Guns Make Schools Safer, Gun Group Says

What a bunch of lunatics!!!!

Hemenway could not be further from the truth in this article. Ironically, Hemenway was not able to cite any sources backing up his claim that more firearms equals more violence. In fact, the exact opposite has been proven true time and time again. The FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, published yearly, give clear, accurate, correct statistics supporting the fact that states with fewer firearm restrictions and less restrictive CCL legislation experience LESS violent crime. Whether the crime was related to a firearm or not, the rates are lower as compared to states with more restrictions and bans.
Take a look at Florida, according to the FBI, once Florida passed legislation allowing concealed weapon permits, the state homicide rate fell from 36% above the national average to 4% below. Go look for yourself, that is, unless you are afraid the results of your research prove gun-grabbers are wrong and their statements unfounded.

Massachusetts have the strictest gun laws but have had the highest increase in gun deaths since the laws were passed. There’s been an explosion of murders in Boston & Dorchester since then.

You bet. It made VT very safe indeed
Ah so its freedom to kill. What demented logic!!!!!!! No wonder US is acting like a cowboy around the world. Its home grown
Its seems to me that this result of American gun culture. I have no sympathy. What about Iraq? Does the western media do a wall to wall live coverage of killings in Iraq where hundreds get killed including children. Its a shame that we place more value on American lives than Iraqi lives
We should be ashamed of our so called western values

Hemenway’s book on gun violence is the single best source out there. Some of the confused folks posting here would do well to read it. It is long since time for rational gun policy in this country.

There’s no nice way to say it: Prof. David Hemenway is a liar. It is simply irrefutable that those states and cities with weak gun control laws have less crime and fewer murders than those that don’t. Those with tough controls, like DC, New York, Baltimore, etc. have much higher rates of homicide. States with higher per-capita legal gun ownership have lower crime rates, not higher, and the same goes for those state that allow concealed weapons permits. Prof. Hemenway must know this, and so he must be a liar.

Lets see how many ways ABC can slant this against responsible gun ownership. Great job on flipping the lack of CCW on-campus as Rick Boucher’s fault.
ABC, you are a joke. But thank you for the laughs.

Sorry, I have no intention of putting my safety in someone elses hands EVER again. When I was in college at Penn State, me and a couple friends got held up at gun point and we could do nothing but sit there and pray. Afterwards, we went and told the cops, …just like we were supposed to… they promptly ignored us. Now I have a permit to carry. …F the lazy cops

like i said if everyone was aloud to carry guns it would equalize the playing field….guns are the equalizer of all men and the sound of freedom.
For example in countries like Mexico guns are completly illegal, yet theres still gun crime.

I just don’t understand how some people can seriously believe that strict governmental control of firearms will stop violence, or even prevent guns from being acquired and carried— by criminals or by otherwise law-abiding individuals. What naivety. What absolute wide-eyed idealism. Weed is illegal, crack is illegal, etc. But how easy is it to get? Tremendously easy. And who do you think will be the main people that will be willing to have illegal weapons? Criminals. Isn’t that just so bleeding obvious? This whole incident is an example of the reality of these ideas. One person with two guns can kill 32 unarmed, defenseless people with no opposition. To carry on the gun-control logic, we should take the weapons away from our military, in order to end all war. Nevermind that all enemies of this country won’t abide by those rules.
Insanity.

how about ABC News do some research on Prozac before trying to jump on the ban the gun story like ABC News always does.. pathetic that you would take a horrific day at VT and try to use it for your leftist political gain.. disgusting.

It is true that if only one person had a gun, they could have stopped this madman.

The shooter in this case apparently walked into a gun store, passed all the requirements for gun ownwership within minutes, and walked out with his weapon. Does anybody else see that is a little messed up? I’m not ready to say all guns should be banned, but give me a break. There has to be a better system for determining who is “responsible” enough to own a gun. Could he have gotten a gun through illegal means? Maybe. But in this case, it looks like the system we have in place failed completely.

Pray for the victims and families
Guns were made to kill people.
They are not for protection.
They do not save lives.
More Guns means more death just look at the middle east.

Why do people keep defending guns as a tool? Guns don’t kill people people kill people? Absurd logic.
A gun is a weapon used to kill people. IF everyone carried, then simply more people would die from them. You carry a gun to kill people that’s what its for and that what happens.

