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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Virginia Tech

First of all, my condolences to the victims and their families. Although I find it in somewhat poor taste to use a tragedy as a political tool, it seems as if this Virginia Tech incident has brought about gun policy discussion. At the risk of hypocrisy, I'll add my two cents.
When I was young my father told me something that has stuck with me to this day: guns are not shields, and more and larger straps do not correlate to added security.
Point two: this is not Die Hard, and you are not Bruce Willis. As Pat Tillman's death demonstrated, even trained uniformed men are capable of friendly fire. In discussing the prospect of armed people in civilian settings with Ben, he points out that if you come upon a situation in which two civilians have their guns drawn, it is difficult to determine the antagonist.
Lastly, concealed carry is a pain in the ass. Guns are heavy, odd bulges worry people, and keeping track of one's Glock all day wears on the psyche. I can't think of a safer place than an on-campus class in the middle of the day. To think that anyone with a CCL would have been actually carrying is a stretch.
I wouldn't take your guns away if I could, but to claim that any specific tragedy could have been avoided by armed civilians is a disrespectful and malicious statement. For uninvolved parties to blame the victim disgusts me.

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