Knee Jerk Reactions to the Massacre at Virginia Tech

"Happiness is a warm gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
When I hold you in my arms (Oo-oo oh yeah)
And I feel my finger on your trigger (Oo-oo oh yeah)
I know no one can do me no harm (Oo-oo oh yeah)
Because happiness is a warm gun, mama (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun (Happiness bang, bang, shoot, shoot)
Well, don't you know happiness is a warm gun, mama? (Happiness is a warm gun, yeah)."

It’s the guns stupid! The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) reports that the overwhelming majority of school related shootings have occurred in the USA. Since the IANSA started keeping track in 1996, the United States leads the world in the number of small arms shootings in schools and colleges worldwide.

We are drowning in handguns. Here are some statistics from 2002.

• Every 10 seconds, a gun is made in America. 

• A recent Justice Department study shows Americans own 65 million handguns
• Handguns account for two-thirds of firearm crime and more than 80% of all firearm 
homicides. Each year, nearly a million violent crimes are committed with handguns.
• On an average day, more than a million Americans are carrying guns outside their workplace. Two million more keep guns in their cars and trucks.
• Close to 40,000 Americans die each year from gunfire. Nearly half of these deaths are homicides committed with cheap, easily obtainable, American-made handguns.

Our disturbed student at Virginia Tech legally purchased a handgun before he went on his shooting rampage. He had no criminal record. He presented 3 forms of ID. And most importantly, he had the money to purchase a $571 handgun at a local store within 40 miles of the campus. Under the federal assault-weapons ban enacted in 1994, handgun magazines were limited to 10 rounds. But that ban was allowed to expire in 2004. Cho used high-capacity magazines containing as many as 33 rounds in each clip. That may explain the carnage at Virginia Tech.

Guns and gun ownership are deeply embedded into our culture. Using violence to resolve conflict is also very much part of our history. Regardless of how disturbed or angry Cho was, he had the right to purchase and own handguns. I cannot believe that the framers of the Constitution would endorse our distorted interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. Did Mr. Lambert believe when he drafted “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” would ultimately become 65 millions handguns owned, sold and discharged in ways that have nothing to do with protecting our free State!

Which politician has the courage to take this issue on? Democrats are so busy pumping psychological testosterone into their campaigns, they are afraid to be labeled as” girly men.” Some pundits and political operatives believe Gore lost Tennessee and West Virginia in 2000 due to his past support of gun control. Gun control has become a radioactive issue for our new muscled-bound majority. Gun advocates are impassionate voters and gun control supporters are weak kneed.

There are too many handguns on the street in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Blacksburg! This is a public health crisis. Handgun violence is destroying families. It is eroding our sense of community and safety in our public spaces.

“According to an IANSA report published in 2006, gun-related incidents result in 300,000 fatalities and one million injuries worldwide every year. Many of those guns come from the U.S. Mexican authorities reported that 80 percent of guns in the country came from the U.S., 50 percent of handguns seized by Canada's gun crime task force were also smuggled across the U.S. border and 30 percent of guns recovered by Japanese authorities originated in the U.S., the IANSA found.
’I think that the US have a problem. But they do not want to face it. They hide behind the 2nd amendment.’”

How can a rational person believe that Cho’s use of high capacity magazines that had 33 rounds per clip reflects the drafter’s intent of the 2nd amendment? Let the debate start anew! I am sick and tired that handgun advocates distort the 2nd Amendment to justify this kind of carnage at Virginia Tech.