FYI- VA Tech policy is total firearms ban on all campus property even if you possess a concealed carry permit. Unless you are a law enforcement officer, you may not possess firearms on campus. You will be fired or expelled for carrying…. Yes, campus police carry.

Hey, Reality…
Switzerland. Every household owns at least 1 firearm.

When was the last time a disturbed individual entered a police station and opend fire? When was the last time a disturbed individual forced his way onto a military base and opened fire? There’s a reason for this, those sites contains police offices and base security who are armed and will defend themselves and others if required. We’ve seen time and again where “Gun Free Zones” turn out to be “no resistance zones”.
What if HB 1572 had been passed in 2006 and one of those students was carrying when this madman began his rampage. How many could have been saved? How many more will have to die before we realize that disarmament does not bring peace, it invites those who prey upon the unarmed. What if one teacher in Columbine was armed and allowed to defend the lives of helpless children. How many more times will we ponder… what if?

Yea(responding to KEVIN, what he said.

Well you’ve set my phasers to stun. A rational voice wandering the land of make believe. You are most welcome here. Feel free to let your hair down.

more guns means more deaths. London is one of the biggest cities in the world with 18 million people. The city also has some of the toughest laws on gun ownership. In the past year, gun related homicides in the city was only 46. New York alone which has half the population London does (8 million) had nearly 600 hundred gun related homicides. There needs to be strict gun control laws in the U.S. We are going to sit around and scratch our heads on what to do to prevent these incidents; while within the next year incidents like yesterday’s will probably happen again. There must be absolute strict laws on gun ownership in this country.

My heart goes out to the families and friends.
No mention of the correlation of psychotic kids and anti-depressants.
The scrawny messed-up kid for whatever motive his loser mind invented, murdered a horrid number of other humans and now selfish opportunists will want to exploit the occasion and deviate and focus on root cause.
Maria?
“I am not American, but love this country for all that has given me. Have to say that cannot understand the fascination of this country for weapons.”
Well Maria, if you were an American or paid attention to any American history, you would know that fighting by brave Americans FORMED THIS COUNTRY, freed other countries, defeated Communism, etc.
For every evil soul, there are a far greater number of brave men who will stand up for right. Think thousands of other students should be able to defeat one scrawny foreign gunman? Think they should be entitled try? It’s not only a Freeman’s right; it’s an American’s duty.
This is more the result of 50 years boys being taught passivism and integration. How so many grew up to be politicians.
I don’t care where in the world you live, self protection is a individualistic responsibility. No surprise that a country full of folks who can’t wipe their own cheek, cook, service a car, think would rely on someone else to invent some retro active law that doesn’t not address one single aspect of the psycho itself.
Stay tuned for the next tragedy. Me? I will continue to train and practice to protect myself and others around me. I am not going down like that. Who knows, maybe one of you crybaby pacifists will be lucky enough to have my company. In the mean time, I promote the right for every good human to be able to protect themself they way they see fit.

Judy,
Please refer me to the statistics that back-up your claim referring to “We are the most violent country in the western hemisphere. Just look at the statistics of other countries who have gun laws and have virtually no violent crime”. Both England and Austrailia suffer from a sharp increases in violent crime since the ban of firearms. What had dropped is violent crime where a gun was used by the perp. Violent beatings, stabbings, rape and other violent crime is still way up from when subjects were allowed to defend themselves.
Here in America, Washington DC, Chicago, California, Massachusetts for starters. All have strict gun control laws, and none are what I’d call paridise. Washington DC has one of the nation’s highest murder rate. They have a strict gun ban in effect. Same with Chicago.
As to this remark, “Only the police and the military should have automatic weapons”. Please define “Automatic Weapons” for me. No Class III weapons were used here in this crime. The perp used semi-automatic pistols. Why should the police and military be the only ones that are allowed arms? The people of North Korea and China have been unarmed and live in fear for the past 50 years. Russians and Eastern Europeans were unarmed and lived in fear for 50 years. Germans in 1935 were disarmed and 6 million+ were unable to fight back because the people were at the mercy of the police and military.

Mr. Froikin,
No Right should be negotiated. EVER.

