Killer Reax
News: Cho’s crazy manifesto, photos from package to NBC.
News: Killer had issues, university knew about it.
Glenn Reynolds at NY Daily News: “People don’t stop killers. People with guns stop killers.” A European trying to understand the American debate looks to Benjamin Franklin.
Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom: “Nanny-Statism — in its efforts to protect — succeeds only in infantilizing the culture.”
Worst ever? 1927, pre-TV, largely gun-free murder of 44. (reader cathyf notes a shotgun was used to detonate some of the explosives).
RIT arrest: copycat or lynch mob?
Harry Reid, rare moment of clarity, warns against a rush to gun control. How come?
Rush to nanny statism: Why wasn’t Cho dealt with when he was just crazy, not murdering and crazy. They were talking about it.
Michelle: No accident the intellectually unsafe zone is also physically unsafe.
Powerline: politicizing tragedy.
Captains Quarters examines some missteps.
Volokh: so what stronger controls do you have in mind?
Dr. Phil: TV makes people crazy killers. Or crazy people become killers when they watch TV. Something like that. Hyscience pokes at the issue. Dr Helen psycho-analyzes.
OK, but what makes people heroes?
Obama: “There’s violence violence. There’s verbal violence. What I’m doing right now is logic violence.”
Schools go into lockdown.
Gun-owning Kossack polls on Kossack gun usage/ownership but neglects to ask how anyone feels about gun ownership/control. Numbers suggest an answer there. Only 4 percent are gun owners, and 51 percent say they will never own a gun. Hey, does that mean 49 percent of Kos readers are thinking about getting guns? Daily Kos otherwise is strangely silent on Virginia Tech, except as an opportunity to snark on Bush. Mass murder must not be such a big deal in that particular alternate universe.
Scott Kirwin to the World: when we want your opinion, we’ll ask for it. Bolt in Oz takes on the America bashers. Hey, says Barcepundit, so how come … Yeah, get Riehl. Meanwhile, how one American woman shut down the Chinese media.
Bloodthirsty Lib: comparisons to Iraq start three, two, one … now!
Toldjah: Ismail Ax?
Gateway: victim vid.
A quick take on all of the above: I don’t have one. When a major disastrous event happens in the U.S., the big question is always why it wasn’t stopped, and how it can be prevented from every happening again. There are no easy answers. More gun control may prevent or limit some cases of murder or mass murder, but it won’t stop either. Less gun control may prevent or limit some cases of murder or mass murder, but it also won’t stop either. Mass gun killings have happened in Europe, Britain, Australia and Massachusetts, as well as more gun-friendly Red states. Murder and mass murder are not recent developments. Not launching a massive reactive nanny state New Deal right now is a good idea. A very good point is being made that a license to carry is a license to carry, and shouldn’t be superceded by insititutional rules. But most people seem to accept limits on gun possession in places such as commercial airlines, bars and courtrooms, so maybe that issue isn’t as simple as it looks. College campuses, notorious for alcohol abuse and immature behavior, also occasionally targeted by mass killers, a good place for unrestricted gun possession? Maybe, maybe not. Meanwhile, if we start doing mandatory brain scans and locking up everyone who seems disturbed, that could get out of control real quick. Universities are probably the institutions worst constituted to handle that, seeing the trouble they have dealing with simple issues like freedom of speech. Government runs a close second. The news now breaking that the university knew about some very serious issues involving Cho underscores the point. Being aware of people around you and what they are doing or thinking is a good idea. Being prepared mentally and otherwise to act in your own defense is a good idea. About TV: I don’t know if it makes people kill or not, but I do know that too much of it turns people’s brains to mush and can give kids more sex and violence than they are ready to deal with. If you’re a parent, pay attention to the damn ratings and make sure your kid doesn’t spend all day watching the idiot box. That’s your job. Also, if your kid is nuts, pay attention to that.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:46 am on Wednesday, April 18, 2007
15 Responses to “Killer Reax”
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April 18th, 2007 at 11:45 am
From what has been said about the murderer, he was extremely solitary, with no friends. He was nuts, friends, and there is nothing that can prevent craziness. NO-ONE could have predicted his ability to plan and carry out that massacre.
I am very sorry for his parents and his sister.
On a related note: our new religion, Gaia Worship, is notably inadequate in dealing with such tragedy, is it not?
April 18th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
[...] who is rapidly evolving into one of the best round-up’ers in the blogosphere, has another great round-up up, linking to articles and blogposts about the shooting at Virginia Tech, gun restriction laws, [...]
April 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
One thought about fighting back: what separated Flight 93 from the other flights on 9/11 was that the passengers knew what was going on, and had the time to organize their resistance. The passengers on the other planes may have had the time, but not the understanding–not the certainty at any rate–of what was truly about to happen. In the case of the students in the classroom, they may well have suspected what was coming, but have had no time to respond, either as individuals or as a group. We like to think we would react with the guts of Chuck Connors in The Rifleman or the guile of Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction, but nothing in these kids’ experience, our ours, could have prepared them, or us, for the unreality of their horrifying situation, or the paralyzing fear it must have induced. Maybe you can rush a gunman who’s carrying just one gun, and andrenaline will carry you through a bullet or two. But if he’s got two? How do you even start? By the time you’ve thought of something, it’s the last thought you’re ever likely to have.
