... if just one student or teacher with the will to act had been armed today at Virginia Tech? 

What, was that not the question that flashed through your mind when you read about the 33 fatalities at that university?  Oh, wait, let me guess what you were thinking...  "What could we have done to prevent this?" or "Did he have a troubled childhood?" or "What were his motives?" or "How could he have gotten those guns?" or "What stronger 'gun control' laws could have prevented this?" or "How do we ban guns to stop this from happening?" or any of a number of similar questions...  Am I close? 

Let me be perfectly clear about something - none of that matters.  The fact of the situation is that 32 people are dead because none of them had the ability to defend themselves. 

The real bitch of the situation is that those people might have had a chance, if lawmakers had not been their normal idiotic selves.  Because, you know, it is obvious that the laws banning firearms on college/high school/elementary/etc. campuses worked so remarkably well in this case.  Point of fact - they got 32 people killed. 

No, I do not know beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone with a firearm and the will to act would have stopped the situation any sooner than it did.  But I do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all of the students on-campus being unarmed made the shooter's life tremendously easier. 

So will this horribly tragic event result in the realization that more people being armed would lead to a safer society, wherein murderers are not allowed to get past their first one or two shootings?  I can almost guarantee that it will do the exact opposite - recommendations for stronger gun control, if not screams for outright bans on the tools, are the only forseeable future.  'Cause, you know, the laws against bringing guns on campus, shooting people, assaulting people, and all of that obviously deterred this individual from his homicidal rampage - adding more laws to the situation will only serve to help.  Please do not misunderstand me, I am very very sorry for the death of those 32 people, as well as the pain and suffering this will inflict upon their families, their friends, and the college as a whole.  However, their deaths will only serve as a vehicle for small-minded sheep to try and limit our rights farther because they are too short-sighted to blame the individual responsible, and not the tool he employed.  If the person was sufficiently mentally unbalanced to kill 32 other people and then himself, he would have found a way to accomplish it regardless of the methods available.  Removing firearms from the equation will only serve to keep people from protecting themselves from these kinds of situations in the future, nothing more.  Because, obviously, removing firearms from the college campuses in Virginia is making their students feel a lot safer right now... believe you me. 

(Hat tip to ACE.) 

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, DragonLady's World, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, , The Pet Haven, Conservative Cat, Pet's Garden Blog, Faultline USA, third world county, stikNstein... has no mercy, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate's Cove, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe, as well as Wizbang, Doug Ross @ Journal, Plains Feeder, and Bill's Bites.