Yesterday’s mass murder at Virginia Tech University will doubtless re-ignite the Second Amendment debate. While the American Civil Rights Union has its view of that issue, it is not our purpose, for now, to discuss it. This is a time in which respect for the murder victims counsels circumspection.

We can, however, treasure the heroism that was shown by some during the siege. Below, Paul Mirengoff, writing on Power Line, notes the story of a 76 year-old Holocaust survivor, Professor Liviu Lebrescu, who gave his life so that his students could escape. Paul in turn quotes Ronald Reagan, who asked — and then answered — “Where do we find such men?”

“Don’t miss Seth Leibsohn’s short piece on Professor Liviu Lebrescu who was among those killed at Virginia Tech yesterday. Professor Lebrescu is also the subject of [a] Jerusalem Post article [today]….

“Seth notes that Lebrescu, a holocaust survivor, sacrificed his life to save his students. He was shot while blocking the door to his classroom, while students jumped out the window. More than sixty years after his liberation, the rescued became the rescuer.

“In a 1974 speech in which he introduced returning POW John McCain to the CPAC convention, Ronald Reagan asked where we find such men. He answered, ‘We [find] them in our streets, in the offices, the shops and the working places of our country and on the farms.’ Professor Lebrescu’s heroism reminds us that we also find them among those who come to this country from other lands.”