32 shot dead on US college campus at Virginia Tech

[Puckoon]

It can be Square Ball. It varies from State to state. In Arizona, Walmart sold pistols and game rifles, but there was a 24 hour cooling off period, and I think they did a background check.

HOWEVER you could walk into one of the many, many gun shows and pick up any sort of weapon you liked, and they never bothered their arses checking you out.

They run a back ground check alright. However, if you are clean, and over 21, the gun is yours. Throw in angry and suicidal and you have yourself a Virginia Tech massacre, where the receipt for the gun was in the gunmans back pack.

[Square Ball]

Is this all because of the Right to bare arms that everyone has access to guns?

[Puckoon]

Hey man, its constitutional!

[ziggysego]

America was a different place back then. The Constitution is what the NRA use as an argument for red necks having guns.

[AZOffaly]

Fecking dyslexics writing the constitution was the problem. They only wanted freedom to wear tee-shirts instead of those poxy English long sleeved frilly yokes.

[SammyG]

Is this all because of the Right to bare arms that everyone has access to guns?

The second amendment says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." . The bit that the gun nuts forget is the first half, the right to bear arms in a 'well regulated militia' (army in todays terms) it doesn't mean buying AK-47's in Walmart.

On the subject of gun nuts, this is an 'interesting' site http://www.ccrkba.org/ 

[stew]

Is this all because of the Right to bare arms that everyone has access to guns?

The second amendment says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." . The bit that the gun nuts forget is the first half, the right to bear arms in a 'well regulated militia' (army in todays terms) it doesn't mean buying AK-47's in Walmart.

On the subject of gun nuts, this is an 'interesting' site http://www.ccrkba.org/ 

The NRA are one of the most powerful institutions in the US of A, they have hundreds of politicians and judges in their pockets and they are the driving force behind American policy on gun control.

Their favourite slogan is 'guns don't kill people, people kill people'. They fail to realize for some strange reason that it takes a person to fire the gun in the first place.

There are far too many guns available to people in America, we have illegal weapons in one State being sold just across the border in another where there is no ban on that particular and the problem is there are far too many loopholes that the NRA and it's hard core members use to it's advantage.

At the superbowl some nutter was sitting in his car surrounded by thousands of Patriot and Giant fans and he had a semi automatic assualt weapon he was about to use which could have wiped out hundreds of people in one broad stroke, thankfully he had a change of heart but was caught when someone read his suicide note.

Guns are a huge part of the American way of life and up unitl now no one had had the balls to stand toe to toe with the NRA and take semi automatic weapons out of the hands of the general population. I can understand people wanting to have a rifle for hunting or even a small calibre pistol for the same thing but for the life of me I fail to understand why someone feels the need to own a semi automatic assault weapon that is designed to kill human beings.

I am a republican through and through but on gun control I disagree with them entirely.

[heganboy]

the issue is the language of the second amendment. (the punctuation doesn't help). But the main problem is what constitutes a well regulated militia. the pro-gun lobby interprets this to mean anyone can have a gun as they may at any stage need to form a well regulated militia to argue with the forces that have taken over government.
The anti gun lobby says that this means that well regulated militia means the government run services(i.e. army, navy, police air force etc).

This sentence along with the fact that America is a republic and not a democracy have provided hundreds of years of work and after dinner conversation for constitutional lawyers in the good old U.S of A.

(don't get them started, they won't even buy their round...)

by the way the ccrkba believe that the recent illinois shooting is another example of why thes "gun free zones" don't work

Illinois lawmakers and anti-gun rights extremists should start explaining right now why they have consistently and systematically resisted progressive, sensible changes in state gun laws that would give people a fighting chance against this kind of outrage, Advocates of gun-free zones across the country should be held accountable for defending these areas of victim disarmament. These are places where violent criminals and crazies know they will face no resistance as they carry out their rampages.

unfortunately nothing in the quote about the crazies who might have been carrying guns to class for "self defense"

[Gabriel_Hurl]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/22/virginia.tech.death/index.html

Killer decapitates Va. Tech student, police say

(CNN) -- A female graduate student at Virginia Tech was killed Wednesday night when a man she knew attacked her with a knife and decapitated her, a school spokesman said.

Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Thursday that Xin Yang's killing was the first on the campus since April 16, 2007, when a shooter killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself.

Yang, 22, from Beijing, China, was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant in the Graduate Life Center at around 7 p.m., school spokesman Larry Hincker said in a written statement.

Campus police took Haiyang Zhu, 25, into custody at the scene. The Ningbo, China, native has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail at a local jail, Hincker said.

Zhu did not say anything to the arresting officers, said campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum.

"There was blood on him," Flinchum said. The young woman and the suspect "were not seen arguing, or anything of that nature," he added, citing witness statements.

Authorities said the two students knew each other. "Based on emergency contact records maintained by the university, it is known that Zhu and Yang knew each other," Hincker said. No other details were provided.

The young woman had only arrived at the university two weeks ago to begin studies in accounting, he said in the statement.

Zhu is a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in agricultural and applied economics. He began studies at Virginia Tech in fall 2008, Hincker said.

"Our hearts go out to the victim and her family," President Charles W. Steger said in a letter to the campus community.

"An act of violence like this one brings back memories of the April 16 tragedy and I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught."

Authorities say on April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and professors before killing himself.