LiveJournal dot Com, and Friends

Looking at my readership statistics, I see an amazing amount of traffic from websites which typically appeal to young people who are interested in reading my original post about the Virginia Tech Massacre.

I've backtracked them, I see no links on ANY of the cited blogs. But still, they come here to read even though their websites don't mention the article.

I have no idea WHY they come here, but I am glad they came to share the story.

Many of them, however, comment independently about the question of HOW could this Slaughter of Innocents could have been controlled.

Not 'avoided' ... Evil stalks the land and there is no way to prevent it.

The word is "control", and sometimes these students demonstrate a wisdom beyond their years.

For example, MapGirl (who actually published a comment on the article) offered her own experience in School Shooting:

During my senior year of college there was a shooting on campus where one student who recently graduated had shot another. It was very sad.

[...]

I had met the perpetrator and ... he gave me the willies. ... it was an anomaly and precipitated by the relationship of the victim and killer.

One of the witnesses was friends with both parties and a friend of mine from our freshman year and from the on-campus Catholic community. That friend turned into a gun control advocate as part of his later work. I am so proud of him for turning this defining moment into a powerful motivator for positive change.

Another person who read the article was "airynd", who later wrote a HUGE (to his embarrassment) article of his own which discussed brilliantly he concept of personal defense as a civil liberty. I've already read it a couple of times, and will read it again. I encourage you to read it for yourself, here.

The money quotes are:

Years ago, in another life, I thought that gun control laws would help to protect people from getting accidentally shot or shot by bad people on purpose. I thought that registering guns was a good idea, and that making people wait to buy their guns was also a good idea. Currently, I think both of those are really bad ideas. Background check? Those are great - those are perfect. Check the hell out of some one's background before they buy a gun. Still, as I mentioned, if a criminal wants a gun...well, they don't need a background check in Vinni's basement.

... and ...

I kind of hate it that I'm making the same arguments that, a decade ago, I thought were asinine.

... and ...

"A well-armed society is a polite society." I'm not sure how accurate that saying is, but I think it might be on the right track. We see it all the time in the animal kingdom; if two animals both have the capacity to seriously kill or injure each other, they don't do it unless there is a sincere and pressing need to do so. There's too much at stake. Too, when an animal's life is at stake, it will fight back. A seal in the jaws of a great white bites at its attacker, even though it is usually futile. A rabbit will bite at the nose of the fox as the fox attacks, and sometimes, the bunny gets away because the fox is so surprised at being bitten by a fucking rabbit that it has no response for that situation. Animals fight to survive with whatever tools they have when their lives are threatened. I think, were I faced with a maniac wielding a shotgun, I'd like to have another gun as my tool. Then I wouldn't have to be helplessly and powerlessly blown away.

I think this young man, as did MapGirl, does actually 'get it'.

When you read the 'whole thing', disregarding his embarrassment at having posted such a 'Geek length' article, you get the sense of someone who has travelled far in the past few years, and in the process arrived at an understanding which was previously denied him due to a simple lack of experience.

As has (perhaps erroneously) been attributed to Sir Winston Churchilll:

"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains."

I cannot attest to the accuracy of either the quote or the citation. I just vaguely remember the thought, and Google what I remember. What comes out the other end may only be compared to Sausage Making to the detriment of an excellent sausage.

But I can say that I was a Registered Democrat until well into my forties. I only changed my political affiliation upon the advent of The Clinton Era. It's personally embarrassing to admit that I couldn't admit to the error of my ways until the wrong-thinking of Billary had manifested itself in the egregious Social Medicine plan.

So when I congratulate these folks for their logical courage, you can take it as given that they are far, far smarter than I am.

Apologies to the subjects of this conversation if that seem like damning with faint praise. It wasn't intended that way.