virginia tech

Chris Knight's avatar

The Fort Bend Independent School District (in Texas) is upholding the suspension and subsequent placing in an “alternative education center” of a Clements High School student whose only crime was… get this… building a video game map from his high school!

Here’s more of the story:

…on April 17, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead, Clements High School officials learned a student had been playing Counterstrike, an Internet-based shooting game. The locale of the shootings depicted on this student’s game were the hallways of Clements High School.

School district police investigated the report and questioned the student at school and then visited his home. The student’s parents gave police permission to search the 12th-grader’s room and computer. Simpson said police determined no criminal charges were warranted but that disciplinary action was.

Simpson said because of the violent nature of the game and because the actions

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Chris Knight's avatar

“President Bush says he has directed federal officials to conduct a national inquiry into how to prevent violence by dangerously unstable people.”

He can start with those who want the war in Iraq because as Einstein put it: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

For me, the red flags started going up yesterday when Senator Charles Schumer from New York said that he wanted mental health workers to report to the federal government on who is “mentally ill” for the express purpose of the feds denying them the right to own a gun.

For one thing, this is a knee-jerk reaction. For another, the existing gun laws are adequate already… maybe too adequate. For yet another, no matter how much law gets passed, eventually someone is going to break it and cause something like the incident at Virginia Tech ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Shortly after posting about Bradford Wiles, who called on Virginia Tech officials this past summer to allow students to be able to defend themselves, I had an idea. Police wear badges and carry guns as a visible detterent against committing a crime. Maybe it’s time for civilians to start boldly doing the same…

The “ARMED STUDENT” t-shirt. Whether you actually choose to carry a firearm while wearing this shirt is entirely up to you. Imagine just a few dozen students walking around campus wearing these shirts and the effect it would have on someone contemplating another shootout. Now available for $8.99 at CafePress. Firearm not included....

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Chris Knight's avatar

Virginia Tech grad student Bradford Wiles pleaded with school officials to allow students to be able to defend themselves by having guns on campus. To say that Wiles has considerable frustration with the Virginia Tech administrators would be putting it mildly…

Would my wife and family, knowing how much I have written and spoken about allowing me my most basic right of self-defense on campus, feel any comfort in the policy that supposedly protects me?

Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations, in response to a column I wrote in August asking that the university change its policy forbidding law-abiding concealed handgun permit (CHP) holders from carrying on campus, wrote the following in The Roanoke Times: “Guns don’t belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.”

Do you still feel the same way about your policy now, Mr. Hincker? Will your faith

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Chris Knight's avatar

A couple of days ago, I wrote here that the Virginia Tech massacre proves that gun laws don’t work. And that a civilized society needs more decent people with guns.

Now comes an article proving my point: WorldNetDaily has a story about Kennesaw, Georgia: a town where there are not only no anti-gun laws, but it’s mandatory for every home owner to have a gun. And in the quarter-century since enacting this law in 1982, there has not been one murder in Kennesaw. Also worth bearing in mind that in 1982 the population of Kennesaw was 5,242: at last count, the present population is 28,189… but the crime rate has dropped significantly since passage of the law.

Sounds like a nice place to live....

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Chris Knight's avatar

I remember, back in the day, when people in some quarters would lash out at President Bill Clinton for “crashing” a solemn occasion like the memorial service for those killed in a senseless act. And, they were right to do so. Clinton had to show up and be in front of the camera and become the focus of attention at a completely inappropriate time. It was all about “me me me” to Clinton.

I watched practically the same thing happen today. Just a different President is the only thing notably different. And this time I’m hearing many of those same people swooning over how this President is “wonderful” and “is so compassionate”.

This President won’t even attend the funeral of any service member who has died in his war. But he will show up – with a speech that he most likely didn’t or couldn’t write on his own – ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I’m absolutely damned serious about that.

Or let me put it another way: a situation like this proves that we need more citizens walking around who are carrying guns.

No, I’m not advocating all-out anarchy here. But how far would Cho Seung-Hui (that’s the name of the Virginia Tech killer in case you haven’t heard) have gotten if just one other person in the vicinity had a gun yesterday morning?

I hate to be the one to break the news about this, but: we live in a hopeless, broken world. Man’s efforts to make it a perfect place have utterly failed. It’s impossible to achieve the “utopia” that some dream of. Yes, it would be wonderful if we could all get along and be kind to one another and not be hurtful or exploitive of our fellow man. There are some of us who do believe that. But there are ...

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