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Virginia Tech shooting and gun control

karen_mann

Will the Virginia Tech massacre break a long-standing impasse on gun control -- and should it?

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Virginia Tech shooting and gun control

It should but it won't. The NRA has too many elected officials in its pocket.

Yes, it will Dennis Rogers had it right

Yes, the Virginia Tech shootings will finally put people on notice that bad theories of law and policy kill innocents.

The time has come to just say "no" to goofy theories of government such as gunfree zones and idiotic zero tolerance polices that create more problems than they solve.

Best regards to all,

 

Dennis Rogers stated it correctly in his 1998 Column:

 

(Excerpt)

Guns Kill, and we know that.
Dennis Rogers
Raleigh News & Observer October 17,1998

None of the handguns at our house has a safety. As far as we are concerned-and obviously the manufacturer agrees-there is no such thing as a"safe" gun.

Threats that justify use of a gun come fast and hard and when you least expect them. The last thing you want to worry about as you draw down on a fellow human being is whether the gun is loaded or will fire.

Mine is and will. Always. That's why I treat it like a poisonous snake. No one plays with guns at our house. Ever.

If I did not believe in the brotherhood of man, if I woke up every day worried about assaults, if I could not go to sleep for fear that harm was coming my way through the dark shadows, then life would not be worth living.

But I also have several smoke alarms even though I don't believe my house will catch fire. The spare trunk in my tire is always inflated, I keep my insurance paid, I get rabies shots for my dog and I look both ways, even when crossing a one-way street. One never knows.

I can think of only one thing more horrible than shooting a human being. And that is not being able to shoot one if I had to.

I have caught a lot of grief in recent weeks over comments about Wendell Williamson, who killed two people in Chapel Hill. He was first found not
guilty by reason of insanity and then awarded $500,000 by a jury who placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of his former psychiatrist.

Williamson's rampage ended when an unarmed bartender and former Marine risked his life to tackle the well-armed gunman.

As sympathetic as I am to the plight of the mentally ill, the real tragedy of Chapel Hill is that no cop or citizen with a gun was able to drop Williamson before two innocent people died.

Those of you who hate guns are not alone. Many of us who own them hate them even more. The difference is, the thought of someone we love becoming a victim of someone like Williamson is more hateful than the mixture of fear, respect, loathing and trust we feel for that lifeless, unfeeling piece of steel in our bedside tables.

 

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