Roanoke Area College Professor Calls Gun Owners Callous

Megan Doney, an English professor at New River Community College had this OP/ED in today's Roanoke Times, where she uses the tragic incident in Arizona last week to call gun owners who have defended teaching young children to use firearms, extremists and callous:

Because extreme gun rights proponents think it’s perfectly all right to allow children to handle machine guns, a 9-year-old child has to spend the rest of her life knowing that an innocent man died at her hands. Gun rights extremists have fostered a culture where parents think it is adorable to watch their pony-tailed daughters firing a machine gun. In their world, Vacca’s death, the child’s trauma and the parents’ guilt are acceptable prices for the “right” to own as many guns as they want, and carry them whenever and wherever they want.

Speaking for this gun rights proponent, it's perfectly all right to allow children to be properly taught how to use firearms.  I'm not in a position to second guess what occurred last week which is why more has not been written about it on this blog.  I am not an instructor or range officer.  But, others with more qualifications have shared their thoughts.  ICE Training's Rob Pincus spoke with Mark Walters on Armed American Radio Sunday and gave his assessment:

And here is the CNN interview of NRA Certified Instructor Claude Werner that Pincus mentioned:

It's clear from Doney's piece that she believes even though millions of people have used firearms to stop armed attackers, because an incident at her college was averted by an unarmed security guard, that should be sufficient for all of us.

Despite my own firsthand experience in a school shooting, I carry no credibility with gun rights extremists. But I know that many sensible gun owners and NRA members are also horrified by this event, and I appeal to them — indeed, I beg them — to help their colleagues understand the gravity of this situation, to see reality, and to stop lying to themselves and to the American public.

Maybe if Doney listened to people like Rob Pincus and Claude Werner, she would know the firearms community is assessing what happened to make sure that such an incident, which rarely happens to begin with, doesn't happen again.  But my guess is she is more interested in spewing an anti-gun rant because she doesn't believe it is ever appropriate for children or adults to use firearms.

Update: A much more intelligent OP/ED can be found at Stars and Stripes.