The American Spectator

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(Page 3 of 15)

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Mr. Tabin asks, "Mightn't a law-abiding armed student have stopped the spree in its tracks? We'll never know."

True enough, if scientific certainty is the standard. But it's fair to revisit another incident with striking similarities and one strikingly different outcome.

That would be the January 2002 killing spree of Peter Odighizuwa, a Nigerian here on a student visa. Peter was a student on the Grundy, Virginia campus of the Appalachian School of Law when his humanity went AWOL. He gunned down six faculty members and students, killing three of them. Unfortunately for Odighizuwa -- and the anti-gun crowd, I suppose -- he was quickly neutralized by fellow students Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges, who, upon hearing the commotion, ran to their vehicles and retrieved their own guns.

p>Bridges pointed his gun at Odighizuwa and the killing stopped. The killer threw down his weapon at the sight of Bridges' gun and was tackled by other students. Armed students stopped Mr. Odighizuwa's spree in its tracks. br> -- Doug Roll br> Jacksonville, Texas /p> p> Thanks for John Tabin's perspective in "A Disarmed Campus." It has been reported that potential crime victims stop about one million crimes each year just by showing a gun to criminals; rarely do the intended victims have to fire. It would be a shame to take away guns and allow criminals to commit those million crimes just to avoid campus shootings that take place less than once a decade. And as Tabin points out, just one person in the building with a gun might have stopped the murderer. The left thinks we should rely on the police to prevent crimes, but it's clear that the police rarely prevent crimes; they can only pick up the pieces afterwards. br> -- Roger D. McKinney br> Broken Arrow, Oklahoma /p>

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