Unarmed and unprotected
We grieve today for the victims at Virginia Tech. And today, we discuss what is to be done about such violence. Hue and outcry about guns will be heard and seen all over the news and web. A bill to prevent schools from expelling students that are lawfully carrying concealed weapons was defeated last year.
From Roanoke.com:
House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.
The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
Since persons that carry concealed are usually VERY law-abiding, certain students left home without their sidearm.
Here is a letter from one such student that was involved in this tragedy. Read the whole thing.
Bradford B. Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.... On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."...
It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.
Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.
I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.
First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.
Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.
Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.
And we honor heroes: "My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.
And Mrs. Du Toit decries the Politics as usual as only a mother with a daughter at college can respond:
After receiving a quick email from my sister about the events unfolding at Virginia Tech, Kim and I turned on Fox News, just in time to hear a reporter at the White House Press Conference ask “Is the President reconsidering his opinions on gun control NOW?”
And, as usual, the Press Secretary responded calmly and politely.
That is not how I would have responded (which is why I’m not the White House Press Secretary).
Here is how I would have responded:
Listen, you heartless cow, you’re turning this into politics before the bodies have been identified and the next of kin notified. What kind of human being ARE YOU? Do you have ANY sense of compassion AT ALL? Can you turn off your agitate-for-all-things-stupid-machine EVER?
OK, you want to talk the politics of gun control? We’ll talk about it then.
She ends, after exploring the cultures that have restrictive gun laws and the probable results of our adoption of gun confiscation with this:
Of course, the criminals won’t comply with the gun control confiscation laws. Criminals don’t obey the laws. That’s why they’re called criminals.
All fantasy thinking aside, what law, what additional laws could we pass to have prevented the hideous crime in Virginia from occurring?
The laws, currently on the books, which make transporting guns across state lines or murder illegal didn’t seem to provide the magic shield of protection they were supposed to provide.
So what law? What law could be written that would make all the bad and ugly things in the world disappear, like magic, and we’d become a nation where not a single crime of violence ever occurred again?
Maybe the law we need to pass is that stupid people like you are not allowed near a microphone or near our children… That our children are raised with a proper dose of age-appropriate reality, taught to understand that there are bad people in the world. And while we don’t want them to live their lives in constant fear, barricading themselves behind fortress walls, we want them to know the truth: that guns do provide protection for the weak and the law-abiding, from the criminals and crazies of the world.
Maybe that law would have the desired effect. I’m not so sure it would solve the world’s ills, but I know one thing, and one thing with absolutely certainty (with ALL the facts on my side): The crock of shit you’ve been selling is not working. It never has and never will.
We have the death of 30 more to prove it and I am pissed about that. So I don’t want to hear how you want to have more gun control confiscation. I want to hear about rifle and pistol ranges going up at our colleges and universities. I want college girls to be packing heat as they walk the dark passages of college campuses at night or sleeping alone in their dorm rooms. I want those precious young people to be educated in reality, and taught to use the tools to defend themselves, because I want them to know that their lives are valuable, and no one has the right to try to hurt them or take their lives from them. But since there are bad people in the world, who will try to harm them, I want to empower them with all the tools and skills necessary to defend themselves. I want a truly liberated culture, one imbued with reality, common sense and MORE guns.
I don’t want another group of young people to find themselves on their knees, begging for their lives, and dying as a result of your blood-covered, failed policies.
You have the audacity to bring up gun control today, and try turn this tragedy it into a political discussion for gun disarmament? How many innocent people have to die before YOU get it?
Now, with all this said, we must remember that the right to bear arms is NOT about hunting, or self-defense. It is the right of a citizen to bear arms to restrict overbearing government from infringing on said rights. This right is valid whether or not our society has conditioned itself to allow governmental authority to usurp those rights. NO ONE has the right to take that away from you. Not the government or fellow citizens. It is the MISUSE of weapons that is the crime. If one wants to argue that the right "only applies to the militia", well, the militia is made up of free citizens. And under Virginia law, I believe, most of us belong to the "unorganized militia." Why are we unorganized? Because Americans have given away the authority and responsibility of the protection of society to others, believing that those others will protect your rights and safety.
That said, if the politics are too much for you, ask yourself this. If that killer was at the door of your class, trying to shoot you and six or seven of your friends, would you want a gun or not?
