Mass Shooting at Va Tech. 33 Dead, 15 Injured [reportedly]

[registerthis]

Do we really want "resident legal aliens" running around with guns?

I'd prefer not to have anyone running around with guns--immigrants or not.

[registerthis]

That's certainly true, but I think allowing ANYONE to legally purchase a firearm within our borders without possessing U.S. citizenship is horrible policy.

Why? Are immigrants more prone to abuse firearms than American citizens?

And once an immigrant crosses the line from permanent resident to U.S. citizen, what has happened that suddenly entitles that individual to ownership of a gun that did not exist before?

[Cedric]

I'm not a moderator, but let's not ruin this thread with gun control questions.

Talk about a highly charged subject.

[Joseph]

Why? Are immigrants more prone to abuse firearms than American citizens?

And once an immigrant crosses the line from permanent resident to U.S. citizen, what has happened that suddenly entitles that individual to ownership of a gun that did not exist before?

I agree Register....this is simply another version of what I asked...why the quick need to jump to split us from them? Why isn't it about where WE failed as a society, not how did Va Tech screw up and not about how this guy is a loner and recluse and something we are all not in some way. The immigrant argument is just another way to say he's not like us in many ways.

[registerthis]

I agree Register....this is simply another version of what I asked...why the quick need to jump to split us from them? Why isn't it about where WE failed as a society, not how did Va Tech screw up and not about how this guy is a loner and recluse and something we are all not in some way. The immigrant argument is just another way to say he's not like us in many ways.

There but for the grace of God go I.

[Joseph]

There but for the grace of God go I.

Precisely my feelings.

[paintmered]

Whoops! Oh really?!? Wow, I had no clue. Thanks for the edification.

This is correct.

[TeamDunn]

Somebody was apparently worried:

The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as a English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service.

News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing identified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/..._tech_shooting

[RedsBaron]

Somebody was apparently worried:





http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/..._tech_shooting

Setting a fire in his dorm room and stalking some women? Somebody should have been worried.

[WMR]

Why? Are immigrants more prone to abuse firearms than American citizens?

And once an immigrant crosses the line from permanent resident to U.S. citizen, what has happened that suddenly entitles that individual to ownership of a gun that did not exist before?

Owning a firearm isn't an absolute right in this country, it's a privilege. And one that I feel should be reserved for those possessing citizenship within this country.

Immigrants, generally, have a much shorter "track record" in regards to how much is known about their background and what they have been involved with in the past.

Many foreign police forces operate with little national centralization. Once an immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen, the "carrot" of gun ownership has been earned and should be made available to them if they so desire.

Somebody born in the U.S. can be a killer just as easily as a foreign immigrant, but I'd feel safer if those people permitted to purchase and own firearms are 'tied' to the utmost to our country and hopefully have established a lengthy track record of functioning as a law abiding citizen in American society.

[Joseph]

Owning a firearm isn't an absolute right in this country, it's a privilege. And one that I feel should be reserved for those possessing citizenship within this country.

Immigrants, generally, have a much shorter "track record" in regards to how much is known about their background and what they have been involved with in the past.

Many foreign police forces operate with little national centralization. Once an immigrant becomes a U.S. citizen, the "carrot" of gun ownership has been earned and should be made available to them if they so desire.

Somebody born in the U.S. can be a killer just as easily as a foreign immigrant, but I'd feel safer if those people permitted to purchase and own firearms are 'tied' to the utmost to our country and hopefully have established a lengthy track record of functioning as a law abiding citizen in American society.

So you'd be an advocate of a test to prove someone capable of owning and using a fire arm in the same manner we test people for the right to drive?

[WMR]

So you'd be an advocate of a test to prove someone capable of owning and using a fire arm in the same manner we test people for the right to drive?

I'd be cool with that, but that's not really the point of my post that you quoted. Testing whether or not someone is capable of operating a firearm doesn't really tell us much about whether or not they should.

[Joseph]

Obviously not, but it would be one more protective measure. Naturally it wouldn't end things like this, but it might stop the occasional one here and there.

[WMR]

Oh yeah especially when it comes to accidents around the house/self-inflicted wounds ... To go one step further: I think every gun owner should be required to demonstrate their ability to lock up their gun via either a trigger lock or safe.

It doesn't ensure that they'll use it, but at least the odds are better that they will if you know that they at least own something similar. Too many legally purchased guns ending up in the hands of those who they don't belong. It'd be a way to hopefully increase safety while not directly infringing on gun ownership rights.

[Reds Fanatic]

Unfortunately like in a lot of these cases the copycats are out making threats trying to get attention.

Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage killed 33 people.
In Louisiana, parents picked up hundreds of students from Bogalusa's high school and middle school amid reports that a man had been arrested Tuesday morning for threatening a mass killing in a note that alluded to the murders at Virginia Tech.

Schools Superintendent Jerry Payne said both schools were locked down and police arrested a 53-year-old man who allegedly made the threat in a note he gave to a student headed to the private Bowling Green School in Franklinton. Both towns are in southeastern Louisiana.

"The note referred to what happened at Virginia Tech," Payne said. "It said something like, 'If you think that was bad, then you haven't seen anything yet."

In Austin, authorities evacuated buildings at St. Edward's University after a threatening note was found, a school official said.

Police secured the campus perimeter and were searching the buildings, St. Edward's University spokeswoman Mischelle Amador said. She declined to say where the note was found and said its contents were "nonspecific."

The two other scares were determined to be unfounded.

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, officials ordered three campus administration buildings evacuated for almost two hours Tuesday morning in response to a telephone bomb threat. The city's bomb squad searched the buildings but found nothing, campus spokesman Chuck Cantrell said.

Cantrell said there was no reason to believe the bogus threat was related to the shootings at Virginia Tech, but "we just chose to err on the side of caution today."

The other, at the University of Oklahoma, had started with a report of a man spotted on campus carrying a suspicious object, officials said.

The man was carrying an umbrella, not a weapon, and he later identified himself to authorities, University of Oklahoma President David Boren said in a statement. Boren initially had said the person was believed to carrying a yoga mat.

"We now consider the matter closed," Boren said. "We always want to err on the side of caution in a situation like this."

At St. Edward's in Austin, students who live on campus were being allowed to return to their dormitories as police finished searching each building, Amador said. Faculty, staff and all other students were asked to stay away from the campus, and morning and afternoon classes were canceled. About 5,200 students are enrolled at the Catholic university south of downtown Austin.

Amador said the university's reaction was not influenced by Monday's attack at Virginia Tech.

"No matter what day or when this would have happened, we will always take the necessary precautions to protect our students, our faculty, our staff, the entire university community," she said.