On Monday morning, 33 people were killed in Virginia Tech University. It was the bloodiest on-campus massacre in American history.

Now there are two parties arguing over issues relating to gun control.

In one camp, Senator Charles Schumer once said, “We're going to beat guns into submission.”

In the other camp, Bob Dole argued that gun control is a completely ineffective approach to the lack of safety and security in our communities. Disarming law-abiding citizens only places them at the mercy law-breakers.

Dole’s argument seems more in tune with our current needs. If only the students and teachers at Virginia Tech would have had their fingers on the trigger….The numbers would have stood reversed. Fewer people would have been killed.

Only recently did a federal appeals court in Washington, DC strike down a gun control law. Interpreting the Second Amendment broadly, the court stated that the law bars residents from keeping handguns in their homes.

The decision to hold the gun law unconstitutional was based on the interpretation that “the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals, as opposed to the collective rights of state militias.” However, nine other federal appeals courts around the nation have rejected that interpretation. The debate is on.

Cathy Lanier, acting chief of the District's Metropolitan Police Department, and Vincent Schiraldi, director of the District's Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, approved the court’s decision.

Lanier and Schiraldi concurred, “Strong gun control laws such as the one struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit clearly makes a difference […] in the real world of the city's juvenile justice system.”

According to a Justice Department study, “The public needs to understand that young people get their hands on guns differently than adults do -- mainly by borrowing them from family members and friends or by buying them on the black market.”

As for Monday’s horrifying tale, President Bush is "shocked and
saddened.” He said, “Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning.” Bush also said his administration would offer all possible help both to the investigation as well as the community.

But, how effective would support be? How many more such shocks, big or small, do Americans need to endure before they call it a day? It’s been an account of the same sordid events for ages.

History repeats itself; and here are some of the gory details:

The question: Who and how many more of us will have to pay for laws that others break so easily?

All educational institutions, as a post-remedial measure, have tightened their security systems. People should defend themselves, even if they have to bear arms.  As an anonymous
source once said, “A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.” I firmly believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

However, university officials elsewhere also feel that the Virginia Tech incident displays loopholes in the security system.  They also agree that it’s difficult to prevent a campus crime. Not only does building security vary from institution to institution, but all universities are open to the public.

Do we Americans need more bloodshed before we call a halt to gun-touting? Will it be such an impossible dream to call for some legislation? Is it just a blame-game that we play? Must we point our fingers at video-games to movies, ignore historical events, and wait for another mad man to unleash carnage?

One would, at such times, agree with Brad Edmonds when he said, ”There are three reasons you need guns — to defend yourself and your property from common criminals; to defend against foreign invasion; and to defend yourself from your government.”
It
has never been clearer than now that the public needs to defend themselves from
increasing, every day dangers.