I like to know how many cars and trucks were sold in the last three to four weeks and the drivers drove drunk and killed people in the U.S.???? I’ll bet a hell of a lot more than all the guns own in the U.S…..

Actually, Bush is on record saying that he would have approved the assault weapons renewal had Congress decided to do so. As someone currently in the military, from what I’ve seen, many military personnel do not get a lot of firearm experience. For example, the capture of Jessica Lynch back in 2003 or so. They were captured because they failed to maintain their weapons correctly. Assuming that someone had military or law enforcement experience does not mean that they are proficient with weapons. Practice, practice, practice, coupled with good training, make for responsible gun ownership.

laylow, ive never had to fill out a 3 page long form and a state police registration form and then wait for a complete background check to be done so i can buy a six-pack. maybe you should do a little research.

Virginia Tech prohibited its students, faculty and staff from bringing their licensed and lawfully concealed firearms onto the campus. This guaranteed a safe environment for the gunman who was able to murder 32 disarmed and defenseless victims.
For all you liberal hard heads out there: The solution for remedying a failed policy is not more of the same failed policy. The policy of banning guns on VT’s campus obviously didn’t work so it’s time to change it.
The reason this tragedy occurred wasn’t because of the availability of handguns. It was because of the “gun free zone” around the campus. If Virginia Tech had allowed people licensed to carry handguns to bring their guns to school or with them on campus there might have been only 1 dead person instead of 32.
By definition criminals don’t follow the law. If a criminal has no problem breaking laws pertaining to murder which carry the death penalty or life in prison, then he will have no problem breaking a law making it illegal to bring a gun on campus. The practical effect of “gun free” zones is to disarm the law abiding citizens and leave them at the mercy of violent criminals.
“After this tragedy, how can anyone NOT advocate the outlawing of semi-automatic weapons?”
/Sarcasm on/
Yea that’s right! Lets ban firearms! If we make them illegal then no one will be able to buy them. After all drugs are illegal and you can’t buy them. … Hey wait a minute!
/Sarcasm off/
“Also, I am 100% sure college students will try to go to class packing a gun, just in case. They should release the grisly head shots of the deceased. We need to see what damage any gun does. But that will never happen.”
There are plenty of battle hardened vets going to school that served in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that already know what head shots look like. I should know, I’m one of them.
Your point is irrelevant anyway, even students who are wet behind the ears will find out the damage a bullet can do if some psycho starts plugging their classmates. And in that case I’m sure they’ll be glad that they brought their gun “just in case”.
It’s better to have a gun and not need one; then to need a gun and not have one.

Can anyone remember the last time there was an attack on an Israel school ?.NO,and why you might ask.It is due to the ARMED teachers that will fight to defend THEIR students.They can choose to be unarmed if they want,but some are armed and willing to stop the killings.It seems the anti-gun crowd is jubilant over this,would they be just as happy if he did not get a gun and used gasoline to burn 100 to death,or would they be happier if he could only kill a few with a knife and bat ?.The problem is HIM,the killer not the means to kill.We live in a free society and there will always be the means.So now what ??.Give the victims the means and thr RIGHT to defend themselves – IF they so choose,now thats freedom.25 years LEO,so I am not speaking out of my butt.

No guns on campus, that is the law at VT. The killer did not obey the law and the law abiding victims had no way to protect themselves.

I don’t think the fellow defending the rights of sane citizens to keep and bear arms went far enough. Not only should faculty be permitted to carry pistols, they should be trained and paid. Of course, on a volunteer basis. The sad truth is that the police do not and will never protect you. If you think for a moment that the police will protect you it is evident you have not had much occassion to call them. In this instance an armed teacher could have saved dozens of lives! Think about it! Gun laws only restrict the law abiding, who are not the problem anyway!

Mike Cook and all the anti-gunners that toss around all the ‘gun deaths’… Guess what? Close to 80% (FBI stats) are criminals shooting other criminals!
NYC & DC have the toughest gun laws and the highest crime rate in the country. Chicago runs a close 3rd. GET A CLUE!
Police have NO DUTY to protect you. Go ahead – Ask around. Read “CALL 911 AND DIE”.
I choose not to be a victim. Persons living uneder a total gun ban are victims, not citizens. If you want to live in a total gun ban, move to Darfur. Look whereit got them!

