Tragedy
What a horrible, horrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the families of all those that have lost their lives today in Virginia. I wish you the support and the silence that you will need to heal, but I don't think that you're going to get it. Instead, I hope that you have the strength that you need to weather the bitter oncoming storm of the media.
I'm removed from this, so I have some thoughts along the edges of this massacre based on the information that I currently have.
Obviously the police and the school didn't do all that they could, but that's not their fault. They had no reason to suspect that someone would either come back or appear on the other side of campus with two loaded guns and shoot people sitting in classrooms. Absolutely no reason whatsoever.
In the next couple of days the media is going to demonize the police and the school administration. That's sad, because this "two hours" thing is not an "Al Quaeda determined to attack the U.S." memo. The authorities expected life to go on, even despite the first shootings. Two deaths in a domestic situation is also tragic but nine hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand they are not the precursor to a shooting rampage.
I know the media will blame them, but I hope that most people understand that they should not have done anything differently.
Also, guns were not the problem.
I'm not a gun person. I'm a knife person, but I am pro-gun registration. Every firearm should be registered and there should be penalties for "losing" guns (especially when you don't report that they're missing). On the other side of that, I think that waiting periods are stupid, and I will never support a gun ban like that of the U.K. or Washington D.C.'s. The Second Amendment could be clarified, but the sentiment is good: the people need to retain their well regulated right to bear arms. The founding fathers knew what they were doing.
Anyway, the point is that this was well planned. The chains on the inside of the doors, the extra ammo. I've heard a rumor that the people were lined up and shot execution style.
If this guy hadn't had a gun, he would have done something else. Someone pointed me to the article on the Bath School Disaster. If the guy at Virginia Tech didn't have a gun he would have used a bomb or a knife or he would have driven up onto the sidewalks and mowed down people in his car. I know that 9/11 "changed everything" but sometimes there just isn't anything that the authorities could have done. No one is perfectly safe. That's the way the world works, and that's not anyone's fault (unless you're a theist, in which case it is someone's fault).
That doesn't mean that this isn't still a tragedy. This is a sad day and at least 33 people are gone forever and many more are never going to be the same again. I can't imagine how hurt the families and the friends are, and I can't imagine how hurt someone had to be to shoot all of those people.
Again, my sympathy goes out to those unfortunate enough to be involved.
I'm removed from this, so I have some thoughts along the edges of this massacre based on the information that I currently have.
Obviously the police and the school didn't do all that they could, but that's not their fault. They had no reason to suspect that someone would either come back or appear on the other side of campus with two loaded guns and shoot people sitting in classrooms. Absolutely no reason whatsoever.
In the next couple of days the media is going to demonize the police and the school administration. That's sad, because this "two hours" thing is not an "Al Quaeda determined to attack the U.S." memo. The authorities expected life to go on, even despite the first shootings. Two deaths in a domestic situation is also tragic but nine hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand they are not the precursor to a shooting rampage.
I know the media will blame them, but I hope that most people understand that they should not have done anything differently.
Also, guns were not the problem.
I'm not a gun person. I'm a knife person, but I am pro-gun registration. Every firearm should be registered and there should be penalties for "losing" guns (especially when you don't report that they're missing). On the other side of that, I think that waiting periods are stupid, and I will never support a gun ban like that of the U.K. or Washington D.C.'s. The Second Amendment could be clarified, but the sentiment is good: the people need to retain their well regulated right to bear arms. The founding fathers knew what they were doing.
Anyway, the point is that this was well planned. The chains on the inside of the doors, the extra ammo. I've heard a rumor that the people were lined up and shot execution style.
If this guy hadn't had a gun, he would have done something else. Someone pointed me to the article on the Bath School Disaster. If the guy at Virginia Tech didn't have a gun he would have used a bomb or a knife or he would have driven up onto the sidewalks and mowed down people in his car. I know that 9/11 "changed everything" but sometimes there just isn't anything that the authorities could have done. No one is perfectly safe. That's the way the world works, and that's not anyone's fault (unless you're a theist, in which case it is someone's fault).
That doesn't mean that this isn't still a tragedy. This is a sad day and at least 33 people are gone forever and many more are never going to be the same again. I can't imagine how hurt the families and the friends are, and I can't imagine how hurt someone had to be to shoot all of those people.
Again, my sympathy goes out to those unfortunate enough to be involved.
posted by Spherical Time at
12:27 AM
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