Comments | greyyguy: Virginia Tech Thoughts, part 1

greyyguy

Virginia Tech Thoughts, part 1

Apr 18, 2007 10:41

The shooting at Virginia Tech was a reprehensible event. It doesn't make sense for someone to go in and kill as many strangers as possible, so our view of the world is throw into confusion. If people died there for no reason what is to say that won't happen here today or next week or a year from now? Introducing that sort of uncertainty into our ( Read more... )

questions, thinking, news, polls

Comments 22

fiddle_dragon April 18 2007, 14:56:46 UTC

I went to USC during the Rodney King riots, and my ex-boyfriend at the time decided that it was in his best interest to jury rig bombs to help defend the dorm - he was going to sit up on the roof and watch for snipers.

Uhh...did I feel safe? Not a chance in hell. Do I think I would have felt more safe had he had a gun...Gods no.

fiddle_dragon April 18 2007, 14:57:22 UTC

and he *did* have access to a gun now and again...he was in ROTC...he just didn't have regular access to it during an average day on campus.

greyyguy April 18 2007, 15:14:52 UTC

Wow. Yeah- I would definitely be more worried about jury-rigged bombs that I knew were there then a mob that might come over.

team_jessie April 18 2007, 15:27:39 UTC

Holy moly!
Talk about aiming high! My thought process sort of starts with throwing rocks, then moves up to baseball bats and then to malotov cocktails. Bombs are a little too - um - ambitions for personal defence. :)

Still, if we ever experience zombie apocalypse, I want that guy on my team! LOL!

Thread 6

team_jessie April 18 2007, 15:47:31 UTC

I'm a little divided on this issue.
On one hand, it's true that anyone would think twice about pulling a gun if they knew that the other guy was also carrying one... and might be a better shot.
On the other hand... yeah... I'm picturing Mexican Standoffs at the grocery store.

Some of the most responsible people around guns are gun owners. Once you hold it in your hands, squeeze the trigger and feel the recoil, you immediately have a HUGE respect for what that thing can do. I know an awful lot of gun owners and gun enthusiasts. They are the most cautious, prepared and knowledgable people you'll ever meet when it comes to weaponry. THEY are not the ones who are going to go shoot up a school, however they are usually the scapegoat when a tragedy like this happens. So maybe if everyone experienced this, they'd be less excitable and uppity around guns. Kind of like the "legalize drugs" argument ( ... )

greyyguy April 18 2007, 18:33:10 UTC

The Mexican Standoff situation is one that concerns me with concealed carry. A lot of crimes that involve a gun turn into more of a hostage situation, and after a few hours, many of those end up with the criminal giving themselves up after a lot of talking. With a large number of people with a concealed weapon, how many of those situations would turn into a standoff or shooting ( ... )

danger0usbeans April 18 2007, 16:07:02 UTC

Your poll is a little confusing :)
1. I'm in favor of laws that allow concealed carry, but only under very strict circumstances. I think getting a concealed carry permit needs to be a hell of a lot harder than it is.
2. I think having a gun on you makes you far more likely to pull it out and start shooting. As bad as it is to have one guy shooting, imagine how much worse it would be if he started shooting, and 20 amateurs, adrenaline pumping, pulled out their guns and started shooting back. I think the death toll would have been much higher if a bunch of students had turned it into a shootout.
3. I do not own a gun, but I have considered the possibility of getting one. If I did, I would not feel the need to carry it with me all the time.

greyyguy April 18 2007, 17:51:00 UTC

I thought about that when putting to poll together because there are a lot of details to the discussion, and good reasons on both sides. After a little bit of time I gave up and went with the simplest options :)

crwilley April 18 2007, 16:33:08 UTC

In general, I support concealed carry - but I don't think concealed carry would've made an impact here, unless by some random chance the first girl who was shot had a gun within arm's reach in her dorm room, or the RA who went to help her had had one.

The shooter here was deranged and determined; the idea of getting shot by someone trying to stop him wouldn't've deterred him. It would have taken a lucky shot by someone early on in the process to so much as lower the body count, and multiple shooters present on the scene would have hampered the police response - "I've just come into a classroom and there's two guys with guns; which one do I shoot?"

I also can't really get behind allowing guns on college campuses, chock full of people prone to binge drinking and messy breakups.

greyyguy April 18 2007, 18:21:02 UTC

I think that a concealed carry law might have more effect on some types of crime, where the criminal would know to expect armed resistance. The flip side of that expectation is that a criminal would be much more likely to shoot if he thought the one being robbed was armed.

In this case, it sounded like the shooter wanted to die anyway, so he would have still done it. Maybe a lower number of victims, but maybe not. And like you said, possibly a number of armed defenders would cause problems for the heavily armed police.

hosticle_fifer April 18 2007, 16:33:49 UTC

I was expecting a wave of backlash crying for the outlawing of two things - guns and videogames. I am happy to see that people still seem to keeping a level head about this, with the exceptions of Jack Thompson and anyone who particularly hated the citizen's right to carry firearms anyway ( ... )

greyyguy April 18 2007, 18:16:06 UTC

I was surprised that the main gun-related call I've heard in the aftermath has been the call for allowing concealed carry in more places.

I agree that on that day if other students were armed that they would likely be more of a threat to the shooter then other students. But my concern is that the other 364 days of the year they would be more of a threat to one another. Not saying that the "unwashed masses" would shoot one another like crazy, but it would increase the potential for bad things to happen even if just by accident.

I realize that there is a trade-off of safety for liberty in there, but I don't know where the break even point is. Or if there even is one. That said, I agree that the current laws seem to be mostly acceptable. Even though the shooter seemed to have purchased the weapons legally, I'm not sure what could have been done differently to avoid the event, with respect to a change in the law.