ProfTournesol said:
33 dead in another random shooting. If you can't even go to university without being gunned down, the whole issue of riding with a gun in the USA is a moot point - I'd be migrating to somewhere safer.....like Somalia.
Sixty shot and over half killed - this is indeed a tragedy of proportions that the US, unlike the UK and AUS, has not had to deal with...
In Virginia, based on 2003 statistics, 2.11% of the population have a legal permit to carry a concealed firearm for self-defense. Last year, however, based on a case from the same Virginia Tech where the shootings occurred, an attempt to change policies and allow permit holders to possess firearms on campus was rejected. So while 1 in 50 may carry firearms for self-defense in VA, not one of the sixty shot could legally possess a gun to defend themselves. In fact, none did.
Not one of the 25,000+ students and staff at VT can legally possess guns for self-defense. The vast majority of some 17 million US college/university students are protected only by policies prohibiting guns on campus, as were the VT students. Armed campus police and SWAT teams, as usual, arrived after the shooter shot himself.
ABC News, in fact, showed a clip of a 2002 campus shooting at The Appalachian School of Law, omitting the fact that a student intervened after retrieving a gun from his car - this is the classic case of media bias against guns presented by John Lott, and is still relevant today it seems.
Unlike AUS, where following the tragic 1996 Port Arthur shootings, the government enacted bans within 12 days, citing 90%+ support in polls, ABC's polls show a 69% supermajority answer: "Do you think this incident is a reason to pass stricter gun control legislation? No. Violent shootings are isolated incidents and it's irresponsible to link them to gun control."
You can't understand that view, I'm sure, but yet you assume to speak for how the US ought regard guns. Why? Can't you be happy riding your bike in AUS (or Somalia) without criticising the US?
For some, a gun is simply an emergency tool, like a tire iron or a pump, a fire extinguisher or burgler alarm - one never hopes to need these tools, but when you do need them, you need them very badly and right away.