Lapse of Federal Law Allows Sale of Large Ammo Clips

High capacity ammo clips don’t mean much. Five 10 round clips hold more ammo than three high capacity 15 round clips and are just as easy to carry.
Anyone that is crazy or desperate enough to commit this type of crime is not detered by the size of the clip.

Those are magazines, not clips.

What a pointless article. Also love the “unbiased” quote from the Brady bunch. FYI the Va Tech campus is a GUN FREE ZONE, which means you gun control lovers once again have blood on your hands for disarming the citizens.

People such as Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence are basically idiots. The perp reported had a vest full of magazines; it doesn’t matter much whether the mags held 10 rounds or 30 rounds — he had plenty of ammo because he carried it. It takes only a couple of seconds to change mags.
The real and obvious problem here is that VA Tech is one of those ridiculous “Gun Free” zones; hence, no one there was legally permitted to defend themselves. Contrast this situation with the one that occurred in Salt Lake City, where a Bosnian suffering from SJS was cut down by a bystander who was carrying his sidearm.

It’s a shame some of the students or teachers weren’t armed- this would ended very quickly, with no where near as many innocent dead.

How exactly do you “spray” bullets when only one fires when you pull the trigger? The Brady Campaign preys on your ignorance of guns and gun laws to pull in donations and further their agenda.

You can’t blames guns for what has happened. It is the people behind them that is the problem. If they had some proper guidance as a young adult then maybe this would not have happened. I have heard this before, but it is true..”Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”

It’s not the gun that kills, it’s the person behind the gun. The 10-shot capacity only increased the price of pre-ban goods, and did little to limit availability.
Having said that, limiting handgun capacity is a band-aid compared to the number of cheap assault rifles available to anyone without a past record. Goto a pawn shop or online and you can find Russian and Chinese SKS assault rifles for $100 with multiple clips. Past massacres had people carrying several handguns and multiple magazines.
Limit the availability/sale of cheap guns to limit weapons being used in crimes. Everyone (good citizens that is) has the right to bear arms, but make it a significant financial choice than a grocery item at Walmart. Heck, tax the hell out of firearms and give special permits or tax refund to those in special/ high risk occupations. My thoughts go out to those involved in V.T. and others who experienced similar situations.
-A handgun owner and student-

Once again- a monster goes amok and immediately they start “blaming” guns and gun control. Let us focus on the real evil. Those sort of individuals that perpetrate deeds such as this.
Pray for those victims and their famlies. Their heartbreak will be unimaginable.

Congress did not renew the assault weapons ban because it was doing nothing to prevent crime. It did not effect the crime rate at all and you could still get most anything you wanted.

Of course, given that the police and administration allowed this thing to go on for 2-3 hours, it isn’t as if the gunman didn’t have enough time to load and reload as much as he wanted.

This incident only happened a few hours ago, not all the facts are in yet, and already the issue of ‘high capacity magazines’ is coming up. These incidents occur not because of the presence of guns, they occur because a disturbed individual wants to hurt others. More damage was done & deaths occurred in much less time because of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the A.P. Murrah building than in this shooting. Stop focusing on the weapons, and deal with the real issue – the criminals. Let’s get all the facts before making this another sensationalized anti-gun issue.

One adult with a CCW allowed to carry on campus would have been able to take care of the issue, if it was not a ‘gun-free’ zone. Of course the CCW holder would obey the law and not be carrying on campus. Go figure. I wonder why crimminals are attacking safe zones????????????????

One adult with a CCW allowed to carry on campus would have been able to take care of the issue, if it was not a ‘gun-free’ zone. Of course the CCW holder would obey the law and not be carrying on campus. Go figure. I wonder why crimminals are attacking safe zones????????????????

The magazines (not clips) were available during the ban on them, as anything that had been manufactured prior to the ban was grandfathered in. The “ban” banned nothing and was democratic showmanship at it’s worse.
You can’t ban firearms in the US, they are a constitutionally protected right. Again, the shooter is at fault, not the tool he used.

The magazine size in this case is irrelevant, as the shooter had plenty of time and space to simply walk back and forth between classrooms. He could’ve used a WWI bolt-action rifle; it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. The real problem was the complete failure of the college administration to lock down the campus, as well as the students’ inability to respond to this murderer. If one a single one of those students had a concealed carry permit -the kind the college prohibits- the death toll could’ve been much lower. What a tragedy.

High capacity clips? I think the expert meant Hi-Cap magazines.
Granted he even knows what he is talking about.

Politicizing already, it’s a sad state when even the news media pushes an agenda right after a tragic event such as this.

Why was this gunman capable of killing 32 people? Because no one could stop him. Had Virginia Tech allowed students to carry concealed firearms without fear of expulsion, he may have been killed before he had a chance to fire more than a couple shots. The Brady Campaign wants to get rid of all our guns. What they fail to realize is criminals will get guns one way or another. They also don’t realize Gun Free Zones are actually Victim Zones and lunatics that are bent on murder are not detered by a law prohibiting guns in a school.

It is a disgrace that you are using a terrible incident to promote your anti gun agenda. If students were allowed to have guns on campus then this might very well have never happened or if it did it could have been stopped by a student with a gun. The same thing is with 9/11 where people are not allowed to carry guns on airplanes but if they were allowed to then the terrorists might have thought twice about hijacking the plane or at least people on the plane with guns could have stopped it. The issue here is the right of self defense – for a person to protect himself as he cannot be protected by the police.

Anyone crazy enough to go on a killing spree will find the magazines of choice, even if there is a ban on them. Again, here is the battle of availability, banned items being available to those willing to go around the law.

If some of the ex-military students (presuming they might be the majority of the students old enough to buy a handgun) and teachers had been permitted to carry concealed weapons on campus, how quickly might this have ended?

This event started at 7:30 AM the last shootings occurred at 10:00 AM.
The school told students to stay in class and not move.
The result was classrooms packed with locked down victims.
If students had been told to leave campus after the first shooting the loss of life would have been much lower.
Everywhere guns are banned, law abiding citizens will not have guns. Criminal types do not obey the laws and areas where guns are banned will just provide the criminal with more unarmed victims who can only run or hide from the terror.

The problem wasn’t that someone had a high capacity clip, which there is every indication that he didn’t.
The problem was that only person with a gun was a law breaker. All the law abiding citizens had dutifully disarmed themselves, and dutifully trusted the authorities to protect them, and dutifully did things that allowed them to be killed in large quantities.

I agree with what Rob says.
“Why are all of these shootings occuring [sic] in “gun free zones”? The idea of making areas gun free is to make them safer, but the opposite occurs because criminals simply don’t obey the law”

The president of Virginia Tech was last year just giving kudos to the fact that the Commonwealth of VA did not pass a law allowing adult students, professors, and staff to carry handguns on campus if they have a permit.
One moderately trained student, professor or staff with a pistol could have stopped or slowed down the attack.
The problem is not “high capacity magzines. The problem is we need to stop creating defenseless victim zones.

Any person hellbent on killing someone will find a way. Quit trying to blame high capacity magazines. I can tell you from personal experience they have saved far more lives than have been lost by their criminal use. I will say a prayer for those who lost their lives and their families.

At Columbined the perp broke 28 laws. If he had an outlawed “high capacity” magazine he’d have broke 29 laws. Guns dont kill people, People kill people

Ten normal capacity magazines will hold 100 rounds and can be carried quite easily. High capacity magazines are not all that necessary to bring about a high level of damage.

If the students had been carrying their own weapons none of this would have ever happened. An armed society is a safe and free society.

Prayers from the UK to everyone caught up in the shooting in Virginia. Please US consider banning guns a little. In the uk .22 air rifles is as big as it gets. 163 gun deaths in the UK ( in 2003) vs 30,000+ in the US. Are they really worth all that death.

Interesting how quickly the debate morphs into more or fewer guns. How quickly we depersonalize a tragedy into our nice pigeonholes of ideology. Why not talk about vilent video games next. 32 young people died in a horrific frightening way, and how many thousands who lost friends and loved ones were traumatized. Can we have one ouce of peace and respect for just one day?? I’m sorry this happened. I just can’t imagine losing my little girl this way after pouring my life into her and sending her off to college. Every person there was a hope and dream.

“It’s not one or two shots at a time when you’re putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room,” Hamm said.
The size of the magazine, or clip, has nothing to do with the rate of fire. You need full-auto to “spray” a room, and those have been illegal for a very long time.

Right on John Spear. You can tell they really researched the topic when they call a magazine a clip. They learned everything they know about guns from hollywood.

Peter Hamm is a bias member of an anti-gun rights group, he has no right dispelling “information” on firearms. Furthermore, if what you are reporting is true, the firearms used fed from magazines, not clips. The reason for this great number of casualties is due to the University’s poor response coupled with the inability of the victims to defend themselves. There is no concealed carry of handguns allowed on campus, if there were maybe someone could have stopped this maniac earlier. Also, why did two hours after the original shooting, the gunman open fire again? Why wasn’t the school evacuated? What wasn’t the gunman caught? This is not about high capacity magazines or gun control, its about a poor response from the University.

Jimmy NOT FUNNY!!! i dont know how you could say that after the Virgina Tech shooting..but i agree that it is not the clip size but how many the shooter had

High Capacity Rounds are the Problem??
Yeah, Right. and…
-Pencils miss pel wurds
-Cars make people drive drunk
and –spoons made Rosie O’Donnell fat.
Seems to me, the problem was that the only person with a gun….Was the BAD GUY…..ding…Fries are Done!!!

The gunman used 9mm handguns. Don’t think that “assault weapon ban” or “30 round clip” discussions are relevant to this horrible tragedy. All it would have taken was one armed citizen to be able to respond to the danger posed by this maniac. Sadly, people like you continue to advocate stripping away our rights of self-defence. Shame on you all.

Hey ABC news, you wouldn’t be pushing an agenda here would you, say something along the lines of agreeing with HR1022 AWB2?

It is not the capacity of the magazine. It is our society’s unwillingness to deal with why our young people are so angry. While I feel terrible about what happened and for the families of those who died or were injured, I can’t help but say that the gun control idiots will once again jump on their high horses.

Leave it to an uninformed liberal to blame this tragedy on high-capacity magazines instead of the psycho that used them. Sarah Brady and the Brady Center to Control Handgun Violence want to do the same thing as the Nazis did at the beginning. Disarm the populace so they can not resist tyranny. Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and Rudy Giuliani have the same goals.

Gun control didn’t prevent this crime, so your response is MORE gun control? The lapse of the Assault Weapon’s Ban which by all responsible accounts including the USDOJ did NOTHING to prevent crime certainly did not CAUSE this one.
We don’t even know what weapons this idiot used yet, and already you are speculating and calling for more Victimization laws.

Quit trying to blame something inanimate for our problems. It’s the crazy behind the gun.

Gun control didnt work out so well for VA Tech’s “gun-free school zone” did it?

If you allow yourselves to be lined up so you can be executed then large numbers are going to die. Everyone needs to fight back. Plan on getting shot in the process, but that is the difference between a handful dead and a massacre. Fight.

Magazine capacity has nothing to do with it. Anyone care to notice that this was a “Gun Free” zone. The school already had policies in place banning firearms on campus. Guess he forgot to read the rules huh? WAKE UP PEOPLE! Police can’t be everywhere all the time. Learn to defend yourselves!

Ok, so if you ban guns, the people who get the illegally will continue to get them illegally, as the people who buy them legally will not get them at all. Makes lots of sense.

The guy could have had 20 mags that held 10 rounds each. The capacity is not the issue. the issue is that people are banned from defending themselves.
One of the reasons is always happening at schools, is that these people know that there will be nobody to stop them.

you gotta love the media *rolls eyes*, the law did not LAPSE in error, it lapsed cause it was wrong to begin with! Let’s see, if I remember correctly good ‘ol Clinton boy was in office during 1999 when the infamous Columbine High shooting occurred with his almighty and saving grace “assault weapons ban”. Please tell that to the mothers and fathers that lost children that day.

Real men fight with their hands, not guns. Cowards shoot innocent people.

This wasn’t the shoot out at the OK Corral, and most gun trageides aren’t. You’re simply not seeing armies of legal gun owners shooting each other left and right. Moreover, the availability of assault weapons of this caliber is completely unrelated to the psychotic nature of the individual who perpetrated this crime. Would it have somehow been less tragic if he had shot, say, a dozen people using a few small handguns? Did the size and capability of the gun somehow enhance his desire to commit murder? It is highly unlikely.
On a side note, nearby Washington D.C. has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation and they had to change the name of their NBA franchise to “Wizards” because “Bullets” is to Washington what “Brewer” is to Milwaukee and it wasn’t quite appropriate to call attention to such an inconvenient truth.

Someday the gun grabbers will learn that the 200,000+ gun control laws have and will continue to do nothing for the individuals willing to break the law. Your article/blog is disgusting and all gun control does is disarm the law abiding citizen. An armed society is a polite society. Think about it and get back to me.

“Gun Free School ZOnes” should be re-named “Defenseless Victim Zones.” What difference does it make if he had a hi-cap magazine? No one could return fire while he was reloading, because none of the students were allowed to carry the means to self defense onto campus. So if it was 10 rounds, 15 or 30 before he had to reload, it means nothing when his victims had exactly zero rounds to fight back with.
I knew when I saw this on the news that gun control advocates wouldn’t even wait for the bodies to go cold before calling for stricter gun laws, despite the fact that those laws made it easier for this crime to occur.

If more law-abiding citizen carried, maybe one of them could have stopped this or maybe have been able to save themselves. No, the right to protect yourself is slowly being removed from you. No one bothers holding anyone accountable for their actions, they choose to blame things like guns. Criminals love unarmed citizens – they don’t fight back.

It takes less than a second to switch magazines. The number of shots in each magazine is not much of an issue if the shooter has planned this and has several spares.

If the students had been allowed to carry handguns with high-capacity magazines (or any handguns for that matter), then this situation likely would have been defused very quickly, saving many lives.

It is too bad that ABC is pushing for gun control…the amount of ammo or magazine capacity has nothing to do with it…too bad nobody fought back against this murdering scumbag.

If more law-abiding citizen carried, maybe one of them could have stopped this or maybe have been able to save themselves. No, the right to protect yourself is slowly being removed from you. No one bothers holding anyone accountable for their actions, they choose to blame things like guns. Criminals love unarmed citizens – they don’t fight back.

“Gun Free School Zones” should be re-named “Defenseless Victim Zones.” What difference does it make if he had a hi-cap magazine? No one could return fire while he was reloading, because none of the students were allowed to carry the means to self defense onto campus. So if it was 10 rounds, 15 or 30 before he had to reload, it means nothing when his victims had exactly zero rounds to fight back with.
I knew when I saw this on the news that gun control advocates wouldn’t even wait for the bodies to go cold before calling for stricter gun laws, despite the fact that those laws made it easier for this crime to occur.

New gun laws won’t hinder attacks such as occured at VA Tech. This shooter violated many existing gun laws that did not hinder him at all.
More laws would not change anything. Once the decision to kill is made, another layer of laws would not even enter into the consideration.

The real question we should be asking here is whether or not this tragedy might have been avoided or, perhaps, minimized, if this shooting did not take place in a “gun free zone” and those who might have had appropriate permits were able to intervene while the killer was lining up students to be executed.

New gun laws won’t hinder attacks such as occured at VA Tech. This shooter violated many existing gun laws that did not hinder him at all.
More laws would not change anything. Once the decision to kill is made, another layer of laws would not even enter into the consideration.

We have over 200 gun laws and not one prevented this deadly trajedy, but one person with a concealed handgun might have been able to save some lives today. Keep creating more laws and banning our right to defend ourselves and we will be as helpless as sheep to armed criminals.

if a person wants to shoot people like this, they will do it no matter what… whether it be two twenty round magazines, four ten round magazines, or eight five round magazines. the capacity of the magazine does not matter in crimes such as these!

The lapse of the Federal legislation referenced in the article has absolutely nothing to do with the shootings in Virginia, or anywhere else, for that matter. Unfortunately, this is just fresh fodder for those, such as the Brady Campaign, for their attempt to disarm the Citizens of the United States. Tomorrow we will see Hillary Clinton on camera, renewing her attempts to accomplish that very thing.
As an earlier poster wrote, gun free zones only serve make it easier for kooks, like the one in Virginia, to kill large numbers of us. As my 16 year old sone rightly pointed out, if everyone in that building had a gun there would only have been one death. Or perhaps none.

I have to agree with Mr. Speer. If you have to blame some one or something else besides the maniac that perpetrated this attrocity, then blame Virginia Tech for not allowing their students to defend themselves! Banning guns on campus only insures that honest students wont be packing. Please stop promoting the agenda of the Brady Campaign. American citizens have the right to defend themselves, we deserve the tools to do so!

Magazine capacity matters little in regards to the lethality of the firearm. Switching a magazine out is not hard, and can be done quickly.
Even during the federal ban, magazines holding more than 10 rounds were widely available. It’s also not clear yet where in this case magazine capacity was an issue at all.
Learn your facts before reporting them.

High cap. magazines have always been available; even before the assault weapons ban expired. The ban simply stopped the manufature of high cap mags in the US. Before the ban went into effect there were hundreds of thousands of high cap mags produced. Before the ban expired they could be purchased at any gun store or gun show. Since the ban has expired the only thing that has changed is the price of the magazines. They have gone down in price (due to a higher supply). When is the media going to learn that “Guns don’t kill people, PEOPLE kill people”? Timothy McVeigh managed to kill 168 people and never touched a gun, that just going to show you that a determined person will find whatever means he can to kill, gun or no gun.

“…when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.”
In other words the editorial slant is “pro-gun control”. Congress did not fail. Congress decided. According to our system, congress decided not to renew a law that banned assault weapons. Of course, the writer likes to plant “failure” in the mind of the reader because nobody likes failure right?
Why not ban all guns? It sure worked with all of those Schedule 1 drugs like crack cocaine.

the gun did it. the gun took over his mind and commanded he squeeze the trigger over 50 times. semi-automatic means one squeeze one shot.

