Virginia Tech Massacre

I didn’t intend to write two consecutive posts on gun violence, but current events have forced my hands. In the coming weeks, parents, teachers, and law enforcement officers are likely to present the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech as further evidence that we need stricter gun laws. Surely, they will say, these shooting would never have occurred if guns were outlawed. In response (preemptively) to that, allow me to first quote the Virginia Tech Violence Prevention Policy:

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Policy 5616
Revision: 1 August 23, 2005
Campus and Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Page 2 of 7

2.2 Prohibition of Weapons
The university’s employees, students, and volunteers, or any visitor or other third party attending a sporting, entertainment, or educational event, or visiting an academic or administrative office building or residence hall, are further prohibited from carrying, maintaining, or storing a firearm or weapon on any university facility, even if the owner has a valid permit, when it is not required by the individual’s job, or in accordance with the relevant University Student Life Policies. Any such individual who is reported or discovered to possess a firearm or weapon on university property will be asked to remove it immediately. Failure to comply may result in a student judicial referral and/or arrest, or an employee disciplinary action and/or arrest.

As you can clearly see, guns were already forbidden at Virginia Tech. Of course this didn’t stop the perpetrator, who clearly planned his attack long in advance. It did, however, guarantee a school full of unarmed victims. Imagine if the law abiding student in the back of the class, who has a concealed carry permit but left his gun at home in compliance with school policy, had been carrying his firearm on the day of the attacks. Who knows how many lives he might have saved? The administrators at Virginia Tech believed that students might feel unsafe if they knew that some of the people around them might be carrying firearms. Unfortunately, it seems that they confused feeling safe with being safe.