I think the anti-gun folks started their machine way earlier than 18 hours. Gun Control blogs were hitting the issues within hours of the shooting. Additionally, I'm very disturbed at the repeated "quoted" description of the gunman which is in lots of media reports.

The gunman was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout" and wore a black ammunition vest, said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a classroom floor.

It suggests to me that the efforts to undermine the positive cultural meme and symbol of the Boy Scouts have been so successful that a random student would associate wearing (I presume)olive drab pants and/or a brown shirt and a black ammo vest with a Boy Scout uniform.

What irritates me more is that the press keeps propogating this description. There is nothing Scout like in this episode, and this can only serve to advance a negative image/connotation of the Scouting program. What's wrong with leaving out that "quote" and giving a general description what he was wearing?

"this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
...

PJM round-up here.

Reader Kevin e-mails: "Imagine if sensible CCW laws allowed people to defend themselves, this tragedy could have been avoided." He points to this story from last January:

Gun Bill Gets Shot Down by Panel
Jan. 31, 2006

HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
http://www.michellemalkin.com/

Current reports are trying to decipher the meaning of a note the shooter left and why he wrote 'Ismail AX" in red ink on his arm.

What a systematic, pre-meditated, whack job deluxe.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/04/shooting_supect.html

While I think people with a CHL should be able to carry weapons on campus, I don't think it would have helped in this instance. I don't know exactly how things played out, but if it wasn't immedietly obvious to everyone who the killer was things could have been even worse if you have a dozen innocent, well-meaning people pulling out guns, then shooting each other.

It sounds, though, like it was a hostage type situation where the guy already had a gun to somebody's head and made the others line up against the wall before executing them. In that case without being able to read his mind you wouldn't know whether it's better to go ahead and shoot him and virtually guarantee that he kills at least one person, or do nothing and risk having a lot more people killed.

At least there is a positive Boy Scout reference emerging...though the gun control and "assault weapon law lapse" harpies are shrieking.

David Stoeckle, chief of surgery at Montgomery Regional Hospital, said one Tech senior used Boy Scout training to stop the flow of blood from his right leg. About 3 centimeters of the student's femoral artery had been shot away, Stoeckle said. The student wrapped an electrical cord around his leg, tightening it with the aid of another student. When emergency medical technicians arrived in the classroom, they put a proper tourniquet on the leg.

First let me say I support wholeheartedly the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
But as a matter of discussion, why does the United States and its "American gun culture" lead the world in these mass, or, multiple, killings?

Aztlan, et al - As with anything, taking drugs for example, there are always side effects to anything. The trick is to get more "bang" with the drug, law, rule, etc. than you get with the unintended consequences, side effects, etc.

I was amused several weeks ago watching the BBC when they said that property crime is very high in Britain compared to the US. When asked why, the reporter laughed and said that in the states they will "blow yer head off" if you try and steal a person’s bike - in Britain they just stare and watch it being carried away!

Even though multiple killings and other types of crime (murder rates by gun, etc.) are indeed factually higher in America than other industrial countries, many more types of crime are much LOWER here than elsewhere - property crimes being only one.

I own a several guns and support our right to do so. However, maybe there does need to be an open and respectful discussion about some types of automatic weapons/clips that should be banned. In reality, there is no need for a 30 round clip when one shoots for deer or rabbit.

Students or roomates of the gunman say that THE GUNMAN-STUDENT WOULD ALWAYS PLAY AND REPLAY AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN THAT MUSIC WHICH STARTS WITH THESE SENTENCES, "TEACH ME HOW TO SPEAK, TEACH HOW TO ACT(?)."

Yet, what did people in the school do? They named him "QUESTION MARK".

They put him in a SPECIAL ONE ONE ONE CLASS WHERE THE TEACHER ONLY HAD ONE STUDENT- THE FUTURE STUDENT TURNED GUNMAN.

THEY OSTRACIZED HIM. STUDENTS WOULD SOMETIMES NOT ATTEND CLASSES BECAUSE HE WAS THERE.

These are only what we are told. But if you use a little bit of imagination, MAYBE THE GUNMAN COULD SEE THE GLANCES OF PEOPLE EVEN FROM FARAWAY.

I think THESE THINGS SIMPLY WORSENED THE FUTURE GUNMAN'S PROBLEM, BECAUSE AS YOU SEE FROM THE SONG HE REPEATEDLY KEPT REPEATING, IT SAYS "TEACH ME HOW TO SPEAK, TEACH ME HOW TO ACT." PERHAPS THIS IS EVEN THE REASON WHY VERY STRANGELY, THE FUTURE GUNMAN WHO WAS A LONER, WHO VERY VERY RARELY SPOKE - AND WHO STUDENTS REMEMBER SMILED ONLY ONCE IN ALL HIS YEARS AT VIRGINIA TECH - WAS VERY VERY STRANGELY, MAJORING OF ALL THINGS IN ENGLISH AND WAS IN THAT ACTING(?)CLASS WRITING HIS BIZZARE SCRIPTS.

Don't get it twisted, Eurasian -- only the gunman is responsible for what happened. No one else. No one. Nothing anyone ever said or didn't say to him justifies the actions he took. He was evil and crazy, and there's no cure for either.

Stop trying to rationalize what he did. You're taxing the few working brain cells you have.

Vaugn and Jessicaswell.net bloggers

Brain Program Update, Version 2007-A

The more brain cells used, the more confuzed.
The less brain cells used, the faster.

What the hell is zat?!

This was not a matter of high or low capacity magazines for the firearms. Limiting the possession of high capacity magazines in no way will deter mass killings. One simply will purchase more magazines...

The answer to incidents like this has been stated earlier on in this discussion:

Less restrictions on firearms. If there had been one person with a firearm in close proximity to the killer, many less folks would have lost their lives.

This is what we get because we disobeyed God's command to turn these weapons into plow shares.

So where are the comments for this wernoful article?Where are the flames and harsh belittling that so called peace Liberals use for their "culture movement"?Where is the "But Britain dosen't have a gun problem" crap and before you Libbby's even start:Britian is a much smaller landmass and doesn't have a large and half unprotected Mexico border to deal with illegal gun/drugs smuggling like here:Plus they have assualts with other weapons like knives and base-ball bats to replace those guns:Guess they better ban base-ball bats and have police at every base-ball game in the kingdom to prevent a shoot-out and unauthoritze possesion of a base-ball bat:

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