Do you really think “high” capacity vs “low” capacity magazines would have stopped this? Are you going to blame video games next? what about violence in the media?
guns dont kill people
bullets dont kill people
people kill people
so why not focus on the factors that really caused this issue than jumping to rash conclusions.

the authors’ assertion that a lack of magazine capacity would’ve made any difference is ridiculous.
Perhaps if students were able to legally defend themselves on campus such horrific incidents would be stopped much sooner.

“Is shooting grounds for gun control?” What a ridiculous lead-in. Gun control laws don’t work and wouldn’t have stopped this tragedy. The shooter clearly was intent on committing this act and it’s simply not possible to craft Constitutional legislation to stop people of this ilk. Gun control laws only limit the rights of law-abiding citizens and further enable criminals. The biggest problem here is that it wasn’t possible for the students themselves to be legally armed.

Millions upon millions of high-capacity magazines have been in circulation in the US for the past century. How many of those are used to commit mass murder? Stricter gun laws that infringe on the rights of the law-abiding would not have made ANY difference in this case. (An armed student or professor who could shoot back might have helped, though.)

What does high capacity ammo clips have to do with anything? We haven’t even established that this wasn’t a south central Asian terror strike.
This is the kind of irrelevancy from a MSM outlet that makes Fox news the new source of choice. Let’s establish that this guy did not have access to full Russian automatic weapons before speculating about marginally useful ammo clips

The lawmakers who made this campus a “Gun Free Zone” have blood on their hands today. Had even one student or professor been carrying a concealed handgun for protection (as is perfectly legal in most of Virginia outside the university campus), it is possible that many lives could have been saved. Instead, this animal had free reign to murder at-will. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

It only takes a couple of seconds to drop a magazine and load a fresh one. The size of the mag is immaterial when the victims are unarmed and defensless. If concealed carry wasn’t banned this could have been stopped early!

It is a sad and very terrible thing to have happen. I also think it is very poor reporting by ABC to start in on what weapons were used and how this should lead to tighter gun control. It was a seriously deranged person who killed these very innocent victims, not a weapon (or a clip or a magazine).

Oregon has a very liberal gun law. You can purchase the weapon and ammo and walk out of the store in an hour ( after appropriate background checks) yet has on of the lowest gun violence rates in the nation. It isn’t about the laws, it’s about society.

“Defenseless fish in a legally ordained barrel…”
Yeah, and once again, it’s magazines not clips.

If a person is willing to murder others, what’s to keep him from breaking some firearms law?

Thank God guns are banned on college campuses in Virginia.
The gunman must have not seen the “No guns allowed” sign when he came onto the campus…

The number of rounds in a magazine only matters if someone is shooting back!

High capacity ammo clips have nothing whatsoever to do with this. What’s wrong is in an individuals mind. If there willing to do something like this, no law is going to stop them – they’ll just get them illegally.
The problem is and has been for awhile – American Society!!!!

I like the first post “High capacity ammo clips don’t mean much”. It’s not the guns, ammo or the clip size that kills. It’s the user of the weapon. For the life’s that were taken today, keep the families in your prayers.

This is a tragedy and my prayers go out the families, friends and students of VT.
This was however a crime perpetrated by one person, not by a weapon or a hi-capacity magazine.
If just one student had been legally exercising their right to bear arms, lives might have been saved.

I don’t understand another use for assualt weapons besides killing people. It’s not your average hunter that goes around using assault weapons to take down a deer. I understand there are people with hobbies in guns…but they really ought to make it more difficult to obtain these types of weapons; it is becomming a serious problem.

I know emotions are running high, and we all feel great sadness for the victims. With that said we should not willingly give up our constitutional right to bear arms simply because of this incident.
ABC news is out of line with running this article when it doesn’t even know the particulars of the weapons used in this instance.

Outlaw firearms and the nut cases will start using explosives. Come on folks, there are more people in our society now that do irresponsible things, so the first reaction is to punish the responsible. “Locks are for honest folks”.

They should allow conceal carry on campuses to stop situations like this.

The problem is the fact guns are legal. We can get rid of guns, even though it may be a slow process. We can not get rid of crazy people…

The poor kids who were gunned down, were slaughtered like sheep because they were unprotected. Do you honestly think “clips” are the culprit? The culprit is the murderous coward who knew he had a open season on defenseless people. One person with a weapon could have stopped him early on.

Murder is illegal. What do gun laws have to do with this?

lets all go point fingers at “assault weapons” and not hold accountable the people that commit the crimes. how about if guns were allowed on campus, the students could have fended for themselves and this may not have happened. obviously taking guns away from good people in “gun free zones” is not working.

the reason the u.s. has the highest number
of deaths by gunfire of any western industrial
nation is simple. dummies deny that guns
are the major contributing factor. get rid
of the guns and less criminals will have them,
and also less people who are on the edge.
it’s basic, but the nutty right wing keep forcing
unneccisary death upon our kids. it’s our
fault for going along with them.

What they also fail to mention is that the design of semi-automatic handguns has not changed much over the years. Most are based on John Browning designs that have existed for about 100 years and are chambered in calibers that have been around at least that long (9mm, 45 auto). We never had these shootings back then. Plus, a semi-automatic handgun is pretty common for people to own. Its not like ownership of Glock, M1911, and similar pistols is unheard of. For every person that does something terrible like this, there are hundreds of thousands of gun owners who conduct themselves in a law abiding fashion and who exercise their 2nd Amendment rights responsibly. Punish the bad guys – not all of us.

“Web sites now advertise overnight UPS delivery of the clips, which carry up to 40 rounds for both semi-automatic rifles, including 9mm pistols, and handguns.”
That sentence is terrible. It implies that 9mm pistols are semi-automatic rifles.

Way to take a terrible tragedy and use it to try to push an unrelated agenda. Over 30 people died, and the important and tragic thing here has nothing to do with how they were killed, whether by bomb or sword or gun, but that innocent people were murdered.
Try to show some respect.

As a law enf. officer in Virginia, home of the NRA, i may be in the minority opinion by supporting responsible, educated gun ownership. What we have now is a socity where anyone of the legal age who isn’t a felon or having a mental defect can buy weapons constructed with one purpose – killing. Would we permit 18yo’s to drive cars without skills and competency testing or training? Of course not. Firearm education and training might not prevent this kind of terrible tragegy, but its a start.

Maybe if someone on campus owned, and was trained on the proper use of firearms lives could have been saved

Having low capacity magazines simply means you have to reload more often. Why does it matter that I have to carry 3 10-round magazines versus 1 30-round magazine? Does me reloading more make you less dead? The arguement against high-cap magazines is made by fools who can’t think through an arguement.

The real problem is cowardice. People are so afraid of dying they will give up their freedoms in exchange for protection from evil-doers provided by an ever-more-powerful government.
If 5% of the people on that campus carried around a gun, this guy would have been shot dead pretty quickly. Of course, all those people carrying might have resulted in a few more gun deaths over the years, and god knows, we can’t take ANY risks in life.
Clearly it’s better to let the government search our library records, tap our phones, take away our free speech and gun rights, and live in a protectionist utopia than it is to live in a society which has a modicum of risk.

it is not the instrument that causes harm but the hand controlling it.

The problem is that the teachers were not armed and therefore unable to protect the students. This type thing never happened in the Old West because most people were armed, increasing the risk to criminals. Guns are not authorized in schools by law so schools are subject to predators and whackos.

What we need to remember here is not what size magazine the man used, it’s that NOBODY else could defend themselves when this madman came in shooting…
NOBODY.
They could not defend themselves. And that is criminal in and of itself. The answer lay not with more control, but with allowing people to protect themselves.

Yeah outlawing them sure did a lot, just like outlawing drugs right? Anyone that wants drugs can have them and it was the same way during the assault weapons ban. You could effectively take them from good citizens, but that wouldn’t accomplish much would it.

whether he carried 5 10 round mags or 4 15 rounds means nothing… he could have walked threw the dorm with a chain saw… or lets not forget, drive a fast car threw a crowed at the school… dead is dead.. if your determined to kill, you will get it done 1 way or another..

How about letting concealed carry permit holders legally carry their guns on campus? That way we would have an effective means of protecting ourselves instead of cowering helplessly in the corner, hoping the police arrive before the gunman finds us. Utah allows it, and none of the dire consequences predicted by anti-gunners have materialized.

Had there been one legally armed citizen present the incident might have been stopped. Gun control and gun free zones do nothing to make people safe.

The absence of the students right to defend themselves is why the casualties were so high. Rob is right in the fact that “gun free zones” do not provide safety.

The sole responsibility for this tragedy lies with the shooter. If someone wants to assign secondary responsibility look to the morons who decided to take away the victims’ ability to defend themselves.
How many more lives must be sacrificed on Sarah Brady’s altar before we see the error of her thinking?

You would think journalists would at least be accurate. Rarely do modern guns have “clips” – they are usually “magazines.” The Clinton gun ban did not ban “assault weapons” – it designated certain features that could not be manufactured on post-ban guns, such as bayonet lugs. The guns themselves, were never banned. Finally, to interview anyone from the Brady Campaign only gets the same “spray the room” drivel. “Spraying a room with bullets” only results in wasted ammunition. It is the person who makes well-placed shots that results in injuries – no matter what size the magazine is in his firearm.

The size of the magazine is absolutely irrelevant in this case. It appears the shooter was armed with two 9mm handguns (appx 26 bullets). If there were indeed 100 shots fired, he only needed 6 additional mags. The downtime to change mags is minimal and inconsequential. This is a terrible tragedy, but it is still illegal to use a gun to commit murder. No need for additional laws.

Are we really surprised that the only comments that get “printed” are those from the anti-gum group — I’d like to know some more about the shooter before I start calling for new or more gun controls

High capacity magazines can’t do anything. PEOPLE using them are the problem. Put the blame where it belongs, on the shooter!

It wasn’t the size of the clips or kind of gun. It was the person behind the clips and the gun.

The issue here is not magazines, which were available throughout the 10 year ban, or guns, or anything of that nature. The issue is that one good person with a legally concealed handgun could have stopped this tragedy much sooner.

The guy who mentioned the ‘gun free zones’ hit the nail on the head. This idea of having ‘gun free zones’ sets out an area or facility, and to criminals and potential nuts like the guy at VA Tech, they are nothing more than safe zones for criminals, not the average citizen. Look at today’s example and with a straight and logical face…tell me I’m wrong…

Why is it that these stories are always biased with gun control advocates making bogus claims and no facts given in oppositions?
Liberal bias? Couldn’t be.

No pistol has a 30 round magazine capacity-these full capacity magazines are only available for rifles. This is in fact a non-issue, it has nothing to do with the shootings as these types of firearms were not used. It it a truly terrible tragedy that is being exploited for propoganda purposes by those opposed to individuals’ gun rights.

what a shameless use of this trajedy to further a political agenda. shame on ABC.
the gunman arrived with 2 handguns, numerous magazines and chains for the doors. a premeditated slaughter. he was a heinous fiend, a criminal who did not care to obey the law. the awb of 1994 would not have stopped him.

High capacity magazines have always been available, it was the manufacturing of them that was banned. The expiration of the law only allowed manufacturers to start making high capacity magazines again.

While my heart goes out to all involved I do not think it is about magazine capacity. I feel it was a gun prohibited zone to begin with. There were rules and laws making it illegal for a firearm to be there. It was illegal for the gunman as well as the students and teachers. This law denied the teachers and students the right to protect themselves as well as others in stopping this tragedy. The police and security dragging their feet also contributed.

Why dont you quote both sides of the issue like your supposed to instead of just one obviously biased “Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.”
You’re supposed to always have at least 3 sources in any news piece.
Whats that all about?

How disingenuious and thoughtless to attempt to politize this event when it is several hours old and victims are probably still being identified. For those who don’t like guns now is not the time to discuss what type of weapon was used. It truly amazes me that there are such thoughless idealogues among us. This is not directed at those who are posting it is directed at the media and those who cannot wait to pound there idealogical drum, truly disgraceful!

God grant mercy on their souls and hold thier families close.
Ther is, however, no link to this and ‘Gun Control’. All gun control accomplishes is the restriction of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. Please note that the first shooting was in the dorm area and the second was in the classroom. Both are ‘pistol free zones’. What if one, just one person had his/her Concelaed Pistol License and ended this without ANY senseless deaths in the morning? ABC News would not have a headline.

Guns do not kill, people do. It does not matter what type of weapon you have if you want to kill somebody bad enough you most likely can. It could be a knife, a bomb or a bat. If only one person had a gun and could have returned, fire and maybe stopped him. No, the liberals want to take our guns, disarm the law-abiding citizen and leave us helpless.

The high capacity magazine ban only applied to magazines made after 1994. Therefore, large cap mags made before that date are fully legal to be used. The ones made after 1994 were stamped with “post ban” etc. Of course, the gun manufacturers knew about this legislation before it was enacted, and made hundreds of thousands of extra large cap mags before the ban went into effect.
As long as “gun-free zones” exist, criminal predators will prey upon the weak and unarmed.

Let’s give everybody guns, that way we can all shoot each other and there will be no one left to argue about gun control.

High capacity clips that were manufactured before the ban were still for sale during the 10 years of the ban. So that’s a mute point.

Plot the number of illegal shootings vs the number of gun control laws, I’ll bet you’ll find an interesting corelation.

John Speer is on to something. More guns = less deaths by gun. Brilliant.

Typical anti-gun, liberal, blame it on the gun crowd people. Blame the person who committed this horrific act, not responsible gun owners. How about if the guy only had 10 round MAGAZINES and not high capacity magazines? What then? Is 10 too high then? Maybe if the victims had been allowed to defend themselves and arm themselves, the death toll wouldn’t be near what it was. Did you ever think of that?

Correct! They are called magazines, not clips. Shows you how much the media elites know about firearms. It’s not the size of the MAGAZINE that cause these idiot crazies to kill people. Swapping out a 10 round magazine takes about 2 seconds and since the wacko had more that 1 gun, it doesn’t even matter. Remember “gun free zone” equals turkey shoot. Law-abiding gun owners obey such laws, wacko criminals intent on killing do not.

They were apparently 9mm pistols. They can carry about 12-15 rounds in the handgrip magazine because the rounds are fairly small not because of the use some huge magazine.
This is what is going to happen when we insist on having “zero-tolerance” gun-free zones. They will continue to be low-risk kill zones for sociopaths. If just one person in the classrooms had a CCP and was allowed a firearm on campus, this could have turned out differently.

The problem here is that the shooter was the only person around who had a gun. Nobody could walk into a gun show and shoot 30 people.

“It’s not one or two shots at a time when you’re putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room,” Helmke said.
News makes it sound like he was deliberately shooting specific people, not ‘spraying’
In an area with no honest good folk having access to guns, a man with a single shot gun and a box of bullets, or even a knife (see japan school incident) can kill A LOT of folks before the police can stop him.

This article makes no sense. Besides, someone wielding two guns with normal size magazines at the same time could cause more damage than one gun and a larger clip. Just like the first poster said, the size of the magazine is irrelavent; psychotic individuals can carry more smaller (i.e. lighter clips) and kill the same number of people. This story is about much more than magazine size.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and the families and friends of the kids who died today.

Speer, don’t go into teaching gun terminology. We all knew what he meant.
Hi cap magazines make it easier to carry more but lower capacity certainly wouldn’t be that much of a deterent. If you go with a capacity arguement then why allow semi-automatic pistols at all? Why not only allow revolvers? They typically have lower capacity and take a less experianced shooter longer to reload.

Why does this continue to be an issue? It’s obvious that a gun can not pull it’s own trigger, no matter how many rounds are in the magazine. I think reporters just want to come up with something to say when they have no idea what it really means. If we outlaw guns then only the outlaws will have them!

so 200,000 laws didn’t stop this guy from killing a bunch of unarmed victim, but 200,001 would have?
Stop blaming the gun for these tragic occurances. Salvation from these tragedies will only come from proper education, enforcement of morals and values, and ensuring everyone has the means to preserve their own lives! Forcefully disarming those that seek to defend themselves will only lead to more of the same!

I am sickened by this, I pray for mercy and comfort for the families.
Dito on all the above. I have a concealed carry permit. I carry always. I will not allow some unstable person to harm my self, my family or those around me without at least going down with a fight. If it isnt firearms, it would be knives, or bats or whatever. The point is give americans the oppourtunity to protect themselves.

Size does not matter when your a criminal.”Virginia law enforcement officials have not identified the weapon used in the shootings today at Virginia Tech, but gun experts say the number of shots fired indicate, at the very least, that the gunman had large quantities of ammunition”.

So we solve the problems of the world?! And yet fail to concentrate on ours.
Isn’t it time to stop or limit gun selling to the civilians? We raise our kids with outmost care and try to put them in schools and colleges to become educated, then one day “POP”; they’re gone! Just that easily.
This isn’t the wild wild west anymore.

Size does not matter when your a criminal.”Virginia law enforcement officials have not identified the weapon used in the shootings today at Virginia Tech, but gun experts say the number of shots fired indicate, at the very least, that the gunman had large quantities of ammunition”.

Here we go again. New arguements stating that stricter gun laws could have prevented this from happening. This could not be more wrong. No matter what laws are passed and put in place, there is always access to firearms. Let’s put the blame where it really belongs. On the person who so cowardly used them as an answer to a deeper problem. Would this have happened if guns didn’t exist at all? Yes! It’s not the guns. It’s the person with the issues that will use whatever is accessable, whether it be a gun, machete, pipe bomb with nails inside, etc. We didn’t blame the fertilizer for the Oklahoma City tragedy now did we?

Large clips don’t mean that the shooter can “spray” bullets. This is typical Brady campaign rhetoric. Whether the shooter had small or large clips, the fact that he faced unarmed victims is what caused the horrific casualties.

Are you kidding me? 32 innocent people are dead and you have the gall to exploit this situation to push you gun control beliefs? Tasteless.

Are you serious? 32 innocent students are dead, and you have the gall to exploit the situation to push your gun control beliefs? Tasteless.

In a post 9-11 America, it is unthinkable not having an armed campus security force. The lawbreakers know this and will exploit every weakness in our society. The anti-gun crowd will blame everyone but themselves for this. They are to blame for the creation of “gun free zones”. The campus should be held accountable for failing to protect the students. I pity the fool that puts his/her safety in the hands of people who are afraid to stand-up and defend themselves.