Right.
From Roanoke.com:
House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.
The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
Since persons that carry concealed are usually VERY law-abiding, certain students left home without their sidearm.
Here is a letter from one such student that was involved in this tragedy. Read the whole thing.
Bradford B. Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.... On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."...
It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.
Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.
I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.
First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.
Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.
Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.
And we honor heroes: "My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.
And Mrs. Du Toit decries the Politics as usual as only a mother with a daughter at college can respond:
After receiving a quick email from my sister about the events unfolding at Virginia Tech, Kim and I turned on Fox News, just in time to hear a reporter at the White House Press Conference ask “Is the President reconsidering his opinions on gun control NOW?”
And, as usual, the Press Secretary responded calmly and politely.
That is not how I would have responded (which is why I’m not the White House Press Secretary).
Here is how I would have responded:
Listen, you heartless cow, you’re turning this into politics before the bodies have been identified and the next of kin notified. What kind of human being ARE YOU? Do you have ANY sense of compassion AT ALL? Can you turn off your agitate-for-all-things-stupid-machine EVER?
OK, you want to talk the politics of gun control? We’ll talk about it then.
She ends, after exploring the cultures that have restrictive gun laws and the probable results of our adoption of gun confiscation with this:
Of course, the criminals won’t comply with the gun control confiscation laws. Criminals don’t obey the laws. That’s why they’re called criminals.
All fantasy thinking aside, what law, what additional laws could we pass to have prevented the hideous crime in Virginia from occurring?
The laws, currently on the books, which make transporting guns across state lines or murder illegal didn’t seem to provide the magic shield of protection they were supposed to provide.
So what law? What law could be written that would make all the bad and ugly things in the world disappear, like magic, and we’d become a nation where not a single crime of violence ever occurred again?
Maybe the law we need to pass is that stupid people like you are not allowed near a microphone or near our children… That our children are raised with a proper dose of age-appropriate reality, taught to understand that there are bad people in the world. And while we don’t want them to live their lives in constant fear, barricading themselves behind fortress walls, we want them to know the truth: that guns do provide protection for the weak and the law-abiding, from the criminals and crazies of the world.
Maybe that law would have the desired effect. I’m not so sure it would solve the world’s ills, but I know one thing, and one thing with absolutely certainty (with ALL the facts on my side): The crock of shit you’ve been selling is not working. It never has and never will.
We have the death of 30 more to prove it and I am pissed about that. So I don’t want to hear how you want to have more gun control confiscation. I want to hear about rifle and pistol ranges going up at our colleges and universities. I want college girls to be packing heat as they walk the dark passages of college campuses at night or sleeping alone in their dorm rooms. I want those precious young people to be educated in reality, and taught to use the tools to defend themselves, because I want them to know that their lives are valuable, and no one has the right to try to hurt them or take their lives from them. But since there are bad people in the world, who will try to harm them, I want to empower them with all the tools and skills necessary to defend themselves. I want a truly liberated culture, one imbued with reality, common sense and MORE guns.
I don’t want another group of young people to find themselves on their knees, begging for their lives, and dying as a result of your blood-covered, failed policies.
You have the audacity to bring up gun control today, and try turn this tragedy it into a political discussion for gun disarmament? How many innocent people have to die before YOU get it?
Now, with all this said, we must remember that the right to bear arms is NOT about hunting, or self-defense. It is the right of a citizen to bear arms to restrict overbearing government from infringing on said rights. This right is valid whether or not our society has conditioned itself to allow governmental authority to usurp those rights. NO ONE has the right to take that away from you. Not the government or fellow citizens. It is the MISUSE of weapons that is the crime. If one wants to argue that the right "only applies to the militia", well, the militia is made up of free citizens. And under Virginia law, I believe, most of us belong to the "unorganized militia." Why are we unorganized? Because Americans have given away the authority and responsibility of the protection of society to others, believing that those others will protect your rights and safety.
That said, if the politics are too much for you, ask yourself this. If that killer was at the door of your class, trying to shoot you and six or seven of your friends, would you want a gun or not?
Right.
Labels: 2nd Amendment, adult responsibilities, self defense
posted by Cargosquid at 6:04 PM
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