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Virginia Tech Shootings
Tuesday, 2007 April 17 - 7:27 pm
Sympathy... and some perspective.

I fear already that I am going to come across as horribly insensitive in this post. So first I would like to say that the Virginia Tech shootings were a horrible tragedy; I feel nothing but sympathy and sadness for the families and friends of the victims. Losing a loved one in such an unexpected and random manner is unimaginably difficult, and I share in everyone's feelings of grief.

But there's one feeling I do not have: surprise.

I know lots of politicians say they are "shocked" at the events. I know that this is one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. But let's look at the ingredients that led up to this:

- A guy with a history of depression and sociopathic tendencies
- A society that isolates those who are different, and treats them as outcasts
- Easy access to guns

All of these things are common. Sociopaths? There are probably tens of thousands of them wandering the streets and schools of this country. You might even know one yourself. Cliquishness? Every segment of our society is guilty of shunning people who don't "belong". Pick your reason: religion, race, class, musical taste, fashion sense, whatever. Guns? There are eighty million gun owners in the United States. So how is anyone surprised when the combination of these events leads to a Virginia Tech, or a Columbine, or something worse? I am frankly surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

And now here's where I'm going to seem especially insensitive. Let's look at some mortality statistics, for just people aged 15-24 in the United States:

- All deaths: 32699 (629 per week)
- Motor vehicle accidents: 10624 (204 per week)
- Homicides and legal intervention: 6548 (126 per week)
- Suicides: 4369 (84 per week)

(Numbers as of 1996.)

And so although I believe that the tragedies for the individuals involved in this are great, on the larger scale, I just don't see this event as a national catastrophe. The real catastrophe is that we will probably do nothing to address the causes of events like this. Or we will do the wrong things... what kind of deterrent would prison sentences or the death penalty be, for criminals who intend to kill themselves? Meanwhile, politicians like John McCain will continue to kowtow to the NRA: "We have to look at what happened here, but it doesn't change my views on the second amendment except to make sure that these kinds of weapons don't fall into the hands of bad people."

And it will just be a matter of time before something like this happens again.
Permalink  2 Comment   Bookmark and Share
Posted by Ken in: commentary

Comments

Comment #1 from Lisa V (Guest)
2007 Apr 17 - 8:15 pm : #
Word.
Comment #2 from JohnC (Guest)
2007 Apr 19 - 1:21 pm : #
But this is so glamorous.

Comments are closed for this post.
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