A very tasteless article. Thirty two innocent people are dead and you have the audacity to use the situation to promote gun control. Unreal.

Its not 15 round its 40 rounds and 30 round 9mm mags.

Another tragic example of defenseless people being penned up like sheep by well-meaning, destructive federal laws that leave them utterly defenseless. Isn’t it interesting that these horrific crimes occur where people are made defenseless?
Large capacity magazines the problem? Get real! The problem is the federally-mandated laws that leave people so tragically defenseless. It is noteworthy that where people are licensed to carry firearms to defend themselves crime levels drop markedly.

By definition, Criminals do not obey the law.To these sociopaths “gun free zone” = happy hunting ground Restricting the rights of the law abiding will do nothing to stop or deter these types of crime, or any other for that matter, perhaps we need to try something different. Isreal, when facing similar problems, armed teachers and certain qualified students, they don’t have a school shooting problem anymore. We should arm teachers or give them the option at least.

More Gun laws are not the answer. Blaming any firearm or the size of the magazine for crimes is like blaming the Big Mac for obesity!

By definition, Criminals do not obey the law. To these sociopaths “gun free zone” = happy hunting ground. Restricting the rights of the law abiding will do nothing to stop or deter these types of crime, or any other for that matter, perhaps we need to try something different. Isreal, when facing similar problems, armed teachers and certain qualified students, they don’t have a school shooting problem anymore. At the least we should give teachers the option to be armed.

These crimes wouldn’t happen if good people could conceal carry weapons.

Was it a high capacity clip? Do the police ask if the car was capable of speeding during the accident investigation? Does the teacher ask if it was a high capacity pencil after you’ve taken that test in record time? Cars don’t kill people, pencils don’t take tests. Guns are just instruments used by the person holding them. Check the second amendment.

Gun laws do nothing to prevent something like this. If he didn’t have access to a gun he could have bombed the entire building. Laws can’t make people sane.

Here we go again blame the gun not the nut case behind the trigger

I does not matter how many rounds a rifle or pistol magazine holds. Guns and ammo do not kill people. People do! This guy that did the killing could have probably cared less how many rounds a magazine held.

By definition, Criminals do not obey the law. To these sociopaths “gun free zone” = happy hunting ground. Restricting the rights of the law abiding will do nothing to stop or deter these types of crime, or any other for that matter, perhaps we need to try something different. Isreal, when facing similar problems, armed teachers and certain qualified students, they don’t have a school shooting problem anymore. At the least we should give teachers the option to be armed.

It doesn’t matter if the magazines (not clips) were outlawed or not. This lunatic would have figured out a way to do what he did with anything.

I knew this type of an article was going to surface after the shooting. Rob is right. This was a “gun free zone.” They already had gun control in effect. Think about why you would never see a massive killing spree like this at a firing range. No matter how loony that shooter was, they never are crazy enough to open fire in a facility where a bunch of marksmen are honing their skills. And if they are, the killing spree would last, maybe, two seconds.

Why does anyone besdides law enforcement and military need high capacity ammo?
My God how many more innocent children and adults will be killed before any strict laws are passed and actually enforced.
I worry everyday about my child in high school-soon to leave for college and live in the DORM!! I felt good about the dorms-securtiy guards and other security measures. I quess nothing is safe anymore.

Why does the liberal media always jump on “gun laws” as the reason why people kill other people. Obviously there is something very defective with this individual that caused this tragedy. We should be focusing on identifying this defective behavior before it causes this tragedy. I grieve for the parents who have lost children, brothers and sisters who have lost their siblings and friends who have lost each other. Get the politics out of this and let’s figure out a way to avoid this type of tragedy in the future.

By definition, Criminals do not obey the law. To these sociopaths “gun free zone” = happy hunting ground. Restricting the rights of the law abiding will do nothing to stop or deter these types of crime, or any other for that matter, perhaps we need to try something different. Isreal, when facing similar problems, armed teachers and certain qualified students, they don’t have a school shooting problem anymore. At the least we should give teachers the option to be armed.

The problem is with the people not firearms

If the students were allowed to carry a gun on campus, maybe someone could have stopped this nutcase in his tracks.

Rob and John are correct, magazine capacity is completely irrelevant. Both Columbine and the LA shootout AFTER the “Brady law” banning high capacity magazines. Creating gun free zones just creates “target rich environments” for criminals.

What do you expect a representative of the “Brady Campaign” to say about this sad situation. We are all outraged, but to blame high capacity magazines is irresponsible on his part and is intellectually irresponsible journalism. Who said he had 40 round magazines!? And it is despicable that he and the “journalists” would push a dishonest agenda at this time.
The “bad guys” DO NOT care about the laws concerning guns or size of magazines, only law abiding citizens do. The size of the magazine has nothing to do with this tragedy. It is about a sick, deranged individual.

Here we go again. Gun control, how about people control? The 1st thing the liberals want is to control.

If you outlaw guns then the criminals we be safer because no one but them will have guns.

It is truly disgusting that the Brady folks would use a tragedy like this to push their anti gun agenda. Obviously Criminals wouldn’t obey laws if they are willing to commit such heinous acts, yet unarmed civilians are victimized because they aren’t allowed to possess firearms. High capacity magazines had nothing to do with this. A crazed person intent on killing people did this.

Its disgusting the extreme liberals at ABC news are already explioting this tragety to push their anti-gun agenda. at the previous posted said, gun free zones are KILL ZONES. Why should i have to pack into work or school like a sardeen completly defenseless to any idiot who doesn’t follow the law in the first place. disgusting liberals, i do not feel safe without my pistol.

If you want to stop these kinds of massacres on campuses, by all means arm the professors, faculty and even the janitor. At least then if a shooter tries to kill people, there’s a very high probability he’ll get his head blown off.
And if the pilots on 9/11 were armed, 3000 people would still be alive.

What a pity someone other than the criminal crazy who did the shooting did not have a gun to end the shooting spree. Why did the authorities wait (again) till the shooting was over before entering the premises? As usual time was of the essence but it was allowed to be frittered away as students were being shot. When will we again have people in authority who are not afraid to act in cases of emergency?

Using regular capacity magazines, it takes less than 10 seconds to unload an empty magazine pull a full magazine out of your pocket and reload; I’ve tried it. The large capacity mags may have saved him a few seconds, if he was using both guns at the same time and had no free hands to reload. Most of the time hi-cap mags are more prone to jamming than standard capacity mags because of the length of the springs. Plus, they’re not easy to hide.
It is highly unlikely that the hi-cap magazines made much of a difference if the shooting took place spanning several hours. He had plenty of time and space to hide and reload.

The Administration at Virginia Tech argued against a bill that would have allowed licensed conceal carry on campus. They got what they wanted, and the end result was that some whackjob could kill 33 unarmed victims with no worry whatsoever that any of them could effectively defend themselves from his attack.
What’s strange about this is that it’s common knowledge that universities, like hospitals, tend to attract weirdos. So we have a situation where no sane person could have honestly argued that there was any way that the campus police, like any other police force, could interdict a criminal attack, but the Administration was still prepared to demand that individuals be unable to defend themselves against one.
But aesethetics trumped reality and now 33 people are dead because the Administration of that university would rather that people feel warm and fuzzy rather than face reality and act accordingly.
I’m sure that this knowledge will be cold comfort to the survivors. I’m also sure that those who argued against allowing people with CCW permits to carry, will walk away unscathed from a decision that cost so many lives of people who were helpless by administrative mandate.
I’d hate to have that on my conscience,…..

School shootings all happen at schools. Using the gun control logic we should outlaw all schools, right?

The guns were as responsible for this tragic barbarity as the airplanes were responsible for 9/11.

Every time one these happens people clamor for gun control, as if someone willing to murder 31 people would’ve have balked at breaking one more law. It’s an extreme knee jerk reaction from people who have never had to defend themselves. It makes just as much sense (i.e. none) for me to say we should have a law mandating that all students be armed, and thus prepared to defend themselves in such circumstances.
My heart truly goes out to all of those effected by this tragedy, but I don’t believe more gun control laws are the answer.

Wow, this article totally amazes and shocks me. Maybe Mr Ross would like to explain to me how on Earth an inanimate object can be responsible for ANYTHING.
I find it disturbing that some people’s first reaction to a tragedy such as this is to make victims less able to protect themselves instead of more able. The shooter already broke many, many laws to bring this about and yet some people think that another law will some how magically protect everyone else in the future.
I also think it quite disturbing that Mr. Ross would use this tragedy to immediately push a political agenda with this extremely one sided “article” in which he does not have all the facts to begin with.

The story explains it as 2x 9mm pistols. I don’t know where you have come to believe that pistols are “assault weapons” and not “firearms”

Had Virginia Tech allowed conceal carry on campus, the likelikhood is high that the shooter could have been put out of commission before killing 32 people. That’s the truth, if you think about it logically. However, the left does not think logically – they think emotionally, therefore they come to exactly the wrong conclusion. Safety comes with being able to defend yourself, not from being disarmed and depending upon others for your defense. You just had a horrific example of how badly that particular approach works. Gun Laws only affect law abiding people. Think about that for awhile.

I note that ABC failed to mention that the VA college was a “Gun free zone” and that even people who underwent background checks and were licensed by the state of Virginia were not allowed to have the means to defend themselves or others at hand.
The students were essentially forced to be helpless sheep to the slaughter when some nutjob came along who didn’t obey the law. It would have made no difference if he’d been using a bunch of 10-rd magazines that were legal under the previous Assault Weapon ban; he’d just have reloaded more.
It wasn’t as if the students were fighting back at all. I would have thought that 9/11 would have taught people that in such a situation that if you are cornered by a guy with a gun you might as well all attack the guy. Some of you might get shot, but several people could easily take him down. Sadly courage is sorely lacking nowadays.

Clips are for Rifles, MAGAZINES are for Handguns.

More college students have died from alcohol poisoning than guns.
How many college students are involved in fatal accidents because of alcohol?
How come no one is up in arms to ban alcohol? Everyone wants to ban guns yet alcohol is more of a problem on college campuses than guns.
It would make more sense and save more lives to ban alcohol instead.

As was stated before, 5 ten round MAGAZINES hold more rounds than a single thirty or forty round MAGAZINE. It takes less than a second or two to switch mags.
And it would be nice if the authors would research their article before publishing it.
Magazines and clips are different.
Not one magazine is shown in the photo accompanying the article.
Ignorance is bliss!

First my condolence o all affected. Second, for all you idiots out there saying that everyone needs to be armed going to class take a good look at the middle east and think do you really want to live there.
I’m also willing to bet the individual who committed this was a law abidding citizen before he went nuts. which means you gun lovers armed him in the first place

As Usual, The UnArmed Citizen who is Following the Laws is dead!
Criminals DONT CARE about Laws, when will these people learn this?
1 Single Person with his Gun Permit, and his Weapon, could have stopped this tradgedy before it ever got to all of this!!

My prayers go out to the friends and family of this tragic shooting.
With that said, give these people a chance to greive in silence before jumping on the politcal bandwagon. The size of the magazine makes no difference, as previous posters have pointed out. The media is reporting that the gunman carried two 9mm handguns, which are not assault weapons. Banning handguns and creating gun free zones does nothing but make easier targets. If one legally armed citizen had been in the classroom, the shooter might have been stopped before killing so many people.

I carry everywhere I go! I don’t mind breaking the law to be able to protect myself and others when that time comes… so let this be a call to you…get a concealed weapons permit, and carry everywhere!
everywhere! I even carry in banks unless there is a metal detector!

We need to differentiate between an assault rifle and an assault weapon. An assault rifle is a basic military platform AR or AK (Most of you who don’t know rifles will recognize one if not both of these). An assault weapon is what the brady bunch refer to as every gun on the planet. Actually, by definition an assault weapon could be a knife or club. The only thing that sets an “assault rifle” apart from a regular semi automatic weapon is cosmetics. Take the Mini-14 for example. It can be converted into a pistol grip semi auto AR looking weapon but it is still a semi auto. Just change the stock and you have something that merely looks scary because of the care tactics used by the Brady bunch to throw bad light on them. Imagine if one or more of the students had a handgun to fire back. There probably would have been fewer dead, maybe even none at all. And I believe it was a HAND GUN and not an ASSAULT RIFLE that was used. You know, one that takes two hands?

How can you posters be so stupid? I mean seriously, did the National Hate Clinic just call an emergency meeting? Did the KKK get back together for one last fight? If guns were illegal, one angry college student has to resort to knives and slingshots. This would be an isolated incident. This idyllic thought of shooting a gunman is ridiculous. You don’t need to hunt. You don’t need protection if no one can shoot you with a knife. I mean seriously, are you rednecks that paranoid that you need automatics to defend yourself? Scared the Russians are coming for you? The Cold War is over people. It only takes one bullet to knock a man dead. Give up your guns. And while you’re at it, read the Constitution. We are not being invaded. You are not a militia. You ignorant posters are the reason this crap is still allowed to happen.

The Brady’s and their ilk are always quick to dance on the graves and bodies of the victims to support their cause.
You can ban every gun and magazine in the country, collect them all and you can bet more will come pouring in across that uncontrolled sieve of a border along with all the illegal immigrants and drugs. Then only the criminals will have them.

Hi-cap mags have zip to do with anything when all others are empty-handed / unarmed. This magazine capacity hysteria is only an ABC liberal ploy to sway folks to their opinion side as well as sell air time. Creation of “gun free zones”? Makes me cringe to have to enter such and know that bad guys neither read or follow posted rules thus enter with a certain impunity from potential threats. As seen from a senior citizens perspective and non-NRA member.

Magazines are either STANDARD CAPACITY (e.g. 10+ rounds) or LIMITED CAPACITY (e.g. <= 10 rounds).
And not a single one of the standard capacity magazines owned by the millions of law-abiding firearms owners today injured anyone.
You're making a mountain out of a molehill simply because "if it bleeds, it leads". It's intellectually dishonest and the lowest form of journalism.

Any new laws will NOT stop this. The answer is to let the law abiding citizen carry a gun for protection, this would have stopped this very quickly.

ABCNews reiterates its commitment to unbelievably biased reporting. Virginia Tech had a ban on guns on campus.
How many lives could have been saved if a student had been able to defend himself?

Congress didn’t “fail to renew” the original AWB. The ban failed to achieve anything. And they’re called magazines and not clips.

Well, well, well. The Brady Bunch says jump and these two clueless dupes/reporters say “How high?”
1) They are MAGAZINES, not clips, you tools. These are not even remotely the same thing. Stop getting your knowledge about firearms from action films and Brady Bunch press releases.
2) The useless 1994 Scary-Looking Weapons ban did NOT ban the sale of high capacity magazines. They’ve always been around, terrifying liberal reporters.
3)semi-automatic rifles, including 9mm pistols
Just what does this even mean? A 9mm pistol is a “semi-automatic rifle”?
The MSM should just not report about guns. You end up looking like ignorant fools. Every. Single. Time.

“All handguns should be confiscated and their manufacture or importation prohibited.
Handguns can’t be used for hunting. Handguns are used on people.
Rifles and shotguns are OK. They are hunting guns
Posted by: Frank | Apr 16, 2007 6:04:33 PM”
Handguns have been prohibited here in the UK since 1997.
Their use in crimes has risen fourfold since then………
Get it through your skull that CRIMINALS DON’T OBEY LAWS!!

Limit the availability/sale of cheap guns to limit weapons being used in crimes. Everyone (good citizens that is) has the right to bear arms, but make it a significant financial choice than a grocery item at Walmart. Heck, tax the hell out of firearms and give special permits or tax refund to those in special/ high risk occupations. My thoughts go out to those involved in V.T. and others who experienced similar situations.
-A handgun owner and student-
Posted by: John An | Apr 16, 2007 3:09:46 PM
Well how very elitist of you John. Only the rich and certain others get to protect their family! And what is a “good citizen” and who makes that decision?
I guess in your world some animals are “more equal”.

People don’t always get what they want, they get what they deserve. After years of moronic and foolish gun control, and total disregard for 2nd Amendement rights of American citizens, we get… well today!

The only way to stop a terrorist assalt is with force.The shooter could use speed loaders and facillitate the same harm with a 10 round or 15 round magazine.It doesn’t matter.Like in U.Texas it would have nice if someone had returned fire.

If gun controls worked, New York City, with its Sullivan Law, would have ZERO shootings, and ZERO gun fatalities.
In fact, New York’s 2004 murder rate of 6.6 per 100,000 population is close to the 2004 national average of 6.9 per 100,000.
Gun control doesn’t work; maybe we should try behavior control, like maybe better mental health funding to identify and treat people with emotional problems. But I guess that just doesn’t sound as ballsy as grabbing guns- and liberals NEED to seem ballsy…

Sure, so if he’d been limited to 10 round mags he would’ve “only” been able to kill…. How many people? Give me a break.
If one law-abiding person had been ‘allowed’ to have a firearm on campus, this would be a different story.

Why is it that the “other side of the coin” never makes it on a news story? All of the media and groups like the Brady campaign blame the guns and or the capacity of the magazine but never the shooter, lets focus on the issue at hand and not some agenda. ABC and other media, why don’t you write a story on why it wouldn’t matter what the capacity of a magazine was if the person’s intent was on killing?

This makes frightening reading, we the Uk and the US are such different countries and I’m glad of that! I have no experience of using weapons and the majority over here do not, the mere sight of a gun is abhorrent to most people here! The idea that someone would have one on campus here is unbeliveable.
We tend to see that not arming everybody is a good strategy for avoiding this kind of tragedy.
I’m glad the onus isn’t on me to be allowed to carry a gun so I have to kill another human albeit an evil and demented one.

Something is amiss here. 32 dead is an unusually high kill count, no matter how many magazines. This is especially true if the killer is using a handgun. There are statistics about these things.

What a terrible tragedy this is. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. My heart also goes out to the legitamate owners of firearms; who were in the midst of all the shooting, but were unable to stop the massacre because our laws prevent them from defending themselves.
It has been proven time and again that, despite their best efforts, the police can’t do much to prevent a violent crime. At least restore to us the right to take action and save a life.

