VaTech students SHOULD have had guns

Are the people who say this complete imbeciles? I will admit, I lean a little right of center, but this is ridiculous.

Does everyone else have to explicity lay out the inherent dangers that come when every Tom, Dick, and Harry owns a 9 mm? DRUNK/HIGH students, kids who are angry at the last grade on a mid-term, the kid who just got embarassed in front of the whole class...I could go on and on.

What am I missing - this is disturbing to me that people could suggest these things with a straight face. I can't remember the name of the organization, but it was some pro-gun group.

Are the people who say this complete imbeciles? I will admit, I lean a little right of center, but this is ridiculous.

Does everyone else have to explicity lay out the inherent dangers that come when every Tom, Dick, and Harry owns a 9 mm? DRUNK/HIGH students, kids who are angry at the last grade on a mid-term, the kid who just got embarassed in front of the whole class...I could go on and on.

What am I missing - this is disturbing to me that people could suggest these things with a straight face. I can't remember the name of the organization, but it was some pro-gun group.


I heard Pat Buchanan saying that position as well. That is so insane. Does Buchanan really want to see an America with every student having a gun?? Oh my...there would be gun battles every night in some campusses...it would be like parts of south central LA or Harlem.

Neocons are pretty frightening.

Yeah if everyone had guns imagine how many more people would be killed senselessly everyday...unreal.

Yeah, I first heard about this when some crackpot in my local paper wrote an article defending this belief.

Are you ****ing insane???? Yeah, let's allow any student in any college classroom to have a gun for the one in a million chance that some maniac runs through the campus shooting it up.

I still can't even believe that any sane person would even remotely think this was a good idea. I mean, are they serious or is this a bad joke???

Yeah, I first heard about this when some crackpot in my local paper wrote an article defending this belief.

Are you ****ing insane???? Yeah, let's allow any student in any college classroom to have a gun for the one in a million chance that some maniac runs through the campus shooting it up.

I still can't even believe that any sane person would even remotely think this was a good idea. I mean, are they serious or is this a bad joke???
They're dead serious, no pun intended. That's why the rest of the world basically thinks America is completely crazy. I mean, look at the numbers for any other industrialized nation which has strict gun control and there just isn't any comparison - the level of gun violence is much, much less than here. In fact, the numbers are so skewed it's laughable to even attempt to argue it. The idea that citizens should have a right to carry handguns in an industrialized society, where we pay inordinate amounts of money for a standing police force, is just insane. But the NRA, which is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country along with AIPAC and AARP, has a lot of politicians in its pocket. And a lot of Americans grow up with this sense of a right to carry guns around because of a complete misinterpretation, IMO, of the Second Amendment, which doesn't explicitly guarantee that right in the first place, and even if it did, it was written in colonial times before we moved to an industrialized existence and before we became a centralized government and economy which has an enormous police force in place to protect us.

Pat Buchanan and other gun-extremists basically want to turn college campuses into the Wild West. I would not have felt safe in college knowing that every student had a gun. There are so many obvious reasons for this that it would take too long to enumerate them. But for one thing, arguments on campusses could easily escalate into gun violence. Not to mention the fact, that it would increase the probability of a student who is angry about a grade to go after his professor. We should be trying to find solutions to reduce (and hopefully eradicate) gun violence, not make it exponentially worse. There clearly need to be some more limits. America isn't an agrarian, Wild West society like it used to be where it was basically 'every man for himself'. Times have changed and with it, reasonable restrictions should be made. Sadly, enough clearly has not been done if some mentally insane individual can clear a gun background check. The nation really needs to seriously reassess the whole issue because the numbers are stagerring.

Are the people who say this complete imbeciles? I will admit, I lean a little right of center, but this is ridiculous.

Does everyone else have to explicity lay out the inherent dangers that come when every Tom, Dick, and Harry owns a 9 mm? DRUNK/HIGH students, kids who are angry at the last grade on a mid-term, the kid who just got embarassed in front of the whole class...I could go on and on.

What am I missing - this is disturbing to me that people could suggest these things with a straight face. I can't remember the name of the organization, but it was some pro-gun group.

Remember Archie Bunkers solution to Airplane Hijackings?
Arm all the passengers:confused:

Utah allows guns on college campuses

By BROCK VERGAKIS, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 27, 2:27 PM ET

SALT LAKE CITY - Brent Tenney says he feels pretty safe when he goes to class at the University of Utah, but he takes no chances. He brings a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic with him every day.

"It's not that I run around scared all day long, but if something happens to me, I do want to be prepared," said the 24-year-old business major, who has a concealed-weapons permit and takes the handgun everywhere but church.

