Real Kato Blog: The Not-Quite-So-Famous-As-Columbine Massacre

There was another tragic school shooting... and there's not a lot of chatter about it.

So you've probably heard by now: In Red Lake, Minnesota, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandparents, then went to his high school and opened fire on his classmates. A security guard, a teacher, and five students are dead, and seven more students are injured. Weise apparently shot himself in the head after a brief gun fight with the police.

Very few people seem to be talking about this. Have we been desensitized to this kind of violence? "Oh, that's just like Columbine. Been there, done that." Someone at work even made a joke about it. A joke.

We live in a violent culture. The United States is more accepting of violence in the media than most of the world (while still being oddly prudish about sex). Mind you, I'm not placing any blame on the media; what we see in movies, television, and video games is simply a reflection of our culture, and Hollywood is simply selling us what we want to buy. We live in a culture derived from Puritan ethics and wild-west cowboys. Is it any wonder that we get all in a tizzy if someone shows a nipple on TV, but hardly even blink when we see a depiction of someone getting gunned down?

I don't know what the right solution to all this is. Maybe we should start showing more nipples. I think if teenage boys had the option of watching nipple movies instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, they might start to have a different set of priorities. Let me connect the dots for you: boys' insecurities about their Wee Waws -> macho compensation tendencies -> gun ownership -> school shootings.

By the way, it really makes me angry that organizations like the so-called American Family Association will stage campaigns against "Seinfeld" for talking about masturbation or the Today Sponge, but they don't say a word about violence. On their web page, there isn't even a mention of the Red Lake massacre, but they do have a VERY IMPORTANT crusade against PBS prominently featured. Yes, that's right, PBS: the cause of all of our society's ills.

With regards to the issue of gun control, I've always been somewhat on the fence about it. On the one hand, I respect the viewpoint the Founding Fathers must have had: that allowing citizens the right to bear arms is one way to help ensure that the government cannot impose its will upon its citizenry by way of martial law. But on the other hand, I have a hard time believing that a bunch of weekend warriors with their handguns will really be able to protect me from fascism.

The stickier issue is the argument that people have a fundamental right to protect themselves against criminals. While I have sympathy for that argument too, I have to wonder: how much crime is being enabled by the availability of guns, versus the amount of crime that is being prevented? Hmm. Anyone got any statistics on that? No?

Go figure.

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