Words fail.
Mr. P and I were talking about it last night and he asked if I was surprised to learn that the shooter was Asian. I thought it was an odd question, but as I got to thinking about it, I discovered that yes, I was surprised he was of Asian descent.
I think that speaks to some cultural assumptions on my part. And probably on many people’s parts. Never has the Model Minority myth gone down so abysmally and horribly. I admit that I am a little disturbed to see news article that regularly cite the shooter as “a student from South Korea”, which makes it seem like he was a recent immigrant or exchange student. Finding out that he was an English major makes me think he was probably fairly well-steeped in American culture, so just how relevant is his racial/ethnic status? He and I are the same age, and we only had a few years separation between our respective immigrations, and we were both English majors; what’s immigration got to do with it? Not a whole lot, I think.
I think this shooting is symptomatic of something wrong with American society. I think it has something to do with the respect that we, as a culture, accord human life. I don’t think that violent video games make people kill per se, but I think it’s likely that the idea of killing-as-entertainment or shooting-as-entertainment or death-as-entertainment has some effect on our real-life attitudes.
As for the gun nuts who point to this as proof of our need to allow everyone to carry a gun to protect themselves–stfu. Why are these school shootings happening in America and not everywhere else in the world? Why? I know there are ideological reasons people murder each other (in Iraq, for instance), but this shooting was non-ideological.He had no political or religious agenda. It was mechanical, precise, and soulless. What is it about our culture that contributes to this kind of behavior?
I know that the kid had some psychological/brain chemistry problems. But people have always had these issues. Why are these mass killings happening now? In our schools?
I think mass killings happen when people have access to the technology to make them happen — i.e., when people know how to build explosive devices using ordinary household items, or when a severely disturbed young man can walk into a store and buy a semi-automatic weapon and tons of ammo without undergoing any scrutiny. If anything, I think ages past had less respect for life and a higher tolerance for violence, but it’s only recently that the means of killing lots of people in a short amount of time have become widely available.
And that’s a problem, in my view. Yes, there is a constitutional right to own firearms, just as there is a constitutional right to free speech. But the right to free speech doesn’t give us the right to shout “fire” in a crowded theatre (to invoke a very tired example). Why should the right to bear arms give a mentally ill person the right to purchase a semi-automatic? The Constitution can be limited when public safety is clearly at stake. There is a small minority of people who should not be allowed to own guns, and it was pretty damn clear that the VA Tech gunman was one of those people even before the shooting started.
I agree that the shooter being South Korean doesn’t have anything to do with what happened. Being a racial minority might have contributed to his feelings of isolation, but until this incident every school shooting I can think of was committed by a Caucasian. Race doesn’t seem to be an explanatory factor here.
Comment by Lindy — April 18, 2007 @ 12:22 pm |
I’m with you on the gun laws. It seems to be pretty obvious that this kind of murder isn’t happening in most other nations, and it must have something to do with gun restrictions.
The idea that every sane person should be allowed to carry a weapon is also laughable to me, as we have no dependable definition of “sane.” Many people are sane one minute, and absolutely bonkers the next. If psychos are restricted to knives and such, at least the numbers of deaths won’t be so high.
Frankly I don’t think anyone needs a semiautomatic weapon. No one needs to go in the woods and annihilate a deer that badly.
It speaks poorly of race relations in our country when now the Korean community is afraid of a backlash against them.
Comment by apricot — April 18, 2007 @ 2:27 pm |
Sadly, gun ownership is enshrined in our constitution and has spawned a disturbingly large number of fat, greasy men who claim, “I need mah gun tew protect me from thuh guvurnment.” (Many such folks reside in Colorado and probably couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with their firearm, much less defend themselves from the government.) I’ve given up the hope of banning semi-automatics outright, but surely it’s not unrealistic to hope that we could pass a law preventing the sale of mass-kill weapons to people with a history of mental problems. I’m all about licensing and background checks, baby. Make ‘em pass a gun safety course before they get that handgun.
Comment by Lindy — April 18, 2007 @ 3:09 pm |
Unfortunately it does appear that gun laws are going to be woefully restricted. However, even the radicals of the NRA should be able to side with keeping weapons away from people with a history of mental health issues.
The more I learn about this case, the more appalling the neglect of this kid’s psychosis becomes. But hindsight is 20/20, I guess. Perhaps this will raise awareness that Asian American youth have inordinately high levels of depression compared to other groups. That’s I suppose the only potential racial component, but even that’s problematic.
Ugh.
Comment by apricot — April 18, 2007 @ 5:36 pm |
I’m pretty anti-gun myself, but I think it is hard to argue that it would be possible to eliminate guns. (There are just too many out there.) And criminals will always be willing to pay more for them than market, even way more if the market was closed, because they’re so essential for big crime. Everyone you read has a different opinion on what gun laws would have helped this situation. I haven’t yet read anything that made me entirely agree with any point of view. Have you?
Very, very, very sad.
Not to be frivolous on the same post, but that is a very lovely camera. Maybe WRWF will see a revival?
Comment by Chris — April 19, 2007 @ 5:39 pm |
You know, I haven’t read any specific article about gun law legislation. What I WILL say is that the fact that these killings are happening in the United States and not in other industrialized nations suggests that there’s something wrong with the legislation.
Australia had a terrible shooting a few years back, if I remember correctly, and they then instituted tough gun laws and a buy-back program for weapons. They’ve been doing pretty well since. Perhaps we should pattern our legislation after some other country.
As for the camera–thanks! I definitely hope to start taking more pictures. I may migrate WRWF from blogspot to wordpress, if you don’t mind :0)
Comment by apricot — April 19, 2007 @ 6:05 pm |
[...] going back to the first discussion on the Virginia shootings–I affirm that there is nothing we can do about the fact that there are crazy mofos out there. [...]
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