The real tragedy at VA Tech, is that earlier this year they opposed a bill that would have allowed law abiding students that had legal permits to carry concealed weapons on campus. I wonder how those university representatives feel about that tragic decision today. All it takes is one law abiding citizen to stop a murderous rampage from going any further.
The police were obviously not in any hurry to protect the students. I saw them on CNN lingering in the yard while shots rang out inside the building. Why take away our rights to carry weapons for self defense unless you (the police) are going to do the job for us. The reality is they can’t.

If concealed carry was legal on that campus, the carnage may have been stopped before it reached the level it did.

HANDGUNS ARE USED IN HUNDREDS OF SPORTING EVENTS EVERY MONTH. THAT INCLUDES HUNTING.SINCE THE U.K. BANNED HANDGUNS ,RAPES HAVE WENT UP A THOUSAND FOLD THERE AND ITS GETTING WORST.

Crack cocaine is illegal too. But people still get it- do you think gun laws will keep monsters like this from buying weapons on the black market? No. Criminals will always have guns- and if they didn’t, they’d use machetes and pointy sticks. Instead of disarming criminals, such laws will take guns away from the criminal’s prey, rendering them defenseless and perfect for raping and murdering. Call the police if you want to- there’s alot that the serial rapist-slash-murderer can do to you and your 5 year old daughter in the time it takes them to get there and “rescue” you.
I hope you make a lot of money off of this tragedy, ABC.

If you took a map of the United States and shaded in all the areas with the strictest gun control laws and then took another map and shadedin areas with the highest crime rates, both maps would be identical.
Some will blame guns coming in fro less strict areas yet this only proves that criminals will get guns while law abiding citizens will give up theirs. This only leads to citizens being un able to protect theirselves while criminals run rampant knowing that their victims are unable to protect theirself, thus making crimerates climb.

If George Bush really wanted his administration to avoid tragedies such as what has happened today at Viginia Tech, he would have passed more strict hand gun, and semi-automatic gun laws when the bills were on his desk. As if he, and his administration does’nt have enough blood on his hands already!!!.
I often refer to the moment Dick Cheney gave Pope John Pual a crystal figurine of a dove after he pleaded with the administration not to begin a war with Iraq. From a man who shoots and kills caged quale no less, and recklessly shoots other people in the process, it was excepted with obvious hesitation by the Pope.
The Bush administration is soley responsible for the increase in violent crime in this country. I’ve watched cities like Philadelphia go from beautiful, and friendly, to violent and dangerous. Why cant we put a limit on how many hand guns can be purchased within a certain time period by one person?. Why do citizens of this country need semi-automatic weapons?. This is becoming the most violent society in the world. We used to intervien and prevent wars, now we’re starting them, and promoting them on levels we are just begining to see. We were on the right track at one time during the Clinton administration, when gun control laws were an issue.

Does anyone remember last year in Atlanta — the courthouse shooting?
One of the victims of the shooting spree was near the scene, ran to his home and got his handgun, ran back to the scene to be the hero and immediately got shot dead by the gunman.
People, please!!! Private citizens with guns are not necessarily going to be able to stop a crazed gunman!!!

Hey anti-gun people – instead of simply regurgitating incorrect ideas and figures that you picked up from the anti-gun media, try doing some research for yourselves. Try reading “More Guns, Less Crime” from Professor John Lott. Don’t dismiss it – read it. Study it. Do a little research on the author.
Liberals love to spew their feelings as if they are fact and NEVER actually look at the truth – because the truth ALWAYS destroys what they feel. Now, because of this, 32 innocent people are dead.
How does THAT make you feel?
Guns are not the problem.

Wow, already capitalizing on tragedy to promote the anti-gun agenda and the bodies aren’t even cold. Disgusting example of yellow (-bellied) journalism at its worst.
The killer shot 32 people over an extended period of time. It’s not like “reloading” was the flaw in his plan. He even had chains for the doors, does anything honestly think that limited ammo capacity would have slowed him down?
Stop pushing an agenda, and start reporting the facts. Or is that not exciting enough for a “news” agency these days?

My deepest sympathies go out to those touched by this most recent catastrophe. However this morning’s tragedy was not due to gun control laws, or even a crazed maniac, but was caused be the complacency of the American people. Only an uneducated individual believes that a Law Enforcement Agency will protect them. A Law Enforcement Agency simply enforces existing laws, and investigates after an incident. There are no Federal PROTECTION Agencies. You have no protection other than what you provide for your family. The true tragedy is that we as Americans continually allow these occurrences to continue, and worse, in a knee jerk reaction or calculated effort, our elected officials try to revoke the only protection we have, the Constitutional Right to keep and bare arms. Not hunting rifles or trap shooting shotguns, but self protection weapons. The second amendment is about personal protection. Protection banned in so called “gun free” or “safe zones”. For example Trolley Square in Utah, now Virginia Tech, both locations where self protection weapons are not allowed. Any honest student from Virginia Tech will tell that they did not feel safe while they looked on helplessly as their classmates died, until of course the police arrived, 32 fatalities later. This is not to ridicule or diminish any police agency. They preformed their duty to the best of their ability, and I am deeply thankful for their service. The true issue is the average American mindset! Who will protect your family, when something similar happens where you live?

Hey David ,it’s also noticed that countries that rid their society of killers is at the bottom of your list. S. korea executes all murderers, no manslaughter or that foolishness.They kill them all. Even the rich ones.

It’s too bad that none of the above comments will ever be presented in the National News. Only the fact that someone used a ‘GUN’ to kill 30 some people will be reported. How many would this crazy have killed had he planted a bomb? The uninformed of this Nation will go on thinking that banning weapons will help keep them safe, the News Media will continue to spout rederic against guns and the Nation will continue to be a free hunting zone for crazies because those who would protect themselves are hamstrung by the law.
What about all of the people who were killed by Drunk Drivers today? Why isn’t the media screaming about outlawing alcohol?

Gannon, no offense but your beliefs are inarguably ignorant. Sure go ahead and ban guns. You know who will turn in their newly illegal firearms? Those who CARE about the laws. Know who cares about laws? NON-CRIMINALS.
The last assault weapon ban failed miserably, gun crimes only went up, drastically, until politicians were smart enough to let it die.
Ban guns and the result will not be a lack of need to defend yourself, but a lack of ABILITY to defend yourself. Believe me, the guy who comes into your home at 2 am or tries to jack your car or steal your wallet or rape you is not a legal gun owner. He did not go into a gun store and purchase that gun legally after filling out the paperwork and passing the federal background check. He got it illegally, if the serial numbers were still on he filed them off.

Even if the shooter had multiple guns and high capacity magazines, if 10 students charged him or threw desks or anything else wouldn’t that have stopped this guy? Sure maybe he would have gotten a few shots off but not killed 33!! The question here is more about pacifying our citizens so that they are taught not to defend themselves at all! Gun control and the hype around it, moves us further down the road of pacifism that leads to incidents like this one occuring. Although it was stated a thousand times before, I will say it again…people are responsable for their criminal actions; tools cannot be held accountable for how they are used to commit a crime. If that was teh case, we wouldn’t have cars, knives, electricity, rope, planes….well you get the point.

I am sickened by the continued blame of guns by the news media when in fact it is the criminal or would-be criminal that have broken all the laws.
I for one would love to see all gun-free zones become gun-allowed zones for concealed carry as I believe that would have saved many more lives because a responsible citizen who is armed is also feared by the would-be criminal.
Brian Ross and Dana Hughes, you make me sick. The 2nd ammendment is very important to me and many like me across this country, so you and many other people that feed on tragedy can well know that your message is falling on deaf ears tonight.
I am a member of the NRA and will fight for my rights to own my firearms.

If you outlaw assault type weapons, than only outlaws will have such things. It has beem proven time and time again that gunlaws are BS and do not have any effect. Take some time and learn how what I said is very true. The kids from Columbine got weapons illegaly, thus any guncontrol had no effect on them getting their weapons. Gun Control Is Not The Answer.

“Any wuss can fire a gun. Standing toe to toe in a fist fight takes a little more sack.
Posted by: dave | Apr 16, 2007 7:46:24 PM”
Tell that to the guy with the gun. I’m sure he’ll see your reasoning almost immediately.

Everyone take note: 99%+ of these blogs are against any further gun control based on this horrible occurrance.
However, we all know, tomorrow smirking Charlie Gibson will display a disproportionate amount of anti gun entries and fail to report the truth.
Any bets on that?

This guy would have killed whether he had a gun or not, he would have taken a sword and tried to take down as many people as possible. Lets not blame guns or high capacity magazines. This person had a chemical imbalance. Maybe if there had been one CCW holder there, the problem could have been avoided. Gun-Free zone didn’t appear to work to well. As a college student I think myself and my peers need to change school policy to allow CCW on campus.

ABC News is irresponsible for linking this article and the sad events of the day in such a way with no foundation of facts yet supporting it. But it’s sensational and rife with controversy, so they can make a buck off of it.
The reason they have these little chat boards is to make the search engines rank them higher. This draws more people to their site and they make more money when more people visit. They don’t really care what you say as long as there’s activity on the page.
Shame on ABC News for such uncaring and ill-conceived sensationalism.
There, I played right into their little scheme…

Nick said
“First my condolence o all affected. Second, for all you idiots out there saying that everyone needs to be armed going to class take a good look at the middle east and think do you really want to live there.”
Well Nick, I happen to know a little about the subject. The teachers in Israeli schools carry Uzi’s, Nick. Some of their schools are meters away from settlements populated with people who want to kill their children. When was the last time you heard of a shooting in an Israeli school, Nick? Be smart – use techniques that work. When we start thinking emotionally instead of rationally, people die. In some ways, the blame for these deaths can be laid at the feet of those like yourself, who rallied to keep people from being able to defend themselves. Do you know why concealed carry got passed in Texas? It was because its sponsor left her gun in her car instead of taking it into the restaurant in Waco, because it was against the law, the same day that a man, much like this man, walked in and started shooting defenseless people. Think with your head.

It was not a magazine, It was a clip, it was a clip, it was a clip. Cmon people, if your on our side, please at least appear intelligent!!!!!!

The real concern is the two hour lapse in time between the shootings. Where was the lock down !!! In so far as the high capacity mags forget it, the same damage can be done with thirty ten rounds magazines as twenty fifteen round magazines. One must remember, no pistol, rifle or shotgun ever killed anyone — its the idiot that pulls the trigger. How do you legislate that !! I can only think of the famililes and their loss, UNBELIEVEABLE pray for their strength.

To all you anti-gun folks that get frantic at the thought of everyone carrying guns, slow it down. I would never propose that everyone should carry a gun, but there are a lot of capable, responsible people that can, want to, and should be allowed to carry a gun. I was trained in the military to defend my country using guns, but I am prevented from carrying one to defend myself in many places. I have three carry permits, but still they are restricted in many ways. I went to VA Tech in 1982-1983, the year I first got a permit to carry and if I had been there with my gun and some nut started shooting I would have done all I could to stop him and protect those around me. I am saying that if many law abiding folks that want to carry a gun should be able to. I don’t think we would see half the crime we see now if concealed carry was made legal nationally. In fact, if you look at the data, it is clear that the cities that have allowed concelealed carry have benefited with dramatically reduced violent crime rates, and vice versa to those that imposed strict anti-gun measures. just look at D.C., the strictest gun control and the most violent.

It’s not the guns that kill people it is the person behide the gun who is acting out. Gun’s are a tool in the hands of a induvidale it can be a psoitve tool or a negitve tool. I belive guns are good but people that do this senceless killings are retards in there own sick and twisted worlds that are so demented they have to kill inocente people with tools of productivitey guns are ment for personal protection and to put food on our tables nothing else

It’s astonishing to see so many people (or maybe a couple who are stacking posts) advocate for concealed firearms so that a “good guy” could have killed this criminal earlier in his spree.
I can only imagine you gun-lovers have heard of the terms “crossfire” and “collateral damage.” What if someone did have a concealed firearm, tried to shoot the criminal, and accidentally shot someone else?
Also, what is a law-enforcement officer supposed to do, entering a building where both bad guys and good guys are shooting guns? How are they supposed to know who to shoot?
To think that the answer to gun violence is more guns is just… CRAZY.

Why haven’t you covered anything about how they just voted down the right for students to defend themselves. A Bill was just voted down that would have allowed students and teachers the right to carry a concealed firearm on campus grounds as long as they had a permit to do so. Imagine the outcome if a student or a teacher would have been able to defend themselves instead of corrowing on the floor, wiating to die.

It’s a shame the students were prevented from arming themselves on campus. Silly bill of rights!!
I’m sure that 1 of the 32 dead and 20+ wounded would have been armed and quite all would possibly alive right now.

This devastating tragedy is a testament to this nation’s inability to come to terms with the proliferation of automatic weapons and handguns on our streets. It is my hope that we as a people can stand up and demand answers, and then to institute action, which will render these horrific scenarios obsolete. Now is the time for every community across our nation to ask the tough questions and rise up against the violence and hatred found within angry, lonely, misguided and lost souls. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims.

Guns do not kill people. People kill people. What makes anyone think that by outlawing guns will keep guns out of anyone but law abiding citizens? Criminals or those who are intent on hurting others will always find a way. As a parent of a college student, campus violence is always a worry. God bless those families.

Of course, the shooter(s) may have just had several Brady-compliant clips. May pistols have drop free mags and can be reloaded with a fresh clip in about 2-3 seconds.

My stepson was driving home one night with his girlfriend in the family SUV. He lost control of the vehicle, and she was killed in the wreck. The local news reported it as a SUV killed her. We however know that it was not the car but his negligence, the vehicle had nothing to do with it. Now, a man goes nuts, kills people, and it is now another object, not the individual. What a society we have become, put the blame everywhere but where it belongs. If only we would do this or that, rub each other, love each other…..
I think the bigger story should have been is, was this a Muslim man, and are we sure it was not an attack by an extremest? Even it that was the case, it would not be reported as such.

It wasn’t magazine size that allowed this maniac to kill 32+ people with two 9mm handguns, it was obviously a single-minded determination, plenty of training and optimum ammo (I’d guess jacketed hollow point +P+). A kill ratio of more than 50% with 9mm is almost unheard of especially since the victims were young adults. This means the shooter must have been highly experienced, perhaps an expert marksman. He would have never considered using ultra-high capacity magazines (typically 30 rounds for 9mm) due to their notorious propensity to cause jams. Instead, he would have used standard magazines which contain from 17 to 19 rounds depending on the gun. But even if he were limited to 10 round magazines, it would hardly have made a difference. In fact, his apparent weapons proficiency means that he would have easily defeated most armed opponents who might have faced him (university police, professors or students with CWP). Thus, the prohibition against concealed carry probably did not make a difference here. It looks like the only thing that stopped him is running out of bullets. If there were an evacuation — even a panicked one — instead of a partial lockdown of classrooms, the killer might have run out of victims first. It’s time to start teaching students that the proper response to a gunman on campus is not to hunker down but to disperse and flee, even when being directly fired upon (the theory being that it is much harder to hit a moving target than shooting cowering victims at point-blank range).

As far as the statistics for gun deaths:
Israel with a very low number has a very high rate of legal gun ownership
As well as numerous active duty reserves who when called up go to and from home to base with fully automatic assault weapons. They are encouraged to carry them on buses nad in public places -not just in their place of deployment-
Many Swiss males (in a country iwth very low gun death numbers) are in the reserves and keep a fully automatic assault weapon in their home…
It is not the guns that are the issue…..

This is a terrible situation and gun owners should not rise to the bait of the anti-gunners. This is a tragedy for the innocent victims, their parents and loved ones, and perhaps in the personal torment of the perpetrator. Yes he/she used a firearm but his/her motivation remains to be revealed. Now is the time to support and pray for the families. And yes I am the NRA. We are human, too. We have children away at schools all across the nation. We shudder at the news and our hearts reach out to these kids. But this is neither a a gun tragedy, a police tragedy, nor a campus administration tragedy. It is a human tragedy born out of some desperate torment. I will pray for these people tonite and for the public officials who must investigate and report.

i would be very interested to know if Brian ross or any producer involved in this so-called story has bothered to check the comments section, to find that ABC and its vaunted and non-politcized “reporting standards” got their heads handed to them by informed people who know whereof they speak.
fascinating comments, amounting to a brutal and well-deserved thumping of this obvious grotesquery by Brian Ross and ABC “News”.
i cant wonder tho that to the extent these comments, (which i found to be 100 times more credible and reliably informed than anything in the so-called “news” ABC was attempting to “report”), are even read by anyone connected with this story, they will no doubt be dismissed as the rantings of “gun nuts.”

Quote: “It’s astonishing to see so many people (or maybe a couple who are stacking posts) advocate for concealed firearms so that a “good guy” could have killed this criminal earlier in his spree.”
Yes, it must be hard to come to terms with the fact that most people don’t buy into some fanciful idea of a gun-free utopia. That will never happen, regardless of how many laws get passed.
Other people in that Hall should have been armed (and trained). The college student from Oklahoma who posted earlier said it best.

very biased article that doesn’t take into account the FACTS.
Gary Kleck’s research found 400,000 gun crimes per year. Guess how many defensive gun use acts are there per year?
Kleck found 2.5 MILLION.
Also, handguns can only be purchased or possessed legally by people over 21 years of age. This has nothing to do with guns and everything to do with the killer. The person is responsible!!

What do you mean “gun lovers” Pat? I bet your happy to see the police show up when your house is being robbed at gunpoint. I wonder why…could it be that it would make you feel safe to have that protection if the police showed up. Some of us “gun lovers” are just really “people lovers” that feel safer to not have to wait for the police to get there. I am a “boxing lover” but nobody attacks a school full of children with 16 ounce boxing gloves. Guess I need to “love a Gun” in order to protect myself or others from the wicked people who attack school children with guns. I carry a gun and would have had no problem putting my life in danger to try to help those students if I was there. Just like all those brave police officers. I think you would appreciate that many other civilians who “love guns” would do the same. Stop the politically generalized comments and try to use those generalizing skills to investigate human nature. Good vs. Evil

quote: “To all the bloggers who seem to be against gun control, please explain what is the legitimate purpose for an assault weapon. Aren’t these weapons designed to maim and kill humans?”
“Assault Weapons” is a misnomer, but that is irrelevant.
Firearms are designed to Kill, not maim. Some people pursue the niche activities of sport target shooting, but most use their guns for killing game animals or humans.
I have several guns and use them for killing game animals (hunting) and providing protection for my family. If needed, I will use the gun to Kill a human threat so they can’t hurt or kill me or my family, so yes you are correct.

