The murders of more than thirty people at Virginia Tech is shocking, horrible, and sad. There's not much more to it than that, but political beings will insist that there is. It's pretty ghoulish, but characteristic of ideologues, to bypass the human element in such tragedies and push the cause. Political debate about such a major event is inevitable, but can't it wait until the funerals have been said? The politicization started before I had even heard of this terrible news late Monday. The president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence chimed in: "I think after today, what we're doing and what we want the American people to do is start asking our elected officials, 'What are we going to do about this?'" The chairman of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence declared, "The Congress just called for a moment of silence. Indeed a moment of silence is appropriate for such a devastating tragedy with such pain for families and students. But we also want a moment of noise." ABC News reported that a "Lapse of Federal Law Allows Sale of Large Ammo Clips." Most people look at the Virginia Tech murders and think "tragedy." A few people look at them and think "opportunity." Gross.

"Most people look at the Virginia Tech murders and think "tragedy." A few people look at them and think "opportunity." "
Yea - just like the Bush neo cons thought after 9/11.

The only article I read on this disgusting massacre today was this one from CBS News:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/16/ap/national/main2689763.shtml

And it includes these two lines: "A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said."

When I read that my thought was, well Bush isn't terribly bright but why would the Spokeman say that quote? How does that fit in after this tragedy, immediately after it. But, of course, CBS doesn't let us know what question a reporter asked that prompted that quote from Perino. Likely, it was some retarded b.s. gun control line of questioning. I mean how stupid sounding is it to say that "all laws must be followed" after a homocidal maniac goes on a rampage? No s---! CBS blows.

I don't put this in ideological terms but my reaction to any such shooting is not why are there guns out there, but where were all the guns that could have stopped this? Meaning that a better armed citizenry could protect itself. Every school and college I have set foot on has had a zero tolerance for guns, including even disallowing campus security to carry them. So, lo and behold, campuses are the easiest places to go on a shooting spree since even campus "police" have no way to stop a maniac, let alone dorm resident directors, students or teachers.

"Most people look at the Virginia Tech murders and think "tragedy." A few people look at them and think "opportunity." "
Yea - just like the Bush neo cons thought after 9/11.

Case in point.

what about the libs in congress? didnt they give the war the thumbs up? but typical libs do a about face when the going gets tough.now the war is notpopular so the libs say we must leave. bush hasnt wavered one bit. its sad but my first though was here we go, the gun debate is back.

Unfortunately, in our times, EVERYTHING is a political or monetary opportunity. While the ideologues and pundits rage on and try to act remorseful, the victims are really secondary to their agendas. Sick. Yes, a few days of silence would have been nice but life is cheap these days and people mean little.

Case in point....Drudge has the TV rating scores for the networks based on the shootings. Nice.

I understand the compunction to treat this as a tragedy, and just a tragedy. But if people truly feel that their suggested course could have prevented this tragedy -- and could prevent other such tragedies in the future, then I don't think its necessarily wrong to talk about it. As far as I'm concerned, one person got a couple of handguns and was able to hold an entire university hostage. He shot 50 people and never once did he encounter another person who was capable of shooting back. That is the failure of gun control in action.

Of course, most political hacks are thinking about airtime and votes, not ideology.

There are no reasons and no real solutions. This kind of evil and the fallout from it will happen again and there is nothing that can be done about it as long as human nature prevails. Which it will.

All you can do is to hope you're not in the right place at the wrong time and if you are, that you're packing.

I've never understood why the anti-gun lobby thinks 'control' would make such attacks impossible or even less likely. An average hunting shotgun, the kind that can be bought at any Wal-Mart in the South, can hold seven shells if the plug is removed (an easy modification that anyone can do). Seven shots and a pocket full of shells from a 12-gauge is lethal enough for mass murder.

My gut tells me that this whole thing will REALLY turn out to be about how sex, and our culture's insane sex lives, makes us totally crazy. He wrote weird plays about pedophelia, he was obsessed with this girl and with her seeing another man, etc. I really believe that's where this is going, and it will be totally ignored in favor of the non-issue of gun control.

Dan: Opportunity for what, exactly?

Guns notwithstanding, if somebody wants to murder, they will find a way. The implements of destruction can be anything made dangerous.

The two most heinous mass murders in this country were perpetrated with box cutters and manure.

Brian Rogers: Pretty obvious, isn't it?

...an opportunity to, using rhetoric about the recent dead, win a political argument which no one dare counter because it may look irreverent.

E.g., a brainwashed half-wit sociology major screamed at me right after Columbine, "Can't you see now that we need to outlaw guns!?"

