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Shortly after absorbing the shock and the pure horror of the Virginia Tech massacre, my thoughts turned quickly to what the political fallout would be.As cold as that may sound, it's a fact that when tragedy strikes -- 911, Katrina, what have you -- there are those who immediately look for a politician or a political policy to blame. Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty.In this case, of course, I quickly realized that the "ban all the guns" crowd would be in full force, and those who support gun owner rights -- nationally that tends to be Republicans -- would receive the brunt of their assinine accusations.As anyone who spends 10 seconds thinking about it will come to realize, laws restricting guns are the dumbest laws on our books. Why? Because only law-abiding people obey laws. People inclined toward criminal behavior ignore laws -- even gun laws!In other words, someone who wants to walk onto a campus and start firing away will find a gun, legally or illegally, with which to carry out his plan.The only result of our anti-gun culture has been to disarm most of the law-abiding people across the country.I believe it would not be bad idea to require -- yes, require -- all Americans to apply for gun permits, permits which would in and of themselves allow the carrying of such weapons, concealed or exposed.You wouldn't want to require everyone to carry a gun without going through some basic psychological and skill tests. But everyone who passes such tests would then be issued a gun, and encouraged to carry it.(I understand how whacked-out crazy this sounds to many of you, after years and years of indoctrination about how incarnately evil guns are. You first have to be able to Imagine a thug walking into a 7-11 intending to rob the place, then suddenly remembering that every customer in the store is probably armed. He would likely buy a pack of gum and walk peacefully out the door.When Cho Seung-Hui walked onto the Virginia Tech campus, he would have managed to kill two or three people, but if even just the professors or other staffers had been armed, he wouldn't have killed 32.In the society we have created, only two classes of people typically have guns on our streets -- police officers and criminals. The rest of us are unarmed and helpless.When was the last time you read about a police officer in uniform with his sidearm clearly visible being held up by a masked gunman? Probably never. Why? Think about it.Gun control advocates, when presented with a scenario such as this, typically wring their hands and proclaim that it would lead us back to the "Wild West" days, with daily shootouts in the streets.Actually, the "Wild West," statistically, had fewer shootings than we have today, but those are bothersome facts and a column for another day.Again, repeat after me -- laws prohibiting guns will only be obeyed by law-abiding citizens. People who decide to commit murder will not let gun laws stop them from doing so. They will find a way to get a gun.We've had decades and decades of new gun laws. And yet, violence grows,and we just witnessed the worst massacre in our nation's history. It is time for a new approach -- arm all the citizens.Think it through. Does it really seem crazier than what those poor unarmed victims went through on Monday?The Republican Gazette welcomes emails to the editor and press releases. All submitted items must include the name and contact information for the author of the article, and all articles will only be published with the author's name included.Thank you for reading and participating in the Republican Gazette, another of West Virginia's most biased publications.* Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. In 2007, West Virginia taxpayers will have to work until April 23rd to pay their total tax bill.* West Virginia's corporate rate ranks 7th highest nationally. * West Virginia's state and local sales tax rate stands at 6%, which exceeds the national median of 5%. 