From WSB-TV:
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information about the murder of a Walton High School graduate Tuesday near Auburn University.
Lauren Burk was found shot to death on a road a few miles north of the Alabama university. Officials said Burk’s boyfriend, identified as Sean McQuade by other students, and other friends have been questioned but they said they have no suspects. McQuade is also a Walton grad and a student at Auburn.
Police said about 9:00 p.m. they responded to reports of an injured female on Alabama Highway 147. When they arrived, they found Lauren Burk, 18, suffering from a single gunshot wound. The Auburn freshman was taken to the East Alabama Medical Center where she later died.
About 30 minutes after police found Burk they discovered her 2001 black Honda Civic on fire in a campus parking lot.
And from WXIA-TV:
As police investigate the murder of a Marietta graduate near the campus of Auburn University, a 22-year-old Athens woman has been identified as the victim of a shooting near the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Student body president Eve Carson was identified by the police chief Thursday as the person found murdered a mile from campus about 5 a.m. Wednesday. Carson was a senior and biology major at UNC Chapel Hill.
Police said they are looking for Carson’s vehicle - a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander - which was stolen in the incident. The license plate is AIV 6690, registered in Georgia.
Carson’s body was found about a mile from where she lived. She had been shot multiple times in the head, the police chief said. Speaking at a news conference Thursday, the chief said no suspects had been named.
Although there are a handful of campus police cruisers with watchful officers, they are widely dispersed, and many times completely unarmed and under-trained. If someone entered one of our college buildings armed and dangerous there is very little these officers could do to stop them. By the time police respond the scene would be all too similar to the bloody massacres we’ve already seen this year.
But if weak-kneed legislators and wailing soccer moms allowed law-abiding students to carry their own arms, like they would do once the student graduates college, then maybe these massacres could be stopped before more blood is shed. As it is today the parents are simply sending their children to ripe killing fields known as “gun-free zones” - which only means that the innocent are to be unarmed.
Our police cannot be everywhere, and we cannot expect them to be everywhere at all times. Law-abiding citizens need to have the opportunity to defend themselves. Anything short of that simply invites slaughter.
Auburn University, Lauren Burk, University of North Carolina, Eve Carson, gun-free zone
7 responses so far ↓
1 UNC Student // Mar 6, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Eve Carson was killed off-campus, with no one around. She would have legally had the right to carry a gun as she was off-campus and of legal age. It appears the same is true of the other murder.
So how does allowing people to carry guns on-campus do anything to help her at all when she doesn’t choose to carry a gun? Are you proposing to force citizens to arm themselves?
What it comes down to is that you’re using someones senseless and terrible murder to push forward your own ideological agenda, which I find to be pathetic.
2 Just plain disgusted // Mar 6, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I agree with the first comment. Come on, really are more guns the answer to gun crimes. I will remind you that aside from the random acts of violence, its usually a significant other and usually MALES, who kills a lover and/or their children. I have a better idea. How about we teach men to control their anger and have a good talk or cry before they go and kill the person who has hurt their feelings. How about that! I bet you hard money that in both of the above murders…it was a jilted male lover.
PS Can you really imagine a campus of full of young men with guns. PLEASE. We would not have enough hours in the day to report on the shootings. Unfortunately, men are a prickly lot and quick to anger…GOD help us all if they had guns at the ready…but then maybe this is evolution.
3 Shamalama // Mar 7, 2008 at 10:25 am
What I find to be pathetic is that if this person weren’t in college the state would allow them, after passing the background checks, to carry a weapon for the purpose of self protection. What I find to be pathetic is that a combination of state legislators, in concert with college administration, have decided that since this person chose to go to college instead of getting a full-time job, this person can no longer carry a weapon for the purpose of self protection.
Without allowing a student to carry a weapon the chances are very slim that the victim would have even bothered with owning a weapon and keeping it near whether they were on campus or a few miles away. By limiting the student’s options the legislators and administration made all decisions of self-defense for the students.
What is it about being a college student that makes a person less qualified to carry a weapon? Is is the opinions of the legislators and administration that college students are more likely to be functioning drunks? Is is the opinions of the legislators and administration that college students are more likely to be immature?
I’m not forcing anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. But why not give the student the right to make the decision and not have the decision made for them?
“We would not have enough hours in the day to report on the shootings.” That’s the same complaint made by various anti-gun groups every time a state has voted for concealed carry laws. “The blood will run in the streets” and “it will be like the old West”. But the data shows otherwise. The data shows that people that routinely carry guns are safer and commit fewer crimes than the general population.
“Are more guns the answer to gun crimes?” As far as my daughter, a college student, is concerned the answer is “yes”. She has a carry license and has a handgun with her. If someone tries to do harm to her she is ready and willing to protect herself up to and including lethal force. Trying to convince a rapist or violent criminal to have a good talk or cry is not the option she decided to consider.
Yes, I do have an ideological agenda. I want all adults that have proven themselves to be law-abiding to have the right, as acknowledged by the Framers of our Constitution, to be able to arm themselves for the purpose of self-defense. The government cannot protect any specific individual at a specific time. Were there any armed law enforcement officers anywhere near either victim at the time of the crimes? In the final analysis it is the individual that is solely responsible for their own personal safety.
Yes, I do have an ideological agenda. I’m getting sick and tired of seeing beautiful and wonderful innocent lives snuffed out for absolutely no reason. Maybe is was a jilted lover, or a drug addict, or a sex fiend, or a gang member … it doesn’t matter. The crimes happened and there was no one there to assist or protect. We know the criminals had at least a gun, so they had an extreme advantage. Why not “even the odds” and allow the victims to be armed before the crime has a chance to happen?
