The Top 10 Myths About the Virginia Tech Massacre

We all know that on April 16th, 2007, a new Day That Shall Live in Infamy was tragically born when a 23-year-old South Korean man who had lived in the US since he was eight and was attending a good American university in the state of Virginia shot to death 32 students and faculty before committing suicide. 33 senseless deaths by guns--the worst non-gang related gun incident in modern American history, and a chilling encore to the Columbine High School massacre of 1999 which claimed 13 lives.

Needless to say there have been some very strong reactions among the American citizenry, not to mention the South Koreans who feel a collective sense of guilt (needlessly). The expected calls for stricter regulations and the finger-pointing emerged immediately while relatives, friends, and fellow students grieved for their lost ones.

But who is offering real solutions? Are most people thinking rationally, considering the facts, at this stage? There are 10 myths emerging regarding the Virginia Tech Massacre that need to be closely analyzed, with facts considered, before we end up compounding the tragedy.

Myth #1. Tighter gun control laws would have prevented that massacre.

It happens all the time: someone does something wrong with something and people want the something taken away...from everybody. Does it work for the betterment of society? No.

Consider what we found at Rapid Intelligence's Factbites. "Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill, and others, who were unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated....That places total victims who lost their lives because of gun control at approximately 56 million in the last century." "Gun-control laws have noticeably reduced gun ownership in some states, with the result that for each 1% reduction in gun ownership there was a 3% increase in violent crime...with no academic evidence that gun regulations prevent crime, and plenty of indications that they actually encourage it, we nonetheless are now debating which new gun control laws to pass."