Obviously in my above post, Scotland was seperate from England and Wales in the study by the UN. They are all part of Britain, as you will know.

It’s funny you mention the nuclear weapons. When was the last time the entire world was at war? The MAD theory explains the situation perfectly. Before you dismiss it, it has worked for the past fifty-plus years, and it has mathematical reasoning behind it (referring to zero-sum gaming, which I can’t come close to understanding). While a famous anti-nuclear weapons activist once compared the blocs to adversaries comparing the matches they held while standing waist deep in gasoline, it also stands to reason that no sane person would want to light that match (caveat: sane. The shooter was not that.) Nuclear weapons aren’t going away. Neither are guns. In fact, Beretta of Italy, I believe, is one of the oldest industrial companies in the world.

If you give $100 to a person, are they more inclined to use and spend the money, or are they more inclined to put it into a savings account?
Now think of the same situation but change the money for a gun.
Let the hunters have their guns. This is not about hunters.
Look at the tv, how many news broadcasts start out with murders? How many people are killed each year with guns?
People now say that this tragedy was just an isolated incident and has now led to the debate of gun control.
What do the families say who have lost loved ones? Do they say it was just an isolated incident? What about all the other victims in the country of gun violence. Do each of the families just reside themselves to the fact that each death was just an isolated incident? Should a three year old conceal and carry? How can you protect against a stray bullet? When I heard of a little girl getting hit by a stray bullet it makes you so sick to think that someone so innocent has been attacked and hurt. You hope and pray that something in this world will change but somehow it just seems to get worse.
The problem is that guns are too readily available. It is very easy for people to purchase guns through straw purchases. And these are people who should defiantly not have access to guns.
If you put more guns out there with a conceal and carry law you don’t stop those who are inclined to misuse those weapons you just make more sales for a strong NRA and gun companies. We as people don’t matter only money does.
The more cars you put on a road the greater the chance of accidents. The world is not a safe place but we must not live in fear. Rather we must use our better judgment and take away items that are so inherently dangerous, and I’m not talking about cars you could substitute anything in place of cars, it is a metaphor.
It is now how do we accomplish this task and allow sportsmen and women their rights to hunt in a responsible manner.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those who have lost loved ones.

I find it EXTREMELY disturbing that,as usual, the media who are the first to shriek “First Amendment” are so willing to destroy the Second Amendment which is the ONLY guarantee of the Constitution. If you have no way to physically enforce a right then the “right” is available only at the whim of the powers that be. For those of you out there that don’t want to carry a weapon, fine! I’m more than willing to once again shoulder the responsibility for my own protection and the safety of those around me should the occasion arise. I did this in Viet Nam in 1973 and am willing to do it again, but unfortunately, the government doesn’t mean to let me and the gun-banners want me to be at the mercy of those who will carry illegally.

BJ, you’ve missed it. I own guns but I don’t generally hunt. I do target shoot and I do keep them for self defense. Your discussion of protecting hunters ignores about sixty percent of the gun owners out there. These days more people are arming to protect against carjackings and home invasions than they are to go whack Bambi or Donald Duck! So it’s not about that. Your typical CCW holder these days tends to be female, which makes sense when you consider the kinds of crimes perpetrated against women.
What it is about is that gungrabbers are a class of people who want to dumb freedom down to the level at which they’d feel safe with the least trustworthy among us. And when you do that, you get one big, fat open air prison. And funny thing, seeing what happened to the English since they’ve passed their ban, is that when you treat people like a bunch of convicts, they tend to start acting like them.
Yesterday, an idiot killed 32 people. But some 60 million Americans who own guns didn’t kill anybody. Yet you’re talking about imposing infringements on rights over what in the end, however horrible it is, is an anomaly. And there’s no way that I or most anybody else is going to support political moves to punish us for things that we weren’t responsible for.
While you’re mulling over that, consider this. Protection from crime consists of deterrence. And real deterrence only occurs at the point of contact between the criminal and his proposed victim. And that was something that clearly didn’t exist at Virginia Tech. The perpetrator of that mass murder knew that everybody on campus except the cops were gonna be unarmed. So he chained the doors and then he went in to start his grisly acts. If Virginia Tech’s Administration hadn’t opposed the effort to extend the right for licensed people to carry concealed weapons on campus, odds are pretty good that this guy would have either not tried, or at the very least, somebody would have been able to stop him. Instead the Administration got their warm and fuzzy feeling and people were unable to defend themselves and therefore died.
One last thing. Don’t go claiming that if civilians shot, there would have been bullets flying all over the place, because that’s not how it goes. Civilians practice more, and tend to shoot at closer range, whereas most cops tend to practice the day before their six month qualification and they shoot at longer ranges and therefore they miss more. Wanna see something scary? Visit a range the day before the cops are due to qualify. That’s why in most places, they try to do their shooting isolated from everybody else. They don’t want anybody to see just what lousy shots they are.
Given a choice of being around civilians or cops in a shooting situation, I’d rather be around the civilians. If you don’t believe it, find somebody who operates a range and ask him. You’ll get an earful.
Either way though, you’re trying to deal with a problem by going after the wrong people.

