>Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
> > [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.
>
>I have to agree with Woj here.
>
>I didn't learn about the shooting until around 4 yesterday when I was
>walking by a bar at La Guardia airport. I saw the CNN headline about 32
>people being shot and my jaw dropped.
>
>My thoughts after that point reflected Woj's point. Why didn't these
>people fight back? Did the whole thing unfold so fast that people
>couldn't grasp what was going on? Were they just shot so quickly that
>nobody has time to react? But news stories say that one professor
>sacrificed himself so that other students could escape.
>
>I know the liberals will piss and whine about the need for more gun
>control.
One problem is if there is an increased population of concealed weapons carriers who are anticipating situations like this with a mindset influenced by clear television scenarios. One might expect that it is easy to recognize who the aggressor is... which is very unrealistic, and overestimate their own shooting accuracy in a place with bystanders. In reality, the first concealed carrier might see the bank robber, and then the 2nd concealed carrier would see the first person with a gun and mistakenly think that they are the person who should be shot, and then will miss and hit a third person.
Once on Telegraph avenue in Berkeley, between Channing and Haste, there was a shout and some sounds of running, and then one guy ran by to my left, and another guy to my right. I noticed he had a gun drawn, so I stepped into a doorway. He was saying something like "gonna get you", but I couldn't ever figure out if it was really serious, like he was actually on the verge of firing it at someone who had just robbed him yet had some self control, or if they were mentally 12 year olds goofing around, yet one happened to have a gun, and was waving it like the toy gun he had played with a few years earlier. So I'm glad no one reacted from across the street. Oddly, a police officer on a bicycle came riding down the block 15 seconds later and caught him, but it was never in the paper, and a lot of people on the street didn't even notice. That block had so much stuff going on, even though it was fine most of the time - the city once published a car theft map, and right where my car was stolen, there was a rate of about .7cars/acre/year http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/police/crimestats/Maps/Motor%20Vehicle%20Theft%2005.pdf. The police killed a student who had robbed a bank, Ted Kaczynski used to live another block away, and there was also this cult house which none of us were aware of because of its tall fence: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/06.07.01/cover/cult-0123.html
_________________________________________________________________ Don’t quit your job – Take Classes Online and Earn your Degree in 1 year. Start Today! http://www.classesusa.com/clickcount.cfm?id=866146&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.classesusa.com%2Ffeaturedschools%2Fonlinedegreesmp%2Fform-dyn1.html%3Fsplovr%3D866144