Quote:
Originally posted by Matt Holcomb
Jeff, you're absolutely correct; guns are not the problem, but easy access to them ensures that the body count will be significantly higher when a deeply disturbed person like Cho Seung-Hui finally cracks.
|
"Easy access" to guns???
Prior to 1968,
anyone, who had the ability to stuff cash or a money order into an envelope, could buy a rifle, shotgun or pistol having it mailed directly to their door.
Today, with Federally licensed dealers, extreme regulations on the manufacturers and importers of firearms, background checks and waiting periods, and literally thousands of laws regulating ownership, firearms are
substantially less accessible than they were prior to 1968.
To say that shooting instances like the one at Virginia Tech, is somehow related to "access" to firearms, is to
not understand how accessible firearms were in the recent past.
To blame the shooting on "easy access" to guns, is just as ridiculous as blaming it on the gun itself.
In fact, considering how easy and popular owning and carrying firearms were in the past, one could argue that the
easy access to guns in the past played a significant role in
preventing incidents like that at Virginia Tech.
These mass shooting incidents have proliferated as the population has become more "disarmed" -- note that the "school shooting" happen at a place where all the law-abiding citizens are completely disarmed.
If Cho had tried his actions at a local South Carolina Bar-B-Que, he would have gotten off one or two shots, before he would have been killed by the armed law-abiding population.