As the images related to the Virginia Tech massacre are permanently etched into our minds, our knee jerk reactions are to first, blame someone, and then attempt to prevent this from happening again.
Predictably on the left, both in our nation and in the ivory towers of the European “elite”, there was an instant call for more gun control laws and regulations, of course, and condemning America’s gun loving “culture of violence.” Forget that the killer wasn’t even American.
The calls from the left were for some kind of immediate, unspecific, cure-all “gun control” policy, with liberals seemingly forgetting that “gun control” has never worked anywhere and in most cases makes things worse.
This, in concert with their bizarre, yet seemingly pathological hatred of the NRA was expected immediately after the shooting.
Conservative Americans preemptively struck down the left’s arguments before the media was able to mainstream them, causing both politicians and commentators to back away from the colossal waste of time which would be another pointless gun control debate.
I wish there was a solution as easy as throwing all of the guns into the sea, or simply taking Grand Theft Auto off store shelves and not allowing 50 Cent to rap anymore.
Common sense Americans know however, that those are all futile endeavors, which if accomplished would do nothing to alleviate the problem of school shootings or inner city violence.
This is a crazy person problem, and because of that there is no solution to it. That’s right. There is no way that we can stop a crazy individual from killing people.
If he can’t buy guns at a store, he’ll find them somewhere else.
There is no anti-crazy pill he can take.
The technology used in "Minority Report" to catch criminals before they commit crimes is years away, and you can’t lock a person up for an extended period of time for the kinds of things that Cho Seung-Hui was guilty of.
You can’t force a person’s parents to take an interest in a child’s problems.
You can’t force the other kids to be nice to him, or to make him popular in the schoolyard.
You can’t constantly have security roaming the halls at college campuses.
You can’t put every school kid in the nation in a Kevlar vest, and you can’t get every young person in America to carry a firearm to school for purposes of self-defense.
Although, if someone else in the area had been armed, that, in fact, might have saved countless young lives in this situation. Unfortunately, the school was a “gun-free zone.” Even if some student or security personnel had been carrying a weapon, they would have probably been asked to leave the school after they saved everyone’s lives.
Hey! Come to think of it, Didn’t Cho Seung-Hui know it was a “gun-free zone?” ‘Cause if he had known that the whole disaster would have been averted, right?
Anyway.
There will always be one or two nuts who fall through society's cracks and
who have an irreconcilable beef with society.
In this case, Cho Seung-Hui hated rich people. It was almost a microcosm of Marxist philosophy: a hatred of the wealthy leads to the extremes of communism and socialism, which inevitably lead to death and suffering.%2520copier.jpg)
This kid was leaving clues as to his violent tendencies and we still couldn’t prevent his twisted horrifying crime. That’s partially because no one expects even the most disturbed individual to perform an act as heinous as the one that Cho Seung-Hui did.
It’s an anomaly, yet one which can not be prevented, if the killers mind is set.
Yes, people could have been warned, but I don’t think most people expect even the most angry, warped, socially inept individual to commit an act even half as heinous as this massacre.
There is no way that we can protect all 300 million Americans from a single lunatic with his mind set on carnage.
We can’t do it with laws, we can’t do it with shrinks, we can’t do it with pills, we can’t do it with positive reinforcement or artistic outlets.
Essentially, all we can do is sit back and hope that there aren’t very many people who are capable of commiting evil acts like those of Cho Seung-Hui.
I like to think that there aren’t too many of them out there, but for those that are,
the sad fact remains that there is no cure for crazy. 
Friday, April 20, 2007
NO CURE FOR CRAZY
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
7 comments:
I still say that if there were just a few people in that building with concealed carry permits and with their guns, that guy could have been stopped rather quickly. Keep in mind too, that there are many of those kind of people in the world--look at the bombers and beheaders in islam....
I agree you can’t force people to be good parents. But you can encourage them to be. You can have parent/teacher conferences and advise them of their son’s disturbing writings.
I agree you can’t force kids to be nice to each other, but you can have group assemblies and discuss sensitivity and diversity. You can encourage kids not to judge each other by the color of their skin or the size of their bank account. We don’t do NEARLY enough of that in this country.
I agree you can’t have tons of security constantly present all over a school, but you can have SOME security.
I agree that we can’t take away all guns or give everyone guns, but we can make a law that prohibits guns from being sold to people who have been pronounced mentally ill by judges.
I DISAGREE that “all we can do is sit back and hope…” There’s A LOT we can do to become a more sensitive, caring society. There’s a lot we can do to take care of each other better, notice each other when we’re in need, help each other when we are struggling…
The problem is, most people are too selfish to do anything. The problem is GETTING people to care. And I haven’t the faintest idea how to do that.
Living in NYC, I see it every day; people constantly ignoring people, looking out for themselves and no one else. My father was recently diagnosed with cancer and for days I walked around Manhattan with tears streaming down my face, sometimes out and out sobbing on the subway. I couldn’t hide my pain. Did anyone even give me a second glance, let alone offer me a tissue or a sympathetic word? Only one guy, who then tried to hit on me, even when I clearly have a commitment ring on my ring finger.
You hear stories all the time about people changing someone’s life by giving them just a little bit of help, a second glance, a smile, a hand. You hear how the littlest thing, just letting someone know that someone else gives a damn can turn a life around, stop someone from doing something drastic. The tragic thing about these stories is how few and far between they can be.
But I don't think we should ever just "sit back" and stop trying.
Thanks for your page, you're quite insightful. Also the listing of companies that sponser "The View".
Dammit! I have to take Benedryl...that's OK, I'm just glad there is a generic brand.
If your used to taking something for your health, do not stop taking it just for the sake of the boycott.
That's why I don't list most of the drugs advertised on the show.
I appreciate your support, but your health and well-being come first, so don't make scarifices that could make it harder to go about your daily routine.
As far as I am concerned, he should have been expelled from VT when he set the fire in the dorm. Universities should have zero tolerance policies for arson, stalking, rape, and firearms and explosives in the dorms. I particularly think women should go back to living in all female dorms where males do not have unlimited access 2 hours a day. Just my opinion.
Sorry, that should read 24 hours a day.
Keeping men out of women's dorms wouldn't change anything and it's unfair to punish those respectful, good guys who have girlfriends who want them to spend the night in their dorms.
But I do agree that colleges should have a zero tolerence for rape, arson, firearms and explosives. Stalking is a little harder to prove, and if the stalker doesn't actually physically harm the woman, he should be punished but perhaps not expelled.
Post a Comment