proliferation of a policy proven to fail and uses an instance of failure as a reason for a call to action. Huh?

I shouldn’t be surprised. Again (and again just today!) the anti-gun people demonstrate they have nothing but crap for brains.

Share

5 thoughts on “That does not compute

  1. When people use the VA Tech shooting as an example for keeping guns off campus, I usually reply with something like “Maybe you’re right. If one of the other students had had a gun, it might have turned out as badly as the New Life Church shooting a few months later.”

  2. Bradford B. Wiles, a Grad student at Virginia Tech wrote an interesting article in August 2006 (yes, before the April 2007 massacre) about the Aug. 21 2006 incident at Virginia Tech. The title was “Unarmed and vulnerable”

    VERY Good article. Available online if you search for it.

    It’s one reason (besides the 2002 Government reports showing that even with fast police response, which is irrelevant, that Staff, Faculty and Students are the “first responders” just like the brave lady and others in Tucson) that Virginia is still paying and still being fined, and still has lawsuits going on. Foreseeability is key in negligence cases where their failures were evident.

  3. What really irritates me is the commission report afterward that recommends the state pass a law banning guns on all college campuses – even though it would have made absolutely no difference.

    Their recommendation for requiring background checks for private transfers was worse, since he did pass a Brady check twice – and didn’t buy either of his guns at a gun show.

    Politics overwhelming a true investigation, as normal.

  4. The anti rights movement has nothing good in the way of intentions. The crime and safety talk is all a smokescreen. They need simply to be taken to task and held responsible.

Comments are closed.