Thoughts and prayers to those involved in the Virginia Tech shootings.
Recently in Virginia a law that would have allowed people to carry weapons (if they had concealed carry permits) was shot down in committee.
Currently it is against the law to carry a concealed weapon on college campuses in Virginia.
Gun bill gets shot down by panel HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.By Greg Esposito
381-1675A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.
House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.
The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "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."
Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, would not comment Monday because he was not part of the subcommittee that discussed the bill.
Most universities in Virginia require students and employees, other than police, to check their guns with police or campus security upon entering campus. The legislation was designed to prohibit public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."
The legislation allowed for exceptions for participants in athletic events, storage of guns in residence halls and military training programs.
Last spring a Virginia Tech student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit. Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.
In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.
Before you say I am using this tragedy for a political argument, wait till the anti-gun crowd get going.
I'm pissed. One or two legally armed citizens could have ended this before it got to this point. The only thing that happens when you make a gun free zone is that it tells terrorists or criminals that there are areas where they will be safe to do their dirty deeds.
The local, state, and university police did an excellent job. They should be commended. But in these cases they are there to act clean up. A lot of damage was done before law enforcement ended the gunman's rampage.
When people ask why I carry. I point to circumstances like this. If something like this happened and a gunman came to kill me, I would like to be armed.
If I'm probably going to die anyways, I'd like at least to prevent someone to be killed after me.
Kim Du Toit discusses this well.
While you are correct that it is a henious crime, and it is ironic that the Virginia legislature stopped a bill that may have stopped this shooter in his tracks, I do have to disagree with one of your statements: "The local, state, and university police did an excellent job."
While the local and state police should be exempted from this statement, the university police and the university itself have a lot of blood on their hands. By the university not stopping classes, and the university police declaring the incident 'isolated' and not INSISTING that classes be canceled, they allowed the shooter to find students unawares in classes. The instant students were found shot to death ON CAMPUS, the entire campus should have been shut down and cleared. Two students were just killed. That does not happen very often, and it is rare in the extreme to have it happen by a shooter on campus. They should have been going building to building, using all the PA systems, setting off emergency alarms everywhere, and getting the world out IMMEDIATELY. If the university is too big and slow to do it, the police should have been. For shame on Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech police.
Posted by: Agent Orange at April 17, 2007 02:11 AMYou are right, they did not do a good job. That was the obligatory statement. I was giving the benefit of the doubt to the local authorities.
