Natalie Solent | |
Politics, news, libertarianism, Science Fiction, religion, sewing. You got a problem, bud? I like sewing. E-mail: nataliesolent-at-aol-dot-com (I assume it's OK to quote senders by name.) Back to main blog RSS thingy  Jane's Blogosphere: blogtrack for Natalie Solent.  Links ('Nother Solent is this blog's good twin. Same words, searchable archives, RSS feed. Provided by a benefactor, to whom thanks. I also sometimes write for Samizdata and Biased BBC.) The Old Comrades:
Archives November 2001December 2001January 2002February 2002March 2002April 2002May 2002June 2002July 2002August 2002September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004April 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006September 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007March 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007August 2007October 2007February 2008April 2008May 2008June 2008July 2008September 2008October 2008November 2008December 2008January 2009March 2009May 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009October 2009January 2010March 2010May 2010June 2010July 2010August 2010September 2010October 2010November 2010December 2010January 2011February 2011April 2011June 2011August 2011September 2011October 2011November 2011January 2012February 2012March 2012April 2012May 2012June 2012July 2012August 2012September 2012October 2012November 2012December 2012January 2013February 2013March 2013April 2013May 2013June 2013July 2013August 2013September 2013October 2013November 2013 | Friday, April 20, 2007 Thursday, April 19, 2007 Bitter prescience.This article was written by a Virginia Tech student in August 2006, after an earlier evacuation following the sighting of a gunman on campus. The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.If that man and others had been armed there is no guarantee that it would have saved lives. For one thing, most of the students are too young for a concealed permit under Virgina's laws. Of those who are not, only a very low percentage would opt to be armed. Of those who were armed, random chance might easily mean that they just weren't in that part of the building when the shooter struck, or were killed before they realised what was happening, or shot and missed, or whatever. In my frenzy for honest speculation let me add that the defender could end up himself accidentally killing an innocent in crossfire - or her gun could end up being lifted from her dead hand by the murderer and used for yet more mayhem. No guarantees. Ever. But I know of several killing sprees that were cut short by armed students or faculty - the one at the Appalachian School of Law is the most recent. "If just one life is saved..." has been the rallying cry of several anti-gun campaigns. Though certainly a successful it has never been a rational slogan. The role of chance is too big for us to know what course of action will change the murder statistics by one. I think arming the sane against the insane would save dozens of lives from spree killers over a period of years in the US. (Here in Britain the prospect is so remote that there is no point in even discussing it.) Beyond that, I think many more lives would be saved by guns being used to defend law-abiding citizens against ordinary crime, and more yet by the mere presence of guns acting as a deterrent. As a slogan, that doesn't exactly make the heart thunder. Apart from its necessarily statistical nature, another difficulty in getting this argument across to the wider public is that a massacre prevented or curtailed by an armed citizen is a massacre that gets bumped down the running order for the evening news. Here in Britain, what percentage of people have ever heard of Peter Odighizuwa's curtailed killing spree compared to the unimpeded efforts of Cho Seung-hui? Even in America, those making this argument are swimming against the tide. It does not help that the media, most of whom favour gun control, actively play down the use of guns to save lives. (Here's the CNN story from 2002 about the Appalachian killings. All sorts of details but it only speaks of students "grabbing" and "subduing" Odighizuwa. No mention that their actions, though most certainly brave, were renderered much less nearly suicidal by the fact that two of the three of them had guns.) Wednesday, April 18, 2007 A distant mirror. When reading about the tragic massacre in Virginia I came across an account of an earlier, and yet worse, mass murder at a place of education in the USA. I'm afraid I cannot remember at which website I saw it - but its nature was such that I had no difficulty finding the Wikipedia page again. A short excerpt from the list of 45 victims, most of whom were children: Arnold V. Bauerle, age 8, third grade student, Henry Bergan, age 14, sixth grade student, Herman Bergan age 11, fourth grade student, Emilie M. Bromundt, age 11, fifth grade student, Robert F. Bromundt, age 12, fifth grade student, Floyd E. Burnett, age 12, sixth grade student, Russell J. Chapman, age 8, fourth grade student, Robert Cochran, age 8, third grade student, Ralph A. Cushman, age 7, third grade student.Two things surprised me about this dreadful event. The first was that I had never heard about it, the second that it happened in 1927. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more. In a Biased BBC discussion of BBC coverage of Americans who don't accept evolution, commenter Sarah pointed to an Ipsos MORI poll in 2006 that said under half of Britons accept the theory of evolution as the best description for the development of life. Sunday, April 08, 2007 Things ain't what they used to be. Do you wonder why this happens? The British boat crew were caught in a position when they did not even have the opportunity to defend themselves from capture. At the very least, our rules of engagement need changing. It is very likely that the Iranians had orders not to continue with the kidnap operation if it met resistance, as it was carried out under the very guns of the British warship HMS Cornwall. Yet because the Iranians knew that HMS Cornwall was under orders never to fire first, their daring plan succeeded. Funnily enough, the answer was in the Times News in Brief column a couple of weeks ago. Teenagers as young as 14 are ambushing security guards making cash deliveries to banks and shops, police said. They have even been caught on CCTV striking on the way home from school. In a fifth of the robberies a firearm was produced against guards, who are told not to resist. The raids yield up to £25,000. |
