Why Virginia Tech's gun policy failed its students

A sad day in the nation

Let me preface this post with my sincere condolences to those that have been hurt by the recent tragedy that occurred in Virginia Tech today. Over 20 students have been killed with over 20 more that have been injured. These young adults were innocent, and they were defenseless. I'm saddened to hear this tragedy, which could have been avoidable.

Understanding Virginia Tech's security weaknesses

No matter how you look at it, Virginia Tech's security was NOT enough. Criminals being able to come in and have a shooting rampage is unacceptable in any campus, much less such a prestigious university such as Virginia Tech.

One major problem with Virginia Tech is that it prohibits students from defending themselves with guns. Last year, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear that a gun rights bill was defeated. The bill would have allowed legal citizens with legal concealed weapons licenses to be able to defend themselves on campus if a shooter was going to go on a rampage.

"I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Source: Gun bill

Notice the word "feel". Our gun policies have been based on feelings rather than facts. Fact: Criminals own guns and will use it. Fact: Less lives would be wasted if civilians were able to shoot back. We should not go with "feelings" but rather with reason.

Instead what we have here is a tragic case of good motives but bad policy. The idea that we can somehow control criminals with laws on paper is outrageous. They will get guns, tazers, knives, or other types of weapons no matter what. Our society, our world is 'naturally' imperfect and it will never be perfect until something 'unnatural' happens. We have to understand that as a reality before we can even understand the phrase: "campus security".

Let students and teachers defend themselves

As we can see from the policy of banning legal citizens from having legal guns, it is wrong. Why? Because in this scenario, criminals are the only ones that have guns! Our society cannot be perfect; hence, we have to accept realities. And that reality is to give members of society the ability to defend themselves.

The sheep must look like a threat for the wolf to back off. Otherwise, the wolf will simply attack. Preferrably we'd want law enforcement to be at every classroom, but the tragic truth about govt budgets is, they simply can't do that.

Give students and teachers proper training. Get them through background tests. But for goodness sakes, give legal citizens the right to bear arms to defend themselves against criminals!