Signs of Intelligence?(Fred on gun control)

4/20/2007 | Fred Dalton Thompson

[Neville72]

Signs of Intelligence?

One of the things that's got to be going through a lot of peoples' minds now is how one man with two handguns, that he had to reload time and time again, could go from classroom to classroom on the Virginia Tech campus without being stopped. Much of the answer can be found in policies put in place by the university itself.

Virginia, like 39 other states, allows citizens with training and legal permits to carry concealed weapons. That means that Virginians regularly sit in movie theaters and eat in restaurants among armed citizens. They walk, joke and rub shoulders everyday with people who responsibly carry firearms -- and are far safer than they would be in San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, New York City, or Washington, D.C., where such permits are difficult or impossible to obtain.

The statistics are clear. Communities that recognize and grant Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not. More to the point, incarcerated criminals tell criminologists that they consider local gun laws when they decide what sort of crime they will commit, and where they will do so.

Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.

In recent years, however, armed Americans -- not on-duty police officers -- have successfully prevented a number of attempted mass murders. Evidence from Israel, where many teachers have weapons and have stopped serious terror attacks, has been documented. Supporting, though contrary, evidence from Great Britain, where strict gun controls have led to violent crime rates far higher than ours, is also common knowledge.

So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university's "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.

The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.

Despite such attitudes, average Americans have always made up the front line against crime. Through programs like Neighborhood Watch and Amber Alert, we are stopping and catching criminals daily. Normal people tackled "shoe bomber" Richard Reid as he was trying to blow up an airliner. It was a truck driver who found the D.C. snipers. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that civilians use firearms to prevent at least a half million crimes annually.

When people capable of performing acts of heroism are discouraged or denied the opportunity, our society is all the poorer. And from the selfless examples of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11 to Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself to save his students earlier this week, we know what extraordinary acts of heroism ordinary citizens are capable of.

Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses -- and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

[Josh Painter]

Neville72 wrote: “Where are the Rootybots? You know the ones that have been insisting that Fred is a closet RINO......like their man.”

In all fairness, my friend, let’s not lay the entire package at the feet of Rudy’s supporters. First, not all Rudynistas are doing it. Also, some backers of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are equally guilty of misrepresenting Fred Thompson’s stance on the issues.

[SampleMan]

If this had happened at the University of Missouri at Rolla, I suspect that the perp would have immediately been put down with a deer rifle or an arrow. And that’s a serious drinking school to boot.

[SE Mom]

“The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on “the authorities” for protection.” - Fred Thompson-

HONK!

[LonePalm]

Communities that recognize and grant Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not.

Love ya Fred but you missed the boat on this line. Communities can recognize or deny 2^nd Amendment rights but they can't grant them.

Lest anyone think I am being too picky here, the Constitution does not grant rights. It merely enumerates and affirms rights that we hold irrespective of the Constitution.

We need to keep making this point over and over until people stop thinking that the government grants us ANYTHING. Government is, at its best, a necessary evil and at its worst, an intolerable one.

That said,

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[NRA1995]

People would never be willing to pay the taxes it would take for a government to fully protect a disarmed society from predators.

[Thermalseeker]

People would never be willing to pay the taxes it would take for a government to fully protect a disarmed society from predators.

The same can be said for just about everything gubmint attempts to do. As I frequently tell folks who are against the notion of self protection, just because we hire a private security force, i.e., Police, it does not mean that we give up the right to self protection. The day we do is the day I leave....

[JimRed]

Communities that recognize and grant do not interfere with Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not.

Communities do not "grant" the right; they only interfere with it.

[Eagle Eye]

People would never be willing to pay the taxes it would take for a government to fully protect a disarmed society from predators.

Not even federal prisons are weapon or drug free. What makes us think that we can make a free society weapon or drug free without demolishing even the illusion of freedom?

[Dick Bachert]

“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.”
Sigmund Freud

Now we know why most Dimocrats favor gun control.

[Still Thinking]

The only part I don’t like about all these proposals is that they’re linked to CCW, which require you to be on file with the govt. Though, I guess, if 60% of the public does it, it WOULD put the government on notice.

[Copernicus]

The only part I don’t like about all these proposals is that they’re linked to CCW, which require you to be on file with the govt. Though, I guess, if 60% of the public does it, it WOULD put the government on notice.

Excellent point. Mary Carpenter has been through that crucible and back

Mary Carpenter In Her Own Words about gun control:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K73pWPAYg0g

http://www.grnc.org/mary_carpenter_letter.htm

Mary Carpenter's letter to the North Carolina General Assembly:

All the gun laws you can imagine cannot change the heart of a killer and you know it.

Until man's heart is changed, we will be like sheep led to the slaughter without our weapons of defense.

May you stand before God and man as my two precious grandchildren's killer if you pass any more gun legislation that will make me a felon should I own a handgun or any other gun for that matter.

[manic4organic]

I just heard Mike Gallagher and Chris Wallace debating this issue on Mike’s show. Wallace said something like “so we should just have everyone in class packing?” Gallagher disappointed me by responding with “well, if the weapons in a safe place...” No, no, no, Mike.

[jellybean]

Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.

An armed society is a polite society.

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[SuziQ]

LOL!! LOVE that graphic!

[NavyCanDo]

Red State America?, What we need is a FRED STATE AMERICA

RUN FRED RUN!

[jellybean]

(And I think you can add me to the ping list now...)

It's official then -- You're a FRedHead! :)

[ZULU]

I HOPE this guy RUNS - NOW.

[NavyCanDo]

Is that a bumper sticker? I love it.

[Atlas Sneezed]

This is perhaps the best summary of the concealed carry issue with respect to the VT killings.

And it is from a VIABLE LIKELY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE!!!!

[SuziQ]

The most compelling testimony I ever saw for the right to bear arms was from the woman whose mother and father were killed in Luby's Cafeteria in Texas. Her first name was Suzanne, but I can't for the life of me remember her last name right now. She was testifying before some Senate committee, and she pointed at snarky UpChuck Schumer, and told him that she held him, and everyone who agreed with his ideas, PERSONALLY responsible for the death of her parents.

She had a permit to carry a weapon, but because of the laws of Texas, she was not allowed to carry it in her purse into the restaurant. Thus, she, being a law abiding cityzen, her parents, and all the other patrons that night were captive to this one lone nut with a gun. The most emotional part of her testimony was when she talked about how the man walked up and just shot her Dad point blank, then walked away, shooting others. At one point, one of the shots had broken a window, and people began running out. She grabbed her mother and started running, but her mother broke away, and went back to her husband's body, at which point, the man came back over and shot her, too.

I was just in tears by the end of her testimony before the Senate Committee, and truly wished I could have reached through the TV to slap the snot out of Schumer, who was so condescending toward her.