Monday, April 16, 2007

Okay, I had started blogging about this week’s episode of Doctor Who, but had to stop for a work-related project. After I was done with that, I went out to dinner, and the restaurant had big TVs on all the walls. And that’s where I heard about the Virginia Tech massacre today.

Thirty-three people dead, and the gunman shoots himself. What’s up with that? What sort of person decides to just go out and kill 33 innocent people, and then kill himself? I mean, if you’re going to kill yourself anyway, why drag others along with you?

And yes, okay, I know, this is probably a crazy person. Or, you know, not. Still completely appalling, no matter what.

And every time something like this happens, and even when it isn’t happening, I think of those whiny anti-gun control people who will come crawling out of their caves and log cabins and out from under their logs, spitting out a mouthful of tobacco juice, moonshine, and wood grubs. They’ll take a break from picking ticks and fleas off their mates to remind us that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. And yes, it’s true that it takes a person to point a gun at someone else and fire it.

Having said that, it’s not often that you hear about someone bursting into a classroom or school building, stabbing 33 people to death with a knife, injuring more, and then turning his blade on himself. Because, seriously, maybe it’s not the guns, maybe it’s the people doing the killing, but when they do it with guns, they seem to do a lot more of it. And maybe if it were that much harder to get guns, then the number of people who are killed by them would drop a bit. And, yes, I do understand that if someone is well and truly determined to get a gun, the laws probably won’t stop them. But, you know, maybe it would stop those who aren’t quite so determined, who could be steered from the path leading to the worst school shooting in American history if only they encountered a little more resistance?

But, you know, we live in a country where Quakers in Idaho are now requiring all the people in their town to arm themselves against a possible invasion by Hurricane Katrina victims. So, sense? Out the fucking window.