Let’s look at some facts shall we.
Age of shooter: 21, which makes handgun possession itself ILLEGAL, whether it is a single shot or a fifty round magazine.
Gary Kleck’s research :
400,000 gun crimes a year
2.5 MILLION defensive gun uses a year!

First, my condolences go out to anyone affected by this tragic and senseless act of criminal carnage perpertrated upon the innocent victims. Secondly, I would say ‘clips schmips’ to anyone who is at all concerned about whether extra-capacity clips were used. It doesn’t matter. Let’s examine what we know. Reportedly this is an cowardly act of a single gunman, reportedly with two (2) 9mm semi-automatic handguns. Given the number of fatalities, its safe to assume he’s a practiced handgun marksman and familiar with the weapons. Reportedly, over one hundred (100) shots were fired from the gunman’s weapons during the duration of the incident. With the two (2) ‘standard’ fifteen (15) round magazine clips already loaded in the guns, he had enough ammo to kill thirty (30) people right then and there, period. So let’s say he had numbers of additional ‘standard’ clips. He’d have no need for extra-capacity clips to perform the same crime. Extra-capacity clips are a non-issue…

This such a BIG media bias aginst gun owners you ABC people should be ashamed of yourselfs on a day of morning to bring a liberal political issue up and only have a one sided opion on it. Hi cap mags where leagle dureing the ban on them AND reloading 10rd mags is just as fast and deadly as having a hi-cap. Do your home work nexttime before you bring your anti-gun propaganda from Brady INC to brainwash America

To JC: Yes weapons are used to kill people. Good lawful people should be able to carry weapons so they protect themselves from criminals. Criminals don’t obey the law, gun-control doesn’t work.

Ammo clips dont kill, guns do.

Dont blam the assault weapons, those are an important part of American Society, we would not be America without assault weapons and the right to go nuts every now and than and hose down some folks. Dont turn us into a Sweden, Germany, France or some other pinko contry where all you have to look forward to is health care and education, i was not made for schooling, shooting is my game and hunting humans requires assualt weapons. So dont tread on me sucka cuz Dick Cheney and I are best buds and I he will cap ya if you mess with the right to own and uze uzzis on folks.

“Gun Free” zones = students are sitting ducks when a madman attacks.
If just one person had a gun besides the madman, this might never of happened.
Hell, he could of carried two old fashioned “six shooters” and done as much damage. Or he could of used a car to mow down people and killed as many. Either way the poor victims would be just as dead.
Stupid media.

Some of you rediculous idiots don’t really understand the Second Amendment, and should spend less time assailing the “liberal” press and more time wondering why you didn’t evolve with the rest of society to hold two thoughts in your dome at the same time. The right to bear arms does not give you the right to stockpile the most deadly arsenal available. The lack of nuance in your language is key sign of backwards morons who don’t think before you jump on a blog and scream, “liberal bias”.

Wow. I would just like to highlight the racist ignorance of the people who wrote in to this post saying that the most important issue in this horrible story is if the shooter was Muslim. It’s painful that we’ve become a country where people automatically assume all despicable violence is perpetrated by Muslims.

“To all the bloggers who seem to be against gun control, please explain what is the legitimate purpose for an assault weapon. Aren’t these weapons designed to maim and kill humans?”
The second Amendment doesn’t specify the “legitimate purpose” of the Arms it protects our right to keep and bear. So no explanation is needed.
Fact: Guns save more lives than they take.

You would figure after Columbine and Beslan that schools with gun-free zones are nothing but SOFT TARGET billboards. You think Al Qaeda isn’t taking notice? They’d love nothing more than to do a Beslan in the US. Guns aren’t the enemy, any more than machetes or cars are. It’s the maniacs who weild them as killing machines. An armed response by security on the scene might have at least lessened the toll of this massacre. Not that you’ll hear that from Brian Ross or ABC.

“To all the bloggers who seem to be against gun control, please explain what is the legitimate purpose for an assault weapon. Aren’t these weapons designed to maim and kill humans?”
No.
First, define “assault weapon.” If you mean “guns that look like military weapons” you lose the argument immediately. Most “sporting firearms” in use today are derivatives of military weapons or have been extensively used by the military. (This includes virtually all bolt-action hunting rifles, pistols, revolvers and numerous shotgun designs.)
For your information, “assault weapons” (Sturmgewehre, in the original German) are correctly defined as chambering an intermediate power cartridge and having the capacity of full automatic fire. Civilian weapons do not possess this capability and conversion to such is both difficult and a serious and aggressively enforced violation of Federal law.
It may also interest you to know that the AR-15, the rifle that became the M16, was sold as a sporting rifle for several years before it was finally adopted by the military.
So again, what do you mean by “assault weapon”?
(Or do you even know?)

Wow, you guys didn’t even ATTEMPT to hide your anti-gun bias. How can you even suggest Congress is at fault when (A) most of the facts are still unknown, and (B) you obviously know next to nothing about firearms and the AWB. Our founding fathers deemed the common people worthy of both the right to bear arms and the right to a free press. What happened to the days when we used those rights responsibly?

target shooting with an “assault rifle” is a legal activity and is enjoyed by many people. It is called marksmanship.

“Of course the assault rifles are the problem. You can’t kill 33 people by sharp shooting at each one of them. Legislate a safer world.”
Simo Haya and Carlos Hathcock would have been surprised to hear this.
Also, none of the people in Virginia were shot with an “assault rifle.”
Non sequitur.

Have any of these idiot liberals asked themselves why massacres always happen in the liberal induced “gun free zones” ? Just askin.

I tend to agree with the bulk of these responses, people need to direct their attention away from guns, and towards the actual roots of these problems. Of course thats been said so many times, but the number of bullets in a magazine isn’t what drives people tragically mad, it just doesn’t follow. I’m no gun nut, but its a knee-jerk reaction for media to focus on the size of the gun or amount of ammunition, and seems particularly out of place when something much more serious is happening.

It is sad that a tragedy is being used to push an agenda that has nothing directly to do with the incident.
As we see, the ‘gun control’ on campus was 100% effective in its intent: There were no guns in the hands of those who obey the law.
As to the person who killed all those students, he was already breaking the law. One more law against gun ‘x’ or ‘z’ and “clip” ‘b’, would have been no more effective against him than the ones he already broken.
Had the law been on the side of the law abiding persons at the campus, the story would have been much less tragic.
History shows that when people are disarmed, they turn from ‘citizens’ and masters of their own destiny, to prey for those who do not follow the law.
Izzy
Florida

Again the Media is trying to blame the weapon or the high capacity magazines.
Even with the ban, pre-ban magazines were not turned in and
are plentifull. It does not mater
if the clip holds 7 or 17 bullets.
If you ahve 10 or 20 you stil have room for a lot of ammo.
So lets not go over board on the magazines. Remember if the any part of the bill of rights is dismanteled. The right to free speech and free press are not far behind.

This is a terrible tragedy. However if House Bill 1572 would have gone through, these students would have been allowed to legally carry a concealed hangun and somebody would have put an end to this tragedy alot sooner.

To Tom (8:59 pm above) – Assault weapons are not legal for anyone in the US without a special firearms licence or in the military or police. Manufacturers may put some pretty detailing on them but they are still single shot weapons. “Assault weapon” is strictly a biased term used to stir up anti-gun feeling.
Under some recently proposed Democrat legislation (Rep. McKinney), many hunting rifles or shotguns would be banned for being used by the military or police at any time, ever. This would mean M1 Garand rifles, old Enfields, any of the WWI shotguns or shotguns carried by police.
Scotland, having banned guns, is now considering banning knives more than 3 inches long, because they kill!

Guns don’t kill! It’s the ignorance of the weapon and irresponsibility of the individual.

When will all of the sheeple learn that they have nothing to fear from those of us that have concealed handgun permits? We have been trained and vetted as good law abiding citizens and have the means to stop such senseless tragedies. You only need to worry about the criminals and they could care less about a posted “Gun Free Zone” which is just a nice way to describe a “feel free to slaughter the sheep zone”. Law enforcement can’t be everywhere. Never will be and they have no obligation to protect individual citizens. The sooner the sheeple realize this the better. If concealed carry had been allowed on campus the death toll would have been significantly less. Some one would have had the courage and moral fortitude to engage and terminate the threat. Please America wake up.

Come on, people are talking about the 2 hours like the police knew what we know now. Given the tens of thousands of shootings that occur each year how can any sane person critize the police or the school for not doing what has not been done in the hundreds of thousands of murders that came before this senseless act. Unfortunately the media has such little information to work with (a whopping 12 hours into this nightmare) that you’re making up the story..My biggest regret is that I’m old enough to remember when you got it right!

The shooter was armed with a 9mm and a .22 semi. These are small handguns.
The honest truth is, no assault weapons ban would have prevented this tragedy. According to the FBI, less than 2% of gun crimes are committed with assault weapons.
The reason why? It’s a lot easier to hide a small handgun than than a rifle.
If students on the campus had means to defend themselves, they wouldn’t have been slaughtered, or forced to jump out windows and break their legs.

Wow reading this list of comments is blowing my mind. Just for the record, 90% of the statements made on this page (all the ones defending widespread gun ownership) would be considered borderline crazy here in New Zealand. It isn’t the only way guys.

Before blaming an inanimate object, in this case a large capacity magazine, remember that the Columbine shooting occurred during the 10 years when law that banned assault weapons was in effect. That law didn’t stop that shooting, and no law will prevent an individual intent on murder.
Learn from history: Prohibition in the 1920s didn’t stop folks from drinking, the war on drugs over the last 20 years hasn’t taken drugs off the streets, and gun control most certainly won’t prevent these types of crimes from occuring.

Diane Feinstein is already calling for a new ban on high-cap magazines. In her own city of San Fransisco, a deranged driver mowed down pedestrians last year. I don’t hear her calling for a car ban. And there’s no Constitutional provision protecting the right to have cars.

High capacity magazines a problem? Hogwash and total lies. The 1994 Crime Bill did not ban a sinlge high capacity magazine. the Brady campaign tells nothing but lies. Magazines that could hold more than 10 rounds were never banned, new manufacture was banned, but those manufacturered prior to 1994 were grandfathered and there were hundreds of thousands already in circulation and no restriction on their sale or posession. When are you people ever going to figure out that this gunman had what we used to call in the military a target rich environment of unarmed people. A free fire zone.
Someday I hope you figure out the a lawfully armed and trained student with a CCW could have ended this before it became so bloody. But alas, that doesn fit your agenda, does it?
IDIOTS

I believe more restrictions should be placed on the acquisition of weapons. I personally own four but would never consider using them except in self defense, defense of others or as a show of force.A large clip did not cause this horrific act.By changing normal size clips, the same damage could be accomplished. It is the individual.My daughter did not touch a weapon until she graduated from High school. I think we need more education re weapons. Also, just as we are taught to look for indications of terrorism, we should be taught to look for distressed individuals.We must do our best to prevent anything like this happening again.

Again, and as usual, the knee jerk is to blame the gun and the gun owning public. If one of those students had been armed, he/she could have saved a lot of lives. And PLEASE stop quoting the Brady group. They were wrong in FL and everywhere they try to scare the public.

i tried to watch your, quote, news organization today. sorry i did. you pick this tragedy to again promote your agenda of gun control. magazine capacity has nothing to do with this event. second, we do not have a gun show loop-hold on the sell of hand guns. all atf regulate gun stores must conform to law. gun shows do not change the laws. you did me a favor today, i won’t have to waste my time with your garbage in the future.

“We as a nation could legislate against handguns and magazines all we want and will NEVER legislate criminals, stupidity or nut jobs out of existence.”
Quote of a smart person.
Banning drugs has made us all safe with zero drugs available. Yeah right!
Drugs, guns, same diff. Laws are not for criminals. Let the people protect themselves. Police can’t be there in 3 seconds. Gun free zones are prime targets for crime. Ban pools and cars as they are more deadly.

I vote democrat 60+% of the time, and consider myself liberal. However, I am progun and I hunt/fish/camp. However, if the any of the democrats try to use this situation for political gain by making gun control laws that won’t work, they will definately lose my vote.
Perhaps we should focus on “crime” control in the first place, and the economic and social reasons that cause tradgedies like this.

This incident just shows that every American should be required to carry a weapon. No restrictions on at school, church, whatever.

its sad but no matter what you do people have been killing people for thousands of years no matter what kind of weapon they use they will still kill. what ever the tool hammer,knife,beer,cars,sticks,stones or what ever theres so many gun laws now they cant enforce them now

I’m imagining a campus filled with armed students…
They hear gunshot.. suddenly dozens of armed students, not trained in law enforcement, would be running around shooting at everything that moves.
Instead of 32, we might have 320 dead students.
And I’m sure that with all the drinking that goes on on college campuses… that having armed drunk students would also be very safe as well.
Thanks,
Mike

“Let’s just return to the good ole’ days when every idiot carries a gun and shoots at will.”
When, exactly was that? It’s only a matter of time before a gun bigot trots out the hoary “It’ll be just like the Wild West!!!!” trope.

I just wish that instead of ‘defenseless by law’ students, the gunman had faced the administrators and legislators that enabled this tragedy.
They could have waved their school handbooks, law degrees, and legal codes at him.
Those who post that this illustrates the need to ban this gun or that magazine really don’t have a grasp on reality.

I have to agree with a lot of my clear thinking brothers and sisters. To take weapons out of the hands of law abiding citizens and restricting where they can go with their firearms creates a kill zone.
Personal experience… I grew up in NYC, a huge anti-gun environment. Has anyone seen the crime stats over the last 30 years for NYC? You don’t have to… the city has a reputation for violent crimes. I moved to Lexington, KY where people leave their cars unlocked, purses/wallets on the front seat with the keys hanging in the ignition. Why? Because no one would even think about doing something illegal. You ask why again? Simply, the little old lady that you are thinking about mugging happens to have a 38 revolver loaded with 357 hollow points.
Law abiding citizens should be issued weapons instead of having them taken away or restricted.
Any law maker that looks at a lawless situation and thinks that making the law stronger will prevent that crime again is , simply put, an idiot. Try enforcing the laws that you have, increasing lengths of sentences and not letting violent offenders out, instead of restricting the rights of those who want to obey the law

More gun control. Yeah. Legal manuevers like the orchestrated defeat of the 2006 bill which challenged the practice of denying concealed carry on campus DESPITE legal permits.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was quoted right after this Bill died saying “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.”
Disarming sure made them feel safe. Right up until today.
Hmmm. Didn’t seem to stop the gunman though, did it? Do we maybe need MORE laws that don’t deliver?
I dont think so. I see more and more States becomming aligned to Florida’s thinking.
I think you should be looking around at the guy to your left and the girl to your right. Looking for the subtle buldge of the gun under their shirt, because I’ll bet you a full Canadian dollar that this incident will have convinced MANY poeple otherwise.

As the blame the inanimate object browd go after guns again, using blood shed to their advantage, I can only make one statement about so-called high capacity magazines. I am more concerned about one skilled individual with a knife than any gang-banger with a so-called assualt weapon. I have a good chance with one, virtually none with the other!

lets ban gun free zones
its for the children
Time to get rid of this feel good target zone!

As bad as this situation was, I think it would raise even more problems to have college students all over America carrying guns to all their 9 am classes late in the semester. The problem was not the “gun free” zone, but that we allow such weaponry to be easily accessible. Sure, the gun didn’t fire itself. But just as surely, we know people will misuse weapons. Why allow such large clips, unregulated gun shows, or such weaponry when we see over and over again that people will abuse them?

Why can’t the media suck it up and put the blame where it belongs: VT admin for not responding quickly and responsibly to the situation (no notification sent to students or professors, classes held as usual…), and the nut job who did the killings. Compare this to the shootings in SLC. A CCW holder engages the shooter and police respond quickly and effectively. Try as they might, the .gov/university administration can’t control the whack jobs and criminals from going on shooting sprees, and they can’t keep them from getting weapons (do you think they really care about gun control laws when they’re planning on playing suicide-by-cop?), but they can control the response to incidents and allow citizens/students the ability to defend themselves.

For the uninformed, the members of “a well regulated militia” are considered to be all able bodied men. The Supreme Court recently ruled that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right. All of the personal and public comments by the signers of the Constitution made it abundantly clear that the 2nd was intended to apply to individuals’ right to keep and bear firearms and one of those reasons (as frightful as it may be to some of you timid types) was to prevent the government from becoming too draconian. In fact, the guns they were expected to bear in Colonial times were the same that the standing army carried. (Today, that would be an M16.)
There are currently well over 20,000 firearm laws on the books. Guns are the most regulated product in America. The areas with the most onerous firearm laws have the highest rate of violence. The areas with the highest rates of firearm ownership have the lowest rate of violent crime.
As to the statement that a gun in the house is more likely to be used against you or a family member…please! The government estimates that over two million times a year guns in the hands of private citizens are used to foil crimes. Do the math.

ABC’s poll is ridiculous! If there were less gun control or better yet if the school had not been a gun free zone, this whole massacre would have been prevented! Even the security guards were not allowed to carry guns! No one goes on a shooting spree when everyone carries guns because he/she will be shot dead before inflicting any damage.

An individual that is twisted enough to take another life is not concerned with following any law. A law limiting the number of rounds in a firearm is like limiting the size of a glass in the bar would have to stopping someone from getting drunk. If you a determined to do what is wrong, limits are not a factor. The antigun people will use this to push their agenda at the expense of the millions that do obey the law.