After the massacre at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead, some have suggested that the carnage might have been lower if a student or professor with a gun had stepped in.

As states and colleges across the country review their gun policies in light of the tragedy, many in Utah are proud to have the nation's only state law that expressly allows the carrying of concealed weapons at public colleges.

"If government can't protect you, you should have the right to protect yourself," said Republican state Sen. Michael Waddoups.

Utah legislators and law enforcement authorities said they knew of no modern-day shootings at the university. But one lawmaker cited a shooting rampage in Mississippi in 1997 as an example of how allowing others on campus to arm themselves can improve safety: After a teenager shot two students to death at Pearl High School, an assistant principal chased the gunman down outside and held him at bay with a .45-caliber pistol he kept in his truck.

Nationwide, 38 states — including Virginia — ban weapons at schools. Of those, 16 explicitly prohibit weapons on college campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In other states, each school is allowed to formulate its own policy.

For decades, the University of Utah banned concealed weapons.

"Our view was that there was an increased risk of both accidental and intentional discharge of a firearm if more firearms are present," said spokesman Fred Esplin. "It was a matter of safety."

But in 2004 the Legislature passed a law expressly saying the university is covered by a state law that allows concealed weapons on state property. The university challenged the law, but the Utah Supreme Court upheld it last year.

Utah is easily one of the most conservative states, and the Legislature is dominated by Republicans, many of whom have a libertarian streak. Utah has no motorcycle helmet law, for example, and there is strong affection for the Second Amendment.

The carrying of guns at the university worries students like Timmy Allin, a freshman on the tennis team from Dallas who feels safe on the 28,000-student urban campus. Allin was not aware weapons were allowed on campus until told by a reporter.

"I don't see the need for one up here, so that could only lead to trouble," he said.

Lawmakers point to a recent shooting at a downtown shopping mall as evidence that concealed weapons prevent additional deaths.

Armed with a shotgun and a pistol, 18-year-old Sulejman Talovic randomly shot nine people at Trolley Square, killing five, on Feb. 12. He died in a shootout with police. An off-duty Ogden police officer carrying a concealed weapon — in violation of mall policy — pinned down Talovic with gunfire until other police arrived.

"Thankfully that officer disobeyed the rule of Trolley Square of having no guns," GOP state Rep. Curt Oda said.

Oda said banning guns on campus might do more harm than good. He said people bent on violence might resort to other, perhaps bloodier methods, such as swords.

"A person that's got skill with a sword in a very big crowd could put a lot more people down with a sword than a gun," he said. "They're silent. You'll have people screaming, but nobody knows what's going on."

Some of those who work at the University of Utah said they feel more secure because concealed weapons are allowed.

"What happened at Virginia Tech might have been stopped," said Christine Zabawa, a medical researcher at the university. However, she said it is a bad idea to allow guns in dormitories, and fears an accident could happen during a party on campus.

"Alcohol and guns. It's a bad combination," she said.

Justin Ligon, 23, a Virginia Tech student and vice president of the school's Pistol and Rifle Club, with about a dozen members who do their shooting at a public firing range, said the Blacksburg, Va., university should drop its prohibition on guns.

He said it is unlikely that bringing guns on campus would make school more dangerous.

"People with those permits, they go through a background check," he said. "Generally the people who go through that trouble aren't people who are gong to fly off the handle and do something dangerous."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070427/ap_on_re_us/campus_guns

Swords?? Wonders will never cease.
The whole point is to diminish the likelihood of gun violence occuring, not to increase it.

This has been one of the most absurd arguments I have heard in a while. More guns on campus to prevent violence? Yeah, sure it would. The business student from Utah who carries his handgun everywhere but church - what an *********! Stay in Salt Lake City, please.

The fact that it requires more paperwork and time to obtain a drivers license than to obtain a firearm in many states is a sign that there is something really wrong with the system. How can the solution possibly be to put more weapons in more people's hands? What kind of irresponsible public figure would take that stance?

This has been one of the most absurd arguments I have heard in a while. More guns on campus to prevent violence? Yeah, sure it would. The business student from Utah who carries his handgun everywhere but church - what an *********! Stay in Salt Lake City, please.

The fact that it requires more paperwork and time to obtain a drivers license than to obtain a firearm in many states is a sign that there is something really wrong with the system. How can the solution possibly be to put more weapons in more people's hands? What kind of irresponsible public figure would take that stance?

I agree with you 100%. It's just totally insane.

Ah, college kids, guns and alcohol ... what could go wrong?