But It’s a Gun Free Zone!!
Written by Sam on February 14th, 2008
DE KALB, Ill (CBS) ― Several people have been shot on the Northern Illinois University campus. The suspect killed himself and officials say the danger has passed.
Officials confirmed that several people were shot at Cole Hall, a large lecture hall on campus, shortly after 3 p.m. and the campus was immediately placed on lockdown.
A spokeswoman for Kishwaukee Hospital reported that 17 people were being treated at the hospital. Three of those victims were critically injured, two with head wounds, one with a chest wound. One of those victims was airlifted to OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.
Another eight victims were in serious condition with various injuries and six others were in good condition. Kishwaukee Hospital was not reporting any fatalities and did not expect to receive any further victims from the shooting.
It just boggles the mind how another mass shooting could take place when no guns are allowed on campus. We don’t need them because the campus police are there to protect you.
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I hate to say it one more time, but the American people just do not get it sometimes.
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Ryan: You are too diplomatic. The American people are f-ing idiots.
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Aren’t you something like five times more likely to be shot with your own gun or shoot a member of your own family than to intercept a crime?
If all the people who wanted to carry machine guns around weren’t drunk rednecks, I might be more persuaded by your argument.
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“Witnesses described how a door to the right of the stage burst open and the gunman, in cap and sweatshirt, stormed in. He started shooting, first with the shotgun and then with the handguns.
Police said they received the first emergency call at 3.06pm and were on the scene in 29 seconds.
“Twenty-nine seconds was not fast enough,” said university police chief Donald Grady”
29 seconds is an impressive response time. Can you imagine if it had taken ~30 min like the VT shooter had? I well placed handgun in a students pocket could have saved many lives here.
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I don’t know Publius why don’t you do your own research? You could at least get a grad student to do it for you.
Start with Kennesaw, Ga. and their gun policies.
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This shooter was off his medication and showing signs of irrationality. I can only assume that he was Bi-Polar.
So then…
HOW IS IT THAT A MENTALLY UNSTABLE PERSON WAS ALLOWED TO PURCHASE A GUN IN THE FIRST PLACE?
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Simple proposition: Ban the ownership and posession of firearms by anyone who has been found to have a mental condition. The gun free zone nonsense also needs to be dealt with too. I am not calling for everyone to have an AK47, but letting responsible citizens have firearms in these supposed gun free zones should be acceptable.
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Amen Ryan!
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That idea sounds good until you really consider the ramifications of it. Is the government going to chieck every single persons’ health records for license distribution? I mean there are a lot of people who have been treated for simple depression symptoms or who have occassionally had to see a therapist for family problems. Is the government to start deciding which mental health issue is “safe” and which one is dangerous? I think that’s sorta ridiculous. There are a lot of people who see therapists just to get through times in their lives which are difficult (parental divorce, loss of loved ones, so on). Who gets to say what mental situation constitutes danger?
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No offense to anyone, but if you have to take medication for a mental disorder of any kind. You should not be permitted to own a gun. This is the same situation as the Shooting at Virginia Tech.
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There are only a certain set of mental disorders that would be dangerous. Bi-polar is certainly one of them. Depression (by itself) probably is not.
Karuna has a valid point, however. How would you find out? Particularly preserving a modicum of privacy.
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What’s worse- invading someone’s privacy or putting lots of people in danger? Wow… I sound like a Republican.
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Well if you want to own a firearm, you should be willing to prove your sanity.
Use one of the existing government mental health standards to determine sanity for a background check. If we have computerized background checks, why cannot we have something similar for mental health.
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Before politicizing this, it may have been beneficial to pause a bit and recognize that his was a horrible tragedy and that real people died here.
Lives and dreams have been cut short. Families have been broken apart.
For a day, why don’t we just breathe a little and think (and pray if you’re the praying kind). There will be lots of time to consider the public policy aspects after the bodies are laid to rest.
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The absurdity of these mental health criteria is that you exclude people who are being treated for mental problems. On the other hand people with untreated mental problems or who medicate themselves with alcohol (like aforementioned drunk rednecks) get to walk around like Rambo.
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Also, I might echo Paul’s point here. How would you feel if, every time some toddler accidentally shoots himself or some drunk cop shoots his wife, I used it to score a political point against gun rights?
Look, it’s all about costs and benefits. I’ll grant that, in instances like this, a large number of people concealing a handgun could have prevented some deaths (the benefit), the level of additional accidents and misuse of guns (the cost) would far outweigh the benefits.
Of course, we couldn’t talk about this, because only conservatives are allowed to use gun tragedies to score political points.
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a gun free zone in a municipality where concealed guns are allowed - that fools no one.