Today your author sat in shock as the media updated the customer with the violent shootings that took place at Virginia Tech. The final count is 33 dead, including the shooter and many more injured. Your author extends a sincere prayer for those who lost their lives and the grieving families.
Your author recalls the 1999 Columbine High School shootings that took place in Littleton, CO. The killing spree facilitated by teenage students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In their violent wake 12 were left dead and twice that many were wounded with Harris and Klebold taking their own lives. The media machine is already comparing this to the violence at Virginia Tech.
Following the killing spree at Columbine, President Bill Clinton used the moment to pitch the idea of gun control bill to close a loophole that impacted gun sales conducted at gun shows (House Bill 1243). Klebold and Harris had obtained their firearms through a straw purchase performed by 18 year old Columbine student Robyn Harris. Just with every firearm they used, there were several, they too were purchased by someone of age for the two students. Then the big media machine focused their attention to high school bullying, spinning a story that Klebold and Harris were picked on and ostracized by other students. This was proven to be false. What is known about the two is that they shared a love for violent video games, both had been convicted of breaking into a motor vehicle, both shared an interest in Nazism, Adolph Hitler, Social Darwinism and genocide. When it came to musical taste they both enjoyed listening to house and industrial music. Journals kept by both of them described how they hoped to surpass the violence and death caused by the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Additionally neither of the boys’ parents have spoken publicly about the incident.
The American Left will use these events, as bad as they are, to cite the need for tougher gun laws. While your author agrees that background checks and responsible gun ownership is a must; how would tougher laws better serve society? What the media machine won’t say in blunt terms is that the shootings at Virginia Tech, the massacre at Columbine or any other spree killing are perpetrated by mentally and emotionally deranged individuals. If they could not have obtained a gun another means of destruction would have been used. However it is the arrogance of the Left that always believes they can dictate social behavior to a finite formula through taxpayer funded legislation and full compliance will create a nirvana. They are delusional.
The American Left will cite the following:
35,000 gun deaths in America
Source: Center for Disease Control
However what the Left won’t tell you in their anti-gun pitch is that 54% of these deaths are attributed to suicide. This eliminates 17,500 of these deaths. From the remaining amount roughly 1,000 are ruled unintentional and accidental. Remember the Left is spinning the data to suggest that eliminating or impeding access to guns would reduce crime and death. It is in your moral good they will say, dictating the reader’s own value system, that stiffer gun control laws are in your best interest. Now this leaves a net number of 16,500 gun deaths linked to crime. This is a far cry from what the American Left will quote.
Often times the American Left will use other countries in the Western Hemisphere as an appropriate role model for the States to follow. This in itself tells the reader who does not support tougher gun laws then you are some ignorant buffoon living in a country where the majority is just as foolish! One country cited by the Left is Canada where they have a Gun Registry. In short, beginning in the 1990s and under the tenure of Liberal Party Prime Minister Paul Martin, Canadian gun owners had to register their arms. A novel idea that in ten years became an example of government mismanagement and the failures of liberalism. Originally budgeted at a cost of $119 million, the figure is estimated to be north of $2 billion. Furthermore it was found that a trend suggested the following, that 86% of gun related homicides were with an unregistered gun and that 80% of the murderers were unlicensed gun owners. Both sides of the political aisle have agreed the Registry has not lowered violent crimes.
While the Left is probably salivating to drum up support for stiffer gun control laws, a detestable testament of their willingness to exploit the murders at Virginia Tech, their underlying message is not really to reduce violent crime. They may say this but what they ultimately would achieve is the removal of personal accountability. Another way to say it, you aren’t responsible enough to own a firearm because of the actions of a demented few. Should we allow these misfits and sick individuals to chip away at our Constitutional right?