Yes stricter gun control seems to fail in this country, but the “stricter” you (yes, you) are talking about in some states in this country are no where strict in the eyes of any other country. Yup, either everybody has a gun or nobody has one, anywhere in between, you will have endless debates like this. And remember, there is no absolute fairness and those advocating for the extremes are normal the most naive people.

I am surprised to even see a story like this on ABC though they still had to include a bunch of unfounded crap from an anti-gun person. The statistics don’t lie when it comes to having concealed weapon laws and all the anti-gun people can keep their heads in the sand as much as they want but the bad guys will get the guns to commit their crimes no matter what laws you pass.

David Hemenway, a gun control policy expert, indeed – he is actually a prime advocate of gun control, routinely funded by the Joyce Foundation and publishing biased papers that masquerade as public health research and attack gun ownership.
The way that ABC is desperately pushing gun control is sad, but par for the course.

Thank you, Raid. What a lot of the gun-rights advocates are missing here is that this guy was not a criminal until he committed this heinous act.
CCW permits are ridiculously easy to obtain in this state. There is no training required. No evaluation. No records kept. NRA types like to say that CCW permit holders are all law-abiding, but the truth is we don’t know. There are plenty of permit holders who lose their licenses every year; we are not allowed to know why. Old age? Misdemeanor? Crime? Who knows? Those records are destroyed.
What the gun-advocates are further missing is that this young man, if he had so chosen, would have been permitted to obtain a CCW permit.

I used to carry when I still lived in the US, had a proper CCL, bought my guns legally, never hunted, and was darn glad to have a gun in my car when I was carjacked and found myself with a knife to my throat Not one drop of blood coming from me or the car jacker, everyone went home to their families.
Now I live in Germany – very repressive gun laws which make it nearly impossible for me or any other law abiding citizen to buy a gun for self protection or even shooting for sport. Yet, we still had a school shooting here (18 dead in Erfurt in 2002) and violent crime stemming from guns – funny that the criminals are still getting their hands on guns while law abiding citizens like myself have to go through years of red tape before even being allowed to own one for sporting purposes. Outlawing guns only helps criminals!

Guns cause crime like cars cause drunk driving – it’s the person, not the device. I’ve seen politicians saying that if the “assault weapons” ban was still in effect this shooter might not have been able to kill so many people. Handguns are now “assault weapons?” Please give me a break. The lack of knowledge about this is astounding.
By the way, all those who like gun laws are welcome to move into my state, Massachusetts. Actually, we need more people to move in – so many middle-class people are leaving that even the politicians are becoming concerned. All of the gun-grabbers can sit around holding rallies against violence and those “evil guns.” If only a few regular people had been armed at Virginia Tech the headlines might be quite different.

It just goes to show that no matter how many laws that are passed, or how many are or are not enforced,
You can not legislate morality!

All those liking guns this much should move to Iraq – the amount of weapons there must make it the safest place on Earth.
And come on, let’s seperate crime from violence from killings from shootings.
It is NOT the same.
If the crime is going down in a state that recently laxed (even more) the gun control i will bet that the tendency is general.
A much more interesting figure would be how many assaults are actually deadly – and what the perpetrators “death-rate” are
- i would think a gun increases the effectiveness of those people – which you by present law can not restrict from having the gun in the first place.

I agree one hundred percent to all the comments that suggest that if students and falculty members were able to protect themselves by not having a pistol free zone then maybe so many lives would not have been lost!

