“April 16 marks one year since the massacre at Virginia Tech by mentally disturbed student Seung-Hui Cho. Last week the university offered anguished parents a settlement of $100,000 per murdered child. There are three things wrong with this: First, even in financial terms, it is hopelessly inadequate to redress the deaths of these talented young people. Second, it does nothing to correct the useless, symbolic policy which facilitated their deaths. Third, if you don’t think that the policy is wrong,Virginia Tech has no liability for the deaths it facilitated. That policy is the ‘gun-free zone.’ Even if the victims had possessed permits to carry a gun, Virginia Tech forbade them to have that means of self-defense while on campus. This ensured that only the killer (who, of course, violated the ‘gun-free zone’ policy just as he violated the laws against murder) and uniformed police would have guns.” (04/16/08)