The news stations are all on nothing - but - the - shooting - at - Virginia Tech mode, but how could they not? One colleague said that we will hunker down and beef up campus security even though it will not stop it from happening again. Of course, there will be the copy cats, who want to be notorious even if they have to die to do it. At this point (3:29 MST) they haven't identified the gunman.
What is the lesson here? Could it be guns are too readily available? Don't you just love how the NRA will justify their weapons? Doesn't it seem odd that these are always referred to as "school shootings" rather than school killings? The lesson? The lesson? Will we learn anything from this? Will it change anything? It could.
These terrible things happen and this will be dissected ad nausea and fingers will be pointed (probably) at rotten teachers and terrible parents. Guess what? Most people who had rotten teachers and terrible parents get over it. Really. Will we find out that the gunman was flunking out like the shooter at University of Arizona?
And please, don't interview his neighbors who tell us how quiet he was. Is that some TV reporter rule? Go find someone who saw him across the street once and interview him? Whoever it was had a mental illness of the worst order, and he will forever be remembered for his egregious act. The number of people devastated grows exponentially.
My former colleague, whose son graduated from VT, will have to scrape the beloved Virginia Tech bumper sticker from her car. Her pride is now a heartache.
Dear Lord, please heal our hearts and help us to remember to forgive. Let this be the time we learn.
Monday, April 16, 2007
College Columbine?
Posted by Liz at 4:25 PM
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6 comments:
This is an important post, Mom.
I read the BBC's coverage of this tragedy and they mentioned that VA has relatively lax gun laws. Coincidence?
My former colleague's husband is in the gun business. Her other son is a hunting guide. The gun mentality definately is a shared mentality, too. I don't understand it at all.
This comment is from Bonnie:
I tried to comment through your blog, but I couldn't get registered. Here is what I said.....I taught all day and had no idea this had happened. The reports I heard on NPR as I came home were horrible. The loss of innocent life is in itself a tragedy, but worse is the lack of response from college and police authorities. We practice lock downs but how prepared are we really? The truth is, we can't be prepared. The real question is how can we save rthe souls of the hopelessly lost who comit these crimes? How do we identify them, and how do we get to them?
XOXOX
Bonnie
My daughter has just returned from living in both Scotland and Australia where the gun laws are very strict. In AU, at least in the city where Bert’s parents live, you can not own a gun. She says they still have problems like this, but the weapons are knives or something else. I think the problem lies deeper than gun control.
IF guns were NOT readily available...Ok ...can't find a down side to that can you? so, unless you need a gun to shoot your food.....not very likely here in America....I think we should ban them all and then maybe some of these types of shootings will stop. Disgraceful that we in America tolerate guns as an unalienable right. I say, Pshaw. lose that one.
Neva, you are so right. Years ago PR specialists, Jack Trout and Al Reis, predicted that drug use would only go down when it was no longer cool, and to some extent that is true. Many kids are rejecting drug use. What if guns were not cool?
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