What do NRA supporters have to say about yesterday's shooting?

Question

Try to imagine that one of your loved ones was killed in the massacre, and then justify why guns should not be made completely illegal.

First, let me say thanks for the huge response. Second, let me address typical responses. 1. "People kill people" True. But guns make it EASIER. 2. If more people had guns, the massacre may have been prevented. Not necessarily. If more people had guns, through all the confusion it may have turned into an all-out shootout with even more people dead. 3. We should have the right to protect ourselves. TRUE. BUT EVEN IF THOSE STUDENTS HAD GUNS, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO STOP THAT LUNATIC. He struck without warning. What would a gun have done for them? 4. Even if guns were banned, people would still die or be killed with bombs, cars, etc. TRUE. But cars are not designed to kill. Guns ARE. And it is very easy to kill with a gun. So if they are banned, that's one less source to worry about. 5. Even if guns were banned, criminals will still use guns. TRUE. But it will be more difficult for them!!!! That could make the difference between having millions of guns in people's hands and less.

Please don't crucify me. I am a moderate on this issue, who favors strict gun control, not outlawing guns completely. I asked a similar question to anti-gun people.

Answer 1

It was a horrible and senseless tragedy. What gun owners would like to know is why VT security people are not permitted to carry weapons. Any lunatic with a gun owns the campus til the police can finally get there and find them.

Answer 2

I am sorry for those families that lost a loved one in the shooting. I am not going to justify why guns should be made illegal, but I would like you to imagine if they were, your mother, sister,wife,or daughter sleeping in bed and hear an intruder, they can't get to the phone or the intruder has killed the phone lines, the crazed criminal comes into the bedroom, she's terrified of being raped or killed and has no way to get help, now what....all guns are illegal, but the crazed criminal has one and his planning on using it...your loved one is brutally attacked and killed because the criminal didn't play by the rules...of course they never do or they wouldn't be criminals...so do you really want guns illegal? stop letting your emotions over ride your rational side...oh yeah and if we make guns illegal...how do you plan on stopping the terrorist that would try and take over our country...you would have no means of protecting the ones you love. Put the blame were it should be...on the guy that killed all those people at the school not on the gun...you going to outlaw knives next because there have been school attacks leaving people dead with just a knife!

Answer 3

Even if that argument stands on the most basic level, it dies when the details are put under scrutiny. Psycho A walks into a crowded room armed with an AR-15. Psycho A pulls the trigger and sprays the room, The population of the room is dead before they can react. Psycho B walks into a room arms with a baseball bat. Psycho B hits victim A in the head. Psycho B is swarmed and beaten into submission by the rooms occupants. While it may be true that anyone can kill anyone else with most anything, the KILLING POTENTIAL of firearms is what should examined, and to do so would find that the threat they pose in the community far outweigh's any benefits they could have. It's also worth pointing out that while it may be possible to kill somebody with something else, those something elses have a PRIMARY ROLE which is not killing. Assault Rifles have no other purpose, their PRIMARY ROLE is to kill humans.

Answer 4

The obvious response is that, if some of the victims had been armed, themselves, the massacre would have been ended earlier.

Some other points that could be made:

VA laws allowing guns to be carried to do not aply on campus.

The college campus was designated a gun-free zone.

The shooter had guns in his dorm room, in violation of both the law and the college policy.

So, the shooting illustrates the folly of gun control, not the need for it.

Answer 5

Where do I even begin. Consider this; there is one firearm for every 11 people on the planet. Making guns illegal will not make guns magically disappear. Cocaine is illegal too; have you ever been to the bathroom of a nightclub? If you make guns "completely illegal," do you really think that will stop someone who is intent on getting one?

What we've done in this country by restricting the areas where firearms can be legally carried is to create herds of defenseless victims. Cho Seung-Hui could not legally purchase that Glock 17 he used yesterday--he was a resident alien with no social security number. That means that he acquired it illegally and that it was sold to him illegally.

Virginia is a gun state. I have to believe that if a few of the students in the engineering building had concealed carry permits (and were allowed to carry guns on campus), this maniac could have been stopped earlier. Additionally, look who everybody ran to for help; the police. What are the police? They are men armed with guns. So the item of your concern is also the item of your solace, and when you need a gun, nothing else will substitute.

I don't have to play your "imagine" game. I'm a combat wounded veteran of the Iraq war and I've lost many close friends to guns. I don't blame Dr. Kalashnikov for designing the AK-47. I blame the mother f***er who used it. The proof is in the pudding my friend, when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. The only person responsible for yesterday's massacre was the murderer himself; not TV, not video games, not rap music, and not guns. When are you people going to wake up and face the truth? Tragedies and atrocities are going to happen. It's as true as death and taxes.

Imagine you were a victim of 9/11 who had to make the stark choice between being burned to death by jet fuel or jumping to your death on the concrete below. Would your last thoughts be of the need to make planes completely illegal? Or perhaps box cutters? Ever been to Texas? You can't throw a rock there without hitting a man with a gun. It's no surprise to me that gun violence is very low there. If you have the intellectual courage to read something that doesn't reinforce your current opinion, I recommend "More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws" by Dr. John R. Lott Jr.

In your defense, there are plenty of people who agree with you. Perhaps you've heard of them...Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.

Answer 6

It was a sad thing that happened. But once again. He did it. No one made him and the gun did not make him. If a criminal wants a gun the criminal can find a gun.

If guns were to be banned then the only ones with guns are police and criminals. Just think how easy it is to smuggle drugs into this country. Now you ban guns, the amount of guns smuggled would sky rocket. If some one wants to get a gun it would be as hard as buying drugs. Which is not hard to do.

Answer 7

I live in a rural area and we have had and still have problems with people breaking in to homes even when the owners are home. My Father-in -law is 93 yrs. old and lives alone they have tried to break in his house two different times but he scared them away with his shot gun. He didn't have to kill anyone he just had to let them know that he had a gun and could use it. I hate to think of what might have happened if he had not had a gun.

Answer 8

To drag out the tired old saying, guns don't kill people - people kill people.

Why not? Because if guns were illegal, only criminals would have them.

Look how many drunk drivers kill Americans every year - should we ban cars, too? Same logic - so why *not*?

Answer 9

If you want to worry about making something illegal that takes lives--then you need to make Alcohol illegal--it kills 4 times more people each year than guns--Guns also protect us, Alcohol does not protect us in anyway--even with incidents like yesterday--Alcohol is way more dangerous, and deadly yet you don't hear people demanding us to get rid of it, you know what also kills more people than guns--Car accidents, you know what else kills more than guns Tobacco--hum if we are going of get rid of things that kill us we have a long road ahead of us--maybe we should just educated, and live in a free society.

Answer 10

Why don't you think????

What if just ONE of those kids in that classroom would have had a gun, then they could have stopped that person from killing all those that he did.

Besides it WASN'T the GUN, it was the unstable person behind the gun.
That is who needs to be controlled, not the guns.

I've had guns for over 40 years and I've never killed anyone, nor have my guns.