It seems to me like a lot of the gun-advocates simply post the same sentences time and time again – maybe it is a little like a mantra to them – or do the words after all begin to sound hollow.
Will a gun-advocate answer this.?
1. If guns equals less deadly crime why is it that the US. has about a x15 gun homicides per capita if compared with eg. the Scandinavian countries.?
(and to add to that it is usually the criminals getting shot by other criminals)
2. Who is – logically – the most likely to have a ‘sinister’ motive ; the gun-control lobby who will ban guns – or the gun-lobby who makes a load of money on them.?
3. Who will lead an “arms-race” – the police, the citizens or the criminals ?
(hopefully the police but regretfully now and then the criminals) – so the citizen will usually stand out-gunned anyway.

Which part of the “well regulated militia” did this lunatic belong to?
oh, none?
Take away the guns. I’d rather have people trying to stab each other, or run us over, than shooting at each other. I’m going to bake cookies for the National Guard when they come to search my home. We went to the moon, we saved Europe, and we’ve cured many diseases. We can put an end to gun violence if we want to.

This type of tragedy can bring out the worst or best in people.You can see the geniune mind set of people when this type of thing happen. To think that students being able to carry guns would have made a difference, is not a mature thought pattern. True, someone may have stopped him sooner but you also have to think about friendly fire. Two or three other students firing off guns to stop this person creates the chance that one of those students could have also caused an even more tragic situation. Stray bullets in class rooms.(Video game scenerio). Just think about it. A parents or families hurt and anger over their loss from one of the well meaning students trying to stop the aggressor would be just as hard to handle. I would rather “not” be the one who would find out later that mine was the bullet that ended the life of a fellow classmate because I wss trying be a hero. Being powered with something other than emotinal support, character, morals, spiritual value, personal goals, education, mature reasoning,and love for life; would create a community of people who would be too quick to solve issues with the draw of a gun. Another issue to think about is; race retailation. What is it good for? Other races of people who lost family members to Timothy McVeigh in the OKC bombing did’nt make it a race issue. And in the case of Columbine did White people make it a race issue because those boys were white? Good People of the world, we are too divided. When God judge the world it won’t be on the basis of ancestry, nationality, race, creed, color, or gender; it will be on the attitude of our heart, the contriteness of our spirit and his relationship with our soul.

What we have become is exactly what society has allowed us to become. There has been a stigma about guns and people. I have pulled my weapon for the defense of my family and myself. Thank goodness I did not have to use it. But, if backed into a situation, I would use it in a second. I just wish everyone would give a prayer to the families and friends of those who lost their lives to this senseless and moronic act. I still would like to know how this idiot got a hold of a handgun from a gun dealer, when in 2005, he was found to be mentally unstable. Hey Virginia, what happened to the NICS check? How was this let slip through the cracks? This is a truly disturbed monster and he should have taken his own pathetic life, and not included all of those that did not deserve to die. Like I have stated in earlier blogs, we need to enforce the laws we currently have on the books. New laws will not make things all right. Taking guns away will not stop the deaths. The psychopathic morons will find a way to control the general population with whatever means necessary.

hey, raid, shooting the shooter wont make his first victims live again, but it could have kept his death count to one or two instead of 30 something.

The Roanoak gun shop owner, has some responsibility in the deaths of the VA Tech students. If he could not tell(or ask)if he (Cho) was going to school, or see that his license was from another town,dont sell the guns(reasonable doubt) two reasons you just do not sell a person a gun. A student going to college! A person that travels to another town to purchase a gun!If he did know he was a student then why didn`t shop owner contact the campus police? and let them know? Why was this demented twerp even on campus after all the problems before? Ignorance on and off Campus.

“Whatever the motivation, it seems clear that the way is made easier by the fact that guns of all sorts are readily available to Americans of all shades of morality and mentality.”
- Charles Whitman

America slid into a gun culture because of it’s heritage. That gun culture kills people – and gun-supporters must bear the blame for every one of those deaths.
America would be a better, safer place, if you got rid of the guns. Unquestionably. The process of winding down that cultural throwback would of course, require the principle and bravery to reject owning a gun. If you’re not willing to do that, then remember that you’re responsible for every one of these deaths.

