There’s not much you can say about the tragic events at Virginia Tech yesterday. Just terrible, awful stuff.
But I would note this: After Australia’s Port Arthur massacre in 1996, the State and Federal governments moved to ban a large number of weapons, and tighten controls on others. Since then, there has been no mass shootings in Australia (though the Monash shootings, killing 2, might have been the next had bystanders not intervened).
Sadly it seems such a solution in the USA is impossible — both in political and practical terms.
4 replies on “Not much you can say”
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Good thing this guy was part of a well regulated militia.
Sigh, it just seems to keep happening. Such tragedies, with such devastating consequences. Sadly, Canada has stricter gun laws but even still a mad man called Kimveer Gill shot and killed an innocent student at Dawson College in Montreal. He had the permits, and was on the “Firearms Registry”. Sadly, guns + crazy person = dead innocent folk, the world over. But, yes, the U.S. seems to have a gun-culture. It just “bugs” me. Guns scare me. It’s a sad, terrible tragedy, not two ways about it.
Josh, the first bit is usually forgotten in these arguments. I’d like to think that the Founding Fathers were thinking along the lines of “Hey this is a wild country; we need a well regulated militia of armed citizens”, rather than “hell yes, give everybody a gun and let them do what they want!”
Wikipedia never ceases to surprise me … I’m surprised that the Monash Uni shootings are an entry, and pleased that the entry is thorough enough to mention my friend Brett Inder. I haven’t spoken to him about this recently, but I’m sure his reactions to the recent tragedy in Virginia would be a deep sadness that these events continue to occur, and strong support for tougher gun controls etc.
I think of Ani Difranco’s song ‘to the teeth’ and see that things are actually worse now when this many people die on one day in this way…