Thursday, April 19, 2007

Related to the Virginia Tech Massacre

As I talked about in class today, this was a very disturbed individual, and a lot of people knew about it. Why did he get away with purchasing guns? Do our gun control laws need to change? Check out the articles below:

Rules should have barred weapon purchase

VA Tech Massacre Reignites Gun Control Debate

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Current event #7

This is in regards to the VA Tech Reignites Gun Control Debate article. I think that gun control laws are too loosely based in the United States. In the second amendment it gives us the right to bear arms, but we do have to remember that this was written a long time ago in different circumstances. We can not interpret the constitution and its ammendments in the same way it was interpreted back then. Today, I beleive that stricter laws on gun control are necassary to protect citizens from danger. It is unfortunate that the massacre at VA Tech is what it takes for us to see that we may need stricter gun control laws.

Anonymous said...

it seems to me that anyone now a days can purchase firearms, and this is something that i think is really wrong. the man who killed all those people was completely disturbed and had no business owning any type or harmful objects. the government needs to crack down on the process of buying guns so that people who will use them in harmful ways, can't get a hold of them. there are so many crimes daily relating to gun violence and i think if there was a screening process that our gun problem may go down. i just hope that nothing like the virginia tech shooting ever happens again.

Anonymous said...

Commenting for current event #8... I think there is an important lesson that could be learned after witnessing this sort of horrific event. Its absolutely appauling that we can view the event of something like Columbine a few years ago, and make no real progress on refusing to let it happen again. And i hope this is a reality check. Because we didn't make a change and so something so much worse happened. I fully realize that the 2nd amendment of the constitution of the United States gives citizens the right to bear arms although for the murderer of 32 innocent lives he didn't even have to have a background check to purchase a weapon. I understand that the NRA believes its important to have guns be available to American citizens and although i really don't agree with that AT ALL! and unfortunately i can't change the minds of thousands of republicans. I think a decent compromise would be to pass a law requiring that ANYBODY who purchases a weapon of ANY kind has to have a license and intense background check. That the way the less guns that are on the streets the less likely something like this will happen again. I also think that is really vital for all school security to be stepped up. There is no reason why millions of guns should be in the hands of civilans when at school. If need be there should be increased security guards and or metal detectors or other means by making sure that students or anybody else on compass does not have weapons with them.

Anonymous said...

Alex Hunter in Regards to the VA Tech Massacre Reignites Gun Control Debate...

I think that gun control should be more enforced. Also, sellers who do not administer full background checks should be held partially responsible for these shootings, that way they might care more about who they sell guns to rather than just making a quick buck. We have seen so many times that too many people take lives when they are given a gun so it’s time to do a better job of screening the people who are given them. It was very obvious to any who knew the VA Tech killer that was mentally unstable and should not be given a gun, so obviously if the distributor of the gun would have done a simple background check, he would have known this person was dangerous with a gun.

Anonymous said...

Current Event #8

After many different threats that are always aimed twords schools, and controverys over school shootings, it is really confusing that there would not be much more done to help control things like the Massacre at Virginia Tech from happening. If there were better gun control laws, and more things done to limit the number, and type of people that can carry guns, this may not have happened. I don't think that all gun control laws need to be changed, but I do think that there are some things about it that do need to be altered. I definatly don't think that the man behind the shooting at VT should have been able to own a gun in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Any time there is a massacre in a school or in general a debate about gun control seems to rise up again. The right to bear arms is a right that is protected directly under the constitution. The right has made it this far so I don't believe that it will change. What needs to be protected is the basic rights. If we start losing one, then another, then what happens? Gun control is important but we can't change one of the oldest rights in our constitution. We just need to change the way in which we deal guns. If we put stricter policies on how a person recieves a gun it will limit who can get one. If we do limit who can buy a gun, what do we do about the guns that are already out there? How do we limit those guns? We need to get smarter about the gun control idea. That does not necessarily mean we need to close down all gun sales. We just need to go about it in a more intellligent way.

Anonymous said...

Commenting on:
Rules should have barred weapon purchase:

Current event#8

It is a shame that the virginia tech shooter could have even gotten a gun. he had a history of mental illness and this got overlooked. This being over looked contributed to just how easy it was for the shooter to go through with the murders. I think that there should be more security on gun purchase and availabilty. Each person should have to wait 30 days to recive a fire arm of any kind so they cannot spontainiously plan on doing something. also i think there should be more thorogh background checks done on people and if you have a history with any mental illness, depression, or violence then they should not even be able to purchase a gun. i think this would make it harder to purchase a gun for a lesser purpose.