He Should Have Never Had the Guns

The New York Times reports today that the Virginia Tech gunman, whom I will not name, should not have had the ability to buy a gun at all under Federal regulations. But someone in Virginia decided to reword the Virginia regulations to be different than the Federal one, illegal by the way, and put that version on their forms. So the Virginia Tech gunman got his guns and ammo.

Let's read into this. Some gun rights wacko decided that he wanted to increase gun ownership possibilities and reworded the Federal regulation. Now over thirty people are dead.

Don't worry. We'll find out who did this. And then not even the NRA will be able to save them.

Take the Al Jazeera Poll - Should the Virginia Tech Gunman's Video Be Broadcast

By broadcasting the video that the deranged student recorded, the news media is only encouraging copycats. The gunman himself referred to the Columbine killers, no doubt because of their video messages.

Brooke Gladstone of NPR's On The Media said today that airing the videos was the only thing news outlets could do. I disagree. The graphic and offensive images are not providing any new information and only serve to encourage others to follow suit.

Al Jazeera has an online poll. Take it and see what their readers think.

Guns Don't Kill, People Do

And that's the problem. People kill. I know there are many responsible gun owners and hunters. My Dad is one of them. And I am sure that any one of them can pass basic safety criteria and not be upset at needing to have a clean arrest record and proficiency at the firearm they are buying.

And how would the world end if all guns had tracing microchips? If we traced gun ownership like we do car ownership? What is the big need for automatic weapons?

I'd really like to know.

God, Guns and Guts

Another American tragedy yesterday at Virginia Tech. And yet there is still more control over who can drive a car than there is over who can own a gun. A car is identified and traced through the VIN number.

And what is with the crazy pro-gun lobby? They issued a press release right after the shooting blaming a lack of guns for the incident. The idea being that if some students in the classroom had guns, and people in general knew that, then no one would enter a classroom with mass murder on their minds.

Or if they did, they would use a hand grenade. Or they would shoot someone upon entry to the classroom and duck out the door waiting for someone to chase them with their gun. Or they would pull the fire alarm and shoot people from a hidden vantage point. Or they would throw tear gas into a classroom and kill people in the confusion. That in turn would cause some gun-wielding students to shoot back.

Do you think a person who plans a cowardly attack like the one at Virginia Tech is going to be dissuaded from doing so because he will be killed? Obviously not, since suicide seems to have been part of the plan from the beginning. Instead, a gun battle will ensue, with just as many people being killed.

People who wield guns need to be referred as cowards. The media language needs to change and so does our culture.