What to say after an all day news cycle covering the shooting spree on the campus of Virginia Tech? It is a sad, sad tragedy. Unfathomable. But I will share thoughts.
First, sadness for the family and friends of the deceased, who will never be the same. Ruined by this homicidal madman. I've watched - and more importantly listened to - the cell phone video that captured the sound of some of the shots. Rapid fire, one coming almost unbelievably close to the next. On and on. It's shocking to realize that each one of those distinct shot-sounds is someone dying.
Second, I was surprised by my reaction. Before I heard any information about the shooter I automatically assumed it was a Jihadi wannabe. Like the guy in North Carolina who rented an SUV a few months ago at UNC and tried to run down students in the square. But, you know what they say about assumptions.
Third, the latest word late tonight is that the shooter is probably Asian, here recently on a student visa.
Big events like this inspire big opinions, so let me unwisely opine so fresh after the event. If I was czar, I would:
1. Fire the President of the University, the Dean of Students, and the Campus Police Chief for not securing the campus after the first shooting. Just to send a message to all campus leaders. Provide security for the vunerable students in your charge. Real security.
2. Cancel all student visas from foreign students and send them back home. Now. We have enough students in the United States. We don't need to be taking the risk of inviting in all of the peoples of the world who may or may not share our values and our sense of law abiding. Send them all home. We'll survive fine without them.
3. Repeal the policy of not allowing concealed carry of firearms on campus. Virginia has a reasonable policy of concealed carry for those who go through the proper training and licensing. VT unwisely banned them from campus. The bottom line here, people, is that the police only arrive after the damage is done in these situations. You have to be able to protect yourself. It's constitutional and it's wise. There has to be a chance that someone in this awful, and even rare, situation between the assailant and the defenseless.
4. While we're at it, I would permit and even encourage every teacher at every level who can qualify to be trained and licensed for concealed carry. That's a radical statement from me, knowing that most campus teaching staff are leftist liberals who would support gun control. I don't care. Protect your charges, those entrusted to your care.
There are evil people out there, intent on doing harm. There's a lesson here.
Update: after reading more news and opinion tonight, here are more thoughts:
- Dennis Prager has an excellent column out already urging a wait on calling for "healing" for the VT community. He advocates allowing a time for anger and grief, what they would want healing from, to play out first as a natural reaction to evil. Also to call it evil, not "tragedy". Very insightful.
- I'm not sure yet that I was wrong in my original assumption of some terrorist aspect of this killing spree. I checked myself when I heard he was "Asian", but there are al Qaeda cells operating in Asian countries. And the high kill rate suggests more of a trained soldier than a spurned lover. Add to that the report tonight that the gunman was not carrying any ID and attempted to shoot his face off in his suicide. Also add that, according to the Washington Post, both of the guns he was carrying had the serial numbers obliterated. Hmmm. I'm going to wait for it all to play out.
- I'm not totally buying the "domestic" crime angle either. The preliminary story is that he went to the dorm to confront a girlfriend who dumped him. You know what, crazy people take one gun to that scenario. However, the gunman in the engineering dorm had two guns at least, and ammo clips on belts across his chest. A spurned lover does not carry this amount of gear, and chains to lock doors. The "crime of passion" scenario of the dorm shootings does not mesh with the cold, calculating, ruthless killer of the classroom shooter. Can you imagine the calm determination it takes to fire 100 shots at human beings with handguns?
Bottom line: we clearly do not know the accurate story as of tonight. What we do "know" doesn't add up.
By the way, there is a previous pattern of domestic terrorists being called crazed lone gunmen instead of people motivated by jihad in the mainstream media. Some examples:
- the SUV driver at UNC
- the guy who tried to set off a bomb at an Oklahoma football game
- the shooter at the Israeli ticket counter in LA
- the beltway sniper John Mohammed
I'm just saying. I heard an awful lot of news people throwing around the "lone gunman" phrase today, before we really know the story. I'm just sayin'.
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