04/25/07 Virginia Tech and Gun Control

The tragedy at Virginia Tech is being exploited by gun control advocates promoting the platform that stringent gun control would stop all mass murderers. It won't ! Banning weapons does exactly the opposite,it empowers killers who know they will not meet resistance. The gunman didn't choose to engage in his massacre in one of the 40 states that permit law abiding citizens to carry hand guns. A coward, naturally he didn't take his rage into the inner city to be met by armed foes, or into our western communities where many college students keep guns for hunting. No, the killer deliberately selected a campus within a "gun free" zone in Virginia. The outcome of this tragedy could have been vastly different if a professor or student would have been able to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon, many lives could have been saved by one shot. Gun control advocates need to be gently reminded that the weapon ban at Virginia Tech did not stop the gunman, but like Daniel Schmutter stated in a recent NYT editorial "it did prevent anyone on that campus from stopping his murder spree."