Tragedy, absolute tragedy. There is no excuse for such killing. Let's be clear about that. this was the work of a sick mind, a sick young mind (and the fact that so many young men - e.g., here, Virginia Tech, and in Sandy Hook) are committing these acts needs to set off an alarm. Not about guns, but about youth, about how they are being failed.
But, not being one to let a tragedy go to waste nor cast blame very far from his pet issues, "In a statement at the White House, President Barack Obama mourned the victims and lamented the steady stream of mass shootings he has had to address while in office. "Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun," he said. "At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence doesn’t happen in other countries."
Many of us do not want to live in those other countries, we want to live in this one, with the rights guaranteed us and no group consequences for the actions of a few. We are not killers, just honest and hard-working, don't hate anyone who does not hate us, don't care what color, ethnicity or religion you are as long as you respect us, we will respect you...we want only to be left alone to be who we are. Crazy, hateful people will always be there and always intent on doing harm. Tim McVeigh needed only fertilizer. In the best of all possible worlds, there would be no way for them to do so. But that world only exists in the mind of those, like Obama, who think the way to restrain crazy hateful criminals and terrorists is to curtail the freedom of the law-abiding.
What laws would have stopped this? If there is wrongdoing here, punish it. If he had this gun illegally, punish those who gave it to them.
There are two distinct worldviews at odds in this debate:
1. The "perfect world" people. Those who think that there is a way to keep bad people from doing bad things. Those who think that, rather than addressing what makes people crazy and providing the care needed, even removing them from among us if necessary, the answer is to remove individual rights from all. Interestingly this group is often made up of those who want to legalize drugs, legalize abortion, celebrate whatever sexual behaviors one might enjoy, choosing one's own gender and race, and so on. That is, interestingly, they are champions of individual rights - except for one. They decry the drug war, saying it cannot work, yet think a war on guns will. As I have noted previously, if you cannot keep drugs off your streets, from coming across your border, how will you do so with guns.
2. The "time to take care of ourselves" people. People like this know that evil exists, that wishing it away will not work, know that evil will always find tools to do its work (e.g., fertilizer) and that the tools that law-abiding people use can also be put to evil use. People like this wonder why target-rich environments like schools and churches are also defense-free zones (to carry in churches in SC requires permission). They wonder why no one in this church was armed, why they were not sufficiently aware to alert on this clear anomaly within their midst; white, talking to parishioners, wearing an "apartheid" patch. Why they allowed themselves to be lulled into passivity. How might this have changed with one armed person present, given it was mentioned that the shooter reloaded several times.
"But I don;t want to have to be armed in school or church" doesn't cut it.
Evil will not go away by taking away rights from good people. The foolish fairy tale that was espoused this morning on so many shows, the assumption that somehow schools and churches are inherently protected from such evil is just that; a delusion that leaves people unprotected. It is no coincidence that attacks occur in such places.
Lastly, let's be honest - many of the good people are not going to comply when the order is given to line up and turn in arms. It may make them criminals, it is almost certain they will be labeled as terrorists for failing to be controlled, but they will not comply. You wish away evil and cower before it - some will look it in the eye and fight it.
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