FROM DON KATES — FURTHER LESSONS FROM VA TECH

Subject: [2ampd] FROM DON KATES — FURTHER LESSONS FROM VA TECH

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Beating the Odds: How did one gunman kill 32 people?

The statistics on handgun lethality are well-established: A person wounded
with a handgun has a roughly 15% chance of death, i.e., an 85% chance of
survival. For instance, in the 1989 Stockton School Yard Shooting the
shooter fired over 100 rounds at the children and teachers yet managed to
kill only 6 people.

So how did today’s Va Tech. U. shooter manage to kill 32 people? For the
answer we need look no further than the 16 dead in the 1984 MacDonald
shooting in San Ysidro, California.

Under CA law no civilian may carry a loaded or concealed gun without a
permit which only the specially influential have the ability to get. Of
course this did not deter the shooters in either the Stockton, CA or the San
Ysidro killings. Planing to commit many murders and then kill themselves,
they were not worried about the anti-gun laws. The only people whom the gun
laws affected were the victims whom those laws rendered helpless and
defenseless.

Deprived of the ability to defend themselves (and the public), all those
victims could do was helplessly depend on the police. In San Ysidro police
response time was excellent. The SWAT team was on the scene within minutes.
All except the team leader who was stuck in a freeway traffic jam. And the
SWAT team was under strict instructions not to fire until the leader arrived
and approved. So they stood outside the MacDonalds for 56 minutes watching
as the killer in their sights walked around the restaurant firing execution
shots into the heads of the wounded lying on the floor. When the leader
arrived a hour late he promptly ordered the SWAT team to open fire which
they did. That is why
21 victims died even though 85% of ordinary shooting victims survive:
Because CA’s anti-gun laws made sure no civilian could stop the carnage and
police were denied the opportunity to do so until the team leader arrived.

In contrast, many such massacres have been terminated by armed civilians in
states that have adopted right to carry laws for responsible law-abiding
adults. Many of these incidents are chronicled in John Lott’s, THE BIAS
AGAINST GUNS. Especially pertinent is the Jan., 2002 shooting which took
three lives at Virginia’s Appalachian Law School.
Hearing the gunfire, dozens of law students fled in panic. But two students
went to their cars where they had handguns which they used to disarm the
killer and hold him for police. (Lott, BIAS supra at p, 24 ff.)

But VA Tech U. has a “gun free zone” policy, meaning that no one (except the
killer) had a firearm anywhere on school grounds. Compare the following news
items:

I. extract from the Roanoke Times, 1/31/06, “Gun bill gets shot down by
panel”:

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to
carry handguns on campus died . in the Genl Assembly .. The bill was
proposed . on behalf of the Va Citizens Defense League. Va Tech spokesman
Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. “I’m sure the
university community is appreciative of the Genl Assembly’s actions because
this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our
campus.” Most universities in Va require students and employees, other than
police, to check their guns with police or campus security upon entering
campus. The legislation was designed to prohibit public universities from
making “rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student
who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit … from lawfully carrying a
concealed handgun.” In June, Tech’s governing board approved a violence
prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns
and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.

2. Virginia Tech Killer Used Easy-To-Get Guns – CBS News, April 16, 2007
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/16/eveningnews/main2691644.shtml
“Ironically, the school specifically banned the possession of firearms in
dormitories or classrooms – the exact locations of today’s unthinkable
violence.” (My emphasis.)

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !