A black day in Blacksburg

our thoughts are with those who've suffered the personal loss

Which, of course, is all of us. Long time readers know I'm not the praying type; but if that's your cup of tea, have at it. Thirty-two families need your thoughts tonight. The headline link is to the coverage at Planet Blacksburg, they have had the best fact based coverage all day.

Jebeezus. I've spent the last hour running through my daily "go to" blogs (See also: BlogRoll), reading the coverage. Hard to imagine, easy to believe.

This kind of thing does not happen in an armed society. Steve H. Graham hit it smackly on the head with his post:

You have to wonder how many people died before the first 911 call was placed. The
beauty of privately owned guns is that they work while the cops are still across
town. Government guns respond to shootings; privately owned guns prevent
them.

No siht, Sherlock. As in "Amen, Brother!". "Privately owned guns prevent them." Someone once said "an armed society is a polite society"; obviously this was opined before the creation of "gun-free zones", or as the homicidal maniacs' team likes to call them: "target rich environments".

My mind goes back, not to Columbine, but to Killeen, where, on 16 October 1991, a homicidal maniac killed twenty-four people before doing (the taxpayers a favor) himself. I was living in my hometown of Houston, Texas at the time, so it was the massacre next door, so to speak. I'm sure it's all gone down the memory hole by now, but I remember reading accounts of "survivors' guilt" from licensed CCW holders who had left their side arm in their vehicle during that fateful lunch. To a person, their remorse was that "...if I only had my gun, I could have stopped him..."

Like I said, this kind of thing does not happen in a society where the citizens are free to take personal responsibility for their safety and protection. What should rise from this tragic event is a return to the "...Right of the People to keep and Bear Arms..." Your mileage should not vary.

Do go read the coverage over at these fine blogs:

Q and O (as an added bonus, you can download their recent BlogTalkRadio podcast to hear yours truly make a total [drunken] ass of himself. I need to e-mail those guys and apologize.)

Captain's Quarters Scroll down, "Update XIII" is particularly telling

Smoke on the Water As per his usual, Cap't Jim's post is a must-read.

Protein Wisdom Reality Based

Kim du Toit Exactly!

Ace had something as well, but I can't get his site to load has a couple of posts up on the subject.

sigh. We'll have words soon