perfidy

Dude. She's batshit crazy.

It was a Korean-American English major from Centreville, VA. He probably went to high school at Centreville High.

http://198.82.160.236/tragedy/

Johno, btw, YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED! Why do you hate our freedom?

In a similar, though perhaps slightly less offensive vein, the European press is going all apeshit about American gun laws, and blaming Charlton Heston for the tragedy. The ironic thing is that in most of the reports, they go on about machine guns, but the shooter apparently managed to kill all those people just fine with two semi-automatic pistols.

I think I'm going to start telling people, in all caps, YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED.

"Hey Johno, why'd you eat the last cookie?"
YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED

"Dammit Johno, that really hurts!"
YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED

"Johno, can you do me a favor?"
YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED

This is fun!

I almost expect the Europeans to go on about guns, but the number of Americans complaining about Machine guns is ridicalus. He was using bog-standard pistols, not assault rifles. If every automatic weapon in the world had disappeared Sunday, 60 people would still be dead or maimed.

And if, Virginia Tech had allowed concealed carry, one of those victims might have been a hero. Murdoc's got a thread going on this - train people to hide and cower and not fight back, you get victims.

This episode should've ended right after his first shot in the engineering building, and we should be reading in the newspaper:

"...and the murderer died in a hail of gunfire."

But no, VT was a gun-free zone, for everyone's safety. Although in practice the only safe one was the law-breaking mental case.

Most folks I've read and heard so far who are inanely advocating gun control as the retroactive solution to this tragedy aren't properly focused.

The one exception I've seen (though surely not the only exception, as honestly, I haven't read the entire internet yet) is an article at the Aussie">http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=261475]Aussie 9MSN site in which they point out that Virginia is rated only a C- by the "Brady Campaign". For comparison, 32 of the 50 states rate D or F, by their lights.

I don't know, and don't care enough to go find out what the Brady Campaign would consider to be nirvana, but there are several loopholes mentioned in the 9MSN article which strike me, a gun owner advocate, as friggin' loopy. Such as the "gun show" exemption, which requires no permit, no background check, no waiting period, and no trace of the ultimate destination of the gun. I can't envision the rationale for such a loophole, even though I'm from a state where such gun shows abound.

They also mention the absurdity of the fact that in VA, a 12 year old can buy a rifle or shotgun every month if they want, which doesn't concern me at all because the economics make it a self-limiting problem. That doesn't make it any less silly.

What we've got, gun-control wise, isn't perfect, and can be made better, but care is required, because given an inch, misguided gun abolitionists will take a mile.

Far more important, we as a society need to be a little less reticent at pointing out the deviant and disturbing characters in our midst.

I'll start with my neighbor...

Dudes: She was batshit crazy way before this. Unrelated, she also looks like her mother was an alcoholic.

I don't know which is stupider - thinking this calls for action on immigration, thinking it calls for action on gun control. So I'll assert that either is an indescribably stupid reaction to the problem. However, if we were somehow able to accurately identify and control whacked out dead-enders, I could get behind that program.

B: As to the calls for gun control specifically, I came THIS CLOSE ('') to my first ever call to a radio talk show last night. ESPN (for god's sake - ESPN!) radio's Doug Gottleib went off on a 15 minute rant about how we, as a people, well of course we need guns for hunting and all, but if we'd only be smart enough to outlaw automatic weapons, 60 people would be less dead/maimed than they are right now. That, plus the nugget that the second amendment made sense back when people had to load muskets one shot at a time, but it's not an amendment that applies in the 21st century.

Why does he hate our freedoms?

And Johno: Why do you hate our FLAWED BELIEF SYSTEMS?

(damned smileys! the thing above was two apostrophes, as close to each other as modern typography would allow)

Gah. Now the International Herald Tribune is making a big deal over the guy being South Korean.

Get it straight people. He's been in the US since he was about 8 or 9 from what I can tell about his age (23) and his reported date of arrival in the US in 1992. 23-15 = 8.

It's as if to say the last 15 years in the US doesn't matter. He's still a foreigner. Welcome to the FScking Melting Pot.

*grumble*

Feeling ranty today.

Tell it, sister!

This entire event, outside, you know, the human tragedy part of it, appears to be a ready-made excuse for people to act and speak like effing retards.

Drama queens, the lot of 'em.

Imus thought police? Well she'd better hope that there's no Korean Sharpton analogue because if there is, she's a goner.

If crazies can get 9mm pistols and run around shooting innocent people then I'd feel safer, myself, having a gun too. At least I would have the chance to defend myself. Without a gun, there's little effective deterence for a pistol wielding wacko. The problem with gun control is that it keeps guns out of the hands of normal citizens, and since criminals and nut jobs get guns anyway, all it does is ensure that normal people are defenseless. I don't at all see the logic of that position.

It's been said many times, but needs to be said again: The responsibilty for those murdered students rests only with the killer, not the tools he used to commit the murders.

If he'd have used a weed whacker, would we all be calling for a crackdown on Lowe's and Home Depot?

Seriously Ted, we are on the same page. I just told someone at work that a gun in a tool, like a hammer or a chainsaw. It's the choice of the wielder how to use it.

I'm kind of anti-gun for religious reasons. It's just not my thing. But more power to the people who like them and use them responsibly.

Further information about this guy shows he's really insane, just like the criminally insane shooter who killed another student when I was in college. It's the guy pulling the trigger.

Oh I'm sorry. Right now AP wire says he went to Chantilly High.

YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS FLAWED. GUNS ARE HARMLESS WHEN USED PROPERLY. WHY DO YOU HATE OUR FREEDOM?