I’m amazed. “It’s not the guns fault.” “Don’t blame the guns.” What a bunch of idiots. Absolute imbecils. Of course the maniac with the gun is to blame, but what would happen if in his anger he could only get a knife? Would there be 33 people dead? If you can answer yes to this, then you can start claiming that access to guns is not the problem. Until then admit that you care more about your ability to play with your “toys” than the lives of people that are killed by maniacs with easy access to guns. Blame the media coverage, shame on you. Blame yourselves.

Many posters above agree that the “No Resistance Offered Here” zone, aka “Gun Free Zone” at Virginia Tech prevents law-abiding CCW holders from defending themselves. Here in L.A. County (amongst many California counties) one needs a “Compelling Reason” to get issued a CCW. Actually, a Compelling Reason, lots of money and excellent connections is nearer the mark. I wonder how many of these poor people could have convinced Sheriff Baca that their lives really were threatened? Yet another argument for California, and any other wayward states, to join the many “Must Issue” states that are proving so effective in reducing violent crime.

No guns in the country makes more sense. If there werent any guns here, none of this would happened. Having one or two armed citizens wouldnt have helped… Look out Vang trial in wisconsin, One hunter killed 6 people and injured 3 more, these were all hunters, they didnt even stand a chance and they were all armed.. Theres a differce between being able to use a weapon affectively and being a killer. 9 Hunters couldnt kill one man , one man shot all nine of them.. Theres a big difference shooting a deer and shooting at something that will shoot back and someone you.

Gun is good for law enforcement, but bad for regular people.
I pity those of you that think that law enforcement people are more worthy of defending their own lives with semiautomatic pistols and assault weapons than you are. I value my life and will use the best most effective weapons to keep scumbags from harming me or my children. If that offends you, too bad. Our lives are worth more than your opinion. No one is promised police protection. I or no one can rely on law enforcement to protect me at all times. During hurricane Katrina me and my kids were almost raped and killed by some thugs that were looting our neighborhood. Glad, I had my assault rifle to keep them out of my home when they tried to break my door down.

Some of my favorite shows used to be on ABC. I was a big fan of Lost until about ten minutes ago. My Lady used to watch Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and Boston Legal.
Pieces like this show your agenda in other projects and I’ll not support it.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Anyone who says different can come take my bullets away.

If more students were allowed to be armed… this could possibly have been averted

I love the “gun ban” posts here.
Mostly because I can make a Saturday night special in my garage.
Please take away everyone else’s guns so I can be the only one armed. That would be the best thing ever.
It would be like Christmas every day; thank you for making a poor mugger’s dreams come true.

We know exactly what the founding fathers intended, because they wrote it down. They wanted an armed citizenry to g]keep their own government in check.
Doubtless the assumed the right ot bear arms meant weapons that would be capable of keeping the standing army (a concept most abhored) in check – and that means weapons of a similar type. The Supreme Court certainly seems to have thought so, in Miller v United States. The conclusion of that ruling appears to be that only weapons that are of utility to the militia are protected.
The founding father never imagined radio or television, or the internet, but we have an understanding that the first ammendment applies there as well.
I suggest you read the constitution, and the writing of the founders and see what is is they actually thought and meant. It’s all there for anyone to see. As a start, I recomment “That every man be armed”.

“If everyone were armed, there’d just be more and more violence and death, not less, and society would sink into total anarchy. You only need to look around the world to see that the nations with the strictest gun-control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, while those with the most lenient laws or the inability to enforce them (like Iraq) have citizens who just shoot each other whenever they feel like it”
Yep. Heavily armed countries like Switzerland have blood in the streets. I know that in Washington DC, with some of the most draconian laws in the US, it’s absolutely safe and free of crime.
A few years ago, Oregon liberalized it concealed carry laws, and cities like Portland went from having less than a dozen permites to tens of thousands. If course the media said there would be blood in the streets – and guess what happened? Assaults, rapes and other person-on-person crime declined.
“An armed society is a polite society” – RA Heinlein.

“What the heck do civilians need with high capacity ammunition clips and semi or full automatic weapons for in the first place? Because they can?” Ownership of fully automatic guns has been banned since 1934.

Calling for new gun restrictions after an emotional event is very wrong. Not only does that not solve anything but it hurts those who abide by the laws. Virgina State law says it is ok to conceal carry on college campuses but V-Tech said they would expel any student who chose to carry, legally. This situation could have had a different result if there was a student who was able to defend themself. Banning firearms is not the answer to ones personal safety.

32 dead thanks to an artifically imposed ‘victim disarmament zone’. How sad.
People need to get their facts straight about the 94 “Assault Weapons Ban”. One only needs to look at the FBI UCR statistics to know that the ban had absolutley no effect on reducing violent crime.
If ‘gun control’ works can any of you libs explain to me why Washington DC, where handguns are BANNED, has such a HIGH rate of violent crime? I’ll give you the answer: only LAW ABIDING citizens follow the law!

I can probably find millions of people that think they are applicable to the 21st century. I am one of them, instead of trying to change the laws, why people like you just leave. America is a free country and no one is making you stay here, so if you dont like our laws then get the heck out.

iT’S ALWAYS ABOUT GUNS! Last time I checked the gun didn’t shoot itself at the victims. It’s about people. Bad people exist and as long as they do they will find means to do harm. God bless VT

Zach,
Its because of gun control that these types of events happen. If everyone was armed, alot less people would ever think about causing pain and suffering like this. If people were allowed to defend themsleves, which is the spirit of the 2nd admendment, they would have stopped this crazy and maybe a lot less people would have died today. When you ban the rights of law abiding citizens the right to arms, the only people left to have guns are the criminals.

“When the founding fathers wrote the right to own a gun, times where quite different then today. They used guns for hunting, defending themselves from the Indians, the French, the English….any other country that might of invaded us at that time. As smart as they where, I am sure they never imagine guns that could shot bullets at rapid fire. Can anyone tell me why anyone would need a semi-automatic or automatic gun for? It sure is not for sport hunting.” Yeah and now we need weapons the most now, to protect are selfs from terrorist foreign and domestic!

The assault ban allowed the ownership (grandfather clause) of hi-cap mags, but no new ones were allowed to be manufactured except for law enforcement. Certain states and cities did ban hi-cap mags but not the assault ban law which was allowed to sunset because it was a worthless waste of paper.
For Zach: The 2nd Amendment in the 21st century serves the same purpose as it did in the 18th century: self-protection for the individual and protection of one’s family & property.

Being in blacksburg I find it appalling that both pro- and anti- gun-control activists are already using this incident to sway public opinion and lobby their cause. It’s not even 24 hours after the first shooting, and people have lost the compassion for those that have been lost and injured. They have only released the name of one of the deceased, yet everyone is so quick to turn the event into a political debate…show some humanity and at least wait for all the facts before exploiting the events and the people that have all been affected in these times. (this is directed at both the authors and the people commenting)

What about bombs? If someone wanted to kill a mass number of people, they can learn to make some nasty bombs like the one used in Oklahoma awhile back. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. If a these students were allowed to “bear arms” provided by the US Constitution, I do not think as many people would have died. It’s unfortunate that Virginia Tech is a “gun free” zone. What good did this do? Sad sad day in US history.

Look at the world.. Take the guns away… Then they will use bombs next… Then knives… When someone is intent on killings oneself and others, they will always find away… Laws are meaningless for them..

Disturbed individuals may be responsible for these shootings but the scale is dictated by the efficiency of the weapon. For instance, the same disturbed individual can kill a lot more people with a machine-gun than with a kitchen knife. I think this is all pointing to the need for greater gun control in Virginia.

All of the comments say the exact same thing. It’s one thing to criticize an author for pushing what may or may not be an agenda in the face of tragedy, but it’s a completely different thing to do so by pushing your own agenda directly back.
On one hand you have the banning of all guns, even legalized ones, in safe zones. On the other, you have every red blooded american carrying six guns to the McDonald’s playpen.
One one hand, you have infrequent horrific massacres. On the other, you have frequent single instance crimes of passion and accidents.
Who’s to say what’s better? Not me. And certainly not any one of you.

If this maniac had rushed into a classroom with a machete or a samurai sword, he would still have slain a large number of people. Of course, then the “Brady Bunch” would not have weighed in on the matter because it would not have fit their socialist agenda.

“High capacity ammo clips…”…those first four words alone told me that whoever was writing this story didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. The rest of the sentence”…became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.” sealed the deal for me. That first sentence is poorly written and factually inaccurate. It doesn’t matter how you feel about firearm ownership, that first sentence is factually inaccurate and technically wrong. “Ammo clips” indeed.
I really used to like ABC news, it was my primary news source. It would be like me doing a story on quantum nuclear physics. I would be pegged as a dummy with my first sentence.

In Virginia you are not allowed to carry a firearm in a school therefore creating a gun free killing zone for those so inclined. Too bad the shooter did not have to consider if one of the instructors was armed!

Oooooh! All the gun nuts are flippin’ out because they are worried that they will be blamed for the shooting. In Iraq, we are disarming the population to reduce violence. Here, the gun bozos want everyone to carry a gun to reduce violence. Guns kill whereever they are.

Talk about assumptions…the facts haven’t surfaced yet and already ABC News is implying that high capacity clips were used. No wonder ABC and all network news organizations are losing viewers. This is a classic example of sensationalism and not responsible journalism.
It appears the majority of the readers agree. Good Bye ABC

To Zach,
Both the second and the ninth amendments are applicable. The constitution is a timeless document that merely lists rights that exist in nature (according to the Founding Fathers)and it provides the people with protections from the government.
The constitution isn’t about granting rights, rather, it is about protecting them from the government. Whether or not the people would be able to successfully defend themselves against a tyrannical government is not at issue. What is at issue is the ability of the people to defend themselves. Period. And to those who think it wouldn’t be possible to fend off a modern military force with civilian weapons, look to Iraq. The insurgency is using weapons far less sophisticated than our military, yet they seem to be acquitting themselves well (unfortunately). In a nation the size of the United States, should there be an armed popular uprising it would be nearly impossible for the government to “restore order”.

The citizens of Iraq are doing a pretty good damned job of taking their country back from the U.S. occupation…all with small arms.

The anti-gunners never get it right. You never realize that a firearm is just a tool, and like any tool when used innappropriately can cause injuries or death. There will always be people who have it in them to unjustly injure or kill others, whether it be with a firearm, a car or a chainsaw. This guy had a death wish, what would have been said if he drove his vehicle through the campus running people over. I would bet that the outcome could have been worse, but people wouldn’t be calling for the ban of automobiles, would they? 100′s of thousands of Africans have been killed with machetes, point being that if firearms were banned, murders would still happen, just by different means. If these students would have been allowed to have weapons they could have stopped this tragedy from reaching the epic proportions it did, but that right was taken from them. Another lesson from this is, police do a tough job but they cannot always be there for our protection, sometimes we have to protect ourselves. Some of you want to take away that right.

I just heard on NBC this am that they were wondering why the shooter bothered to drill out or file the serial numbers of the guns he had. WHAT DOPES!!! Obviously, the shooter bought the guns from an illegal source which had drilled out the numbers. They were rogue guns purchased from someone an long with the ammo. They should focus on the seller of the guns and ammo. The shooter probably couldnt qualify to purchase guns or ammo so he went to a street supplier. I expect that network news will botch up their comments with STUPID IRREVELANT COMMENTS over the news few days.

Fully automatic weapons aren’t legal to much of anyone.
Guns don’t kill without someone to operate them.
The criminal already has the gun. New laws aren’t going to change how he/she uses it. He’s already breaking the law so he/she doesn’t really care to begin with.
Defending my children, my family, my home are well worth any flak that comes from owning a semi-auto handgun and rifle.

Sensationalist and knee-jerk reporting from the anti-gun super- liberal media. Whodathunkit?
Here are the facts: High capacity magazines do not have any higher damage potential than a low capacity magazine. Why? Because regardless of the size of the mag, the shooter will ALWAYS have to reload. Which takes mere seconds.
Here’s another fact: You anti-gun lobbyists are now just as complicit as the shooter in this tragedy. If other students were armed, he would have been stopped before 32 people were killed. A “Gun Free Zone” means one thing: Law abiding citizens will not be armed. Any guesses who will be?
Nice work there.

Yeah, let’s do 72 hours of straight, non-stop, agenda-pushing “news stories” so we get every ignorant person out there scared of guns.
What about the 30+ deaths that occured yesterday due to idiot drivers and careless people on the roads? When are we going to ban vehicles?

Yes people, continue to publicly demonstrate you have no ability to be responsible for your own actions! We must blame the inanimate object for the acts of the user!!! That way we can go one being irresponsible and expecting the Goobermint to take care of us like the sheep we have become.

I love how this has turned into pro gun vs anti-gun. If, lets say, this wasn’t a gun-free zone that doesn’t mean someone would’ve been armed anyway. I am more curious to see what the school and other schools are going to do so this doesn’t happen again. I am not a fan of “gun-free” zones but I don’t think the schools should hope the students and teachers will be the means of preventing this type of disaster. There is just way more to this than “it was the big clips” or “if this wasn’t a gun-free zone”.

We as a nation need to begin thinking about arming our teachers and giving them the pay and training to be able to use a small weapon. As a former prison guard who loves his class and the majority of the students in it, nothing would make me more upset then watching something like this go on in my classroom, knowing that my glock 40 with high capacity clips are at home in my closet because I chose to follow the rules that the gunman in my class will not be following.

if only all of the students in that room had been armned.

A shoot-out is better than a massacre!
The VT Administration is on record for opposing concealed carry on that very campus by licensed faculty and students. Their reasoning was that an armed response to a violent act would more likely than not just make matters worse. That is their reasoning, not mine…what do you all think?

Zach,
If that is so, tell me how well we’re doing in Iraq? Small arms, explosives, and determination are about to kick the greatest armed force the world has seen out.
Back to the point. If there were CCW people on campus, how could it have ended any worse. Perhaps it would have never started as the shooter would have recognized the possibilty of complete futility.
-Steve

if only all of the students in that room had been armed this would never have happened.

Allow the staff to have concealed carry permits this would have prevented this incident.”Gun Free” zones are definately NOT the answer.

Even better, if every student had a gun the pipsqeak who committed the murder probably would have been shot and killed before now in a duel of honor, or some brave citizen would have done us a favor and prevented this tragedy. Whoever did this was obviously a looser.

High capacity has nothing to do with this. If the guy wanted to shoot people, he would use whatever he could get. It is silly to think that he couldn’t kill 32 people if his clip only held 10 bullets instead of 17 or 30. He would just buy more clips to get the job done. It is a simple minded argument. People always have to pull the trgger. Blame them not guns. It is time for Americans to take some responsibility for their own actions.

Washington D.C. has some of the strongest gun control laws in the world. But look at their gun crime rate. When are you going to learn that makings guns illegal only keeps them out of the hands of law abiding citizens.

” A well regualted Militia” in the BOR means the total population of able bodied people with weapons available for defense of the community and country -NOT an organization or police force.

My God the writer of this article is either an idiot or an ignorant, either way he should not be writing anything anyone else would read.
the blood of these people who die at the hands of criminals is on the blood of the people who would take guns away from people, when guns are forbidden then only the law-abiding are disarmed, and if someone is shot becuase some idiot violated the constitution and prohibited him from carrying a gun then that idiot needs to be given the death sentance for causing the death of an innocent person.

If cops can have high cap magazine and not do their job to protect the common people, whats wrong at giving us a chance to defending ourselves? Also, all cops are no honest law abidding citizens. Why should they over power the common people?

Thank you so much, gun nuts, for defending your beloved weapons first and foremost at this time of tragedy.
Lay off.

There was a “nut with a gun”. No law or ban could have prevented this from happening. This was a planned event!! I think it is foolish to jump to conclusions and say that gun control is the answer. This was a “gun free” zone!! Criminals don’t care about laws, only law abiding citizens do.

What happens when students are allowed to carry guns and one student tries to defend themselves and shoots at their attacker as police are attempting to neutralize a suspect, do they go after the killer or the person they see pulling the trigger to defend themselves … I love that all the gun supporters say “this would have ended sooner if others carried” but fail to consider that it might not have happened at all if the shooter didn’t have access to this type of weapon.

It doesn’t make any sense to blame the SHOOTER. He’s dead. I am blaming those who oppose serious gun control, only guns can kill so many people so quick, victims have no time to react, to escape, have no means to fight back. The shooter was a very unhappy, crazy person. How many more are among us? It is too easy for them to buy a gun and start releiving their pain onto others. Movies and the rest of our mass-media portray shooting and all kinds of violence an honorable and very cool way of behavior. The go that easy and quick way out of miserable life. And they are taking us with them.

Guns have been widely available in this country for hundreds of years, yet we’ve only had these mass killings in fairly recent times. The problem is our society, not guns.
If you look at American society compared to a lot of other countries, one big difference you will see is the emphasis on individuality and a lack of compassion or support for the less fortunate and downtrodden. Family and/or governmental support is largely nonexistant for a lot of people in life.
And yet we find ourselves surprised when a compassionless loner takes out his rage in this sort of way. Is it really all that surprising though? It’s just a magnified caricature of us: an individual, acting alone without much care for others. Sorry to sound cheesy but it’s true…

What about the staff that wanted to carry a concealed weapon, they were denied the right to protect themselves and there students by there supervisors. How irresponsible are staff to decline them the right to carry

As usual, no information leads to misinformation…they don’t even have a clue what type of gun is was…yet they are already jumping on some clip law…they have no clue. The usual suspect..lol. Idiot liberals..

If these faculty or students would have been able to carry a weapon… quite possible that at the least a stun gun might have helped in this situation; but alas, another place where people aren’t allowed to carry…

Nice STILTED LANGUAGE in this article as usual.
“Congress failed to renew a law”
Um NO, CONGRESS CHOSE NOT TO renew a law. The word “failed” implies a value judgement and an editorial position. If your intention is to disarm the American people then only then could you say “Congress failed” to back your agenda.

right to carry could and should have stopped this.

I’m sure someone is already thinking of making a movie on this, sad but true these days. I think most of the problems nowadays relate to the lack of family unity and not spending enought time with your kids before they turn into tennagers[ that age is troublesome alone], would also be very helpful if one of these days the media decides to run the movies where alot of kids get ideas from, Yes I know I can turn it off, it is a choice, not so easy these days. We all grow up from how we are raised or lack of. This is not something that there has to be a policy on how to raise your kids, it is pure common sense.

