petescully - @ 20six.co.uk

The shootings at Virginia Tech have astonished and shocked and upset me, and everyone else in the country. The enormity of it hasn't yet sunk in; working at a large leafy university campus as I do, it's something that you always think could happen but never think will (though the student-with-gun-in-our-building incident a couple of months ago certainly woke us all up a little).This is one of those events that makes you feel sick, that tests your emotions and reactions. I can't help but feel the deepest sorrow for those that died so needlessly, and for the families and friends they left behind. I didn't like some of the things written straight afterwards, such as on the Guardian website where they asked why it was usually America that saw such shootings, followed by a string of smug comments about crazy red-neck Americans and their guns, and a flush of responses about the urgent need for guns to defend the people of the nation, such as against the 'tyrannical Brits'. Nice to see this awful tragedy has sparked a sensible debate.
One Davis student, in the campus newspaper, said that if there weren't gun-free zones and if people could carry weapons more freely, this might not have happened, and the gunman would have been shot down sooner. Is he suggesting all students carry fire-arms? Or professors, maybe? Nobody wants armed police patrolling campus corridors - the Virginia Tech students interviewed on the news tonight certainly didn't. I just don't see how relaxing gun laws would stop people who want to shoot people getting hold of guns. And then the Virginia governor speaks of his loathing for anybody who would want to use this tragedy to spark a debate on gun control in the US, for 'political agendas', though I'm sure he won't mind using the tragedy to boost his own ratings - even King George came down to speak at the memorial service (that's one more memorial service he's attended than the ones held for soldiers killed in Iraq, by the way).
If someone really wants to shoot someone, they'll get a gun, they'll do it. What I'd like to know is why do we make it so easy for them to get a gun? Virginia is one of the easiest places to buy a gun in America - you can buy handguns and assault rifles legally from guys just selling them from their homes (as a report on TV this afternoon showed). why? why do people need to buy handguns and assault rifles? Should that not be restricted to the military and the police? Why do members of the public need them? "Protection," chirp the protesters. Ok, protection. Assault rifles? Surely we'd be better protected if these things weren't readily available from your local store? But it won't change - America is too deeply in love with the gun. The right to bear arms - this was part of the sacred Constitution (a document people don't mind rewriting if it allows governments to spy on ter'rists) back at a time when they wanted people to be able to form militias to protect the fledgling country from invaders. Those times are past, and how. We don't like it when Iraqis bear arms in defense against occupying armies.
I think it's time they made handguns and assault rifles illegal to own, illegal to buy and illegal to sell. Amnesty time. Sure, if a maniac really wanted to shoot and kill people he'd find a way to get a gun, but we should be doing whatever we can to prevent that from happening. They banned nail-clippers and cans of diet soda from aeroplanes - why can't we ban the sale of guns to any Tom Dick or Harry too?

18.4.07 07:32

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c-side / Website (18.4.07 12:52)
Your lsat sentence is one of the most sensible questions/arguments I've heard! I commend you.

As for changing America's love of the gun, it will take someone with real balls to challenge it, and sadly there is just too much gun-money involved in the politics.

petescully / Website (19.4.07 16:28)
And the culture just loves its guns too much. An action film will not attract nearly as many people if the poster doesn't show the hero at least holding some sort of fire-arm these days. But you may as well be allowed to take a gun on a plane, just in case a terr'rist tries to take it over; it's for protection, y'know.