Virginia Tech.

Brian Ross and Dana Hughes of ABC News are witless tools of the Brady Bunch.

The damn things are magazines, not clips, but I've been losing that fight for years. The 94 AWB banned the manufacture of new hi-cap magazines, but didn't stop the transfer of the hundreds of thousands of existing ones. 5 10-round mags (legal to make under the 94 AWB) carry more rounds than three 15 round (banned) magazines, you just swap mags twice more. The guns didn't pull their own trigger. I own over 150 firearms that didn't jump off the wall or out of the case and commit a crime yesterday. Unlike the article referenced by Ry, which *is* a crime against journalism, and is simply an agenda-driven op-ed masquerading as reporting. Just sayin'.

The shooter killed those people.

Just like the old guy who can't drive anymore kills the people, the not the car he was driving. And you can take away his license, but you rely then that he'll obey the law and not drive anymore. Take away the guns (hint: you *can't* get them all) and only those prone to obey the law are going to comply. And, as the Brit and Australian experience shows, you can try that and it doesn't affect your gun violence nearly as much as you'd think - and other forms of violence can increase, in terms of home invasion burglary, etc.

Then there's the Appalachian Law School incident, where two former cops took down the shooter. From Wikipedia:

On January 16, 2002, the Dean, Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell, and student Angela Dales were shot and killed by disgruntled student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria. Three other students were shot but survived. After he ran out of ammunition, Odighizuwa was subdued by two ASL students who were former police officers. One of the students who helped capture Odighizuwa retrieved his service revolver from his vehicle after hearing shots being fired in the law school. The students held Odighizuwa until the police arrived.

Just who has taught everybody to go passive in the face of a gun? In truth, in a one-on-one mugging scenario, that might be an appropriate response - though I admit, if the guy is dumb enough to step inside my reach, he may well find himself in a fight over the gun if I get the wrong vibe from him.

But in a group, where the shooter just starts *executing* people?

Where's the Todd Beamers? Where's the passengers of Flight 93? A lone gunman? Move to the sound of the gun. If you're going to die, why do it cringing and crying, when you can do it raging and gouging.

I know it's not always that clear - but it sounds in this case, in the classroom there towards the end, it probably was that clear.

And sadly, seemingly not a sheepdog among 'em (not true - see post above this one), to take down the wolf. And of course, being a gun free zone (That worked well for them, didn't it? Though I understand the reasoning behind the law, I just don't think it works) even if there had been someone with a weapon in the area, he'd of had to go get it (assuming no legal CCW carrier would have one *on* him in a GFZ) and risk being taken down by the cops as the potential shooter, and charged for having the gun on campus.

Just as I, were I to grab the V10 from the wall and walk across the street to stop something over at the local high school, could find myself facing charges, even if I took the bad guy down. Admittedly, I suspect the local law would opt to no bill, but who knows what the Feds would do.

I admit, it would just make me pause, it wouldn't stop me from going over there to try and stop something like what happened yesterday, especially if the Police weren't there. If they police were on-scene... hey, I then become a part of the problem, not the solution.

I'm not blaming the victims - I just wonder what it is that makes the difference between a sheepdog, and a sheep, so to speak.

Of course, I know the DU answer to this event. It's Bush's fault - the recruiting for his illegal war has siphoned off all the Sheepdogs to Iraq or Afghanistan.

That snark aside, I wonder if there were any vets in among the victims, and if the crime scene analysis/survivor interviews will indicate that any students *did* fight back. [Update - we don't know as of this posting if any students fought back - but we know that at least on faculty member did - the Armorer]

I hope so. I'd like to think the shooter was at least inconvenienced before he killed himself.

Turns out there was at least one sheepdog present. I originally had that info here - but Professor Librescu deserves his own post, un-marred by my screeding.