Posted by
C-Hayes on Monday, February 18, 2008 3:36:16 PM
Doug Giles (as only he can) explains why it's a necessity:
"The NIU slaughter-which was, by the way, one of 45 shootings (five this week) since 1996 that have occurred on campuses in the United States in 'gun free zones'-will not be the last. The mass murderers among us have taken quite the shinin' to shooting up our students at their schools. The principal reason is that it's so easy for them to carry out their death wishes because university officials will not allow good guys with guns to carry in class and be an onsite deterrent to death-dealing dillweeds.
"Hey, 'all wise' college presidents and other admin wizards: Until you allow guns-real guns, guns that go bang and kill bad guys-you (to make it personal), your faculty and the students you're responsible for will continue to be sitting ducks, potential fleshy sponges to soak up the hot lead from some pathetic loser's happy trigger finger. The gun free stuff ain't working....
"...Yes, if your foe has a gun, then he has a solid and deadly advantage, and the cops can't get there fast enough to do much about it.
"Yes sir/madam, when this type of stuff hits the fan your campus must have deadly force on the spot to counter deadly force. Duh. That is unless, of course, you're cool with our kids being killed. I, However, am not. And as a parent of a college student I will go so far as to buy my daughter's entire campus pistols for the guards, trained profs, and legal students if they will finally do the math and realize that putting guns in the hands of trained good guys is the only way to daunt murderous goons."
Naturally, the media, as if on cue, re-introduce the idea of gun control after the shooting.
ABC News wasn't shy in calling out Senators Clinton and Obama to take a stand on "the issue of gun control," saying that neither "has offered...solutions or preventive measures to combat this problem." (Think ABC News wants the government to step in?)
Mother Jones blames our "rabidly pro-gun population whose views are backed up by the powerful gun rights lobbyists in Washington" for not keeping guns out of the hands of crazy people.
But the most outrageous column has to come from the
Chicago Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell - who hypothesizes that a culture of hopelessness triggers school shootings like the one at NIU, and therefore, Barack Obama, the president running on a platform of hope, should be president:
"
Last April, 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho killed 33 people and injured 30 others on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself. That mass shooting -- considered the worst in America's history -- may have spurred officials on other campuses to beef up security, but these officials are apparently no match for lone gunmen who have access to college campuses. (CH: of course, Mitchell makes no mention of the fact here that NIU was a gun-free zone)."Since Virginia Tech, many parents of college-aged students have had to turn to their faith.
"On the stump, however, Obama has had to defend his faith, and jokes about his critics calling him a "hopemonger." But Obama's ability to inspire people -- in urban areas as well as in rural towns -- is a gift the country needs.
"Young people are killing each other in the ghettos as well as in our nation's universities. So it's not just drug wars or street gangs driving the violence.
"But while young people are dying as martyrs, adults with the power to make a difference are still arguing over the merits of gun control. Obama is surging ahead because a lot of people are tired of believing they are powerless to heal an ailing nation."
So where does Obama stand on gun control, then? Well, see if you can make sense of
this statement just over a month ago at the Las Vegas Democratic Debate:
"(MODERATOR TIM) RUSSERT: Senator Obama, when you were in the state senate, you talked about licensing and registering gun owners. Would you do that as president?
OBAMA: I don’t think that we can get that done. But what I do think we can do is to provide just some common-sense enforcement. One good example — this is consistently blocked — the efforts by law enforcement to obtain the information required to trace back guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers.
That’s not something that the NRA has allowed to get through Congress. And, as president, I intend to make it happen.
But here’s the broader context that I think is important for us to remember. We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You’ve got the tradition of lawful gun ownership, that all of us saw, as we travel around rural parts of the country. (CH: Obama only saw lawful gun ownership in rural parts of the country? You wonder how he gets away with this stereotyping.)
And it is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot.
And then you’ve got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago.
We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets."
Obama has
talked about the rise of gang violence and the need to invest in (read: raise your taxes) more after school programs to "get kids off the streets." But at the same time, he says the country needs "a change of heart."
Well, he's right about one thing: the country does need "a change of heart." But it's toward gun-free zones on campuses. Law-abiding citizens should have the ability to protect themselves and others in case of violence. It didn't happen at gun-free Virginia Tech. It didn't happen at gun-free Northern Illinois.
And it won't happen at the next gun-free university.
Want a "common-sense approach", Senator Obama? Arm your campus securities with guns.