Blue Mondays

After several days of reflection from the campus massacre at Virginia Tech. and in the wake of another crazie blowing holes in a NASA complex in Houston, I feel I should comment. I might have left these sad events as they were, but for the grating words of another gun-nut, albeit one who is the president of the second largest gun association in the USA after the noxious and obnoxious NRA. Living up to his name, Larry Pratt of the Gun Owners of America, sensing the threat to his interest, complained that, to quote, "there were 26,000 sitting ducks." He goes on to say that he has never heard of any school or campus shooting in Utah or another Midwest state where the rednecks do roam, places where guns are allowed on faculty. Leaving aside that he might be so dumb as to not read newspapers, watch TV or follow Internet, and also that school or uni slaughter is so common in the US that the media as a rough rule of thumb don't cover it unless there are four or more deaths, to use his argument, I've never heard of any school or campus massacres in Maine, Vermont or Rhode Island; therefore, we are back to square one, showing how worthless his argument was.
As for those sitting ducks, Cho was not allowed to take guns onto campus, but he did, what's to stop any other student doing the same surreptitiously? Pratt's solution was to arm every student or professor with a gun, but there's almost certainly more than one disturbed individual at Virginia Tech. so that would be madness. Moreover, more US cops die from criminals grabbing their guns and turning the weaponry on the police than any other single factor. The potential for accidents or fatalities would be far greater than Cho could ever have achieved.
When that argument fails, the fall-back dragged out is a clause in the American constition allowing "well-regulated militias to bear arms." That is a fossil of the days when its framers felt that a British re-invasion was a very likely possibility. In the age of nuclear weapons, a successful invasion of the USA by conventional means is unthinkable. And 'arms' is rather vague, ranging from a penknife to a nuclear bomb in a suitcase. But that's by the by.
Still, many Americans cling to this out-of-date clause as an article of faith; more one feels than they do for freedom of speech. So Virginia Tech. talks of security measures - a costly cure instead of cheap prevention. But the gunman who went into the NASA building, killed a fellow worker and made a hostage situation before turning the gun on himself penetrated massive checks. The reason it got reported was that it happened in a high-profile place (NASA HQ) and past reams of security checkpoints. The murderous disgruntled psycho will always get through. For extra security, they will lay extra plans.
Which is not to say all such nutters will achieve their aim, just that one or two will slip the net to wreak their carnage because of human error or some other imponderable factor . Jon Ronson, a journalist of whom I have the highest respect, had some interesting pointers about school or campus shootings. They usually happen in mid-April (presumably because most people prefer warmer weather and seeing more people become happy may just tip the angry sadsack over the edge) and they also frequently happen on a Monday (with all that weekend planning, they can't contain themselves). But most importantly, for every 'successful' slaughter, there are three to four failed ones. The psychosis in parts of society is there. It's present in Britain as well, but by banning handguns and most other firearms, we've made it harder for nutjobs to be destructive. Gun crime is too high in this country, but it's miniscule compared to New York gun homicides in a far smaller population than the UK and Los Angeles has twice the number of gun victims than the Big Apple.
It all boils down to one thing. Bill Clinton once said "it's the economy, stupid." For Virginia Tech., Houston and all the other places bereaved by similar incidents, it's the guns, stupid.
14.48 21/04/07