Annapolis Capital Punishment

Annapolitans, please realize that yes, it could happen here, as easily as it can happen anywhere, including Blacksburg, and now CP reprints a portion of an AP wire story the other day:

From an AP story about the Blacksburg murder:

“One law enforcement official said Cho’s backpack contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony.
Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock and a box of practice ammo to Cho 36 days ago for $571.
“He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won’t sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious,” Markell said.
Investigators stopped short of saying Cho carried out both attacks. But State Police ballistics tests showed one gun was used in both.”

Sure--and hardcore gun lovers continue to say guns don’t kill--people do. Yet this troubled and sick person easily bought automatic weapons that he easily used to kill scores of innocent people, quickly and effortlessly. Oh and the gun advocates will say, “He could have done it just as easily with gasoline, or he could have slipped poison into their water, so why don’t we ban gasoline--or ban water?” or some such inane comment. A gun is waiting-just waiting for a trigger to be pulled. This could not have been done with a bat, a club, a knife, bow and arrow or a sword. It took an easily concealable and easily purchased weapon-an automatic weapon. And here we have it from the gun seller himself, a man so stupid as to have even commented to the media who said, “He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won’t sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious,” Markell said.

Of course you would not-would you! How would you have any idea? That’s the whole point Mr. Markell, what makes someone suspicious to you? You said he was clean-cut. Would you have refrained from the sale if he had long hair and a beard? It’s too darn easy. Or if a clean-cut person resold it to a criminal, how could we have prevented that?

Next the gun nuts will say that if other students had been armed, they could have defended themselves. Hmm, that’s a specious argument too. The bottom line is whether or not you blame guns or blame people, this crazed murderer found it easy to buy and effectively use the gun for the purpose for which it was manufactured--to shoot bullets. And why would anyone ever want to shoot bullets from a handgun? Simple--to shoot bullets--and likely at someone either to kill them, or admittedly, to prevent yourself from being killed by someone else with a gun! And you Mr. Markell, will you be donating the $571 to help bury the dead?