Of university massacres, & gun control
The other morning we all awoke to the news of yet another sad tragedy as we heard the story of a lone gunman who went on a killing spree taking innocent lives, playing out in real time a scene that he had imagined & written about in previous weeks. So sad; sad for his victims, their familes, & the witnesses who now have to carry on their lives, their minds forever stained with the stark memories of that day. And sad for the disturbed young man who with access to high calibre weapons acted out what for most if us in an unimaginable fantasy.
What I would like to do with this post is to offer people a chance to tastefully share their thoughts about that event (& of course, the litany of similar such events over the years now). Often we don’t get to speak about how these events impact us. I mean, who wants to hear our opinions, & yet, there would hardly be a person who saw that story & the countless others like it, who wouldn’t have some kind of gut reaction that they felt; this is your opportunity to give expression to that feeling.
Me, I just sat shaking my head as the stories about that boy & that day began to unfold; the one that I found most disturbing was an interview with one of his teachers where she revealed that this boy had a history of writing explicitly violent scripts & she had been so disturbed by it she had attempted to get him counselling & inquired about police intervention. (the police response was that they were powerless to do anything about it)
My opinion about gun control? I think it’s an indictment on American law to think that a young man who up until a few days ago was merely disturbed, is now a criminal because at the height of his deranged state, easy access to weapons allowed him to take his disturbed fantasy to a place of sad reality. If there was the type of gun control that exists in Australia, chances are that he would still be disturbed but would not have the path available to play out his fantasy in the manner that is now simply a sad & tragic day in history.
Your Thoughts?
April 21st, 2007 at 12:18 pm
It was Shocking
It actually reminded me of a line in “Collateral” - In this city a man dies on the train, sits there for days, doing loops of the subway - and no one notices him.
In the case of Cho Seung Hui - It was a case of no-one interceding while a disturbed young man lost his grip on reality. The pre-meditation of the attack is what I find the most unsettling - Stopping after a couple of murders to send taunting videos to the NBC is particularly chilling.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:54 am
I totally agree, the fact that this was so carefully carried out is frightening. What is more chilling is that ‘freedom and liberty’ has gone so far as to allow people the temptation of a semi-automatic weapon in their homes, and therefore gives the option of using it when they’re least rational and their anger or hatred spills over.
Any thoughts on firearms laws on our country, or others?
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I was on my way to uni when I heard the news, so the reality of it kinda hit home really hard. I got really choked up..
I think people may find this a bit extreme but I really do not like guns in any context. I think they’re just as bad when used for hunting as in a playstation game.
One of the most powerful pieces of performance art I have ever seen is U2’s ‘bullet the blue sky’. They use a clip of Charlton Heston - the then president of the National Rifle Association - saying something along the lines of “A gun in the hands of a good person can do no harm”, at the same time a there is a clip playing of a toddler in a home who stumbles on a hand gun and begins to play with it.
I’d be all for tightening of gun laws to extreme levels.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:10 pm
I hope for the US’s sake that they do not concentrate on gun control alone but also, and primarily, on mental health. I remember the aftermath of Port Arthur and how for a brief moment the subject of mental health services and criticism of previous government cut backs hit the front page. Sadly the political spin doctors entered the scene and switched the attention to gun control. Perhaps reduced access to semi-automatic weapons may have prevented a few deaths but Martin Bryant would still have killed many many people.
No problem of this size has one single fix. Yes, in the U.S. gun control is a large problem, though they must equally face mental health issues, a school system that grossly failed in it’s duty of care as well as a Korean community living in fear of reprisal attacks.
If we concentrate solely on the act itself we may miss the path taken to arrive at that point. Change the path and you will change the destination.
April 27th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Mental health is a huge issue, but we must not be daunted by the magnitude. The more we can all do to help the mental health and well being of ourselves and those working in the field, the better - every bit counts. From what I can gather the mental health system in US is quite outdated and in need of some serious work, as is the current general health system.
May 2nd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
We currently have a Government that is pretty fond of following the U.S. including in economic policy. Where will we end up?