VA Tech official praised defeat of student self-defense proposal in 2006

One News Now ^ | 04.16.07 | Jeff Johnson

[Coleus]

A Virginia Tech official in 2006 praised the defeat of a proposal to allow students with state-issued concealed handgun permits to carry their handguns on college campuses in Virginia. At least 20 unarmed students were killed on the VA Tech campus Monday morning by a single gunman. Virginia House Bill 1572 was proposed in 2005 by Shenandoah County, Va., Republican Del. Todd Gilbert after a VA Tech student with a state-issued concealed handgun permit was arrested and charged only with "unlawfully" carrying a handgun on campus. The bill would have prohibited state universities in Virginia from enacting "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."

After the proposal died in the state's House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety, The Roanoke Times quoted VA Tech spokesman Larry Hincker as celebrating the defeat of the bill. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions," Hincker said on Jan. 31, 2006, "because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Following Monday's multiple-victim shooting at VA Tech, Erich Pratt with Virginia-based Gun Owners of America called that philosophy "idiocy." "I think gun control advocates will say, 'See, we need more gun control,' even though this is exactly the product of gun control," Pratt said.

Currently, only Utah has a statute specifically authorizing law-abiding individuals with concealed handgun permits to possess their firearms on state university property. Most other states have explicit or implied prohibitions. "Every school campus [other than those in Utah] in this nation is a 'gun free zone,' supposedly," Pratt bemoaned. "But, isn't it amazing that criminals, bad guys never obey those laws."

Regarding Utah, Pratt adds, "Isn't it interesting that that's the one state where we haven't heard of any school shootings." At least two school shootings have been stopped by armed civilians before police arrived:

· January 9, 2002, Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. - 43 year old Peter Odighizuwa, who had flunked out of the small law school earlier in the week killed three people and wounded three others. Two law students - Tracy Bridges and Ted Besen - retreived a handgun from Bridges' vehicle and held Odighizuwa at gun point for several minutes before police arrived. (Bridges was a reserve deputy sheriff, but was not on duty at the time of the incident.)

· October 1, 1997, Pearl High School, Pearl, Ms. - 16 year old Luke Woodham carried a rifle onto the school campus, killed his ex-girlfriend and one of her friends and wounded seven other people. Assisstant Principal Joel Myrick retreived a handgun from his truck and held Woodham for police. It was later learned that the teeneager had beaten and stabbed his own mother to death before the attack at the school.

Pratt is not optimistic, however, that lawmakers will allow public university students and faculty members to protect themselves from mass murderers like the one who struck VA Tech Monday. "The only schools and universities where these tragedies have been stopped abruptly were the places where law-abiding citizens had a gun that was accessible to them and they were able to stop the shooter," Pratt noted. "The schools and universities that had to wait for the police to arrive, those are the ones that find these high death tolls.

"It's just a real shame," he concluded, "that these guys never get it."

[justiceseeker93]

Still waiting to see whether the wacko was an Islamofascist. The second bunch of shootings occurred in an engineering building. It is well known that foreign students from Islamic countries major in engineering in disproportionate percentages.

[Rick_Michael]

Agreed. NO matter how idiotic this shooter is, it’s policy that made people live under a more dangerous circumstance. It’s not wrong to note that, and it’s not hijacking...it’s clarifying the truth.

Chances are one of these students could have helped save many, and that’s how it should have been.

[justiceseeker93]

Ability to carry sidearms would have made them safer, not necessarily safe.

[TDA2]

“Gun control, or the lack thereof, had absolutely nothing to do with the situation.”

---

You are right that it didin’t have anything to do with the situation however, it might have had something to do with the end result.

[metalurgist]

"The schools and universities that had to wait for the police to arrive, those are the ones that find these high death tolls. "It's just a real shame," he concluded, "that these guys never get it."

It is time to start holding officials and polititions that make innocent, honest citizens sitting ducks as much accountable as the killer. They should be charged as accessories to murder. They are just as guilty of this as if they were there and held the victims down so the killer could shoot them.

Using the power of government this is exactly what they did.

[I see my hands]

Sorry for the rant. I'm not sure which of those grief stages are which but anger popped up first.

Sadness must be one of the stages cuz I feel it coming on strong right now.

Man, poor kids. Never got to live life, never got to find out what happens. Gone, sad.

