More gun control will NOT work. Some time before
the shooting, the school succeeded in preventing
a student from carrying a concealed gun, even though
he had a permit. One student had written an op ed piece advocating the
use of concealed carry of a gun. He was ridiculed for his opinion.
While the school congratulated itself, it forgot that others wouldn't
bother to obey that gun prohibition.
It is ironic that the Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan was gunned down the
next day, April 17 by a gangster. The mayor died a few hours later on
April 18. If gun control couldn't protect the mayor of a city in a
country where guns are ILLEGAL, what makes people think that gun bans
will protect people here? Those victims were sitting ducks. The
gunman simply locked the door and blasted away at the victims who
could not defend themselves. Forgive the cliche but it was like
shooting fish in a barrel. It is kind of interesting that Thomas
Jefferson encouraged people to learn the use of guns. Of course he
didn't have a semi automatic pistol. But he did encourage people to
carry a pistol on them, which I think had one shot. He even preferred
pistol shooting to stick and ball games. I wonder what he would have
thought of Major League Baseball?
NHK (Japanese) TV has a news broadcast in English. The NHK broadcast
mentioned that more people are buying guns since the shooting, some
for the first time. I am reminded of a talk with a friend many years
ago about the subject of gun control. While she was a bit on the
liberal side, she did not think people should be helpless. She pointed
out that the police are not always there when you need them. Police
can only do so much. They can't be everywhere. In the case of Virginia
Tech, the police were not there to stand as a barrier between the
gunman and the victims even though the first shooting took place two
hours earlier. While the Police may have made a reasonable assumption
about the perpetrator not coming back to the scene of a crime,
sometimes people don't act according to plan.
No, I don't think this incident should be seen as a reflection on all
Koreans. The Texas tower shooter of 1964 was "white" but no one said
the shooting is a reflection on all whites are all college students.
But I am annoyed at the sympathy displayed toward the shooter. Would
that same sentiment be shown if the the shooter was a WASP? Shouldn't
we as a society take a "color blind" attitude and say this shooting
was wrong and that ethnicity is irrelevant?
# posted by GuyTak @ 9:03 PM
