Oh, fine, let's take break to get disgusted at conservatives.

[prog]

The meme that the victims were a bunch of mincing cowards too sissified by their liberal environment to attack the gunman bare-handed seems to be rapidly spreading through the other camp. See comments by John Derbyshire, Nathaniel Blake, and Rush Limbaugh (as paraphrased by derspatchel).

Of tangential interest is a striking thought-experiment by bradhicks of what would have happened had any of the students been armed. I have no personal experience with guns or their use, so I don't know how accurate or relevant this is, but it made me think. (Gun control is an issue I stand absolutely neutrally on, and no recent events have changed this.)

Comments

[grr-plus1.livejournal.com]

I've been annoyed at the continuous reporting, Bush speachifying, flags half-mast, Boston schools & police doing shooter-preparadness training, etc. over the shooting. 30 people dead is less than 1% of people killed by car accidents (or gun accidents for that matter). It was clearly a very rare event & will continue to be so.

I mostly agree with the Brad that gun control won't eliminate these rare events. However, if the irrational hooha over VA Tech causes people to enact better controls on gun sales - great! Thousands fewer kids & family members killed by gun accidents. If the irrational hooha leads to legislation that gives more seriously depressed (or otherwise psychologically crippled) access to treatment, that would be fantastic!