Virginia Tech's Anti-Gun Policy Kills 32
The last blog entry I wrote about the shooting in a SLC mall was in direct reference to this exact problem. I asked the question "how many people would have died if there had not been a good guy in the area with a gun?"
Thanks to an extremely strict "no guns" rule, which bans all people, even licensed concealed weapons carriers, from carrying a gun in the VA-tech campus buildings, we now have the answer to that question. It must have been like shooting fish in a barrel. 32 people died while defenseless students waited for someone with a gun to show up and help.
According to the VA-Tech policy: "Students and employees who want to keep guns on campus must store them at the Virginia Tech Police Department. Anyone caught carrying a firearm onto campus will be asked to remove it immediately. Failure to comply could result in university disciplinary action or arrest against students and employees and trespassing charges against anyone else."
Sounds like that policy worked out really well for them. When will people realize that bad guys will always try to find places where the good guys can't defend themselves? Posting in writing that you prohibit guns ATTRACTS the guns (And not the self-defense kind. The assault kind.) Guns were strictly prohibited on campus, and 32 people were shot yesterday.
The naivety of public policy makers on this topic is maddening. How many more people will die, how many more laws will be passed and policies enacted, before we realize that the criminals aren't concerned with obeying laws and policies? When will people realize that in incidents where a good guy has a gun, a lot fewer people die than in incidents where good guys are forbidden from defending themselves?