Jeff Johnson
OneNewsNow.com
April 16, 2007

A Virginia Tech official in 2006 praised the defeat of a proposal to
allow students with state-issued concealed handgun permits to carry
their handguns on college campuses in Virginia. At least 20 unarmed
students were killed on the VA Tech campus Monday morning by a single
gunman. Virginia House Bill 1572 was proposed in 2005 by Shenandoah
County, Va., Republican Del. Todd Gilbert after a VA Tech student with
a state-issued concealed handgun permit was arrested and charged only
with "unlawfully" carrying a handgun on campus. The bill would have
prohibited state universities in Virginia from enacting "rules or
regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who
possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying
a concealed handgun."

After the proposal died in the state's House Committee on Militia,
Police and Public Safety, The Roanoke Times quoted VA Tech spokesman
Larry Hincker as celebrating the defeat of the bill. "I'm sure the
university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's
actions," Hincker said on Jan. 31, 2006, "because this will help
parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Following Monday's multiple-victim shooting at VA Tech, Erich Pratt
with Virginia-based Gun Owners of America called that philosophy
"idiocy." "I think gun control advocates will say, 'See, we need more
gun control,' even though this is exactly the product of gun control,"
Pratt said.

Currently, only Utah has a statute specifically authorizing law-
abiding individuals with concealed handgun permits to possess their
firearms on state university property. Most other states have explicit
or implied prohibitions. "Every school campus [other than those in
Utah] in this nation is a 'gun free zone,' supposedly," Pratt
bemoaned. "But, isn't it amazing that criminals, bad guys never obey
those laws."

Regarding Utah, Pratt adds, "Isn't it interesting that that's the one
state where we haven't heard of any school shootings." At least two
school shootings have been stopped by armed civilians before police
arrived:

· January 9, 2002, Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. - 43 year
old Peter Odighizuwa, who had flunked out of the small law school
earlier in the week killed three people and wounded three others. Two
law students - Tracy Bridges and Ted Besen - retreived a handgun from
Bridges' vehicle and held Odighizuwa at gun point for several minutes
before police arrived. (Bridges was a reserve deputy sheriff, but was
not on duty at the time of the incident.)

· October 1, 1997, Pearl High School, Pearl, Ms. - 16 year old Luke
Woodham carried a rifle onto the school campus, killed his ex-
girlfriend and one of her friends and wounded seven other people.
Assisstant Principal Joel Myrick retreived a handgun from his truck
and held Woodham for police. It was later learned that the teeneager
had beaten and stabbed his own mother to death before the attack at
the school.

Pratt is not optimistic, however, that lawmakers will allow public
university students and faculty members to protect themselves from
mass murderers like the one who struck VA Tech Monday. "The only
schools and universities where these tragedies have been stopped
abruptly were the places where law-abiding citizens had a gun that was
accessible to them and they were able to stop the shooter," Pratt
noted. "The schools and universities that had to wait for the police
to arrive, those are the ones that find these high death tolls.

"It's just a real shame," he concluded, "that these guys never get it."

On Apr 16, 6:09 pm, "Kurt Nicklas" <nickl...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Update: The victims and the killer: