The Virginia Tech tragedy: All too familiar

April 21, 2007

Guest Post by Morbo

Scanning headlines online the day after the mass murders at Virginia Tech, I saw one that read “Nation in shock over school shootings.”

I felt a lot of things that day: I was angry, appalled, sad and disgusted. But I felt no shock. Headlines about mass shootings simply don’t surprise me any more. While the large number of victims at VT is unusual, the fact is that in this country, shootings by well-armed lunatics are not. If you poke around online a bit, you can usually find a story every few weeks about a disgruntled ex-worker, a spurned lover or a malcontent walking into an office building and gunning down three or four people.

The massacre at VT is the worst mass shooting to date. And if you want to know what really horrifies me about it, it’s this: The certainty that some day, probably within my lifetime, some other nut will exceed the number killed there.

Here’s how nutty our nation’s gun laws are: Almost a year ago, a disturbed young man, Michael Kennedy, walked on to the grounds of a police station in Fairfax County, Va., armed with an assault rifle. He opened fire, killing two police officers. It was later revealed that Kennedy had a history of mental instability — and that numerous guns were lying about unsecured in the house he shared with his parents.

Prosecutors in Fairfax recently filed charges against Kennedy’s father. But because our gun laws are so absurd, they can only get at him through the backdoor. The indictment charges that Brian Kennedy is a drug user, and it asserts that Kennedy lied about his use of drugs on a form when he bought an assault weapon. His ownership of 20 guns and 2,500 rounds of ammunition that he allowed to fall into the hands of a madman is apparently not a problem in the eyes of the law. He must be charged under drug laws — and just might beat that rap.

I’d like to think the horrific incident at VT will really make a difference.

I’d like to think it will lead to a serious debate about our nation’s gun laws and the need to reexamine the wisdom of retaining a constitutional provision on guns that reflects 18th Century obsessions in the face of 21st Century firepower. I know it will be difficult. Already we have heard the chorus of the gun nuts with their made-for-TV movie fantasies: “If only some of the students had been packing!” Yes, indeed, that’s exactly what those young people needed — crossfire.

Others will assert that a deranged person determined to hurt others will find a way to get his hands on guns no matter what. There may be some truth in that — but why must we make it so easy for him?

We need to have a discussion about the Second Amendment. It is long overdue. Yet we will probably put it off again. If we do, we are merely forestalling the day when the headlines announce that someone has bested Cho Seung-Hui’s grim record.

“I’d like to think the horrific incident at VT will really make a difference.”
unfortunately, it won’t.

  • I believe every American has the right to pack the muzzle loaded flintlock rifles that our founders intended, but not modern semi-automatics with clips of hollow point bullets. It’s all a question of degree, otherwise we are entitled by the second ammendment to own nuclear warheads.

  • I’d like to think the horrific incident at VT will really make a difference.

    That would be nice but there was no such discussion when in two different states two different creeps broke into schools, held little girls hostage, sexually assaulted and then shot them.

    The DoJ certainly jumped all over that one right? Abbie Goner is all about protecting the children, isn’t he? He’s said it any number of times. The man wants to peek at your internet use records so he can protect kiddies from cyber-perverts and he’s made it clear that the Constitution is little more than very fancy butt wipe. Naturally he wanted to make getting a gun harder than getting on a plane with a chain saw.

    [crickets chirp]

    I have no problem with guns as guns, especially guns that are too big to stick in your pocket. I also have no problem with cars as cars. The fact is there are too many arseholes who shouldn’t be allowed any where near either object. The state takes some steps to control who has the ability to tear around in a hunk of metal that can reduce a human being to a nasty smear on the ground.

    But if you suggest similar or stricter control for guns … Oh no. We can’t do that. See, there’s this bit in the Constitution that says no one can stop me from owning enough weaponry to take over a small country. And if you don’t let me have my cache, only bad guys will have weapons and they want to kill us.

    Utter an complete bullshit of course but 33 dead or 100 dead or 1,000 dead by bullet hole won’t make a difference.

  • What struck me about the gun nut hysteria that the VT massacre pointed to the need for more guns was the fact that the serial numbers of Cho’s guns had been ground off – usually a sign of a stolen weapon.
    It’s quite possible that these weapons were originally purchased in accordance with the gun nut fantasy of defending one’s family by gunning down intruders in the middle of the night. Then, through some combination of bad luck and bad practice, these ‘righteous’ guns end up slaughtering a horrifying number of innocent people? I have no idea if this is the case, or not. But it falls too squarely into the realm of ‘easily possible’ to be ignored.

