[Richard Sportwood @ Apr 18th 2007 2:26PM]

Sorry, but that's ridiculous. Track all you want, but you can't prevent random acts of violence. If someone wants to massacre innocent people, we simply cannot stop them. Gun control will not prevent criminals from obtaining guns -- that's why they're criminals. Likewise, tracking people will not prevent criminals from harming others. The solution to problems like these is teaching people that they are responsible for their actions and by allowing law abiding citizens to carry firearms. If each professor and various students at Virginia Tech had guns with them that day, blood would have still been shed, but the outcome would have been dramatically different. The shooter might have pulled off a few rounds, but he would have quickly been taken down by the other law-abiding students.

Politicizing this tragedy is irresponsible. RFID tracking is an invasion of privacy, a lessening of freedom, and as much as I'd like for it to, it will do nothing to help the situation.

[SumYungGai @ Apr 18th 2007 2:35PM]

@Richard Sportwood,

That may be true that you can't stop random acts of violence, but that's not the point. Glass cases also don't keep 100% of criminals from breaking the glass and stealing things out of them, but they sure do cut down on anyone just being able to walk by and taking things were a glass case not there - and THATS the point.

No one's suggesting limiting firearms but you bring up a good point about armed students in class, as it relates to post-9/11 strategy of putting plain-clothed air marshalls on flights: Let's put a Class-Marshall into classrooms, or at the LEAST get the teachers some firearms training and bulletproof vests, and let them wear concealed weapons once certified.

[DorianGray @ Apr 18th 2007 3:53PM]

@Richard Sportwood

I agree with most of what you're saying. However, what you're proposing implies a significant shift in our society as a whole.

Virginia is a state that allows gun purchases. Additionally, Viriginia allows registered and licensed individuals (normal citizens) to carry concealed weapons.

However, carrying a concealed firearm in VA is sorta counter-culture.

It'd be flat awesome if all US citizens were issued a firearm, taught gun safety and rules and laws for when it's appropriate to use this weapon. There'd be an adjustment period (!!!) in which pre-Darwinites, adrenalin-junkies, testosterone-retards and petty criminals pretty much policed themselves out of the general populace (as well as a fair number of innocent bystanders and genuine do-gooders -- but hey, we're changing the face of a society here, right?).

All 'citizens' (adults 18 & over) would be strapped. We'd teach weapon use safety in the high schools. Civil Air Patrol would have a local neighborhood equivalent (perhaps made up of senior Boy Scouts & Eagle Scouts).

We'd have a society and population of the politest, most level-headed people imaginable (think about it for a sec...). We'd have *zero* threat of foreign invasion or pretty much solve border-jumping (who seriously wants to invade a country where *every* adult is packin' heat?).

So. We have a current population of 300-odd million. A year after the Citizen Empowerment Act of 2007, a population of like 200 million. But all good citizens, minimal crime.

I'ma run this by my Congressman. Who's with me?