It is not certain that if someone else in that building had a gun, the result would have been less carnage (it might have resulted in even more). It is certain that if Cho had not had a gun, the result would have been less carnage.

Mentally ill people should not be allowed to buy guns-on-demand. Only a mentally ill person would refute this. The state of Virginia has reaped what it sowed, and what a shame for its innocent citizens! Shameful!

As a very good friend of mine said, "Moses came down the mountain with ten rules written in stone, and we don't seem to obey them. How can more laws make us obey?" If anyone is intent on destruction, he or she will follow their intentions to the best they can. I am horrified at the destruction on Virginia Tech's campus. As a strong gun owner and competitive shooter, I cannot imagine pointing any firearm at a person, but in this case I would have if I had been there.

All these pro-weapons messages just demonstrate how decadent the USA is. If you believe in life, how can you justify the need to carry a gun or nay weapon. This constitutional right made sense when your young country had no police and little military but nowadays, it is pure nonsense. A schizophreniac like Cho would have killed 1 maybe 2 with a knife; he killed 32 with guns and would have killed hundreds with bombs (Oklahoma city bombing is a good example). Why don't you allow all Americans to have nuclear weapons? This is the best to protect each of you against nuclear attacks following the reasoning of pro-guns.
Shootings in universities maybe a drop in a bucket as one says, but that is only because the bucket is so big!!!
Unfortunately, I foresee no evolution because the belief in evolution is low and Darwin is so opposed in the USA. All this is very sad for all the people who still like the USA.
Fall of the american empire...

There is no logical, legal reason for a student to carry a gun. Now picture a college student out for a weekend, drinking for his first time. He/she goes into the dorm room. Pulls out the gun to clean it. POP someone is killed. It is an accident waiting to happen. Gns do not belong on any college campus!!! Except by the police officials. I have two children in college, one at Virginia Tech. If a college is going to permit students to carry guns I will pull them out of that school in a heartbeat.

There is no logical reason for someone to bring two guns onto a school campus, and shot 32 people....but one did.

While I think that while the idea of banning guns is a good idea, the spread of guns needed to be nipped in the bud for that to happen. However, banning guns now is a terrible idea, considering the number of guns in circulation in the United States. Who will be the ones to listen to the law and turn in their weapons? Who will be the ones who ignore the law and keep their weapons? This solution, while effective in nations such as Japan and Australia, is useless in a nation like the United States where guns are everywhere, and are easily accessible. A universal gun ban would serve to drive weapons out of the hands of responsible citizens, and allow criminals a monopoly of weapons, and I cannot see how that would be considered a good thing.

Frankly, as a student who is soon to enter University, I believe allowing students the right to carry guns is insane. Could someone have stopped Cho with a gun if students were allowed to carry guns? Sure, but who is to say that an accident or tragedy would not have happened sooner. If students were allowed to carry guns, small conflicts could potentially escalate into far greater tragedies, as insults and fisticuffs can end up in shootouts.

However, the idea of protecting oneself does have a lot of merit. I would not have a problem with allowing responsible Professors to carry guns. Even permitting less than lethal weapons like taser guns to be carried on campus would be acceptable to me, as any tool that increases chances of survival in the unlikely case of an attack can be beneficial.

Dear psychiatrist you wrote "As a psychotherapist, I am deeply concerned by this man's belief that more guns on campus would prevent more violence. This premise hangs on the supposition that all students are mature and mentally stable enough to not use the guns to settle arguments, to reflexively reach for the gun if a student reaches into his jacket for something or reaches for his wallet"

But doesnt' banning all guns hang on the supposition that NOBODY is mature enough to settle arguments with out a gun? I don't believe anybody wants all students to have guns. I don't even beleive that anybody wants a small minority to have guns at school. One just consider if the outcome could have been different if even one student, one faculty member, one delivery truck driver dropping off supplies would have had a gun. I would venture to guess that very few students at VA Tech would want to carry a handgun 6 months from now or even 30 days from now. Most likely very small single digits in terms of percentage of students. I would also venture to guess that a large number of students wish that one "good guy" would have had a gun when the "bad guy" entered the building and began shooting.

The problem is not the guns themselves by the minds behind the men and women who inflict this type of violence. As a psychologist, I believe there is more that needs to be done to educate students on mental health issues and make services more readily available.

Also, I wanted to express my sympathy and support for all of those directly affected by this tragedy.