As some of you may know, I attended Virginia Polytechnic and State University -- better known as Virginia Tech -- from 1993 until 1998. I also made Blacksburg, Virginia my home for two years after graduation, so all told I have spent nearly a quarter of my life in the usually idyllic town of Blacksburg, VA. I was a computer science student. Much of my higher education took place in Norris Hall where most of the unfathomable tragedy took place. My first college girlfriend was a resident in West Ambler-Johnston where the violence began. As with anyone else who has seen or heard the news, I am shocked, angered, saddened and horrified by what has taken place on the campus that I know and love so well. Thirty-three lives have been ended in a sad, sadistic and senseless way. Everyone that I personally know who attend Virginia Tech as students, and who work there as staff are alive and as well as can be given the circumstances. I give my heart, my love, my tears and my prayers to all of those who have lost family, friends and acquaintances as a result of this incomprehensible act. While we weep and pray for those who have had their lives taken from them this week in rural Virginia, let us not forget those who live with intense violence every day. One hundred and eighty-three people were killed just yesterday in Baghdad. Are their lives worth any less? Certainly not. Every day young people are shot and killed in East Oakland no more than 10 or 15 blocks from my home. Sometimes we hear the gunshots at night. What I'm trying to say is that, while for me this recent tragedy hits especially close to home, gun violence takes it's toll in this country and across the world every minute of every hour of every day. It's time to do something to stop it. Enacting laws in this country to make it more difficult to purchase handguns does NOT have to be a violation of the 2nd Amendment. No person who purchases a handgun without malice has any reason to oppose the proposal of such legislation. After Columbine there was talk of enacting such legislation, but very little came of it. How many more days of senseless violence will we have to wake to? I implore each of you to contact your Senators and Congress people. Tell them that gun control does not mean a repeal of the 2nd Amendment. It's just common sense, and now is the time to act. Not one more person should have their lives ended as a result of gun violence that could be so easily prevented. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/04/18/PM200704184.html?refid=6