There isn’t any purpose in linking to a specific news story about this morning’s shootings at Virginia Tech, because it is the leading headline of every major news outlet. Hot Air seems to have a thread open with continuous updates, so I’ll probably keep track over there. I can’t imagine the horror that campus is experiencing right now, and how frightened the students, staff, faculty, and their families must be feeling. They need all our prayers.
This is really just a horrifying situation that nobody ever thinks will really happen. Being a university student, it honestly frightens me to think about what easy targets we are to insane shooters like these. Most college campuses (that I’ve ever known) have strict anti-weapons policies. In other words, you have these hot spots of tens of thousands of unarmed and defenseless students, staff, and faculty just waiting to be taken advantage of.
My mom posted a good article from January about a gun bill that was shot down in Virginia in late January. You can say that hindsight is perfect 20/20 vision, but in this case, common sense could have prevented the need for this hindsight.
I stand firmly by the response I made over at Sunflower Desert to someone who “would feel much safer if there were no guns at all.” How ignorant can you get? Yeah, obviously - if any school on earth had a fail-proof method of completely insuring that there would be absolutely zero weapons on campus, you would feel safer. (Although you really wouldn’t be, especially if you were a woman. But that’s another argument for another day.) The fact is, there is no such fail-proof method. Yes, you can outlaw guns. Do you know who is going to obey such a law? Law-abiding citizens. Surprise! Do you know who is not going to obey such a law? Your average Joe Criminal. Because that’s what criminals do, they break laws.
Don’t don’t feed me that line of crap that gun control makes everyone safer, because it doesn’t. The only purpose that gun control legislation serves is to weaken the part of society that follows the laws, and strengthen the part that does not. Are you still feeling safer?
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SO TRUE. Option #1: no guns, at all - so no protection from the police for women who are attacked.
Option #2: only the police have guns, and we’re assuming that somehow, magically, the police would be good, benevolent, never desire to dominate the unarmed population, and no guns would slip into the hands of the crazies.
My favourite James Madison quote applies: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
Isn’t that from The Federalists Papers Bridget?
Good eye. The Federalist, No. 51.