Here's the kind of question that a supposedly objective press would ask:

The quote from Senator Reid that Kathryn quotes below is especially peculiar given that Reid himself voted in favor of the bill the Court upheld today. So he wishes O'Connor could have still been there to overturn the law he supported?

Sounds almost like George Bush on campaign finance.

[Update at 8 PM EDT]

Jacob Sullum has more thoughts on "gun-free zones:"

Cho used two handguns, a .22 and a 9mm, neither of them especially powerful or exotic. Contrary to the false promises of gun controllers, firearms cannot be neatly sorted into "good" and "evil" categories; any weapon that can be used for self-defense (or for hunting) also can be used to murder people. A gun's specific features matter even less if the victims are unarmed.

"We can't have an armed guard in front of every classroom every day of the year," Virginia Tech campus police chief Wendell Flinchum said after the shootings. Given the reality that police cannot be everywhere, it is unconscionable to disarm people who want to defend themselves.

A CWP holding student at VT wrote an op ed in the Roanoke Times about 7 months ago complaining about his not being able to carry at school:

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80510

This incident has been all over the UK papers as well, and I mourn - as much as I might for people I never knew, I confess.

"If carrying a gun is criminal, then only criminals will carry guns." The NRA mantra, and probably true.
However, this ignores the fact that many criminals are readily distinguishable from the rest of the population and any half-decent cop can tell one at fifty paces.

So they don't get let in; it's not rocket science (in the case of a closed environment like a college campus).
It's also true that in this particular case the perp had a perfectly legal gun, and that quite a lot of people had concerns about his mental state BEFORE he killed thirty-odd people. Conclusion from this?

Simple, really - keep the Second Amendment. All of it, including the first part.

An example might be Switzerland - all adult males have to have military training, all of them are in the reserve, all of them have to have a fully-operational assault rifle available at home at all times, and their murder rate (and especially the gun homicide rate) is virtually zero.

There are far too many Americans who think that they still live in the Old West, which was a myth to begin with.

"The Old West" was much safer than many cities today. Far more of the law-abiding had firearms. As for "many criminals are readily distinguishable from the rest of the population", I wasn't aware that phreneology was making a comeback. (/sarc) But it is time for citizens to stand up and demand to be able to defend themselves against the criminal who is distinguishable by the fact that he is shooting people. The best monument to the victims in this case is a resounding "Never Again!"

Of course, even the most liberal parts of the USA in terms of gun control have gun control. If you don't believe that, try buying an M79 in your local shop.

The debate appears to be about where the line should be drawn, and how tight the regulations about who can buy.

However, this ignores the fact that many criminals are readily distinguishable from the rest of the population and any half-decent cop can tell one at fifty paces.

Based on what? Their race? The way they dress? That's called profiling and it'll get a cop in a lot of trouble from the PC crowd.

Face it, if Cho past a cop last weekend, the cop probably would've thought nothing of it. There was nothing obvious about his appearance that indicated Cho was a mass murderer in waiting. Just like Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber" - a white guy) didn't fit the racial profile of an Islamic terrorist, murderers come in all shapes, sizes, and races.

The VT campus covered 4 square miles, has roughly 100 buildings, and 25,000 students. How many cops would it take to screen everyone on a daily basis?

""If carrying a gun is criminal, then only criminals will carry guns." The NRA mantra, and probably true.
However, this ignores the fact that many criminals are readily distinguishable from the rest of the population and any half-decent cop can tell one at fifty paces."

Even if this were true all the time, as has been pointed out many times, we don't have cops everywhere.

There are far too many Americans who think that they still live in the Old West, which was a myth to begin with.

Posted by Fletcher Christian at April 19, 2007 12:13 AM

actually I would suggest that there are far to few...

what myths do you think are there about the "old west"?

Robert

I doubt that back in the "Old West" where every "real man" had a gun at his side no one man could have gunned down 32 others before someone else put a bullet through HIS head.