Jimbo.Info

Virginia makes me sad. It's beautiful and has such a great historic heritage, in colonial times it was the progressive counterweight to New England religious conservatism, but it's evolved into the worst place in America.

It's interesting: here in Texas, there's a concealed carry law; but interestingly, when you enter places like movie theaters or the country administration building, there are signs telling you that guns aren't allowed. (Not sure what the local colleges do in this regard.) It freaked me out a little when I first moved here, seeing those signs all the time. But there's something interesting about them: they seem to be to an acknowledgement that having armed people in places like government office buildings is a bad idea, which is kind of at odds with the thinking that a heavily armed populace makes you safer.

(I remember reading about a lawsuit against METRO, Houston's transit agency, a while back challenging their policy that you can't carry guns on buses and trains. Don't know how that came out.)

I have really mixed feelings on the subject. There isn't any clear correlation one way or another between gun laws and rates of violent crime in the US. Internationally, there seems to be a link between rates of gun ownership and rates of gun death (Switzerland, which I believe is in 2nd place behind us for gun ownership is also in 2nd place for gun deaths; far fewer guns and gun deaths than us, but significantly higher than the rest of Europe.)

It's hard to think that a gun law would have stopped what happened in Virginia today.

Switzerland gets held up as "proof" that high rates of gun ownership doesn't mean high gun deaths, but that's pretty bogus - the fatalities are higher than in other countries, and they actually have rather strict gun control laws - because "control" and "ban" are not the same thing.

Virginia is the worst of all possible worlds in this, as with so many other things in that messed up state. There is no reason you can't have reasonable controls (like the things you mention that are lacking) and allow law-abiding citizens to have guns. Virginia chooses not to bother with that stuff, though.

But I'm thankful for Virginia; it's nice to know that there will always be a state whose government is more insane than that of Texas.

You can't legislate sanity.
Logically no one should get shot in the District because we ban handguns and make it a pain to register your shotgun. But strangely, one will hear gunfire and it ain't a shotgun. I think it is more culture than laws and those unfortunate incidents of our society.
When I was a student at UF we had a serial killer and his spree killed 6 over a period of weeks. The campus, the city, was seriously freaked out. As far as I know, he didn't use a gun. He used a knife and surprise. But then, we didn't know who was doing it, when there would be a next victim, nothing and we still lost our minds with fear.
The problem isn't guns, it is the desire to kill people. Lots of them, and guns are just a tool. You can use knives, box cutters, fertilizer, planes, SUVs or a can of gasoline and matches instead. As a culture we need to stress the value of life and being alive and living and let live.

There's something fascinating (horrifying) to a non-American (such as myself) about the very notion that people feel they should be able to carry a gun wherever they like. Despite the second amendment, which I believe has been interpreted incorrectly by successive generations, the right to bears should not be absolute. You shouldn't have the right (or the need) to carry arms into a school, church, government build &c, and the government should protect its citizens accordingly. Just as the right to free speech is not absolute, nor should the right to bear arms be.

Occasionally, here in Arizona, I see men walking around with handguns strapped to their belts. It gives me the creeps. The Republicans are so pro-gun here they attempt every year to pass laws allowing guns to be carried into bars. Talk about crazy.

They're going to have to change the slogan: "Guns don't kill people, homocidal maniacs with guns kill people."

Its so easy to point and make judgement regarding gun laws and modern society.

But we tend to forget that the ones doing the shootings are nut jobs the criminals the felons. Normal folk like me dont go around shooting people.

I am all for owning guns. Shit I tell Rob all the time I want a gun, and he knows which kind I want. I like guns, I like shooting them, I like hunting (yes people there are gay men who like to hunt and shoot things). I dont want to loose that privledge because some whack job goes postal.

Also we all know for a fact that the media is going to play this tragedy at nauseoum until the next "horror" and this will be swept under the rug, forgotten until the anniversary mark, then it will be shoved in our face for an entire week.

p.s.
And yes rodents can contort to fit through small openings. ;-)

We need serious gun control reform in this country...because the more anger and fear that George Bush creates in this country, the more of this we'll have in our lives.

As a frequent visitor to your home town, I feel like I'm visiting another world when I'm down there. Every one of Darren's relatives has framed portraits of themselves beaming happily next to a dead deer. I don't object to hunting, though I have never had even a glimmer of desire to go kill something on a nice fall day. The idea, though, that somehow anyone can seriously try to argue that they need an AK-47 for "home protection" is simply asinine.

Lenny on "The Simpsons" once claimed that average homeowners *do* need automatic assault weapons to defend themselves from "today's super animals--the flying squirrel and the electric eel." It's as good an argument as I've ever heard from the NRA.

i just ganked some of your gun info. shoot, now I can't remember if I gave you credit. meh.

Alas, the debate over gun control - like so many other issues in this country - is dominated by folks on the extremes. Like with many other issues the answer to the gun control dillema is somewhere in the middle.

As for the DC gun ban, it is an example of extremist policy at its worst. Nothing about the DC gun ban reflects the type of sensible, middle of the road approach to this issue that would more accurately reflect how most Americans feel about guns.

I doubt that any form of gun control could have prevented this tragedy. If anything, it would have only postponed it.

I think the real problem is over-perscription of anti-depressants and borderline / crisis patients not being closely monitored.

omg it only took 7 post to blame bush.
People who give up their rights will never understand people who are willing to fight for them. Theres nothing wrong with sensible rules for keeping guns out of the hands of crazies, but you can't stop criminals from committing crimes, and history and other countries show that the strictest of gun rules do not bring 100% safety whereas the 2nd amendment is to protect against tyrants and criminals and sets a clear standard for self protection.

Would you willingly give up your other rights simply because they are outdated to your mind set? Freedom of speech, voting rights, freedom of religion, gun ownership is as valuable freedom as the rest.

What's the most horrific part of the most recent events at Virginia Tech is a living an era when dealing with the problem, realistically, seems so far off. It's also another "wake-up" call about how out of control gun violence has become in our country.

In Philadelphia, we're poised to reach over 400 murders again this year. I don't look forward to this Summer's heat when a lot of the murders seem to occur more than the colder months.

I've had people say it's even "OK" that the murders in Philadelphia are sky-rocketing because most of the murders are African American males killing others of the same income, neighborhoods, age-ranges. The time when any of these attrocious acts are thought of as "OK" because the "right" people are dying is disgusting.

All in all, until we as a nation look at and act upon the root causes of poverty and the desperation and depravity it comes part and parcel with (or, in the case of Virginia Tech), the role mental imbalance aggravated by bullying plays; we're all in store for (unfortunately) more of the same thing.