I'm not in a jolly mood. I'm not remotely acquainted with anyone at Virginia Tech, and I'm not the type who appropriates another's tragedy for his own emotional indulgence, but I'm a little numb at news that 33 are dead in southwest Virginia. I even spent some time watching the cell phone video clip of the shooting. There's nothing to see, just a few cops with weapons drawn, but in the background you hear the shooting . . . over and over again. Chilling.
Some parents want the Virginia Tech president fired, saying the response to the shooting was inadequate. That strikes me as just a tad bit quick. The authorities haven't even released the identity of the shooters, they're still apparently sorting out the wounded and dead, they don't know details. Yet a few parents already want the president fired. A better lockdown may have reduced the casualties. The first shootings were at 7:15, before most students leave for class. But at this point all we know is that there was a bizarre two-hour delay after the initial and later shootings, and we don't know exactly why the authorities thought the shooter had fled the campus after the first round of shootings. It might be entirely appropriate to fire the president, but at this early stage of the investigation?
We'll see what the gun control people say. I'm not pro-gun or anti-gun. I own a gun, but that's about the extent of my gun ways. The debate can go ahead and rage, but any hope to eradicate guns from American society are quixotic and will only result in outlaws having guns. A monster like this would've found a gun one way or the other. The only thing that would've stopped this mass murder would've been a better-armed student populace. It can't be denied: If half the Virginia Tech men were packing a gun, this monster would've been brought down very quickly. There are countervailing considerations, of course (if half the Virginia Tech males carry around guns, the bar life around Blacksburg would probably get dicey), but this type of murder spree could've only been stopped by a well-armed populace.
