The massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday is a nightmare no one should ever have to go through and my prayers go out to every family member and friend of those involved.

It didn't take long for the usual suspects to try to capitalize politically on this horror.  The Terminally Awful rosie o' didn't wait twenty four hours to use it as an excuse to bring up G.W. and Hurricane Katrina, while simultaneously blowing her own horn, re her "million Mom march".

It's funny, cus rosie's march was the last straw that turned me from a gun control advocate into a second amendment supporting hard liner.

Most of my friends and family probably don't remember (and in fact, can hardly believe) that I used to be totally in favor of gun control.  I figured "you have to license and register your car, so what 's the difference?"

I used to believe that the NRA was no different than NARAL with their over the top, hysterical political rhetoric.  The NRA claimed that gun licensing and registration was the first step to confiscation.  This sounded just like NARAL and NOW, claiming pro lifers wanted to keep all women bare foot and pregnant. The pro-lifers were guilty of over the top rhetoric, too.  I remember the dire warnings;  infanticide, eugenics, an overall cheapening of human life and finally, euthanasia.

Hysteria!  Just because the state wants to know who owns what guns doesn't mean they'll take 'em away and just because someone doesn't want you to kill your baby doesn't mean they want you to spend your whole life popping 'em out.

So that's what I thought.  But I paid attention to what actually happened, too.

The pro lifers were right.  Not just sort of right, not just right in spirit, but right on the money in every single instance.  And it all happened in a single generation.

The pro abortionists have used the excuse of "a right to choose" and "women's autonomy" to cover up a multitude of horrors that would have had Goebbels saying "Wooo! Never thought of that one!" Not only must a woman have the right to choose, it's the only invasive procedure that can be performed on a minor without her parent's knowledge or consent.  It's the only invasive procedure that must be performed at the drop of a hat with very little pre-op instruction or counseling for the patient as to what is happening and what the ramifications will be or what the options are.  It's the only procedure that has become a political statement in the name of "privacy".

Meanwhile, over and over again, in nations like Australia and Britain, what started out as simple gun registration has, in fact, turned into confiscation.

So what? Less guns means more safety, right?

Crime in Britain has gone through the roof since guns were outlawed.  Home invasions, property crimes and violent crimes are all ascendant.  At least one homeowner who had been repeatedly burglarized was prosecuted for shooting someone who was breaking into the fellow's house.

The same is happening in Australia.  In 2004, when a security guard who was beaten and robbed of the  reciepts she carried shot the robber, she was tried for murder!

It's not just guns that are outlawed in those places, it's self defense.

Back to rosie.  I remember when the Million Mom March was being advertised.  It was to be a massive march in Washington of Mothers against gun violence.   But it was an enormous bait and switch.  No sooner did the organizers get a whole lotta women to the mall in DC than they changed the purpose.  Suddenly it was Mother's Against Guns.  There's a world of difference between being against gun violence and being against guns. 

I don't know any mothers who aren't against gun violence.  I know several who own and enjoy their guns.

If the anti- second- amendment folks will lie about the purpose of their march, what else will they lie about?

I don't own a gun, I don't want a gun, I've never touched a gun.  But I decided right then, that I was on the side of the millions (tens of millions?) of American gun owners who have managed to go through their lives never once pointing their weapons at another human being much less shooting at someone. 

So one of my brothers (he wants to repeal the second amendment) asked me this morning if, in light of the recent rampages at Virginia Tech and in the Utah mall, I still didn't agree that people were too deranged and stupid to be responsible gun owners?

Do I think millions (hundreds of millions?) of law abiding Americans should be treated like potential criminals based on the existance of actual criminals?

No. I do not.

I did get to thinking about those two shooting sprees, however.  What was the difference? Why was the monster in Virginia able to kill six times as many people as the monster in Utah? 

The short answer is because he picked a school for his killing field. 

I don't know about Utah, but in this town, every mall has a large "Guns Banned on the Premises" sign at every entrance.  A mall is a pretty good place to rack up a head count if Satan tells you it's time to go out in a blaze of gore.   

The difference between Virginia Tech and the Trolley Square Mall comes down to Ken Hammond.

Ken Hammond is the off duty police officer who was having dinner at the mall with his wife.  When the shooting started, Officer Hammond told his wife to hide.  Then he drew his own weapon, shot at and cornered the shooter and held him until police arrived. 

Now, it's true that Ken Hammond is a police officer, trained in the use of firearms.  One of the conditions of getting a conceal/carry permit in this state is to undergo training.  I'm not saying the training is as extensive as that of the police, but visit a firing range, a VFW or a gun club, and you'll find that lots of Americans (millions, maybe?) are extremely skilled and well trained in the handling of firearms. 

Americans are amazing.  I know people who know more about the history and theology of the Catholic Church than their parish priest does.  I know people who know more about football than their local highschool coach does.  There isn't a discipline you can name where some aficianado, who studies it in his spare time, doesn't know more about it than the so called experts.

So yes, Ken Hammond is a police officer.  That doesn't change the fact that the reason far more people didn't die at the Trolley Square mall is because an armed citizen made sure of it.

 

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