[vapor5]

while at the university of new Mexico I carried a Walther TPH.

[bigjoesaddle]

actual article.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

[goldstategop]

The VA Tech idiot Larry Hincker has the blood of innocent people on his hands... down to his dying day because HE blocked their right of self-defense!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[LibLieSlayer]

Radio host (Schmidt) that comes on here after Rush stated that a witness with ATF connections told ABC that the shooter was muslim. That is what he reported about 15 minutes ago.

No ID, no reports of white guy shooter, no reports of what the shooter said if anything and no reports of the shooter being recognized by any students. You can bet this was not some radical Methodist!

LLS

[justiceseeker93]

Dear Mean West Texan:

As I posted later on this thread, I have a hunch that the wacko shooter(s) at Virginia Tech were Islamists.

BTW, what is CCP? Concealed carry permits?

FReegards,

justiceseeker93

[Tenacious 1]

[Wrong! Their cause of death was a freak who thought it was a good idea to start executing people. Gun control, or the lack thereof, had absolutely nothing to do with the situation.

Conservatives have no more business hijacking a tragedy of this sort than the gun-control advocates do trying to further crack down on guns. It’s crass opportunism at its worst.]

Hijacking a tragedy? We wear seatbelts in cars. Not because we expect to be involved in a crash but just in case. We keep fire extinguishers in our house. Not because we expect the house to burn down. The government does not dare outlaw fire extinguishers or seatbelts because we have a right to proactively defend ourselves against an unlikely tragedy. Guns are different, apparently.

Now, I don’t disagree with your political opportunism sentiments. However, don’t ignore the importance of having a fire extinguisher by your bed when you wake to a raging fire in your home. Nor can you ignore the effect that having one legally armed and responsible student present at VA Tech somewhere in the mix during today’s tragedy. It is a subject worthy of debate. Properly equipped, most Americans rise to the occasion when confronted with situations like today’s. The powers to be have ensured that the opportunity for ordinary students to do something extraordinary, like saves lives, was absent. Worse, it was only recently the subject of debate on campus and in VA courts.

Again, politically charged or not, it is what it was and was not.

[metalurgist]

Jude 24 and others of their ilk never learn from history. It wasn't too long ago that Collin Ferguson, the Long Island train murderer traveled all the way from Texas to New York exactly because the liberals made laws to keep people unarmed and he could carry out his murders with no threat of bodily harm to himself.

He came right out and said so.

[MeanWestTexan]

“Concealed carry permits”

Correct.

Gun free zone = defenseless victims

[Atlas Sneezed]

The cause of death was some wacko with a couple of hand guns. Don’t make it into something it isn’t.

---

And the cause of death of millions of Jews in the 40s was:
a. Nazism.
b. Gunther, the guy who turned the Zyklon-B valve?

[Shannon]

Although I believe people have the right to bear arms and protect themselves, it seems very sad that one has to “pack” on a campus!

Why? It would be nice to think that a place of learning was exempt from insane nuts but that's just not reality. History has shown otherwise. There's no reason in this world to exclude any college campus from concealed carry weapons.

[jbenedic2]

Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6

[Finny]

There will always be freaks -- there's nothing we can do to change that. People, including freaks, will always find a way to access weapons to inflict harm -- there's nothing we can do to change that, either. Yet jude24 smugly declares:

Their cause of death was a freak who thought it was a good idea to start executing people.

Wrong! Their cause of death was their state of defenselessness. It assured the freak that A) he would meet with zero resistance and B) could go on killing until the cops showed up.

Sure, your declaration that their cause of death was a freak with a gun sounds like level-headed common sense, but you've fooled yourself and are in danger of fooling others.

Remember: there will always be freaks -- there's nothing we can do to change that. People, including freaks, will always find a way to access weapons to inflict harm -- there's nothing we can do to change that, either.

There's only one aspect of the equation that we can change: peoples' abilities to defend themselves. If you're going to deal with reality, then you must accept that the ONLY factor that's going to make a difference is the one you CAN change. That truly is common sense.

Indeed, liberalism and gun control DID kill these victims.

[strange1]

Lawsuits are gonna be flying...........

As they should! Especialy if any of those who were shot had a concealed carry permit.

[magslinger]

Anti-gun libs are doing nothing but enrolling drafting naive kids into a suicide pact.

I thought it needed to be a little stronger.