Isn't it great when people overseas wag their fingers at the US when something like this happens and says it's because of the US's "gun laws" or its "cowboy culture"?
Hello? Dunblane? The Johann Gutenberg school in Germany? Dawson College in Canada? The Aramoana massacre in New Zealand? etc., etc., etc. Believe me, we have
far from cornered the market on this type of mass murder.
Want to do away with guns?... Fine, how about the 2004 High school attack in Ruzhou, China that left 8 students dead? Google "UK school knife attack" and see page after page of stories about fatal UK school knifings. I don't see people wagging their fingers about the lax "knife laws" in the UK and going on about the "Jack The Ripper Culture". (Ooops, I take that back
here's one!)
On more thing... The VT shooter bought the gun last month and there appears to be mounting evidence that this wasn't a "spontaneous" plan.
And as for poo-pooing the notion that a bomb might be deployed in this sort of madness... The largest mass murder at a US school
still was due to a
home-made bomb in 1927!
Obviously you have strong alternative feelings about this subject, and that is fine, but what you aren't mentioning is that the potential mass killing power of a knife is nowhere near ranking alongside that of a gun (of any description). And you highlight a home-made bomb in 1927 in the US of which I hadn't heard; that was on US soil too, and despite our "old europe, no freedom, them the government/queen, ways" we haven't had anybody go into a school with a bomb yet. You could mention our July 7th London tube/bus bombers, but I understand they were linked with Al-Quaida so hardly operating entirely without support. I live in Scotland, near a big city, and in a town where there is a lot of drug-related violence, stabbings etc, but in my time working in an ER I never saw more than 2 or three people come in stabbed by the one weapon. And, I didn't see any of them die either.
The other thing that occurs to me is that given a choice, if e.g. my house was broken into and I was put in the position of defending my house/family &/or confronting the perpetrator my natural reaction would be to get all the family out of harms way/hide as opposed to shoot the perpetrator. From a psychological perspective I can't imagine living with the fact that I killed someone; I think that would be hard even if he/she hurt myself or my family (I'm the youngest by the way so I don't have children etc). And it's well-known/accepted that Americans generally wear their emotions on their sleeves much more than British people. Heck, we don't complain about poor service etc as much as we probably should, vs Americans.... so there is an argument that irrational acts of violence are more likely in the US because of this difference in culture.
I am not against the US in the way that perhaps you portray. I actually wanted to move there for a period until I realised just how much I have here and I don't think I could have any better a life in the US compared to mine here now. I have noticed an increasing arrogance though, which I don't like.... and in my own american relatives as well. That in itself was enough to put me off. It hasn't however made me change the decor of my room which is entirely American, with maps, historical american buildings and US references.
Dunblane (from which incidentally I know people) was a horrible horrible incident - and still much more an isolated incident. And it was a failing on our system to properly check who would be legally safe/entitled to own a gun. That could still happen despite gun laws, but the point I think the anti-gun people are basically saying is that if you make it harder to get guns legally, then yes, people have to get them from illegal sources, and at least SOME of the people who might buy a gun and then "flip mentally" at that point or years later will not get the gun. They may if they are very determined research bombs etc, but the sheer hassle involved in planning and carrying out a bomb attack may be enough to put off the less determinded people.
As far as the Constitution goes. I am not obviously familiar with your constitution in much the same way as in general you are not familiar with "old Europe" but it seems one argument seems to be that your right to own a gun is in case the Government rises up against you. Now, firstly, in your democracy this is unlikely. But for argument's sake, let's say this happened in Britain... Are we all naive enough to think that we couldn't defend ourselves by obtaining firearms by illegal means at that stage (where WE the people would be against the government and would be uniting to fight the government authorities)? Or perhaps we would just make fertiliser bombs.
You know, sadly, it's because we CARE that we keep saying there is a gun problem in the US. It's not because we are sitting on a high-horse wagging our fingers. God knows, I couldn't be sorrier for all those kids and the families affected, and for the poor family of the gunmen and himself (he had to be in a very bad way mentally to do such a thing), but mass killing would have been less easy with a knife or samurai sword (which seems to be the weapon of choice where I live). I'm all for freedom, but please don't think that the USA is the only country where one is truly free - that's just a myth.
My heart just goes out to all those kids who are only a few years younger than me.
)
Glad to hear she is okay...
