oh sweet baby jesus, here is another gem from the land of the raving lunatics with guns!

gun advocates on the offensive to say the virginia tech massacre was BECAUSE EVERYONE DIDN'T HAVE A GUN rather than lax gun control.

my lord.

this just made me laugh far too much.

+++++

More guns could have prevented US uni massacre: advocates
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1904169.htm


Gun advocates in the United States say last week's massacre at Virginia Tech university may not have happened if students were allowed to carry concealed guns on campus.

"This is a huge nail in the coffin of gun control," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the gun rights group Virginia Citizens Defence League.

"They had gun control on campus and it got all those people killed, because nobody could defend themselves," he told AFP.

"You want people to be able to defend themselves - always," he said.

Thirty-two people were killed when student Cho Seung-Hui went on the rampage in the worst campus massacre in US history.

Mr Van Cleave said the tragedy could give a boost to a years-long effort in Virginia to pass legislation allowing students to carry weapons on campus - especially since existing laws failed to prevent Cho's murderous rampage.

"Gun control failed. That student under university rules was not to have a gun," Van Cleave said.

"Come legislative season, which is in January, we're going to be fighting to get a bill put in again - the third year in a row now and hopefully this time it will pass - that would let students that are over 21 with a permit ... carry concealed self-defence," he said.

The bill, which would also allow any faculty member possessing a concealed carry permit to carry a concealed weapon, has a "greatly enhanced" chance of passage following the Virginia Tech shooting, Mr Van Cleave said.

The south-eastern state where the shootings took place allows anyone 21 years of age or older and holding a concealed handgun permit to carry a weapon.

That is not true, however, of college campuses, where most universities have a strict prohibition against carrying guns.

Other gun rights advocates echo Mr Van Cleave's view that had even one Virginia Tech student or faculty member been armed, last week's carnage might have been prevented.

"The only person who is responsible to defend you is you - the police are incapable of defending each and every one of us all the time," said Mike Stollenwerk, 44, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a Virginia-based gun-rights networking group.

"Citizens have an inherent right to be able to defend themselves," he told the Washington Times newspaper.

"You can't always have a policeman on every street corner to take care of you. Whenever you have a bunch of gun-control laws that prohibit people from carrying, the ones with the guns are the criminals."

-AFP