According to a new Yahoo! News article, gun advocates are denying being weakened by last week's deadly school shooting, calling on Sunday for a bill to be passed that would allow college faculty members, as well as students over the age of 21, to carry a concealed weapon on Virginia campuses. Members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) and OpenCarry.org, two pro-gun groups in Virginia, are saying that gun control laws in place last week helped to ensure that no one on the Virginia Tech campus could defend themselves against the shooter, and that had this bill been in place last week, perhaps not as many lives would have been lost.
Virginia has a law in place that allows anyone 21 years of age or older to carry a concealed weapon, provided that they have a permit. However, Virginia Tech had a policy in place that strictly forbade any weapons on campus. As Philip Van Cleave, president of the VCDL pointed out, "Gun control failed. [Cho Seung-Hui] under university rules was not to have a gun."
Van Cleave said that last weeks tragedy could give the proposed bill a boost since apparently the current gun control laws failed to stop the deadly shooting. Many people had expected gun control activists to rally around the Virginia Tech shootings, but that has not been the case, with gun advocates taking the lead in public debates so far.
Many US politicians aren't interested in introducing gun control legislation, and for good reason. It is estimated that around 40 percent of US households own a gun, and gun rights advocates tend to be particularly vocal, as well as politically active.
But the question remains: would Virginia Tech, or any other college campus for that matter, really be safer if more people had guns? Cho Seung-Hui was a particularly troubled individual with a history of psychological problems and violent outbursts. He took several weeks to get a gun, break the rules, bring the gun on campus, and commit his crime.
Now imagine that every frat boy that was at least 21 had a gun. Do we really think there would be less violence? Considering the nature of campus life, with cramped quarters, tense roommate situations, and abundant amounts of alcohol, giving everyone guns to "protect themselves" may end up causing more problems than it actually solves.
In the meantime, Van Cleave says that his groups, along with other pro-gun organizations, will continue to try to introduce legislation easing the restrictions on carrying guns on campus in Virginia. The efforts are bound to be controversial, but only time will tell if our schools might actually be safer if more people had guns.
SOURCE ARTICLE: Yahoo! News; "Pro-gun lobby strengthened following US campus shooting"; Retrieved 4/23/2007;http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070422/ts_alt_afp/uscrimeshootingguns_070422195959
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