Yes, I do have an ideological agenda. How many more innocent lives have to be lost before people will stand up for themselves and say, “enough is enough”? How many more students have to die before the students themselves take responsibility for their own self-protection? How many more parents will bury their children before they make some real effort to protect their children? How many more lives must end before college administrations realize that their rent-a-cop security force has no real value?
I am sad and angry. These two events were useless wastes of precious human life. We all want it to stop. The only difference is that I’m willing to do something to stop it.
4 Again... // Mar 7, 2008 at 10:52 am
Shamalama:
You missed the point of the first post. The point you are trying to make may apply to the NIU & VT shootings, but not the Eve Carson murder. She lived off-campus, was last seen at her house off-campus, and was shot off-campus. She could have legally been in possession of a gun off-campus. So your outrage with gun free zones does not apply in this case because she was not in a gun free zone. You are lumping every instance you can find of someone getting killed who happens to be a college student, regardless of whether the crime actually occurs on campus or not, and pushing forward your agenda.
The victim was legally allowed to be armed, and chose not to be. Are you going to seriously play the blame-the-victim card because she didn’t agree with your philosophy that every American should be packing heat because imminent danger lurks around every corner?? Why don’t we all just build moats around our houses and live out our years listening to our CB radio and eating canned meat? We’d be safe, right??
5 Come on man // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:59 am
“What is it about being a college student that makes a person less qualified to carry a weapon? Is the opinions of the legislators and administration that college students are more likely to be functioning drunks? Is is the opinions of the legislators and administration that college students are more likely to be immature?”
Well, on college campuses there is a very concentrated mix of alcohol, drugs, and emotional/hormonal young people. I’ve been to enough frat parties to know that letting them all carry might not be the best of ideas.
My guess is that there would be more gun injuries/deaths due to a couple of drunk guys at 3am taking a fight to the next level because they have their convenient personal protection gun, than prevented murders due to being able to carry on campus.
One more point: thinking about the NIU murders, the shooter walked into the room and instantly started unloading into a auditorium full of students, no warning, nothing. It was over. Unless a student had a spring loaded gun up their sleeve ala “Taxi Driver” and was for some reason expecting to be in a fire-fight at that very moment, I just don’t see how allowing the people in the classroom to have guns would have prevented anything. Real life is not like the movies.
I would say the easier way to prevent that tragedy would be to not allow people with documented mental health problems (which the NIU shooter had) to legally buy firearms. Same with the VT shooting. I know the NRA has a hissy fit whenever anyone tries to put any sort of restriction on the gun buying process, but where in the 2nd amendment does it say that certified batshit crazy folk are afforded the unalienable right to be packing semi-automatic pistols without any consideration for public safety???
6 Shamalama // Mar 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Eve Carson lived off-campus, was last seen at her house off-campus, and was shot off-campus. Police are saying that, as of Friday at noon, it looks to be a random act of violence.
But she was very active, and spent most of her current life, at a place that disallowed guns. So it’s reasonable to assume that the option of even having a weapon was something she could not consider. I haven’t heard any information as to where she lived; did she reside on campus? If so, then the only way she could have legally been in possession of a gun is to keep it in a public storage facility off campus.
I will never play any blame-the-victim card, and you haven’t heard me do so yet. My blame goes solely to the institutions that disallowed her to even make such a decision.
Every LAWFUL American should be ALLOWED TO pack heat because imminent danger lurks around every corner. Again, you keep saying that I’m pushing my beliefs on others when all I want is for each person to have the freedom to make their OWN decision without interference from legislators or administration.
Moats around our houses wouldn’t do much good when so many victims are killed by someone already close to them.
I’ve myself lived through a very concentrated mix of alcohol, drugs, and emotional/hormonal young people at a major university. Never once did I pull a weapon or threaten to pull a weapon. Never once did I get into a fight. Never once did I hang out at frat houses at 3am. Society expects these people to be able to drive a 2-ton missile at 50 mph all over town, to vote on who should be President, to take up arms in defense of this country, to sign legally-binding documents … but you’re saying these same people cannot be trusted to carry a gun?
As to your Taxi Driver image, I can have my weapon out and aimed in under 3 seconds. Considering that the carnage at NIU went on for minutes I would have been able to end it with only a scant few injured or killed. If you had been there would you have been able to help stop the massacre or simply pray that this was not your day to die? Don’t you have any compassion for those around you?
Seung-Hui Cho was found “mentally ill and in need of hospitalization” but never “involuntarily committed” or ruled mentally “incapacitated,” that’s how he was able to legally purchase a firearm. That was a problem with the state of Virginia, not the NRA. And I agree that certified batshit crazy folk should never be allowed near a gun, but neither your or my definition of “batshit crazy” is legal under the law.
7 Craig Cobb // Mar 11, 2008 at 5:47 am
The Houston Astros hat that Eve Carson’s killer was wearing does have a gang affiliation. The “H” logo pays homage to Larry Hoover who was in various incarnations of the Black Gangster Disciples, which he founded. Throughout the 60’s Hoover created alliances and “nations” of gangs in the Chicago area. Lemaricus Davidson, the lead “accused” black slayer of Channon Christian and Chris Newsome was also a BGD– and we know what THAT means–the murder of Eve Carson could not POSSIBLY have been racially motivated–lol.
VIDEO ABOUT Eve Carson-
http://podblanc.com/?q=node/14742
VIDEO about her white-ribboned “memorial”-
http://podblanc.com/?q=node/14842
VIDEO-BLACK GANG DISCIPLES-
http://podblanc.com/index.php?q=node/1769
MORE EVE CARSON VIDEOS-
http://podblanc.com/index.php?q=node/14654