31 Students killed at Virginia Tech

[JPnyc]

Ah I see. SO what we REALLY need to ban are relationships.

[The Texan]

I wish that there werent so many gun control nuts around because if anyone on that campus would have had a CHL ( concealed handgun license) then alot less people would have died. It is too bad no one was able to properly defend themselves against him. Keep in mind people this is all IMO. the end.

[Syini666]

Ah I see. SO what we REALLY need to ban are relationships.

You might just be onto something there, perhaps the most sensible solution I've heard yet!

[allenb1963]

Neg...if you take away the guns they'll just find something else to use. Fact: gun ownership is a constitutional right that is as old as this country. It's just as important as your right to vote. You outlaw guns then (besides the police) only outlaws will have guns. You wanna tackle an intruder at 2 a.m. with a steak knife be my guest. Me? I'm gonna shoot the sorry low-life non-workin' thievin' piece of $h1T and save the state some money. Don't know how it is there, but in my home state I have that right and someone busts in during the night I'll exercise that right to it's fullest!

[Syini666]

@ allenb1963

The state of Virginia is kind of flaky on where we can exercise deadly force to protect ourselves.

Virginia has no law on deadly force, per se. Instead Virginia covers deadly force with case law and common law.

Basically a person may stand his ground as long as he was not a part of the initial confrontation. If he was part of the initial confrontation, then he must retreat as far as possible and announce his intentions to leave the confrontation before he can use deadly force to defend himself.

An innocent third party can also be defended with deadly force.

Deadly force can only be used against deadly force, where the victim could be killed or greviously injured.

Going by that logic if someones in my apartment trying to rip off my tv and I come down stairs to confront them if they pull a knife on me and I have a clear path to the door I have to leave whilst they continue to rob the place and wait for the police to hopefully show up in time to catch them, they would have to aggressively come at me with the obvious intention of attacking me in order for deadly force to be used and even then I'm supposed to retreat as far as possible and essentially tell them I plan on running away; if they still come at me with some form of weapon (or if they are obviously physically stronger than I am (such as the case of a 5' woman vs 6.5' dude) then I can use deadly force, otherwise you best not even point that gun in their direction lets you find yourself up on some bullshit charges of endangering their lives, etc.

Actually to add insult to injury under VA law if someone has hopped your 7 foot privacy fence that is posted with no trespassing signs and happens to step on a rake you knowingly left outside and injures themselves on the way to robbing your house you are liable for it, even though they were trespassing on posted property and hopped a 7' privacy fence.

Oh the joys of being a CCW permit holder or even a gun owner in general in the Commonwealth of Virginia...

[fourdc]

The Columbine crew had also made at least one homemade bomb using 20lb propane tank. Do you know what a 20lb propane tank could have done to a full high school lunchroom?

I choose not to own a firearm (I have a lot of archery equipment). However, I wouldn't walk on the current rights to own a firearm. Firearms are easy enough to acquire in and outside of the law. Restricting law abiding citizens from obtaining them isn't the answer.

I live in a rural area. If someone is willing to break and enter into my home inspite of an alarm and a dog, I have to assume it's for more than my TV. My state (Vermont) has the fewest gun laws on the books, we had a D- on Handgun Control Inc's report card. We also have the least violent crime per capita. It's not the guns causing the problem.

I admit that the firearm makes it easier for a deranged maniac to cause a spectatcular display, not unlike a suicide bomber. More kids are dieing in swimming pool accidents than shootings. Are you going to outlaw swimming pools?

[cbo]

Horrible news to wake up to.

Seriously, in europe where guns are that much harder to obtain the school shootings and postal shootings happens very rarely compared to the US. As for the "if they cant get a gun they find some other way" theory, yes they will but it's very unlikely that he would succede in killing that many people with a knife/axe/pipebomb etc. and you at least give the victims more of a fighting chance.

The only problem with gun control is that there are so many guns in circulation that even if they got banned completely it would take the US hundreds of years to get rid of em all.

As for the "if everyone had a consealed gun on them, everything is fine" theory... well one word Nuts! It would be the wild west all over again and we all know that gunfights rarely happen back then.

and for fourdc you make a nice point you make with the swimmingpool, and my answer is, yes it should be outlawed if u had the ability to put it in your pocket got to the local mall and massdrown innocent people in it.

Wake up, please stop clinging to a piece of paper that says its your constitutional right to do this and that. The world has moved on since it was written and you should seriously move on too.

You should focus more on the fact that your kids will inherit the world in the state we leave it in... So for gods sake try to make it more safe, nice and better than than the one we were born into.

[MURACU]

The question is so much about baning guns but controlling them. If you want to drive a car you have to pass your driving license. If you are using a car while under the influance of drink, drugs ect you are in deep trouble. Also if i remeber rightly, correct me if i am wrong, it was not a consitutional right to have a gun but an obligation like in switzerland where all able bodied men were already armed when the state milita called them up.
Saying the problem is not with guns is a cop out. If that was the case europe as a whole, which has a much bigger population than the US, should have more such shootings than the US following the logic of the pro gun group. Unless of course it just means that the the US has a much higher percentage of mentally unstable people!

[JPnyc]

Well I may be entirely mistaken about this, but aren't most gun related crimes committed by those NOT in legal possession of a firearm?

[Negative]

Fact: gun ownership is a constitutional right that is as old as this country.

Most scholars these days disagree with that interpretation of the Second Amendment. "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." is an extremely awkward sentence, but more and more is being interpreted as only applying to that "well regulated militia." Most Americans aren't part of a "well regulated militia", and all the shooters I listed previously certainly weren't. I don't have a problem with people owning guns; the problem in this country is with how ridiculously easy it is to get one.