One of the posters above hit the nail squarely on its head:
quote: "But wait, isn't MURDER illegal? Hmmm that didn't stop him either." unquote
It is truly amazing that literally every commentator fails to realize that one fact: Murder, using any instrument including your hands, a howitzer, an SUV or a 100 year old .22 is illegal, period, end of discussion.
Had that whack-job not had access to firearms, would he have changed his mind and stayed a "good boy"? I doubt it. He would have made a match-stick bomb with nails and lobbed it into the crowd or a Molotov cocktail from the bottle of Old Granddad he consumed the night before. He could have hidden a machete in his case and started whacking away at the kids who would be tripping over each other to get away. Heck, he could have waited until the class was dismissed and driven a hybrid SUV into the crowd, quietly mowing them down until he stalled the thing. Chances are good he could have killed or maimed a lot more people. The tool, notwithstanding, he was a murderer with a mission and ready to die for it, too.
That fact is he was a murderer and what ever "tool" he used is besides the point. But, if the students were allowed to have their pistol of choice in their belts, that murderer would have at least had to deal with one of them. It's so rudimentary that it hurts my head just thinking about this. Whack-job murderers will do what they must to accomplish their task. Firearms are just one tool in their arsenal.
I've used this argument with other anti-gunners and it's usually an eyeopener to any of them with a brain in their heads. Just keep bringing that point home regardless of what they say: Murder is an illegal act, period. How you accomplish it is secondary and, frankly, a pointless discussion.
There was a very recent murder in NYC where a patient calmly carried a knife into the psychologists office where he stabbed the doctor to death. Would that doctor be any less dead if he had been shot with a gun or clubed over his head with a paperweight?
All the laws ever written and that will be written will never, ever stop a murderer from his task at hand. This is why I began to carry 9 years ago. God forbid the day should ever come when the skills I've earned should have to come into play.
Rome