The Benefit of a Well Armed Community

As I mentioned in my last post, there were a million reasons why the VA Tech massacre happened and how it could have been prevented and by far the degradation of our social values is at the core of making any sense of it at all. Unfortunately though, for many out there on the left, it's just another excuse to call for more gun legislation and restrictions on legitimate and responsible gun owners. It has been proven that well armed communities are most effective at reducing crime largely by invoking fear in the minds of would-be criminal perpetrators. In fact, this has proven to be true throughout most of the entire history of our nation. Back in the days of the early America, it was required of every man to be well armed at all times ...EVEN IN CHURCH! It was the intimidation factor that prevented attacks from hostile Indians and theft from robbers and gangs.

So you would think that when the VA Tech massacre happened last Monday, the NRA would step up to the plate on behalf of the Second Amendment and the interests of legitimate and responsible gun owners across our nation. Nope! Wayne LaPierre comes out in pussified fashion in some futile attempt to soften the backlash against the organization and being a life member, I can only express my complete outrage over his recent comments at the NRA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado. The anti-gun liberals will never acknowledge our Second Amendment right to bear arms and to think that offering platitudes will improve our image is nothing short of drug induced fantasy.

"...we believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period ... with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.

"We believe America's schools should be as safe as America's airports. You can't talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes.Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted."

Even today, WorldNetDaily posted an article detailing the benefit of firearms being allowed on campuses prior to the enactment of legislation that banned them in Virginia.

As soon as the gunfire erupted, two students acting independently of one another, Tracy Bridges and Mikael Gross, ran to their vehicles to retrieve firearms. Gross, an off-duty police officer in his home state of North Carolina, got his 9mm pistol and body armor. Bridges got out his .357 Magnum.

Bridges and Gross went back to the building where the shots were heard and as Odighizuwa exited, they approached from different angles. Bridges yelled for him to drop his weapon and the shooter was subdued by several unarmed students.

Given the above example, I was absolutely shocked when I also learned that just three months prior, legislation was "shot down" which would have reversed the prohibition of firearms on VA state campuses ...AND VIRGINIA TECH SPOKESMAN LARRY HINCKER PRAISED THE BILL'S DEFEAT!!!

I will be writing the NRA to tell them that my financial contribution days are now officially over until I see some meaningful backbone expressed by the leadership. Perhaps, if Wayne LaPierre responded more like the man who I am backing for Republican Presidential Candidate did, I might feel a little different...

Signs of Intelligence?

By Fred Thompson

One of the things that's got to be going through a lot of peoples' minds now is how one man with two handguns, that he had to reload time and time again, could go from classroom to classroom on the Virginia Tech campus without being stopped. Much of the answer can be found in policies put in place by the university itself.

Virginia, like 39 other states, allows citizens with training and legal permits to carry concealed weapons. That means that Virginians regularly sit in movie theaters and eat in restaurants among armed citizens. They walk, joke, and rub shoulders everyday with people who responsibly carry firearms — and are far safer than they would be in San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, New York City, or Washington, D.C., where such permits are difficult or impossible to obtain.

The statistics are clear. Communities that recognize and grant Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not. More to the point, incarcerated criminals tell criminologists that they consider local gun laws when they decide what sort of crime they will commit, and where they will do so.

Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.

In recent years, however, armed Americans — not on-duty police officers — have successfully prevented a number of attempted mass murders. Evidence from Israel, where many teachers have weapons and have stopped serious terror attacks, has been documented. Supporting, though contrary, evidence from Great Britain, where strict gun controls have led to violent crime rates far higher than ours, is also common knowledge.

So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university's "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.

The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.

Despite such attitudes, average Americans have always made up the front line against crime. Through programs like Neighborhood Watch and Amber Alert, we are stopping and catching criminals daily. Normal people tackled "shoe bomber" Richard Reid as he was trying to blow up an airliner. It was a truck driver who found the D.C. snipers. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that civilians use firearms to prevent at least a half million crimes annually.

When people capable of performing acts of heroism are discouraged or denied the opportunity, our society is all the poorer. And from the selfless examples of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11 to Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself to save his students earlier this week, we know what extraordinary acts of heroism ordinary citizens are capable of.

Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses — and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

— Fred Thompson is an actor and former United States senator from Tennessee.

© ABC

NationalReviewOnline - April 20, 2007 10:31 AM

Sorry Wayne, but if Virginia HB1572, which would have reversed Virginia's prohibition, allowing full carry permit owners to have handguns on college campuses, bars and churches, there would have been at least some chance that someone could have taken out this lunatic before he slaughtered 33 people.

Earth to Wayne ...Earth to Wayne LaPierre.
With all due respect...

PLEASE TAKE YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!