Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech

By now, everyone knows the horror that befell Virginia Tech yesterday.

I have been watching the news with a heavy heart, even though I don't know anyone who attends VaTech. It's still so horrifying and to all the victims, their families, and friends, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Now everyone is still in a state of shock, but when that wears off, the debate will begin. Would stricter gun legislation have prevented this? Would looser legislation (meaning the students being allowed to carry) have prevented this?

No and no.

Time will tell if the gunman (as of this posting, still unidentified) obtained those guns legally or not. The serial numbers had been obliterated, but the guns have been sent to a lab for testing. They may be indentified yet. We'll see.

For the record, here is the Second Amendment to the Constitution:

A Well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Now, the Founding Fathers did not know there would be such a thing as a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. They knew muskets and flintlocks. They did not envision insane persons shooting up college campuses, or high schools, or junior high schools.

This does not mean everyone should arm themselves. I don't know if that would have helped in Virginia, simply because unless you are well-practiced and trained with that gun, it isn't a given that any one of those students would have returned fire. I cannot imagine the shock, the horror, that must have gone through those kids, or their professors. Would anyone have had the wherewithall to shoot back? I don't know.

The school did not react quickly enough to alert the students to what was going on. Their safety measures were woefully inadequate. However, hindsight once again proves to be 20/20.

This is not the time to debate or to argue. Neither side is more right than the other.

Right now, we need only to pray for those involved and affected by yesterday's events.

And hope that this never happens again.

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