And so we have it again at Northern Illinois University, less than an hour from the Gun-Free Paradise of Chicago — the Man in Black, the Terminator, the Devil Himself come to collect souls. And what can you do? This from ugh Hewett:
“I heard this girl scream, ’Run, he’s reloading the gun!”’Reloading the gun...all the time in the world...because no one in the lecture hall is armed...universities, those great halls of learning, don't allow adults to be armed.
Last night Glenn Reynolds from InstaPundit and Eugene Volokh from the Volokh Conspiracy were on Hugh Hewett last night. Here's part of the transcript:
HH: Whenever the subject turns to guns in America, and the chaos that can cause, I talk with a couple of law professors who you’ve heard here often, Eugene Volokh from the University of California at Los Angeles Law School, and Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, from the University of Tennessee Law School. Let me start with you, Glenn, your reaction to today’s shooting, and to the proposition, which my callers are urging on me, that college students ought to be carrying concealed weapons.There's an insight I first mentioned in my book, TRAIL SAFE — "Prey attracts predators." That is the way of life whether we're on the veldt in Africa or on an Illinois college campus. Driven by the false promises of antigun movement, we create gun-free zones, then announce them proudly to the world that at least in this one place, are the sheep are conveniently corralled and docile. Then we are shocked — shocked! — when the inevitable predator shows up to take advantage of that flock.
GR: I certainly think so. I actually have quite a few students who have permits to carry concealed weapons. One of them, in fact, was on the Springfield Armory National Pistol Team. And if they were armed in my classroom, I would feel enormously safe. And in fact, actually, after the Virginia Tech shooting, last year, one of those students came up to me and she asked if we could have class off-campus, because she’s not allowed to carry on campus.
HH: Now how widespread do you consider the ability to respond well with a weapon to be, Glenn Reynolds, among your students?
GR: I suppose it’s pretty significant. I mean, I haven’t surveyed them, but my advanced Constitutional law seminar covers the right to bear arms, and I take the class to the shooting range for that, and they seem to acquit themselves pretty well. I really don’t know how many have permits, because it’s only when they, you know, identify themselves to me that I know, but that’s a surprisingly large number.
HH: Eugene Volokh, what’s your reaction to the idea of college and law students carrying concealed weapons on campuses?
EV: You know, in principle, I think it’s probably a good idea, especially if you focus on 21 year olds and up. I also think it’s a good idea to have faculty do it. Even if you don’t trust college and law students, it’s a pretty fair bet that the faculty, for all we laugh at the university professors, but are generally a relatively sober bunch. At the same time, it’s important to realize that horrific as these events are, they represent maybe one in five thousand, one to two to five thousand murders in the country. So it’s like one, less than one tenth of one percent of all homicides. You have probably a ten thousand times greater chance of being killed in an auto accident than you do in a university or school shooting. The fact is that these are very rare things, and I’m not sure that it makes sense to make policy, even policy that I generally think is pretty good policy, based on such extraordinarily rare events.
This is the year you're going to arm yourself, to take the responsibility for your and yours into your own hands. This is the year that you're going to leave the flock behind. The legacy of gun control is always the death of innocents! Protect yourself!
5 comments:
MB, I reacted the same way you did to the line "He's reloading". My God, what an opportunity to pop up and drop that a**hole to the stage he was standing on. All the time in the world indeed. In this case, time enough to kill a few more.
Sad, but to be expected in the people's republik of illinois - or on any campus that denies people the basic right to self-defense.
I hope the parents of the victims sue the crap out of NIU - and by extension, the State of Illinois - for every dime they can get. It will be expensive because there ain't a judge in Illinois at this point who ain't been bought by Dickie Daley.
So it will be one appeal after another until you get out of the state system. Or maybe go Federal right off the bat, and go for 14th amendment claims.
I got one of those sick e-mails today from the Brady's. (I believe in knowing my enemy.) Of course it had a fund-raising appeal at the end of it. They had the gall to suggest that "gunshow loopholes" (sic) were to blame. The would-be social worker (grad student at U of I in the School of Social Work) had the Illinois FOID and passed the Brady's beloved NICS with nary a blip.
Given that we don't live in a future-world Tom Cruise movie, deranged psychopaths cannot be stopped in advance because, for the most part, we don't know who they are in advance. It is only when they strike that they reveal themselves. That is where, as we reasonable people understand, CCW holders come in. How many more people are going to be killed in "gun-free zones" until it becomes obvious that psychopaths will just ignore the posted signs?
I know that I'm preachin' to the choir here, but it ain't about guns! We had a local story here, where some jerk drove his car into a crowd, because he was mad. No guns used, but still inexcusable behavior and many victims injured.
In one of my prior notes regarding the Virginia-Tech' massacre, I pointed out that it's time to address the root cause of the problem. Concealed carry is a legitimate "containment" action, necessary to keep the situation under control while we SOLVE the problem. It can also be used to "prevent recurrence". This if following the process popularly and tradutionally known as the "Scientifice Method of Problem Solving".
The root cause of the murder problem is that the perpetrator believes that he is justified in doing this due to some rationalization either by himself, or from some external influence. He had a bad childhood, or some girl jilted him, or things are just too hard. The parallel case is "It's OK to steal, because the economy is bad". An actual headline in our MAJOR newspaper used this argument to rationalize the current high car theft rate in our metro area. So, what do you get? More car thefts, because the thieves think it's expected. I was taught that you will starve first, before you steal. God bless my Dad and Mom.
Since these rationalizations come from the psychiatric community, after each incident, it appears that the very profession charged with administering the cure, is actually causing the problem. At no time, EVER, have I heard any of those "professionals" emphatically say "You just don't do that!" Last, the Illinois shooters Dad refused to talk to the media. I would have expected him to be falling all over himself to help the victims. Better yet, how could he have helped prevent the problem in the first place. Did he enable his kid to somehow do all of this? Were there symptoms that he chose to ignore. Well, let's here from you sir! Maybe the victims should be taking him to court too.
Life Member
Faculty? FACULTY will hold the line?
[The walls rebound with "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAhaaaaa..." laughter.]
No,the faculty of any American University are not your First Line of Defense. They are your basic lib-wuss contingent, unified against the concept that Life Will Prevail (cue Jeff Goldblum) to interfere with their cloudcuckoolandian vision of the world.
Staff, however, are composed of the real-world hoi polloi. The little people, the worker-bees. the clerks and jerks who keep any organization up and running ... they just may have the nads to actually react to an attack.
Of course they can't, because even in states which allow CCW on campus, it's worth your career to have access to a firearm on campus. The same with responsible, adult (and there are many) students.
It looks like another nut-case hacked a psycologist to death earlier this week. It finally made the news yesterday, because he didn't use a gun, I suppose. He used a meat cleaver. Another guy drove his car into a crowd yesterday, or the day before and killed seven. I suppose that we could claim that the easy avilability of and access to cars was the cause. On today's news at noon, some lib' said "I didn't know that he could buy a weapon of mass destruction.", when she was discussing the UIL shootings and the shooter. WMDs! WTF?
With more and more coming out about the UIL shooter and his last days, it comes as no surprise that many seemed to know about his behavior. And they protected HIM!So was the case with MR. "Cleaver". I'm still waiting to hear from the UIL shooters father. We need to call him out. We need to call Cho's family out too and keep doing that until the ones who harbor the criminals realize that they'll be held accountable also. Then sue 'em.
Life Member.
Post a Comment