The interweb did a fantastic job of fingering the wrong killer yesterday in the tragic events at Virginia Tech, due in much part to another Asian VT student's web presence containing photos and notes about guns. For a day, he became the Richard Jewell of this incident and yesterday, the unfortunate victim turned gun lobbyist issued the following statement:
"I will be available for interview by a news agency to clear my name, talk about the experience, and give my opinion on how the situation could have turned out better if other students were allowed to be armed."
Right... that's what would have made this situation better: More guns. I hope no one interviews this guy, because I'd rather not have his 15 minutes of fame remixed and rebroadcast everywhere if he's going to be all gun crazy. Because, really, the Walther .22-caliber semi-automatic and a 9 mm Glock that made their appearence weren't really enough. These guns apparently had the serial numbers etched off, meaning that they were probably not purchased at the local Walmart. Its this kind of thinking that makes people want to arm passengers on planes to fight terrorism, too. A gun for everyone and no one will get shot, right?
How about making it impossible to get a gun in the first place? Don't stats show that most gun deaths are either innocent people or victims of accidents, and not intruders/attackers?
Clearly, this guy had some major issues... and more so than anyone, he himself is to blame... not the school who was taken by surprise as any other school would have...not the media... not violent video games... but the one thing that sticks out in my head is that it is absolutely too damn easy to get a gun in this country.
They should make a law that if you sell a gun to someone and that person uses it to shoot someone, you can get charged as an accessory to that crime... That would lead to some real careful background checking, I think.