Guns, killers and a free society

There was an immediate demand for greater gun control in the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, and it has predictably been over the top.

Precisely one day after a crazed gunman killed 33 people, including himself, the European press and like-minded American media crowed that the incident was due to a lack of serious gun-control laws in the United States.

Such advocates of essentially repealing the Second Amendment look at the guns in the hands of Cho Seung-Hui, and see a problem they think can be fixed. They may not be willing to look into Cho's cold eyes and hateful sneer displayed in his disturbing video confessional because of what they might see there. If they did, they would have been confronted by a homicidal mind that probably would not be deterred by even the most determined gun-control laws.

Once you acknowledge that, you have to start looking beyond gun control and start thinking about killer control, and that is a much bigger problem.

Cho, for instance, was a known danger, but there was nothing anyone could do about him. Our society has decided that the mentally ill are entitled to their freedom. You can lock them up if they are dangerous, but once they are medicated, they must be freed. And once they are free, society is taking its chances again. It might be a gun. It might be a knife. It might be a bomb. But people full of hate will do hateful things.

Taking guns out of the hands of private citizens won't put an end to that, but that doesn't mean there aren't measures that reasonable people can agree on. As a prime example, mental health records should be accessible as part of background checks that are already routinely conducted for gun purchases across the country. Privacy issues can be respected, while still making sure that the mentally ill cannot acquire guns as easily as Cho Seung-Hui did.

Remember, in 2005 a mental health evaluation of Cho found him to be a threat to himself and others, and a magistrate subsequently found him to be an "imminent threat to himself."

Those findings should have been available when the background check was conducted when the guns were purchased. That's the type of information background checks are intended to reveal. Maybe, just maybe, it would have averted this tragedy.

But still, it's hard to ignore the evidence of premeditation that Cho sent to NBC News. He was clearly determined to kill. It is difficult to honestly conclude that he would have been deterred by any amount of gun-control restrictions pursued by well-meaning gun-control advocates.

This is where the statist, Euro gun control approach falls flat. There have been horrendous school shootings in Scotland and Germany. Some point to Canada as an example of gun-control virtue. But they seem to forget the 1989 shooting that left 14 women dead at a Montreal university, an event that is commemorated every Dec. 6 with Canadian flags lowered to half-staff. They overlook last year's lone gunman incident at Montreal's Dawson College that left two dead, including the gunman.

Gun-control proponents often view the Second Amendment with incredulity. They cannot fathom the concept that a citizenry that's empowered to bear arms has a better chance to react and defend itself than a citizenry that is enfeebled by an overinvested trust in government as its omnipresent protector. They think law-abiding people shouldn't have guns when the bobby with the nightstick or the campus cop is there to protect you. Maybe. If he gets to you in time.

There are neighborhoods across Europe where people are completely helpless and reliant on law enforcement if they are ever threatened. And there are rough neighborhoods in the United States where people aren't so helpless and dependent, because they are armed. Would you rather be the victim or the hero of violence?

Because there are heroes with guns, too.

What is constantly overlooked in the clamor for more gun control are the small, underreported news stories where citizens successfully defend themselves, their property or others from crime.

We were easily able to search out seven carjackings and attempted burglaries that have occurred in this country over just the last three months, all involving targets who did not become "victims" because they instead defended themselves with guns.

In any serious discussion of the role of guns in a free society, we must hear both sides of the story.