Monday morning massacreFollow

Interesting. Only FOX news so far is reporting the number of dead as 32. Everyone else is sticking with 22, with 20 or so more wounded.

Edited for clarity of dead vs. wounded.


Edited, Apr 16th 2007 2:19pm by Samira

No, I liked your first idea. Increased funding is the way to go.

If this turns out to have been a mentally disturbed individual, deterrence doesn't enter into it.

As to the "he'd have been shot down right away" scenario, that barely holds true when you're talking about trained cops. Adrenaline makes people do unpredictable things. Crossfire is bad.

At least the gunman loved the 2nd Amendment enough to use handguns instead of an assault rifle.

I was looking for story updates when I came across this.
I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Blacksburg, FYI, is redneck country. I'm sure many of the locals have guns, but it's a haven for potsmoking younguns that want to get far from mommy and daddy in DC but remain close enough to drive home to do their laundry and get cash. Most of these kids, most college kids, most people period, would be unprepared for this. It was a fluke. To try to say that gun control would have affected it one way or another is stupid and pointless.

Ok sissy boy, let me break it down for you. I don't have all the stats right away, but here's some info, and I'll dig the rest of the stats up later:

Until recently, Virginia had some tough laws on firearms, specificly concealed firearms. A few years ago, Governer George "Macacca" Allen changed the laws reguarding firearms purchasing, and concealed carry laws, making it easier for the average citizen to obtain and carry a firearm for defense purposes. Within one year, private citizen related firearm deaths were down 23%, and have remained far lower than the national average. Even gang deaths by firearm were down, along with robberies, and breaking and entering. Criminals are at least thinking twice, sometimes three times, before commiting the same acts they were before. We also have some very tough laws dealing with illegal firearms as well.

While we're not New York, or California, we're not Maine either. We have more than our fair share of national and international gangs, as well as our fair share of loonies. The fact that it's easier for you and I to purchase a firearm, and become certified to carry it on our person, both in sight, and out of sight, has reduced crime.

I don't carry concealed, mostly because I'm too f'n lazy to take the class, but I can carry on my hip if I'd like, and have. While I do get looks from average people, and police alike, no one has ever bothered me about it. Then again, a .357 does that for you.

This wasn't any of those things. It was a suicidal lunatic bent on killing a bunch of people before dying himself. Comapring it to breaking & entry or robbery is just asinine.

I'm glad to know you've actually been to Blacksburg, rather than assume you know so much about it, having never been there. I hope you catch the sarcasm.

Blacksburg may not be the "city" that New York, or even Virginia Beach is, however, it's much more like a suburb of DC in it's feel that you obviously know. It's a small college town, with all of the major conviences that you'd find in any major city, including: indoor plumbing, streetlights, paved streets, police force, paid fire department, electricity, city water, street signs, dentists, etc.

I think of Blacksburg as being like Mclean, just a bit smaller.

Don't play the game of picking one sentence, and missing the point. I know you're smarter than that. My point was that deterrence works. Had just one person in the path of this guy been armed, he would likely have been stopped before more than 30 people were killed.

And I will do the same to you.




Same here for Blacksburg, but I have run into them in New York, Chicago, Richmond, Atlanta, and Jacksonville. Please tell me your point isn't that only smaller cities have racist groups.

You have? Literally?

yet in reponse to Samira's comment about the military screening people first, before giving them guns

So, not allowing them to have guns is unconstitutional, but screening them and not allowing them guns still, isn't unconstitutional? Either you allow everyone to have guns, or you allow no one.