It’s very difficult to post about anything else today with the story of the shooting on Virginia Tech’s campus still unfolding. We fear for the wounded students, grieve for the 22 31 32….33 dead. I can think of nothing on earth more terrible than losing a child. Nothing.
As the news unspools itself in the days and weeks to come, I hope that kind and cool heads will prevail. When something awful like this occurs, the feelings of helplessness and grief we all feel for the individuals and families affected often turns to rage, and then to a desire to DO SOMETHING.
When that something is done, may it be wise, not reactive, practical, not a result of politicians’ posturing.
Here’s the link to CNN’s developing coverage.
A link to the written statement by Virgin Tech President.
This NPR story is reassuringly calm in tone, and has an informative interview with a student.
When that something is done, may it be wise, not reactive, practical, not a result of politicians’ posturing.
Well said. I agree. I know how absolutely sick I was when one of my kids had a serious illness. A death of one would be almost impossible to bear and would never go away. There are some evil people in the world.
And they’re enabled by nutbags who think we hav a constitutional right to carry AK47’s. Well regulated milita my ass!
Mass murderers have many different weapons that they can use, and making guns illegal to the general public has never kept felons from obtaining them. But, here we go again with people blaming the tools of a criminal rather than the criminal himself. Bombs are illegal. Has that stopped bombers?
right to carry AK47’s
The killing were commited with pistols.
And as I recall, a box cutter was used on 9/11.
And as I recall, a truck filled with fertilizer was used at the Oklahoma Federal building.
While you are outlawing AK47’s
Please make sure you outlaw: – a million ways to kill your brother (Anarchist’s Cookbook: Fertilizer Bomb) –
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=510970
Oh, Woody. I’ve known an awful lot of kids, gang members, but not hard core, who’ve armed themselves because they felt threatened, and they believed the guns would make them safer. After 17 years of reporting on such issues, and after having attended 29 funerals of adolescents and young adults whom I cared about, each dead of gunshot wounds, I can honestly tell you that, in all of those circumstances, I’ve seen guns make people safer exactly zero times.
I’m not saying that guns never make one safer. And I have no interest in getting into 2nd amendment spitting contests. (I spend too much time in Montana to engage in that activity any longer. Plus, after enduring the scarily high-handed tactics of this administration, I’m starting to feel I have more spiritual connection with those paranoid militia types in Idaho worried about black helicopters than I would have ever thought possible.)
But I also carry the memories of five kids in particular who would likely still be alive had guns not been present and available in their own houses. And only two of them were inner city kids.
What you don’t hear from the press are the many instances where someone defending themselves with a gun either killed or ran off an attacker.
That’s right Pokey about the Fertilizer but in Britain you cannot buy the super strength stuff because it can be used to make very powerful explosive. It also comes with tagents so it can be identified. Both measures are opposed here by the NRA.
Bet you didn’t know that you had a right to bear manure!
Oh, the guy and VPI used pistols!. Good. I feel so much safer now!
And one more point and its made by Larry Johnson over at DAILY KOS. The ex-CIA agent notes how horrified we all are by the (Now) 32 deaths at VMI. Well that is an AVERAGE day in Baghdad. Every day. Over and over again. Think about that the next time the chimp-inchief tells us we’re making progress!
Next time someone talks about a child being hungry, tell him, “Kids are starving in Africa, so shut-up.”
Everything does not have something to do with Iraq.