April 16, 2008 is the first anniversary of the 32 people murdered on the Virginia Tech campus.\u00a0 The state of Virginia has reached a legal settlement with most victims’ families.\u00a0 The reactions to this settlement, the ongoing evaluations of what occurred that day, and the many assertions of who is to blame for the tragedy continues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some families feel the settlement is inadequate for the perceived negligence displayed by Virginia Tech personnel that day.\u00a0 Their aim is to make the university administration accountable for their failure to protect the campus.\u00a0 Others are concerned this settlement is “hush money” designed to avoid determining “why poor decisions were made that could have prevented this violence from occurring.” Others claim that after the first two killings, Virginia Tech personnel failed to anticipate this was the beginning of a killing spree rather than the end and should have been more diligent, rapidly alerting the entire campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On that day, a young man with significant mental health problems decided to kill as many people as possible ending the violence with his own suicide.\u00a0 Sadly, he was successful.\u00a0 Can we learn from such a tragedy?\u00a0 Can we decrease the ease with which this was accomplished?\u00a0 Was there any negligence?\u00a0 Or was this something so horrendous, so out of the realm of conceivable, so unimaginable that city and university personnel were appropriately unable to anticipate the first two killings were the beginning of a massive tragedy?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am always amazed we react with shock and disbelief when something like this occurs.\u00a0 We have mental health laws that legally and financially limit our ability to either help these individuals or to protect society from them.\u00a0 We also have the well-intentioned “Brady” bunch, always at the forefront of any such tragedy claiming if we only take away enough guns and civil rights these incidents of gun violence would disappear.\u00a0 This is an explosive, dangerous combination.\u00a0 Our society provides inadequate mental health care resources while continually trying to ignore the Constitution disarming our citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before the killing spree, Virginia Tech proudly and publically announced their safe, gun free campus.\u00a0 They stated that parents, students, and faculty could be proud and confident their campus was now safe because no guns were allowed.\u00a0 Is this announcement anything less than an engraved invitation inviting violence?\u00a0 Is this anything less than alerting any crazed would be killer where he or she could safely carry out their insanity?\u00a0 And when a crazed individual does accept the invitation we feign nativity, appalled that something this heinous could happen.\u00a0 We then offer righteous indignation, aligning with the “Brady” bunch, claiming this could have been prevented if only we had more gun control.\u00a0 Never mind this thesis continually fails to match reality.\u00a0 Never mind these well-intentioned people simply refuse to allow factual information to interfere with their decision making process.\u00a0 Never mind we accepted the myth that gun control works?\u00a0 And never mind we refuse to revaluate that erroneous assertion?<\/p>\n
What can we learn from the murders at Virginia Tech?\u00a0 Did those murders show the need for more gun control or did they show the need for less gun control?\u00a0 Should we allow well meaning, although misguided, people to take away our guns, our rights with the erroneous belief that will lessen the possibility of another Virginia Tech? Should this be allowed when the data on gun control suggests the opposite?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Are there examples we could study of situations similar to Virginia Tech?\u00a0 There are two other notable similar situations that ended with staggeringly different outcomes.\u00a0 Would be Virginia Tech shootings were tried at Trolley Square in Salt Lake City and at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.\u00a0 There was one difference.\u00a0 Neither area had declared itself a gun free zone, neither area refused to recognize legal concealed weapons permits.\u00a0 And neither incident had the staggering death toll of Virginia Tech.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because honest citizens legally carrying a concealed weapon shot and killed the would-be murderers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What would happen if society aggressively supported the Second Amendment, if society promoted allowing responsible citizens concealed carry permits?\u00a0 In 1987 Florida passed a law “allowing citizens who could show that they were law-abiding and had enough training to get permits on demand to own and carry concealed weapons.”\u00a0 Let the carnage start.\u00a0 Watch people kill each other over traffic arguments.\u00a0 Watch Florida’s parking lots become OK corrals.<\/p>\n
What happened?\u00a0 Surprisingly, especially to the “Brady” bunch, few concealed-weapons permits were revoked and there were only rare instances in which people with concealed-weapons permits used them unlawfully.\u00a0 As it turned out, Thomas Jefferson was correct; ordinary law-abiding people are pretty trustworthy.\u00a0 We would do well to listen to Albert Einstein’s admonition, “The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”<\/p>\n
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