A dark day indeed...

I've tried writing this so many times, I've lost count. Here goes...

Sometimes. Sometimes you have to accept the truth that there are monsters in this world.

We do not live in an easy world. Things don't always make sense. There are uncomfortable truths...

1. The average jackass can not so easily kill 32 people and wound another 20 with anything less than a firearm. He might murder someone, or multiple someones, with a myriad of other tools, but nothing short of a gun would'v turned an untrained prick into this kind of killing machine.

2. Guns really don't kill people -- people kill people. A firearm is nothing more than glorified clockwork and potential energy stored in a chemical powder. It takes someone's will to pull the trigger. And while there is no doubt in my mind that guns are designed to make killing something else easier to do, a gun left alone will never shoot, and it will never have the capacity for evil.

3. If there had been one armed, brave person in the crowd, this might've ended differently... Assuming that potential defender had both the requisite will, and the opportunity to grasp the emergency, this too is true. Guns are mere tools; it is the intention of the shooter that is good or evil. The Secret Service did a study of school shootings in 2002, and noted that most school shooting incidents were stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention. In 1/8 of the cases, the shooter committed suicide, otherwise, the victims resorted to "self-help" before the cops arrived. Just a guess, but I bet few of the victims who fought back were equally armed.

4. The genie is out of the bottle. We live in the 21st Century. Technology is what it is. Ban, restrict, limit what you want... Virginia Tech has a total ban on weapons on its campus. No guns, no how. A fat lot of good it did them -- because you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Sometimes you just have to accept the truth that there are monsters in the world, and they will rampage when they will. Good people must always fight them when we see them.

Tragedy will always test us; it will test us as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. That test of character has its own kind of logic and purpose.


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Check these links out. Feel free to discuss.

And as a bonus, check this out, in which the VT spokesman seems to say, "Porn, not a good idea -- but within a student's rights to participate. Responsible gun ownership, unacceptable behavior from a student."

Well, I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines from the Revolution: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.