The anti-gun crowd often find themselves as sensationalist entrepreneurs.

Skeptic: But why do they want to win that political argument?

Brian: But why do you pee standing up?

Looks like this dude couldnt get laid, and everyone around him was, so he took it out on the "world". you know i was watching the news on the tragedy and a commercial came on, SMOKIN ACES, WOW guns, babes, drugs! man you got to love it!

This guy obvioously had a mental illness.

But a HUGE reason why he went on this reampage was that he was raised in an evangelical christian household...and he was GAY.

I blame YOU, Republican hate mongers for this tragedy. If thoughtless religinuts like you didn't exist this kid could have been accepted into society.

Instead 33 people are dead, a direct result of YOU REPUBLICANS hating on gays.

FU all.

I decry both forms of political precipitation: gun banning and gun rights. As less than a gun-loving conservative, I find some validity on either side of the argument. But it can wait until we hear what's going on.

As it appears, Cho probably could never had forced enough words out of his mouth to make enough contacts to purchase a black market weapon. So in this case, the fact that he could just walk into a store and lay down some money for a gun, actually plays a role. But it would be stupid to ignore the case of the prior picture of a 1-year Chinese national with guns that were thought to be black-market because of the S/Ns filed-off. Nobody objected that that was inconsistent with the rest of reality. After all, I don't understand why if Cho left a long rant to explain his crime he thought it was so important to file off the S/Ns off of guns that would be easily traced due to the fact that they were laying by his corpse. Filing off the numbers does not make sense in light of the suicidal nature of his premeditated actions. Hence it made sense to believe that they were illegal guns, which don't fall under gun control. The facts turned their way, but they jumped in while their case was yet to be made.

This was Christian terrorism.

Pure and simple.

Its time the 'security hawks' out there admit the threat Christianity is to America.

And Communism's million massacres show what about atheism? I know, you'll say that atheism doesn't always have to lead to that. (Jacobins?) But, as ample evidence shows, neither does any type of faith.

So you really have no argument, except to show that you are willing exercise your right of special pleading.

Btw, so despite that he stalked girls, he's gay?

Yep. He talked to his poety teacher about being gay and he wrote poems about it.

Stalking does not equal sexual attraction, and even if it did it wouldn't make him unattracted to men.

Religion is the problem. Yes even secular religions like the Jacobins.

You mean this teacher?
"About five weeks into the semester, students told Giovanni that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. She told him that was inappropriate and to stop, but the damage was already done.

Female students refused to come to class, submitting their work by computer instead"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6569113,00.html

And this poetry?

"Your bra is torn,and I'm looking at your flesh."

(Same source)

Or this guy?

'Cho once claimed he had a supermodel girlfriend who he named Jelly. She called him "Spanky."'

http://www.insideedition.com/ourstories/inside_stories/story.aspx?storyid=733

but corroborated by

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/arts/television/19watc.html?ref=arts

"and even if it did it wouldn't make him unattracted to men"

So because nothing proves he wasn't gay...

The articles I read said that he was obsessed with, and wrote about, pedophilia. That fits the profile of an abused boy with conflicted feelings. But progressives are always trying to separate those two things, so it's a rough case to make that "gay".

Prince,

Your foolish comments follow the old liberal credo of blaming everybody but the perp..."It's not the gunman's fault that he killed 32 people, it's society's unwillingness to understand a crazy man...tolerance for all!!!"

What you and your birkenstock-wearing buddies refuse to understand is that you can't reason with everybody; bad things happen; evil exists. Sometimes the world is black and white (not shades of gray). Your views are weak, like the members of your ideology. We are becoming a nation of veal, and your Berkley ideas are the problem.

i just want all the parents of all the people who died to know im sorry. but everyone on here talking about this tragedy is not helping matters. There just making them worse. The person that killed those students is just taking this all in. Just think people are making this so big that whats next theres gonna posters of him out wdith the guns in his hands and people are gonna be praising him, well lets not let that happend. it was just one guy who shot 30 innocent students. Remember this tragedy, lets not let it come to be like a scarface poster or a movie cause this was real.

Pretty funny. The RPrince/Hehe/R.C., whatever, had to write it three times to get a rise from anybody about his stupid goading comments. Better to disregard such foolish ideas.

I'm fairly sure that r.c. is not the same person as hehe/rethug. Their writing styles are very different.

A good all-inclusive name would be R.P Heherman. I simply call him The Thing That Should Not Be. I wouldn't insult R.C. by grouping him with this ingrate.