Bloodthirsty Liberal
http://bloodthirstyliberal.com
April 18th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
“The Shooter Was Another ‘Son of Sacrifice’”
In TCS Daily, Jerry Bowyer writes:This morning I read that the Virginia Tech shooter died with the name Ismail Ax written in red ink on his arm. The mainstream press doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what this…
April 18th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
During the years I worked at a local university, I dealt with several students who made me very uneasy. One or two were truly scary, and I’m convinced they could easily have gone on a killing spree if they encountered the right trigger. But university administrations are almost pathological about avoiding confrontations with students which might lead to bad publicity. If the parents won’t confront their child’s mental illness, the universities certainly won’t.
A case in point is a Chinese student who had had run-ins with almost everyone (myself included). Finally, he attacked one of the Indian professors for refusing to give him a research position. Was he expelled? No, and the university tried to pressure the professor into not pressing charges of assault. His parents, highly embarrassed, moved him to another university, from which he promptly emailed a request to us for grant money with which to present a paper he had written. Crazy? Yes. Dangerous? Obviously. Did anyone do anything? No.
April 18th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
but nothing in these kids’ experience, our ours, could have prepared them, or us, for the unreality of their horrifying situation, or the paralyzing fear it must have induced.
BL, I agree that such a situation is sudden and unexpected, and paralyzing to many. But several of the students had the presence of mind to barricade their doors. If just one student had been trained in self-defense and the use of a weapon, he or she would surely have had the presence of mind to fight back, knowing there was nothing to lose in a room where a gunman is executing people.
April 18th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Virginia Tech: The Day After The Day After
See previous: At least 32 dead in Virginia Tech rampage; Anti-gunners seize the moment before bodies cold, Virginia Tech: The Day After. Below the fold: Below the fold: Gone but not forgotten: the victims Jules Crittenden: Killer Reax
April 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
RebeccaH-in 12 years I have had a few students threaten me. Now, I am a pretty good sized guy and not quite yet over the hill, so this doesn’t happen too much but it is still shocking when it does. When I was a student I would never in a million years have thought of threatening a prof.
BTW-my experience matches your own pretty closely. The administration didn’t do much to back me up (in fact my dean accused me of not having enough compassion for the kid-yeesh).
April 18th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
“Maybe you can rush a gunman who’s carrying just one gun, and andrenaline will carry you through a bullet or two. But if he’s got two?”
Two pistols, with a total capacity of 25 rounds. He had to drop the magazines at some point and reload. How is it that a whole building full of Virginia kids let a comparatively small Korean kill people?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
[...] Crittenden has a roundup here. Date Posted: Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 by rightwingprof Categories: Conservatism, Guns, 2A [...]
April 18th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Worst ever? 1927, pre-TV, gun-free murder of 47.
A small pedantic note… I can’t load the mypetjawa link that you reference wrt to Bath School Massacre, but your tag line has two separate errors. #1 is that there were 45 deaths — 44 murders and one suicide. The second is that it was not a gun-free event.
Kehoe first bludgeoned his wife to death, and placed her body in the chicken coop. The entire farm was rigged with explosives on timers, with the animals locked inside the barn. So that the martgage holder would have no assets other than the land itself to sell.
Kehoe had spent some large amount of time rigging the school basement with explosives on a timer. Fortunately only about 1/3 of the explosives detonated. The farm detonated right before the school.
As the townspeople were rescuing the injured from the school, Kehoe drove up in his car. He beckoned over the superintendent. Kehoe had filled the car with dynamite and packed it with screws, scrap metal, pieces of sharp farm implements. As the superintendent got to the car, Kehoe fired a shotgun into the dynamite and exploded the car.
If anything, this makes your point stronger. 1927, pre-TV, pre-videogames, we have a thoroughly modern suicide bomber with multiple improvised explosives and even a (model-A) car bomb with improvised shrapnel.
April 18th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
[...] If you’re interested in what the blogosphere is saying about the mass murder at Virginia Tech, Jules Crittenden has a pretty complete roundup of links. [...]
April 18th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
NO-ONE could have predicted his ability to plan and carry out that massacre
Except the judge in 05′ who ruled him mentally ill and a danger to others…
Such a ruling by a court is an instant disqualifier on the ATF form 4473 everyone who wants to buy any guns needs to fill out. Lying on that form is in itself a Federal felony.
The VA judicial system dropped the ball in not forwarding that judicial ruling to the FBI database so the instant check system would have picked up on it.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Virginia Tech Spree Killer UPDATE
Michelle Malkin shows why some people really shouldn’t even be allowed to post anything, anywhere, EVER. — Hate speech goes beyond Free Speech and there have laws now.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
[...] discussing this:NY Daily News, New York Times, Jules Crittenden, MSNBC, Wapo, Wall Street [...]