Virginia Tech & Gun Control

Hells, last I heard, we didn't even have an identity of the shooter. (We probably do by now, of course, but I haven't heard the latest.)

Was Charles Whitman a government patsy, too?

And, of course, if it does turn out to be a governmental conspiracy, what are you going to do to implement changes in the government?

OK, this just makes me angry.

For me, yesterday's events hit pretty close to home. I go to a university that is very similar to Virginia Tech in many respects, and and spend nearly every waking moment either in my residence or in the engineering buildings on campus.

To take yesterday's tragedy and spin it into an obviously politically-motivated woo-woo conspiracy theory is unconscionable. I'm no more a fan of the American government then I am of my own, but there are much, much better ways to express this than with unsubstantiated nonsense.

I'm reading the posted "article" now. Oh dear, it even mentions Freemasonry. People actually buy into this garbage?

That is my general attitude towards 9/11 conspiracy theories.

...and spend nearly every waking moment either in my residence or in the engineering buildings on campus.

As a student I spent many non-waking hours in the engineering buildings as well. As an instructor I was compelled to attend campus defense training, which I found somewhat disturbing and distractionary: I wanted to teach enginering, not be a Green Beret. Granted I'm a big fan of being prepared, but that's not the sort of thing I signed up for.

To take yesterday's tragedy and spin it into an obviously politically-motivated woo-woo conspiracy theory is unconscionable.

Agreed. I see it as further evidence of the moral bankruptcy of conspiracy theorists.

I'm no more a fan of the American government then I am of my own...

I'm not a fan of the American government either, and I see it as my responsibility to do what I can do fix it. I'm especially ashamed and alarmed by the direction in which certain people have taken the American practice of government in the past decade, and frankly all these running-headless-chicken claims from conspiracy theorists just don't help. How can I and others hope to achieve meaningful change in government when criticism against it can be so easily and correctly dismissed as ill-informed quackery?

Or it may have gone even more pear-shaped and escalated in a chain reaction to something more akin to a small war...

It very well may. The "Wild West" scenario is the common objection to Jason's argument, which represents a common line of reasoning among arms-bearing advocates. The rejoinder is typically that while it may escalate, there's also a chance it may not; a gunman who cannot know how many of his potential targets are lawfully armed may think twice about provoking an incident. If a gunman instead knows that none of his potential victims will be armed because it's too difficult or even impossible for them legally to arm themselves, then it will embolden him if his intend is to harm as many people as possible. The right to bear arms is intended also to deter crimes, not merely respond to them.

In the Trolley Square shooting it is universally acknowledged that the response from an armed, well-trained citizen immediately put the perpetrator in a defensive posture and saved lives. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the free possession of arms could always be guaranteed to produce such an orderly response. The Wild West shootout scenario was avoided in Trolley Square, but not by much -- the responder was at first mistaken for a second gunman.

Jason may recall an incident several years ago at the Mormon geneological library in which a guard was shot and killed. The guard was a member of my extended family. It occurred a few days before the Columbine High School shooting, which naturally eclipsed it in the national press. The suspect in the library case used a firearm he obtained illegally, as did the two young men at Columbine. That questions whether legislation will help. But also similar between the two incidents is the relative unlikelihood of any armed response from citizens. In the one case the intended victims were retirees of the most peaceable and docile sort, and in the other they were high school students.

Concealed carry permit holders are required to undergo safety training in order to be issued the permit. That helps to combat the "wild west" possibility. (No I don't have a permit myself)

I understood that the off-duty officer at Trolley Square was worried that he might be mis-identified but wasn't, because his wife called 911 and gave his description to the dispatcher to pass along to the officers.