When will the citizens of US exercise their right to abolish the right to carry personal weapons? How can they fight terrorism if they cannot prevent the second shoot out in this case? One cannot understand how there could be a student inside the campus with so much weapon and ammunition in his possession and was not detected. It appears to be a hate atttack.. hate what ? individuals or everything US and its foregin relations?
[WS:] What I find surprising is that nobody there tried to subdue the perp. VA has the concealed weapon laws - so it is likely someone in a large crowd could have concealed weapon and use it to incapacitate the perp. OTOH, many establishments in VA prohibit concealed weapons on their premises - and the university was likely to be one of them. But even without concealed fire arms - it is still surprising that nobody tried to subdue the perp.
A broader point - blaming it on fire arms is totally bogus. Similar incidents happened in other countries, like the UK or Germany that have much stricter gun laws. The sad fact is that there is very little we as society can do to prevent these kinds of incidents. If there is a determined psycho, he will find a way to carry out his plans sooner or later. Although these are isolated incidents that involve deranged individuals, the realization that not much can be done to stop them is a very discomforting thought to many - so people like to think that something can be done about it - like posting cameras or security or banning weapons.
I think the only thing that can be done is to minimize damage by early detection of violent psychos (e.g. by *smart* profiling) and training citizens in self-defense techniques.
Disclaimer: I do not have any fire arms in my possession and I do not intend to acquire them. However, I do support people's right to self defense, which includes carrying concealed weapons.
Wojtek