A Controversy Emerges from Chaos
Zach | 16 04 2007If you're a first time visitor, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, which will keep you up to date with all the latest New School Politics posts. Thanks for visiting!
America once again felt insecure today as 33 lives were taken on the campus of Virginia Tech University. Several notable things occurred in the immediate aftermath of the event. First came an outpouring of grief from Americans and foreign nationals. Governor Tim Kaine, away in Tokyo, immediately jumped on a plane to fly back to Virginia. The President of the United States read from a prepared statement. Campus officials held numerous press conferences to keep America briefed. As the gravity of the massacre became clear, America collectively wept for the deceased at Virginia Tech.
The inquest into the behavior of the Virginia Tech Police Department began next. An e-mail was sent to students approximately two hours after the first shooting occurred. Although it’s not immediately clear, one must wonder whether the two shootings are connected. If so, shouldn’t the college have taken more action? Several in the mainstream press have wondered. It’s not time for an investigation into misconduct just yet, however. What is important is an investigation into the motives and reasoning of the killer. Pajamas Media & Boing Boing have terrific ongoing coverage on the shooting while Planet Blacksburg, a student run publication, is the place to go for eyewitness accounts.
Some, however, weren’t content to leave the situation without debate. Immediately, the shooting was transformed into the trigger for a nationwide argument about gun control. If given more rights, could students with guns have protected themselves from the impending threat of a shooter on the loose? Dozens of blogs seem to be intent on debating the subject, paying little attention to the tragedy itself. Michelle Malkin, one of the conservative movement’s leading bloggers, seems to be leading the charge. Instapundit chimed in as well, noting that “had the bill [one that planned to allow college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus], “things might have turned out differently.” There is no official word on the weapon the gunman used, so gun control activists are unable to protest. What if, however, the gunman was never allowed access to the gun in the first place? I, similar to Eugene Volokh (of the Volokh Conspiracy), wonder whether it’s too soon to create debate. The nation has just witnessed the worst mass-shooting on a school campus in its history. It’s certainly too soon to stir up controversy.
Is That Legal? has more on the other tragedy, the shift from the massacre to a gun control argument. Along with President Bush, Govenor Kaine, and all of America, I send my sincere condolences to the victims of an attack that viciously took the lives of 32 college students and professors. I hope that this event will serve not as a catalyst for further debate but as a sign of our twisted society. May the victims and their families take solace in knowing that America is with them.
technorati tags:education, shooting, virginiatech, guncontrol
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Yes, this event has become too politicized. But with
Simmons | 17 04 2007Yes, this event has become too politicized. But with 24 hour CNN, blogs, etc., what was the chance that it wouldn’t become politicized?
Zach, I was going to do a write up on
Eftychis | 17 04 2007Zach, I was going to do a write up on this, but you did a very good job and it was a good first response, hence I think I will just comment. I too extend my condolences to the families of the victims and those who have suffered so much through this awful event. I think however that we need to ask ourselves, as active members of our society, and as students, what kind of world we want to live in.
A similar event occurred over eleven years ago in Australia where a lone gunman killed over thirty people, at the time Australian President John Howard ran a strong campaign for gun control and new laws and that was a catalyst for change. We also cannot ignore the utter failure of the administration at Virginia tech which has some serious questions to answer.
The only other emergency response that I can remember was so poorly handled was September 11th. Why was the campus not evacuated, why were the buildings not completely locked down, all of these are questions that will and should be asked. As I have said before, I am not in the United States right now, and in a way I am a bit glad that I am out of the country.
I am not looking forward to returning too see the media taking advantage of the victims and of the situation to get their ratings, I can only imagine the feeding frenzy that the twenty four hour networks are having. On an additional note, I am afraid that we as Americans will do what we do best, we will find someone too blame. Whenever events like this have occurred in the past the press likes to point the finger at rock music, rap, videogames, “violent sports” such as hockey, ect.
We should also ask ourselves, why did no one try to stop the gunman? According to MSNBC the shooter seized fire for over a minute to reload, did it not occur to anyone to attempt and subdue him. It may be too soon, but according to today’s New York Times (the international addition) most of the victims in the attack were in a German classroom. When the hallway was filled with smoke and police were everywhere, the teacher and students decided to keep the class going and not lock the door. The fact that there was no procedure in place bothered me, and as someone who is going off to collage next year, I hope that my school will be prepared to deal with the threats of our world.
This is one of the most tragic events that have occurred in recent years, but an event like this does not occur without massive failures in our society on many different levels. I made some comments in this post that may not be totally accurate, but as we get new information I hope that we can analyze what happened and why and what we can do in the future to stop these events from occurring. I am sure that this event has become too politicized, but it is never too early to ask some serious and hard questions.
In my opinion, an incident like this can never be
James A | 18 04 2007In my opinion, an incident like this can never be prevented. There will always be some crazy kid with a weapon, at one random time or another, who tries to cause harm to others. No matter how stringent the security measures an institution can put in place, there will still be instances on which a pyschopathic person will do such a terrible thing. Even if all the doorways were guarded and only available upon a keycard swipe or a keypad, there is always the 1 out of 10000 chance that someone will walk in unidentified. It is an event that is not generally the norm and results only from the stupid actions of a person. There is absolutely no way to prevent this sort of thing in the future. Even if hypothetically all weapons were banned, there is always some object a person would have access to that would have the capability of killing people.
As for Efty’s comment that questioned why no one inside the building tried to stop the gunman, there is one simple answer. He had a freaking gun and they were scared to death. It’s not as easy as it seems to raise up and become a hero just like that. Concerning a procedure for warding off a man with a gun, how feasible is it that the school can even implement one? Maybe an evacuation plan might have been better executed, but considering the circumstances, (a crazy man with a gun), there this not much anyone could have done.
My point is according to newspaper reports, at several times
Eftychis | 19 04 2007My point is according to newspaper reports, at several times he was reloading his weapon which meant that in effect, he did not have a gun. That was a chance of opportunity for someone to stop him. In addition, it seems that there were some people who attacked in an appropriate mannor. For instance, I believe it was the German professor who leaned against the door to the classroom to prevent the gunman from entering and he sacrified his own life to protected the lives of his students from being threatened again.
None the less, there is a lot that the administration could have done to have prevented this situation from occuring in the ifrst place. One of them would have been to evacuate the campus or put it on lock down, then the gunman would not have had access to any of the other students.