in case you've been living in a box, there was another major shooting at at a US school last week. the death toll this time was 12 students and 1 teacher which is the highest of any of these schoolyard massacres yet. in the wake of this shocking tragedy, a shitstorm of hatred, stupidity and total lack of compassion has been spewing from the religious and the right.
NRA president charleton heston made public statements to the effect that this tragedy could have been prevented, if only somebody other than the killers had been packing heat. of course, he later discovered that there was an armed guard on duty at the time of the shooting, but faced with superior firepower, he had no choice but to flee and call for backup.
and who but the reverend fred phelps could use this opportunity to spout hate? in some kind of twisted effort to gather support for his bigoted cause, he is trying to play up the rumour that the two killers were homosexual. obviously in some evil hope that people will find it in themselves to hate gays, just because the killers might have been gay.
a girlfriend of one of the (gay!?) killers allegedly purchased 3 of the guns for the boys because she was 18 and they were too young. perhaps the most ironic part of this whole incident is that since the weapons she purchased were shotguns and a rifle (and not handguns), it was not illegal for her to give them to the minors.
what can we learn from this? what good can possibly come from so great a tragedy? perhaps it will filter through to some americans that maybe gun control isn't an invasion of their freedom, but rather a way to preserve their freedom. the freedom to go to school, without the fear or the reality of being murdered by a fellow student. but is it likely to have any real impact on US gun control laws?
not bloody likely.
-chris { 4.27.99 }