Here’s yet another example of irresponsible journalism. They use other’s tragic events to sensationalize their own agendas with complete disregard to checking their facts. Do we have another ‘Dan Rather’ using the names Brian Ross and Dana Hughes?
FACT: The Brady Bill did not outlaw the sale of high capacity magazines – only the manufacturing. High capacity magazines have always been ‘widely available’. You could even get one shipped overnight.
Brian Ross and Dana Hughes: Let’s sensationalize our story and say “High capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law”

Availability of high capacity magazines is irrelevant in this situation. I shoot recreationally and I have always been concerned that a pistol in the hands of a calm, focused crazed individual with excess ammo in mags could result in a massive number of fatalities. I saw a special forces individual use a .45 1911 type pistol with mags of 8 rounds apiece fire multiple magazines. His skill was bordering on scary. It’s the skill of the gunman, not the high cap mags. The only way to stop this: one teacher or one student that has a pistol in their backpack who has similar skills. The reason these attacks occur in schools is because the deranged know that they will not encounter anyone armed. That’s the solution.

“rights to carry” thats the ticket like in England where everybody carries a hand gun. opps ,I mean hmmmm Well there are more knife attacks in England….maybe

“Contrast this situation with the one that occurred in Salt Lake City, where a Bosnian suffering from SJS was cut down by a bystander who was carrying his sidearm.”
…right, and that bystander was an off duty police officer who is allowed, if not expected, to carry his weapon anywhere gun free zone or not. Let’s not issue everyone a gun just yet.

VERY BIASED LANGUAGE not like the press has an agenda or anything, nope, nope.
“Failed to renew” … no, Congress did not “fail” anything. They upheld their duty to the American people.

Don’t worry we do not blame all Koreans for this. It is one individual who committed these hideous crimes. But I do blame Cho for being an evil murderer.

It’s become painfully clear in the USA, the UK and AU that Gun-free zones have become modern day killing fields! Sad but true!

Here we go again: blame the guns, blame the police, blame the government, blame the school, blame the dead, blame everyone but the person who deserves the blame–the shooter.

Blaming guns for killing people is like blaming spoons for making Rosie O’Donnell fat…

The right to bear arms is as constitutionally outdated as the 3/5th principle.

In writing for the court’s 2-1 majority, Judge Laurence Silberman pointed out, “In determining whether the Second Amendment’s guarantee is an individual one, or some sort of collective right, the most important word is the one the drafters chose to describe the holders of the right —‘the people.’” Silberman went on to recognize that the Second Amendment does not confer a right but rather recognizes a natural right inherent in our humanity.

The real problem is that there is almost one gun for every man, woman, and child in this country and that the U.S. has the waekest gun control laws of any civilized country. It is a statistical fact the Canada, England, Japan, and Australia have strict gun control laws, far fewer guns per capita, and gun crime rates less than 10% of the United States. Stop hiding behind the Second Amendment (which actually refers to the military, not personal firearm ownership) and stop putting your “rights” to own a concealed weapon ahead of the safety of the American public.

You people in the media are getting the stories you want by glorifying stories like this and in a sense issueing a challenge to the youth to “top this one”. It is the medias fault not anyone elses. Gun bans are not the answer and this is not the worst ever look at what happened at the bath school house and believe it or not no guns were used.

If guns kill people, than mine are defective.
Blaming guns for crime is as silly as claiming that pencils cause misspelled words, flies bring garbage, and spoons make people overweight.

You guys are right! We don’t need guns. Of course by having stricter laws, NO criminal would EVER get a hold of a gun. And even if they did, law enforcement would stop them before they hurt anyone. Just like law enforcement helped so much yesterday. Just like law enforcement can protect all the people who are raped or abused everyday.
I think I would rather let people have the choice to be responsible enough to defend themselves.

You guys are right! We don’t need guns. Of course by having stricter laws, NO criminal would EVER get a hold of a gun. And even if they did, law enforcement would stop them before they hurt anyone. Just like law enforcement helped so much yesterday. Just like law enforcement can protect all the people who are raped or abused everyday.
I think I would rather let people have the choice to be responsible enough to defend themselves.

I suppose those high-cap mags are going to jump out of the guns and kill people themselves? Stop blaming inanimate objects and open your eyes to warning signs that people like this exhibit. It’s a lot easier to blame guns than it is to accept and deal with the real problem of social issues.

Magazine capacity has absolutely nothing to do with murder. Blame the criminal, not the tool!

Let us not neglect the fact that 33,000 Americans were killed by firearms last year, a rate per capita far higher than all the other industrial countries. And that there are far more murders in homes where there are firearms than those without.
The fault lies also in grossly insufficient mental health services that are not detecting and treating mentally unstable members of the society

Reply to Charlie Adams- better check your facts on statistics of gun crimes committed in these “civilized countries with strict gun laws.” I think you’d be suprised.
And another thing, more people are killed by medical mistakes each year than by guns. Not everyone owns a gun, but everyone has at least one doctor… hmmm.

ooops- that last post was for Roy, not Charlie Adams. Sorry Charlie. Thought the captions foloowed the names, not the opposite.

Actually, violent crime was actually lower in the so called “Wild West” than today’s modern cities. The “Wild West” is a myth created by the movies.
Today there are more gun laws than ever before in the history of the U.S. but more gun crime. Why? States with concealed carry permits have had reductions in violent crime. Why? Why doesn’t the media report this?
Don’t let the media prey on public fear. Gun control is a feel good attempt and avoids the real issue. Our children and our bond as a society/community is deteriorating due to alienation, violence, and general contempt for others. People who wish to commit massive carnage can always find the means with little imagination. Whether its a bomb, a car, chemicals, or other.
Our Constition and Individual Freedom should never be an outdated principal. It must not be sacrificed in order to feel good about ourselves and sweep the real underlying causes under the rug.

Criminals prey on the weak.
If only there were two fine gentlman like the one’s the “Appalachian School of Law shooting”.
My deepest sincerity to the families and friends afflicted by this tremendous tragedy. I hope that the media has the same sympathy for them that I hold deep in my heart.

Feb. 26, 2005 a psychotic man went to a Tyler Texas courthouse to shoot his ex-wife. Upon arriving he opened fire on his ex-wife, his son, and law enforcement. The man’s attack was slowed by one man, Mark Allen Wilson a legal carrier of a concealed handgun, which allow surrounding innocent bistanders to run for cover. Mr. Wilson lost his life that day but his extremely bravery saved the lives of many people. Tell me why concealed handguns permits are bad? Give me one example of a law-abiding citizen who went on a shooting spree with a legally owned firearm.

How can any rational intelligent human being actually suggest that the solution is to arm our CHILDREN with guns? The idiotic belief that this man would not have carried this out if students had been armed is ridiculous. Students in college are not emotionally prepared for the responsibility of carrying a weapon. The result would be a rash outbreak of random shootings for no reason. How many victims would have to die over a video game or parking place before it was enough? 1, 5, 10, what is the limit of wasting human lives before those looking out for our “rights” decide its enough?

I’m all for the second amendment. Everyone should be allowed to own as many muzzle loading flintlock fire arms as they want! However, modern weapons should be strictly regulated.

this is propaganda and can’t be trusted the media can’t report the straight fact anymore they just push propaganda ,are they getting paid or do they really think americans have to many freedoms. well they should loss freedom of the press and then we can see how many of them are welling to give up rights that are in the constition. they have proven that they aren’t just baised they are speading lies and proganda.

“Why do people need guns?”
Well, self-protection comes to mind as an excellent reason.

Either way, does it really take a gun expert to
“say the number of shots fired indicate, at the very least, that the gunman had large quantities of ammunition.”
I think that takes a third grader with some notion of addition. Great writing!

After reading many of the comments i feel ashamed of being american.
How can anyone who is menatlly sane can defend the right to buy a gun the way u buy an icecream?
I would love to live in a country that respects the life of their citizens not the right to kill someone in a matter of seconds.
And we ask why almost everyone on this Planet hates us

I find it disturbing that only pro gun comments are posted here. While I will not claim any speail knowledge of weapons, clips, magazines or capacities, I do know something about schools and the Constitution. We are guaranteed the right to bear arms. However, carrying waepons at a colege campus, in a dorm or classroom setting does not ensure the safety of those people. It may have helped, but there is no way to promise that any individual there would have been prepared to handle this, with or without a weapon.
The gun-free ban provides all people with an assurance that they will not be placed in situations that compromise themselves regarding gun safety. Dorm rooms are not places to have a gun, and anyone who ahd ever lived in one would know that. Uniformed officers with weapons would go a long way to ensuring safety as identifible presence to such a threat. There is a reason many of the most difficult school situations in the US have such personnel availible.
Moreover, we as citizens rely on our security and police personnel to protect us in these situations. As a teacher, I fell safer knowing that student is nto carrying a weapon into my classroom. We do need to work on the individuals involved, but the hope is to help those inclined to this sort of behavior. Arming everyone, or even several someone, only increases the odds of gun related incidents.
True, the gun is not to blmae. But a gun is also not to be praised as the solution. It is a tool to be used by approriately trained people to perform a duty. (In a situation like this) If individuals wish to have weapons for personal/recreational use, there is an approiate place for that as well. We do not allow people to target practice or hunt birbs off rooftops. Schools are no place for weapons ro people with them. The idea is to prevent them from reaching the point of this particular individual or deny them access. If you wish to take the blame away from guns, please do not credit it them for the solution.

My condolences to the friends and family effected by this horrible event.
It’s unfortunate that we must defend our rights as citizens to protect ourselves because let’s face it, the police usually come into the picture after the fact.
I would much rather have a firearm and never use it than to not have one when and if I ever needed to defend myself or family.

This article is just crap. The magazine size (yep, these are magazines, not ‘clips’) makes little difference as to the ‘carnage’ created. Magazines can be reloaded very quickly and the old adage applies: size does not matter!

size of magazine is of no relevance, if no one else in the room or campus has a gun he can take all the time he wants , who is going to stop him? a bolt action would have done just as well as a semi-auto . tables would be different if all the teachers were trained on gun use and had access to one in a locked box.

Re American gun laws and their seeming facination with violence – to quote Dr. Phil, “How’s that working for you?”

You know its amazing how many comments on this site are from people who are intelligent enough to figure out that this is a personal responsibility issue not a “guns are bad” issue, but the “poll” that is being shown, shows public opinion as quite the opposite? Could their little disclaimer “not a scientific poll” be their excuse for someone messing with the numbers …mebbe just a little?

It is unbelievable that so many people in this country fight gun control. Ban all handguns and assualt weapons, they serve no purpose. It will take time to get handguns off the street but we would become a safer place.

Would people have been happier if this attack was carried out with a rented van and a load of fertilizer?
It seems that folks are more worked up about guns than the actual murders.

This is the nain reason that law abiding citizens should be able to carry concealed weapons. If only 1 law abiding person there had been armed, this may not have been as bad as it turned out.

So if everyone had guns on campus this shooter may have been stopped before he killed so many, but how many people be killed over time because someone gets angry and now they have the means to kill in seconds. Just look at the Wild West, everyone had guns and that didn’t prevent anyone from being killed. Laws regulating the use and sale of guns didn’t get passed for no reason. I don’t want to prevent any law abiding citizen from owning a gun, but I sure don’t like to living in a world where someone can buy a gun that can shoot 16 shots in less than a minute – what is the legitimate use for such a weapon?

I can not stand people attacking guns. IT IS NOT THE GUNS THAT PULL THE TRIGGER IT IS THE PERSON BEHIND IT. Those people who use them the WRONG WAY ARE ruining the rights for others. People need to realize that we are in a society that people come into this country and mis use our policies and ruin it for the people who have contributed to making it USA. People need to listen and take actions when something is suspicious. THe students all new or had the idea that it was him, Why didn’t anyone listen to them, especially the professor. This country need to rethink about gun control and the second amendment and what it means to people who use it correctly.

To: rs – More disinformation. It is not that easy to get a firearm as you just indicated. Seems obvious that you too make statements without knowing the facts. There are mandated background checks and wait times before a firearm is finally available for pick up by a buyer. It is not an “over-the-counter” process wherein an enraged individual can go to a firearms dealer, buy a firearm, walk out and shoot someone. The process is not fool-proof but then again, what process is.

I am frustrated about the gun control nuts. How do these people think we became a free nation! Instead of talking gun control so much lets talk immigration control. The punk was not even from this country. The northern and southern borders are wide open, and remember what happened in LA during the international soccer game. Get rid of the illegals and the people who do not want to respect what our country stands for. If you don’t care for the government we have then vote. The precentages of voters is small compared to the complainers. Back on track here. The school professors failed to bring their concerns to the administration about his warped plays. Our society no longer know how to read people for who they are or what their body language means, we all sit here on our computers not knowing what the other is doing or how dressed or inflection in a persons voice. Get the blinders off and get out of your glass bubble and get a clue. Guns and gun owners reduce crime and there should be more of us that carry guns. Most of you want the government to hold your hand and save the day. That’s BS remember Katrina? Help yourself and don’t complain because you didn’t get a handout from a government that you probably didn’t vote for in the first place. I am a disabled vet, and I work for a living, and oh I almost forgot I do carry a gun, so does my wife.

The disaster in VA was an absolutely abhorrent deed. As a gun owner myself I found it extremely disturbing. But I am a believer that the individual is the responsible party. I always like to compare life 50 years ago in America to today. We had far less gun laws in America than we do today and yet we didn’t have such actions by people. The gun never changed but the intent of people has. We have become a society of disrespect towards our fellow citizen. How did we get here? I personally believe it is the total lack of proper parenting, violence in movies, music and TV and the absence of God. When you mix all this together the end result can be catastrophic.

My mistake it appears that he didn’t buy the gun illegally. I just got bad information from an online news source. But the serial number on the gun was scratched off which IS illegal.

My mistake it appears that he didn’t buy the gun illegally. I just got bad information from an online news source. But the serial number on the gun was scratched off which IS illegal.

Well, here we go again!! First let me say how sorry I am for every person killed or wounded, may GOD has a special place for them. So what can be done now, make a bunch of new laws since the crooks do not give a hoot about the old ones anyway. All we need are tougher laws, right! The American People now must decide what they want to do, not what the politicians tell us they want to do, what we need. The 2rd amendment gives everyone the right to keep and bare arms, period. Enough said, get your gun and keep it handy, who knows when you might need to protect your-self. One day, maybe our elected will wise up and learn you cannot legislate morality, honesty
and many other things, but will make laws that make good sense and will be for the person breaking the
law, not the honest citizen. Re-
member, people kill people, they use guns, a knife, chainsaw, pool cue, chair even a baseball bat, are we going to outlaw everything?
Put a gun above the fireplace and I’ll bet it will never kill a single person. The blue collar comedian said “you can’t fix stupid”, I agree. Education can’t hurt. The first thing Hitler did was disarm the people, but of course that’s not a good example.
How about this one, New York City and Washington D.C. have the toughest gun laws in the nation, period. Guess what, they are num-ber one and two in every major crime recorded, I wonder why?????
Because only the crook has a gun, wake up stupid, get with a real good law, ie. If a person uses a gun in a crime he/she goes to jail for life. If someone dies from their actions, they get put to death.(each states’ choice of how)
May GOD keep blessing America and the people who are greiving.
Bill

It seems clear to me we need one of 2 things – a lot more guns or a lot less guns – we just cant keep the status quo.

Allow me to please state this one more time and hope the censors don’t “redact” it.
Guns do not kill people.
Bullets do.
People aim the guns and send forth the bullets.
No more guns?
Then people can no longer place bullets into other people and cause their injury or death.
Can anything be more elementary?

Guns don’t kill, people do; they only make it easier.

Once again folks. We liberals are not all for any kind of laws against guns. I will pass my love of hunting and fishing to my children and grandchildren. My experiences convince me that will be a good thing.

I vehemently disagree with your report. What is needed is for every American to be able to exercise their God given right to defend themselves against all forms of violence. The public at large, through their elected representatives do not have the will to appropriate enough money to keep the violent offenders locked up, nor will they appropriate enough money to diagnose, treat, and where necessary lock up the violently inclined mentally ill. This coupled with the fact that the cops are never around to prevent violence, just sponge up the remains after the fact, the only resort is to arm and defend yourself against violence. The size or the capacity of a rifle or a pistol’s magazine has nothing to do with protecting yourself against violence or preventing violence.

So if a gun free zone is kill zone with one potential killer gun, then isn’t a gun zone a kill zone with 10,000 potential killer guns? Wouldn’t you be paranoid in such a kill zone where anyone can shoot your back? How would you move about in such a place? Have your back against the wall at all times with finger on the trigger and safety off?

Why are people so afraid ?
There is a lot of “the criminals have guns” and “i’m small and can’t fight” – and so on and so forth.
The fact is that people with guns kills more than people without guns – lovers, enemies, wives, sisters, parents – by will or accident and whether the weapon was legally obtained or not.
Just because there is a way to get guns illegaly there is no reason not to solve part of the problem: the ‘legal’ guns.

For those of you who believe that weapons are only for a militia, do you also believe that free speech is only for newspapers? I will not allow the safety of my family to depend on the action of others.
Also, don’t forget the weak.
God created man, Samuel Colt made them equal.

Yeah go on let’s all jump on the band wagon. Just because 1 guy decides that he wants to kill a pile of his classmates means that the gun forced him to do it. Get Real! If he really wanted to do it and couldn’t have got hold of a gun, there are plenty of other ways, legislating against guns won’t solve the problem. Ever.

QUOTE: “It’s not one or two shots at a time when you’re putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room,” Helmke said.
***SEMI-auto guns don’t “SPRAY” bullets. They fire one bullet per trigger pull just like an old revolver does. Why is the head of the Brady Bill Bunch so ignorant of his own subject matter? As far as clip capacity, carrying 2 or 3 weapons negates that restriction without much trouble. HEY LIBERALS and ABC NEWS: This will never be a completely safe “Nerf World”……DEAL WITH IT!!!