JB: the likelihood of you saving anyone’s life, including your own, with a gun is negligible. More likely, is a child getting ahold of it or someone stealing that gun and using it in a crime.
I’m a gun owner (4 handguns: 2 Berettas, 1 Walther, 1 Luger; 1 rifle and 1 shotgun) but they are safely stored and I have a license to own them. That license took a long time to get and required a lot of effort.
Had this young guy Cho been subjected to the same scrutiny (along with a lot of other nutso gun buyers involved in crimes like this) it is likely he wouldn’t have gotten one.

Norm S. is beeing rather funny pointing at guns as the reason Hitler did not invade Switzerland – with a pop. of about 5 million people (in 1940)
- When in fact he did invade France, Poland, Chekoslovakia, Greece, Denmark, Norway, tried for Britain, – and oh, my personal favourite: Russia.
Most of these countries were at the time full of guns, cannons, airplanes, tanks – and a little Alp-community with some thousand riflemen was not gonna stop the nazi warmachine.
But he needed the Swiss as bank,
post office and spy central for his secret war.

After the military, fact is guns not only save lives, including mine. I own guns now, because of New Orleans, gangs, open borders, home invasions, 13- 17 year old drug dealers, car jackers, MS-13 illegall Mexicans, etc etc. You can run and hide or you can stand and fight.

More disturbing than the fact that most of the people commenting on this actually think that more guns mean less death is the fact that most of these people are full grown adults and yet they are unable to spell or use grammar correctly. Maybe if our adults were educated, they wouldn’t be completely deluded about exactly how guns impact life and death.

USA has an insane love affair with guns. After the Port Arthur massacre in Australia, Federal and State agencies combined to severely limit the ability to own automatic and pump action firearms. In the intervening time since then, 1996, gun related deaths from all causes have dropped from about 4.5 per 100 000 of popultation to about 1.5 per 100 000. Prior to the gun laws we had 13 mass shootings in the previous 18 years – since then we have had zero.
People who promote the idea of kids taking guns to school are absolute bloody nutters. They have got to be crazies of the worst kind. Imagine it: a loner kid with a chip on his shoulder turns up and shoots someone. Another kid draws his shooter and shoots at the “loner. Someone else yells out “hey, that big guy just shot that little quiet kid” so he and pulls out his gun……. For God’s sake grow up and get sensible!!

Those who think only the government and it’s deciples should be allowed to have guns should read some history.

Raid;
I did not authorise the attack in Iraq, nor does Bush speak for me. I did not authorise the borders to be wide open with terorrist and God knows who else that is preparing to KILL more of my fellow Americans. You can, stick your head in the sand, or you can come to the same conclusion as those that have already fought for this country, ( only to betrayed by this government, not protecting the solvrenty of this nation).You should join the military, but let them know you don`t want to carry a gun! Canada is waiting for you.
Skeptical: grammer is not the answere, you can be a real smart ass, and still get shot.

The only thing I have to say is how is it that a non-US citizen was allowed to have a permit to buy a gun legally any way. The way I see it a terrorist can come to America and the get a permit to buy a gun and use and now people want to take away the guns from the legal citizens so they can not protect themselves since our government is more worried about rights of illegals and terrorist than the voters who put them in office. US citizens have the right to bare arms not non citizens.

thats easy Aaron, personal rights, they don’t have any, never did. we had to fight for our rights and freedoms, and having/owning a gun was one of them. in case some of you people out there have forgotten , we had to fight for our rights, how many other countries have done that??? huh big guy??? get it threw your dumb thick skulls people, this is a free land, but freedom doesnt come cheap. wake-up , smell the coffee or just read a history book, o.k.?

I believe that any one wouldnt have got killed at the school if the morons standing around with the camera phones and video recorders would have concentrated on doing something besides taking pictures and videos of what was happening just like the world war 1 veteran that was car jacked several people standing around and doing nothing but taking pictures wake up people i mean what morons would do something like that

I don’t quite understand how some can be so blind as not to see the truth when it slaps then in the face. These facts were well understood by our founders. Thomas Jefferson said, to outlaw guns only inpowers the criminal for he has nothing to fear when assulting an unarmed man. Criminals don’t care about the law in the first place. What makes you think gun control could possibly make things any better. When the law abiding give up there only means self defence, The criminal will have the upper hand.