Thursday, April 19, 2007

Americans Speak on Gun Control

Will college shootings change minds on either side of the debate?
By Melissa Segrest

When madmen go on killing sprees in America, they use guns. Inevitably, in the aftermath, the arguments about gun control begin. But a poll conducted in the days after the Virginia Tech massacre found that the majority of Americans don't fully align themselves with either the pro- or anti-gun arguments.

The MSN-Zogby poll found that 59 percent of Americans do not believe stricter gun control policies would have prevented Cho Seung-Hui from killing 32 people and then himself in the worst mass murder in America's history. The poll found that only 36 percent of those polled believe stronger gun control could have prevented the shootings.

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Gun Control and Virginia Tech Killings

"If I get drunk, then drive my car into a school parking lot killing 32 inocent people; do you then demand strickter laws on automobiles too?"

It's hard to imagine what it must be like to watch in horror as a crazed man with a gun starts firing shot after shot at Innocent men and women who just moments before, engaged in life, have now been stripped of everything.

Why was this senseless act of violence committed? Does it matter? I don't think the "why" is important at all. Put another way; Could there possibly be ANY justification for murdering 32 innocent people? Equally as unimportant is where and how the killer obtained his firearms. Bottom line is that upstanding citizens DO NOT kill Innocent people either with guns or other means. A person capable of murder in the first degree is equally capable of acquiring guns or other weapons no matter what laws are put in place. Additional laws are only restrictive of law-biding citizens. Why would we want to dis-arm them?

I think we need to focus on the real issue of violence. Not the instruments that the violent use to enact their unjust judgment.

I feel strongly that if more law abiding citizens were lawfully able to carry firearms that we could potentially have fewer victims of violent crime. Bottom line, in the face of evil it is easy to blame the systems in place or the tools that were used. Let's not allow a few evil people to strip Americans of our Constitutionally protected rights.