    I’m not against guns. I have no problem with reasonable and rational people owning them. My problem is that saturation distribution, with easy access to cheap firearms leads to nonchalance in securing weapons against unauthorized access for far too many gun owners. It goes without saying that the more guns that get poured into the distribution funnel, the more that inevitably leak out and into the wrong hands.

    That it’s easier to obtain a loaded gun than to get a motor vehicle on the road never ceases to astound me.

  • Here are some truths:

    1) Concealable weapons (hand guns) are a bigger problem than large assault weapons (semi-automatic rifles).

    2) Allowing the selling of large quantities of hollow-point ammo to individuals–let alone mentally unstable individuals–is just asinine.

    3) Hand guns could be tightly restricted, while all other guns–including assault rifles–could be sold as freely as those weapons are sold now. Why does the National Rifle Association care about hand guns; if they do, shouldn’t they change their name to the National Gun Association (NGA)?

  • The U.S. does indeed need to have a national discussion about the Second Amendment, but I doubt it’ll get very far.

    We also need to have a discussion about educating people on the subject of mental illness. In many cases, after the event we find all sorts of signs that something was wrong, but not enough was done to address the problem. Even if this VT shooter hadn’t gone to the extremes he did, he was still one troubled dude and would committed other acts — such as the stalking incidents.

    One way to do it would be by better educating kids in schools on trouble signs to look for in each other — and what steps to take when you recognize them. Teens (and younger) have all sorts of addiction, suicide, depression and other issues that could be addressed at the same time.

    I’m sure some nutbag will come up with a “mental health” controversy backed by shit-for-brains experts who say we should teach depression abstinence and institute morning prayers, but that’s just the world we live in.

  • Scanning headlines online the day after the mass murders at Virginia Tech, I saw one that read “Nation in shock over school shootings.”

    I am so sick and goddamned tired of this national permanent pre-adolescent crap. Poor America, we’re sooooo special, and when anything happens here it is nothing like anything that happens anywhere else because we’re sooooooooo innocent.

    Tell it to the 167 Iraqis who were killed in car bombs over 24 hours on Thursday. Or the 50+ likely killed in the past 24 hours, or the average 30-40+ killed every frickin’ day!! Courtesy of the Red White and Blue.

    America: grow the fuck up.

  • Interesting idea from gun advocates saying this could have been averted had there been more people w/ guns at school. If so, why aren’t they up in arms (no pun intended) about airport security? Just let everyone through no fuss no muss no shoes off no bag scan no nothing – the more weapons on the plane, the better the chance of foiling a hijack attempt.

  • Control ammunition.

    Comment by Antonius — 4/21/2007 @ 6:21 pm

    Ah yes. The Chris Rock Solution: 1 bullet = $5,000.

    It might even help cut down on Vice Presidential hunting accidents.

  • Why is Switzerland’s violence per capita so much lower than ours even though every household is required by law (it’s enforced too!) to have an assault rifle?

    BTW, Canada’s per capata homicide rate by firearm is comparable to teh US.. Bowling for Columbine didn’t measure relative deaths.

    The reason we allowed ordinary citizens to use muskets was that was what the army had.

    When President Dick Cheney declares martial law, are we supposed to defend our families from waterboarding using a six-shooter?
    Equipment parity with the military and police was necessary to make the government nervous about stepping on the bill of rights. I never believed we’d get as close to an America worth rebelling against as we have. Not before Bush did I understand the completely reasonable nature of teh 2nd amendment.

    That said, just as habitual drunks shouldn’t own cars, people tending to violence or mental illness should not get guns. Enforced instant background checks need to include notation that a gun has never left teh possession of a gun owners and been used improperly or that person loses their right to bear arms because, quite frankly, they stink at it.

  • Heraclitus said:
    “Interesting idea from gun advocates saying this could have been averted had there been more people w/ guns at school. If so, why aren’t they up in arms (no pun intended) about airport security? Just let everyone through no fuss no muss no shoes off no bag scan no nothing – the more weapons on the plane, the better the chance of foiling a hijack attempt.”

    Thats what Armed Air marshalls are for. The response time on an airplane is only a few seconds due to the size of the plane. Some airlines even have armed pilots. If some of the students would have been armed they could have shot Cho when he was trying to break in the door. Instead they all had to sit there and be slaughtered by him. With no way to defend themselves.

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