In response to the Virginia Tech massacre

So what to make of the grim killings at Virginia Tech?

The Washington Post's leader, in typical stately fashion, asks all the right questions:

Would the university have suffered the same tragedy if Virginia law did not prohibit the carrying of guns on campus? Should metal detectors be ubiquitous in American classrooms and dormitories? And why are gunmen so apt to carry out their lethal rampages at American schools?

The New York Times is tougher:

Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.

James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice, uses a column in the LA Times to give a brief history of mass murder by gun-wielding lunatics. He examines the social changes that have increased the incidence of such massacres.

So what has changed? For one thing, the United States has become much more dog-eat-dog, more competitive in recent years. We admire those who achieve at any cost, and it seems that we have less compassion for those who fail. (Just look at how eager we are to vote people off the island or to reject them in singing competitions.) This certainly increases frustration on the part of losers.

Then there's the eclipse of traditional community: higher rates of divorce, the decline of church-going and the fact that more people live in urban areas, where they may not even know their neighbours. If mass murderers are isolated people who lack support, these trends only exacerbate the situation. Many mass murderers, for example, are people who have picked up roots and moved.

He concludes by saying this:

It should give us some degree of consolation to know that these events are exceedingly rare. But they still occur, and they are among the sad and tragic prices we pay for the kind of open, modern, democratic society we live in.

A graduate student from Virginia Tech wrote this article last year, complaining about the ban that stops students from carrying concealed weapons (hat tip Samizdata):

Now consider the situation of this past Monday. A violent criminal who clearly has no respect for other people’s lives is running loose on campus, his precise whereabouts unknown. And while the police did an excellent job of patrolling campus, they simply cannot be everywhere at once. Is it not obvious that all students, faculty and staff would have been safer if CHP holders were not banned from carrying their weapons on campus?

What the Board of Visitors has effectively done by banning CHP-holding students, faculty and staff from carrying their weapons is creating a “Safe Zone” for criminals who do not care about the rules anyway. Disarming law-abiding citizens has never made the general populace more secure.

To British ears, the idea that ordinary people carrying guns makes the population safer sounds mad. But we forget our own lost history of gun ownership. Richard Munday wrote this article a couple of years ago. It's a fascinating read:

A century ago, the possession and carrying of firearms was perfectly normal here. Firearms were sold without licence in gunshops and ironmongers in virtually every town in the country, and grand department stores such as Selfridge's even offered customers an in-house range. The market was not just for sporting guns: there was a thriving domestic industry producing pocket pistols and revolvers, and an extensive import trade in the cheap handguns that today would be called "Saturday Night Specials". Conan Doyle's Dr Watson, dropping a revolver in his pocket before going out about town, illustrates a real commonplace of that time. Beatrix Potter's journal records a discussion at a small country hotel in Yorkshire, where it turned out that only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver.

Robbie Millen

Comments

[J.D. Bolick]

Europeans continue to conveniently forget how many school shootings and other mass shootings have occurred on their continent. They persist in thinking that this is a weekly issue in the United States, both because many of you so openly hate America, and because many of the rest are so woefully ignorant about life here (you insist that we're ignorant about the rest of the world while your stereotypes of us are laughably ignorant).

I do not own a gun, nor do I want to, but pretending that a gun ban would stop events like this is outright stupid. As noted, they have happened in nearly every major European country, while the deadliest rampage in history was comitted in South Korea. The student also happened to be from that country, and when a madman chooses to kill, there is little anyone can do to stop them. If you want to express your obvious hatred of America through your condescending criticism of our gun ownership, at least have the decency to wait until these families have had a chance to bury their loved ones.

[Robin Bather]

Mr. Bolick, it's not just gun owership that bothers us and provokes our condescending criticism; it's the gun culture, the violence culture, the aggressive culture, the win at all costs culture, the concept that good guys lose, the loud mouthed know it all culture, the greedy lobbyist gun culture, and perhaps more than anything, the gall of attempting to justify private gun ownership.

I have travelled extensively in the US and have friends there. This is in no way antiamericanism--don't be so sensitive. We British don't get angry when you Americans portray us in movies as the bad guys where the Irish are concerned.
Or what about when we are shown as snobbish, stupid, ineffectual twits whilst the down to earth, good looking, lovable, American guy saves our hides?

[leeah]

R.I.P the victims of the massacre our college should be a place of sanctuary and peace our children will be scared to atend college. it's a very remotely saddened experience for the families of the victims and the injured. We have to bond together to keep our society strong

[Daniel Esposito]

To all the world leaders who decry America's "gun culture" and call for tougher gun laws, no guns are allowed on campus or within university limits. Even those that have concealed weapons permits are not allowed to bring weapons on campus. Furthermore, the weapons used had the serial numbers filed off meaning they were probably obtained illegally and the user did not have a permit. All the gun control laws in the world would have not stopped the maniac from obtaining those guns. As far as America’s culture as gun wielding crazies, this person was on a student visa and not raised in our "culture". An unfortunate tragedy, my thoughts and prayers to all the families involved. As an the perp was not raised in America, probably had illegal weapons, lets keep the America bashing to a minimum.

[Flyfisher]

Robin Bather, because you are our older brother, I will not be too hard on you. I love the Brits. Remember, a lot of our culture comes from you. I ask you this one question: What was it in Germany that enabled Hitler to do what he wanted unopposed? The answer is the systematic outlawing and confiscation of all firearms. Read about it. I don't agree with everything my government says or does, but at least I'm free to say and do what I want.

[The Truth]

Funny how Europe always looks to the United States when they are in trouble, but, are ready to denounce our freedoms when convenient.

Bad thing happen, we as Americans embrace the reality that in the end we are all responsible for are own well being.

Continue to walk through the world with blinders on and you may not notice that you life has been taken over by your very own government
.

[James Kimble]

The Human Condition is the problem, not the guns. If it were a bomb belt he had strapped on and set off at a football or basketball game killing 30 people and himself, we wouldn't be hearing about gun control laws. A bombing on a subway or a shooting at a University are both clearly one thing: Sin.

Umm..the killer was an american permanent residence...he was educated in an american high school...he was basically an american...sort out your terrible gun crime,

[Paul Coventry]

Our news bulletins and newspapers have rightly been full of the recent tragic events in Virginia. Reporters have been falling over themselves to discover every last detail of those who were killed and of the killer.
A further tragedy which strikes me is that we have become completely indifferent to similar events occurring in Iraq. When someone shoots or blows up 30-40 innocent people in Iraq and kills himself in the process it might get a mention on page 31 of the newspaper. We may not even bother to read it because the details are depressingly similar to a previous report only the day before.
Yet those who have been killed are every bit as valuable with their lives before them.
I do not want to diminish the sense of horror in Virginia for one moment but the contrast in media attention is striking. Neither do I blame the media for it is totally understandable that the very different contexts will result in in such disproportionate attention. I only find it sad that our own responses to the tragedies that occur daily in one country should become so desensitised.