As expected, the Virginia Tech massacre has resulted in a hue and cry for more restrictions on the ownership and possession of guns. There should be debate about why such horrendous attacks occur and how to prevent them, but the primary focus should be on the attackers and what motivates them to commit such heinous acts. Take away guns and evil people will find other means to wreak havoc. Timothy McVeigh proved that possibility in Oklahoma City more than ten years ago.

Suppose that Cho Seung-Hui had encountered difficulty in legally acquiring a gun. Then the obvious alternative would have been to try to get one illegally. But suppose he wasn’t street-wise enough to do that. Would a psychopath, or whatever label properly applies to this pond scum, just give up? Not likely. It might take him longer to pull off an attack but he would most likely just find another way. If he could manage to chain all the doors to a large building without being challenged, he could probably manage to improvise a backpack full of explosives. Instructions on how to build bombs are readily available. The death toll from an alternative approach could have been much higher than 32.

We have to accept that for law-abiding citizens to have guns the criminal elements are also going to have access to guns. And we have to acknowledge that banning guns won’t keep guns out of the hands of the criminal elements. Remember, that’s why they are called ‘criminal elements’; they don’t abide by laws. Virginia Tech, with its ‘gun free zone’, gave Cho an advantage; he knew that he could methodically gun down the students and teachers without any significant resistance. If just one student, teacher or staff member had a gun available to use against Cho the death toll might have been much less.

The liberal media would like us to react emotionally and agree to further inroads against our rights as indidviduals. Instead let’s try to look at the issue logically. Which would give you the most comfort when you hear someone trying to break into your home: knowing that it is against the law for anyone to have a gun or knowing that you legally have one beside your bed? Which do you think gives the criminal contemplating breaking into your home the most discomfort: knowing that it is against the law for anyone to have a gun or knowing that you might legally have one beside your bed?