Why do the “elites” want gun control? To make sure that they can exert control over the rest of us. The history of gun control can be traced to Reconstruction-after the War Between the States, whites wanted to make sure that newly freed black individuals were intimidated and did not try to assert their civil or property rights. Most of the early gun control laws were aimed at keeping guns out of black hands – after all, the Klan wasn’t nearly as threatening if you had the means to effectively protect your family and property. The notion that only the police should have firearms indicates that the government is attempting to control you by depriving you of the best means of protecting your most precious civil right, your right to life and self-defense. As the VT incident clearly illustrates, creation of “gun-free zones” means that any lunatic has free reign to kill and maim-all because the government does not trust the honest citizen enough to permit him/her to carry the means to protect themselves.

Guns cannot protect anything, they can only kill. Ask any US Soldier that. Their flak jackets protect. Man oh man. Learn the difference. They just needed an invisible x-ray machine at the building doors. It would go off silently, the kid would be walking around, and all the sudden surrounded with the element of surprise, like a vulture swoops down on its prey. Wouldn’t even tell students about hidden security measures. Expensive? Ummmm..yeah. Just like college textbooks or the myriad lawsuits pending.
Much better situation than a bunch of scared armed college kids trying to defend themselves.

It was the individual, not the gun, that perpetrated this terrible crime. Since we can’t control the individual, and certainly not future individuals who will perpetrate this type of crime in the future, PLEASE let us defend ourselves Mr. Politician. Since no effort will ever be made to limit gun ownership, it is imperative that laws be changed so at least those who are in the target zone can defend themselves.

Good ideas Will M. III.
Classroom environments would be a good place for Less-than-Lethal guns in lieu of firearms. This technology stopped the cycle of yearly rioting on the U of MD campus very effectively.
Single action or double action revolvers overall hold fewer rounds and take longer to load than Semi-autos. My wife’s gun is a single-action 9 shot .22 LR.
It makes no sense to limit magazine capacity, if fewer rounds are the goal, revolvers are the way.
Maybe this is the type of rational compromise both sides should consider. I am an advocate of gun rights, these ideas make sense.

College students aren’t emotionally prepared to carry a weapon? People, in all honesty, when in college I used my student loan money to purchase my first assault rifle, rather than beer, condoms, and other associated materials tied to college life. Does that mean we ought to kill student loan funding, as it could arm college students all over the country? (if you said yes, then we as a nation are in much worse shape than anyone could have thought!)

Yeah, this article and that poll are riduculous. The real issue hear is why people licensed by the state of Virginia to carry concealed handguns were force to leaved their personal protection at home. The national media is missing the boat on this. It’s time to contact your state legislature.

I always find it amazing how the NRA tries to distort the issues with its legions of mindless followers. Now they are trying to have us believe that kids should bring guns to school for their own safety. I am amassed at how they attempt to manipulate us. When will this madness which the NRA has infected our society with end? I suppose if you take their arguments to the ultimate conclusion even elementary school kids should bring guns to school for their own safety, so long as they are taught proper gun safety. I hope America one day wakes up to the insidious agenda the NRA has in store for us.

According to a story in the NY Times, the Tech police might have delayed doing anything for 2 hours because of a bad lead. The bad lead was that Emily’s roommate told them Emily’s boyfriend, a student at Radford, had guns in his townhouse.
If (and I do mean if) the police delayed doing anything based solely on the fact that the victim’s boyfriend was known to own a gun, then they are responsible for the Norris Hall massacre. Then I will join those asking for the resignation of the police chief & President Steger.
However, many of the liberals reading this can easily follow that logic: the victim was killed with a gun – the victim’s boyfriend own’s a gun – therefore the boyfriend is the killer.
I hope the police weren’t that stupid.

Who said these CHILDREN have no business being armed? Most college students I know are older (and probably more mature0 than my friends when I was in the military. And guns don’t protect anything? I’m pretty sure if someone knocks on my door late at night, I’m not going to the door emptyhanded. Guns protect you and your family. And who suggested flak jackets, x-ray machines, and more security guards (willing to lay their lives on the line)? I take it these people don’t know what a police state is.

The report by Ross and Hughes is totally incorrect. The Assault weapons ban did not effect the availability of higher capacity magazines for pistols. They were always readily available and plentifull in circulation. Besides this is a red herring because whether you have 3-15 round magazines or 5-10 round magazines anyone intent on killing a lot of people can always buy enough magazines to reek havoc. The Clinton Assault weapons ban was the biggest joke going, but it certainly provided the delusional wiht the illusion that they wanted. It also illustrates the fact that people like Ross and Hughes know nothing about some of the things that they write about and most especially all things related to guns and the gun community.

Sure, people not guns kill people. But a gun makes it a lot easier to kill 33 people (or many more) in a very short space of time, unlike other hand weapons (bombs aside) or, needless to say, one’s bare hands.
As for the self-defense of gun vs. gun, that just compounds the problem and makes it that much more difficult to determine who was the original perpetrator and is more likely to result in more, not less, dead human beings. It’s not the Old West frontier anymore, folks (and ask the Native Americans how they felt about that anyway). Get over it and move into the 21st century. Having guns in self-defense would also not have prevented 911, obviously, so that argument about guns being needed to fight terrorism is also specious. Guerilla/vigilante warfare is exactly NOT what we need. Furthermore, there are many who don’t WANT to have to carry guns in self-defense and want to live a peaceable life.
Schools need to be gun-free zones (as does the rest of the country). They are a place of learning, not bloody warfare. People cannot learn in an enviroment where they feel unsafe from the threat of violent death.

This was definitely a horrible event and I offer my sympathy to the family friends of the victims. However, I am extremely disappointed that the Brady Campaign and others are exploiting this tragedy to further their gun control efforts. Haven’t we learned that guns don’t kill people, people do? If he didn’t buy the guns legally, he would have gotten them elsewhere or used a knife, a bomb, etc.
People need to use common sense and realize that this could have been prevented if it wasn’t a “Gun Free Zone.” He carried multiple magazines, so it didn’t make any difference how many bullets were in each one.

This guy clearly did perform magazine changes successfully, and in front of the victims, yet nobody took the opportunity to fight back. We have a problem here of a complete lack of self-defense mentality, armed or not.
Also you are assuming he would need to have performed the mag changes more rapidly with lower-capacity mags. There’s no way to know — he could simply have changed mags in between victims. Again, this is dependent upon the lack of anyone who would fight back.
As for your comment about the “death grip” on a Glock grip frame causing issues with inserting the new magazine, that is baloney. If you had problems like this with your Glock then I suggest you turn it in to the armorer for a frame replacement.

By the way, Emilio… your comment “even one more magazine exchange could mean the difference between life and death” works two ways. It could mean death for the “good guys” just as easily, when in the midst of a violent assault. Have you thought of that?

J,
Several trainees have had issues with the bending of the polymer grip while shooting the Glock. If your assumption is that the gun needs to be replaced, please stop assuming. With the “death-grip”, the Glock will accept the magazine but it will not “snap” into place. Once the next shot is fired, the magazine falls on the floor, the next bullet doesn’t load itself in the chamber, and then you have to reinsert the magazine and put a bullet in the chamber once again. This takes several seconds. Watching several trainees using the Glock for an entire week, and shooting over a thousand rounds each, is a good way to know how the weapon in question works without making seemingly-logical arguments that are not based on experience or facts.
About your point on giving high capacity magazines for people to protect themselves, that will matter when you have to fight off several people. Unless you are up against a gang or a person with an assault rifle, you probably don’t need that many bullets; and, if you are against any of those to begin with, it is unlikely that your one, or weaker, weapon will cause you to win in the fight.

Tired of lies:
While I appreciate your passion on defense of yourself and your family, and share your frustration with the anti-self-defense crowd, I think we need to step back a bit and take a breath before we let those passions and frustrations get the best of us.
gbowen:
You are exactly correct, I assumed that someone would have pointed that out already in this huge thread but lacked the time to go back and read all the posts as I came in late on this one.
Emilio:
One final thing I wish to point out: historically, “Clintonized” magazines — i.e., those designed for full-sized pistols but with artificially limited capacity to comply with the AWB — have also been troubled with a greater proportion of reliability problems. You must know that reliability of your self-defense tool is of prime importance in any violent encounter.
To all:
I enjoyed participating in this thread but I am out of free time for checking back here regularly. If anyone wishes to continue discussing any of these points with me personally feel free to get in touch and I will respond as soon as I am able.
Thanks.

if the govt takes away handguns,what will the police use to fight crime since they will have no guns either,there certainly not exempt,we should also start with taking the guns away from our military,it would be such a kinder,gentler war,we could hand out flowers and candy instead.

How many thousands of lives must we sacrifice at the altar of “Political Correctnes”??? One armed civilian on the grounds could have saved thirty lives. Those who cringe in fear at the thought of an armed citizen should be reminded that the very existance of this nation is due to armed citizens. I have heard a lot about the “Gun Culture” in America. We should rejoice in it and be proud as it was responsible for the birth of the greatest nation ever to exist and for the preservation of those freedoms that made it great. Our Gun Culture has saved the world over and over from those who would enslave the earth. Thank God for our Gun Culture.

Some of your gun loving Americans should visit the UK. After you leave the airport you will notice police officers on the beat do not carry guns. We feel so safe that Banks dont even have armed guards.
You shouldnt believe what the pro-gun lobby tell you. Travel and see for yourself how other countries are making gun control laws work.

Reading the idiotic comments from the gun-control contingent illustrates the point all too well for me. Liberals — and most of the people screaming to ban guns are just that — refuse to take responsibility for anything in their lives…including the very defense of their lives. They will trust their lives to police, who (let’s face it) arrive on the scene, more times than not, too late to do anything except file the report. They can take that route if they want, but I would choose to be more proactive when it comes to my safety and the safety of my family, and anyone who thinks they can force me to abdicate my own self-preservation is in for a hell of a shock.
And, for all of those touting England as some sort of example to emulate, I have but one word for you:
SWITZERLAND. Check out their idea of “gun control.”

First off, if you’re going to “report” on something, you should get the terminology correct. They’re magazines, not clips. Second, as was stated before, it doesn’t matter how many rounds each magazine holds when the person has many on hand. The shooter at VA Tech committed terrible acts of violence and murder, HE is responsible, not the firearms. People really need to wake up and start making PEOPLE accountable for the crimes they commit, and stop blaming the inanimate objects that are used in their illegal activities. What makes anyone think criminals will start obeying any new gun control laws?

Rob said:
High capacity ammo clips don’t mean much. Five 10 round clips hold more ammo than three high capacity 15 round clips and are just as easy to carry.
Anyone that is crazy or desperate enough to commit this type of crime is not deterred by the size of the clip.
————————————
Well his right! Its not the size of the clip that matters, it on;y takes one bullet. So, if he had one bullet for one person and 50 for 50 person, (in this case maybe more) then he’s going to have to reload eventually anyway, its not like if he had a standard clip he wouldn’t have done it. In addition, I know it might make it easy, but you gotta be nuts to do it in the first place, so I say, I dont think him NOT having the high capacity clips would’ve changed his mind a hell of a lot.
Regards,

Will,
Gun control does not work. Australia took away people’s guns and now the Kangaroos are devastating the farmers grain fields, because people are not allowed to shoot them. They have to PAY government agents to shoot them and then they wind up in the dumps. A waste of perfectly good meat.
As far as crime goes, maybe, and I say maybe, gun crimes decreased, but violent crimes increased because the attackers knew their victims would be unarmed.

Gun control is not the answer. There are already tons of gun laws. Example; it is against the law to have a gun on VT campus. Did that law stop Cho? NO. Criminals by definition do not obey laws. Laws only restrict the freedoms of people who don’t need them.

Paul H,
The media is not interested in the truth. They are interested in making money. They make money by getting high ratings. They get high ratings by creating controversy. They create controversy by distorting the truth, which generates argument on both sides of the issue. The bigger the lie they can perpetuate, the better it is for their bottom line. It’s dishonest, but it works.
But greed has its price, and that price will be paid sooner or later.

Gun Free Zone! Are you kidding me, it should be a Donut Free Zone. Did you see the fat cop running from tree to tree with his M16 after the masacre was over? No resources to enforce Gun Free Zone. Might as well declare Donut Free Zone.

Kevin,
You make a good point, but where do you draw the line if someone has no prior criminal history? If someone swears at his neighbor for playing loud music, does that make him mentally unstable and a danger to others, and thus disqualified from purchasing a gun? This would become a very subjective thing and open to abuse.
Granted, we all know now that this person should not have been allowed to purchase a gun legally, but in his state of mind, do you think he would have said “OK, I guess I won’t go shoot people after all”? No, he would have found a way to obtain his guns illegally and carried out his plan anyway.
The real issue here is not the legality of guns. The real issue is what causes a mind to become so sick, and how, if at all, how to prevent it from becoming that way.

Cheri. You should probably move to Europe. America is the land of the free. People dream of moving here because of the promise of freedom, not government.

By The Way, any FFL (Federal Firearms Licencee) is BY LAW, forbidden to release ANY firearm to anyone who answers “Yes” to ANY of the questions on an FFL for 4473. But of course, true media gods would never lower themselves to learn, or report, that.

Way to push your agenda. Here’s an idea, don’t write about a topic when you don’t have all the facts.
I shall do my best to avoid all ABC media from now on.

Gregory,
The reason the killer’s mental health records were not released was because the liberals pushed for the privacy of mental health records. Currently, not even the parents of a mental health patient can have access to the records without a waiver.
They don’t really think this out too well.

Wow. Another attempt at creating sensationalism by purposefully ignoring or failing to find facts. Our media has no shame.
The real problem is when policies that confuse safety and rights create a target rich, defenseless environment. If there had been one person, student or faculty, that had been lawfully carrying a firearm for self defense that day anywhere near that madman, the end result could have been much better than it is.
But self defense is not a policy of VATech, and it isn’t at many schools where law abiding adults that are qualified and licensed to carry concealed weapons attend.
It is well past the time for American’s to stop being afraid of lawful concealed carry. It isn’t the murderous insane that are going down to police stations and sheriff’s offices throughout America and getting fingerprinted, having their background and criminal history investigated, and paying for a license to defend themselves with the best tool for the job.

People want guns for protection against this and guns for protection against that.
It is like hearing a 5 year old chld wanting to have the bedroom lights on at night.
What are you so afraid of.?

I wish we had this in Vietnam. M-16′s then had a 20 round clip. AK-47′s had a 40 round clip. Do the math in a fire fight. American ingenuity gutted one M-16 clip of it’s base feeder spring and duct tape it to another clip. The feeder spring in the second clip was stretched so the improvised two clips could hold 38-39 rounds.
If there is a will there is a way.

Let’s ban cars next,they kill more people than guns.Then again,people kill people,guns don’t.

Ray, most of the times people fire their guns they dont have the intention of killing.

My understanding is the shooter used 10 round clips. No law will stop a determined madman. However, your rights under the Second Amendment can.

The term “Useful Idiots” has been used to describe the wrong-headedness of liberals during the cold war. The term could also be applied to the useful idiots at Virginia Tech who declared the campus a “Gun Free Zone.” The only people who were gun free yesterday during the massacre were the sheepish unarmed citizens being gunned down on campus. The Commonwealth of Virginia has a Concealed Carry law that permits the carrying of handguns by citizens. Virginia Tech, however, abrogated that right by declaring the campus “Gun Free.” Such wisdom by the useful gun ban idiots! Think about it; one, only one, armed citizen could have stopped the carnage. The gun ban liberals have the blood of 32 people on their hands.
Larry Jones
Torrance, CA

Firstly, the 2nd amendment was created c.1789 – things were a little different back then no?
Does it not make sense that if there were less guns on the streets that there would be less gun crime???
I completely agree with the argument that we should be blaming the madman first – but you can’t control or identify every madman so how about reducing their access to firearms so there are deterrants in place… The risk of someone standing up to them using a concealed weapon doesn’t make a damn difference – Most of these killers turn their own weapons on themselves…
Gun lovers can say what they want, blabber on about 2nd amendment rights etc but at the end of the day, the more guns there are on the streets, the more crime will be perpetrated using them.

Let’s ban all guns. All guns! None for the police, FBI, private gun clubs, hunters and we’ll ask all the criminals and terrorist to hand in their guns too. What? You don’t think that well work? OK, let’s get real. We need some gun laws but we need some that well work on crime and not create more victims. Gun free zones? What nut job came up with that. OK, that might be a little unfair.
We all make mistakes and the gun free zone is a good example of a well intentioned mistake. We all should see it as a mistake and fix it. While we’re
fixing things, all interested law abiding U.S. citizens should have the right to carry a weapon anywhere in the U.S. We as a nation need a national concealed weapon permit program now. We all have the right to defend ourselves. Well, we almost do. Shoot someone in self defense and you may find you did not have had that right.
Perhaps we should have a stand your ground law like Florida or some version of it.
All gun law that have proven to be counter productive need to be scrapped.
How do we get this done?

Hi-cap magazines don’t have ANYTHING to do with this incident

“It’s not one or two shots at a time when you’re putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room,” Helmke said.
Unfortunately, this quote is reflective of the misinformation and/or dishonesty of people who support gun control. “Spraying” (bullets) implies, in this context, that having a higher capacity magazine would allow for automatic, machine gun fire. This is absolutely untrue. It will be 1 bullet at a time if the weapon is semi-automatic. The use of the term “automatic” is often misused. Semi-automatic does not equal automatic.

this is dumb…..guns are not the prob..
stupid people are….to most of us gun owners guns are a passion and hobbie, just cause you dont like them, leave us the hell alone with them….i dont like baseball, and i know ball bats kill people, but i dont protest to end or restrict baseball…anti gun people need to think before they speak, cause they sound very stupid when they talk on any gun topic.

This is absolutely ridiculous, including the comments posted saying how we should take all guns away. So states like Washington D.C. that HAVE enacted such laws and have the highest crime rates in the country are flaws to the theory, right? The other thing that disgusted me was the one that said we should revoke the second ammendment. Well while we’re at it why not get rid of the first? I mean it’s just as old and hey, like you guys say, the creaters didn’t have today in mind when they wrote it.