Virginia Tech Shooting (...Continued)

Here is one of the editorials by Mr. Bradford Wiles in Austin American Statesman last week. He is basically saying that if all the students were allowed to carry guns, the innocent victims would have had an opportunity to defend themselves.

Though I see his point in instances like this one, I cannot agree with Mr. Bradford. If we allow guns in schools, even though mass killings may reduce, I think the number of shootings would rise dramatically as students are not as emotionally intelligent as adults. They are prone to act their whims without a grasp on the consequences for their actions.

I find it very hard to digest our collective mentality "if everyone carries a gun, the world would be a safer place". I think that we swallowed a fly accidentally. Now we are thinking of swallowing a spider to kill that fly! However, I do see a need for the weak good people to have a protection against the strong bad people - unfortunately, it is a Catch 22 situation.

I cannot help but think that things could have been different at Virginia Tech. As a Tech student and a concealed handgun permit holder, I have requested that the university allow me, and those who wish to be responsible for their own safety, the ability to carry a legally licensed firearm as a means of self-defense without fear of expulsion or termination from employment.

The associate vice president for university relations, Larry Hincker, responded to my plea, writing that "guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

It is striking how this policy forces us, as students, faculty and staff, to believe that an individual who is bent on causing irreparable harm will not do so because it is against university policy.

This is what gun prohibitions do. They provide areas where only those who have total disregard for the laws or policies in place are armed. If any one of the students or faculty in Norris Hall had been able to defend himself or herself with a gun, things could have been different. Who knows how many of the victims' lives could have been saved, but wouldn't just one have been enough? Laws and policies that attempt to prohibit gun ownership and concealed-carry affect only those who are law- and policy-abiding citizens. These are the very people who need to be able to defend themselves from a violent criminal who has no regard for law or policy.

A murderer does not care if having a gun is against the law. The killer at Virginia Tech broke university policy and state law by carrying his guns concealed on campus. Did the policy do anything to prevent those guns from being used in a classroom? Are we really expected to think that the shooter thought, "I shouldn't go on a murderous rampage, it's against school policy. I could be expelled"?

Can't we all see how ridiculous that is? This policy asks Virginia Tech students, faculty and staff to choose between their education and their lives. Is that a choice we should be forced to make?

Opponents complain that there will be blood in the classrooms if students are armed. There were no students or faculty armed for their own defense, and yet the fact remains that there was blood in those classrooms. Had those people been able to defend themselves, there could have been much less. Others may believe that there is no reason to have a handgun because the police adequately protect them. Yet often, as evidenced at Virginia Tech, they arrive after an incident has occurred and do not prevent crimes, they respond to and investigate them.

While I am appreciative of the efforts of the law enforcement community, the fact is that if someone wants to cause harm, law enforcement officers have to actually be present to prevent it, and they rarely are. It's time to let people who want to defend themselves from an armed attacker do so. Decent, law-abiding citizens deserve the fundamental right of self-defense.

I do not suddenly become a threat to my community when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto the Virginia Tech campus, and I do not deserve to be treated as such. We need to take the prudent and practical step of letting responsible citizens defend themselves. By letting those who want to be responsible for their own safety carry a gun, we minimize the possibility of this ever happening again.

Virginia Shooting (Continued)

I noticed in The Hindu that the list of innocent victims in the brutal Virginia Tech shooting included Professor G.V. Lokanathan, a faculty member of Indian origin.

It is sickening to watch unnecessary violence. This is the time for all of us mourn for the victims and think of ways to prevent or minimize this kind of tragedies. I believe that violence erupts when someone feels (correctly or incorrectly) that the world is unfair to them.

To ensure peace, first of all, I think that we must shun first hand violence. Violence can be in many forms - unwarranted attacks, hazing, verbal abuse, etc. There is no need to use force unless our backs are against the walls and our lives are genuinely threatened. Even in this situation, only aggressive defense (to control the offender) with reluctance is justified. Sure, the world we live in is not ideal to make this possible always, but we must try.

The second thing is, we must shun second hand violence. That is, we should not offer our support to people who believe that aggression is the quick fix for the problems in the world ("be reasonable, do it my way" attitude). As you may have guessed, like many opponents of Iraq war, I am building a case against unjust wars and preemptive strikes at this moment of reflection. Unnatural loss of life in any part of the globe is unnecessary. Logic for supporting diplomatic efforts for resolution of wars is simple - we can gather more flies with sugar than with vinegar.

I am thinking of the lives of people in Iraq, who are caught in an unjust war. Iraq is about the size of California. We must realize that ten times as many people as in Virginia Tech shooting are dying EVERYDAY in Iraq, for the past FEW YEARS! We all are mourning today for the wrongful death of 33 innocent people. Let us just try to imagine how hard it would be for the innocent Iraqis to deal with their situation - death and violence every where, no food, no water, no shelter, no electricity, extreme heat, uncertainty, fear.... Just because a human being is on the other side of an arbitrary line, his life need not suddenly become unimportant and insignificant.

Sure, there are radicals who resort to violence to promote their cause. I agree that they must be restrained and punished swiftly. I do not support any one who resorts to violence unnecessarily. But we (the people) are getting impatient and are resorting to violence without fully exhausting peaceful alternatives. I hope that we all would grow up soon.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which we arrive at that goal. - Martin Luther King Jr.