Another 'Gun-Free Zone'

Post below lifted from Taranto. See the original for links

This week saw another horrific massacre by an apparently disturbed teenager, this time at a shopping mall in Omaha, Neb. The 19-year-old gunman took eight lives before killing himself. In a column for FoxNews.com, John Lott, an economist and gun-rights advocate, notes that the mall where this happened was, like Virginia Tech, a "gun-free zone":

But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact. . . . Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn't one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises? Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property.

Lott notes that at another "gun-free zone," the Trolley Square Mall in Utah, an off-duty policeman who happened to have violated the ban stopped another shooting in progress in February. But "gun control" is a liberal and media shibboleth, so the vulnerability of these "gun-free zones" to gunmen who ignore the prohibition gets ignored.

Of course there are trade-offs here. Obviously there would be no shootings in shopping malls if they really were gun-free zones--that is, if they installed metal detectors at all entrances to make sure no one violated the ban. But in that event, can there be any doubt we'd hear wails about violations of civil liberties?






Georgia father kills robber: "Ronald Johnson and his family had just returned home from a school recital. After parking in their driveway the family was walking up the front walk at their house on Stardust Circle when three robbers stopped them. Police said one of the men pulled a gun and ordered the family to "Give it up." During the confrontation Johnson pulled his own gun and opened fire, killing one of the robbers. The other men ran off. Police said Johnson was within his rights, defending his family and will not face charges for the shooting. "It was a home invasion, but this time the invasion was on the other foot," said one neighbor. The neighbor says the wounded man died in the family's yard and the other two men fled on foot. That same neighbor told police that she heard her dog attack one of the robbers as he ran through her backyard."


Connecticut homeowner fires on burglars: Two teens are under arrest after breaking into a home in Stratford this morning. Police say the homeowner fired several shots at the boys before they ran off. It all happened around 10 a.m. at a home on Graham Street. Police say the burglars entered through a back window into the garage where they encountered the homeowner. "Our information after the arrest was that it was essentially a burglary. The suspects and the homeowners confronted each other and neither expected each other to be there," explained Capt. Chris Marino of the Stratford PD. The startled homeowner fired shots at the young men but did not hit them. The two burglars then fled on foot but were apprehended a short time later by police. The teens now face burglary charges. Their names will not be released because of their age.