Posted by nwcitizen at 8/29/07 4:46 a.m.

Hey P-I, how about covering the MoveOn vigils that took place all over the city last night to remember the human cost and demanding an end to this endless war?

The tragedy in Virgina is definitely worth covering but the sheer magnitude of the loss of life and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan is an overwhelming tragedy as well.

Is it because it didn't happen to us over here and only to "them" over there?

Posted by Eustacian at 8/29/07 6:26 a.m.

Perhaps the rest of Seattle saw the foolishness in such a protest.

Because of course, the very thing that the Virginia Tech students needed most was a fellow student carrying a concealed weapon.

That is the ONLY way that the killer would have been stopped before he could finish his rampage.

The Police may be able to deter some crimes. And they may be able to investigate crimes and find their perpetrators. But when you are facing imminent violence, there is about ZERO percent chance that the police are going to protect you.

Of course when they do arrive, they'll spend the first hour putting on SWAT gear and running around looking cool before they actually enter the building. And their last hours will be spent collecting gun casings and photographing the bodies.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/29/07 8:31 a.m.

I opened the PI site this morning to see how many people had been at the IRAQ WAR protest at Green Lake last night, as I'm not very good at head counts, especially while trying to keep my 4 & 6 year old sons from burning themselves or each other with their candles. My 6-year-old, who wanted to be at home playing with Lego, kept saying it was a waste of time. I insisted that protesting the war was the most important thing we could do as citizens, especially to ensure that he won't be fighting it in 12 years. But to find a complete absence of coverage in the PI, our city's more liberal newspaper? Maybe my son is right. With media like this, protest is a waste of time.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/29/07 4:04 p.m.

"The 32-second duration of the event is how long authorities estimate it took for 23-year-old shooter Cho Seung-Hui to buy each of the several guns he brandished during the April attack."

Wow--these "authorities" think that the entire transaction took 32 seconds? I defy them to fill out, by hand, just the purchaser side of the AFT form in that amount of time, much less waiting for the store to fill out theirs, wait for the results of the "Instant" check, etc, etc.

Why do I suspect that the "activists" just made up this detail because it sounded good?

Posted by unregistered user at 8/30/07 6:59 a.m.

The 32-second duration of the event is how long authorities estimate it took for 23-year-old shooter Cho Seung-Hui to buy each of the several guns he brandished during the April attack.

And which authorities would that be, pray tell? This quote does not pass the smell test, but then little in the Seattle PI does.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/30/07 7:11 a.m.

Since when does the PI (or any other Seattle "news"paper) print anything factual? Why do you think their subscription rates are falling like rocks?

Their anti-american liberal propaganda no longer sells.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/30/07 10:34 a.m.

The fact is, 32 seconds sounds like a good scary number. The fact that the NICS background check takes longer, or there are mandatory waiting periods (unless you have a concealed permit, which requires a full background check and fingerprinting being sent to the FBI) have no bearing on the supposed 32 seconds. Are they referring to the time to complete the financial part of the transaction?

The fact is, we don't need more gun control- The shooter at virginia tech was already legally prohibited from posessing firearms by a court order. However because the gun control laws that exist were not followed and enforced he got them anyway. Not to mention, crimminals with evil intent rarely aquire guns through legal means anyway.

Obviously the "murder is illegal" and other laws we have are 100% effective against crime, why shouldn't illegal use of firearms be wiped out in the same way?

Honestly, judges can impose an additional 20 years on perpetrators who use a firearm in the commission of the crime, yet they rarely do. If we simply punished people for the crimes they are commiting, rather than punishing the law abiding, perhaps we would be better off.

Posted by unregistered user at 8/30/07 3:23 p.m.

At EVERY gun show in the United States, gun sales by "merchants" require a NICS background check.

At the WAC (Washington Arms Collectors) gun shows, the only significant gun shows in the Puget Sound area, private gun sales by members who are not merchants are only allowed to another club member. Club membership requires the _exact_ same Washington State background check that buying a pistol at a gun store requires.

So when they say:
"Among other things, they also want the state to adopt a law that would require gun show merchants to conduct background checks on customers."
Just what are they talking about?

Posted by Dave Skinner at 8/30/07 11:01 p.m.

No, 32 is the number of victims. The protesters were so embarrassed that they couldn't get any turnout that maybe if they counted to 32 real fast, they could get out of there and nobody would laugh at them. And when the intrepid reporter asked, well, that's pretty good spin on the spur of the moment, and poor reportage on the part of Amy Rolph. It also goes to show how fast and loose with the truth political crusaders can be.
Even the illustrious Jesse Jackson could only scrounge three busloads for his personal protest in Illinois, probably by offering a free lunch or something.
All this shows is that trying to make hay from a tragedy can trivialize it.