Gun Control

Well, it was pretty much inevitable that once a shooting like this happens people start calling for more gun control. Take a minute and listen while I explain how this doesn't make any sense. Number one - in this instance at Virginia Tech the shooter knew what he was going to do months in advance and there was no time restriction on not getting weapons that was going to stop him. He completely followed the law in Virginia and obtained the guns legally, which took 5 weeks to accomplish. That should be more than enough time for any impulse killing to pass, but since he stuck with it you know this is what he had in mind from the beginning. Number two - he had no intention to live past that morning, and I believe that, whether he had killed himself or the police had. When someone has already committed to killing themselves it doesn't matter what the punishment is for carrying weapons onto a campus. Think about it, he has no intention of living until Tuesday, let alone graduation, so what good is the threat of expulsion - ABSOLUTELY ZERO. The only way this crime could have been stopped is if one of the students or teachers in the buildings he attacked had a gun of their own and could have returned fire. Gun laws mean nothing to criminals. Think about it, who is going to break a gun law? - Someone who doesn't want to get expelled from school or fired from their job, NO. The people who break the laws are the ones that would break any laws because they either don't care about the repercussions or they are not expecting to live to see them. The current laws - like keeping guns 1000 ft. from schools, and having to wait certain periods before getting a firearm - are (I believe) intended to keep people from doing something rash or completely on impulse, that under normal circumstances they would never do and after having a reasonable amount of time to think about it would come to their senses. The laws also allow someone who really really wants a gun to still get one. If you are just going along thinking "gosh, I think I would like to own a gun." and you do the research and find the gun you want, you'll jump through the necessary hoops to get it. Or if you are premeditating murder for months or years you will also be able to wait. The problem with gun laws are that the more areas you "protect" by not allowing "law abiding" people to have guns, the easier it will be for criminals to kill in those areas because they don't have to fear that anyone will fight back while they are attacking.

Now the solution. What needs to happen is teachers, professors or the deans of the individual colleges within a university have to be given the ability to carry concealed weapons on campus. If you don't want to allow any students then that is fine, but I would almost make it mandatory for at least one administration personnel in each building on campus be required to carry a weapon. This also needs to be done in the most secretive of manners, so that if some crazed gunman decides to attack the school he will have no idea which rooms to avoid. Call it the Virginia Tech exemption and then pray that we have already witnessed the worst school shooting in American History.