While I think your description of a widespread “blame the guns” outcry is a bit overblown, you do raise some good points. The culture of violence embraced by our government and glamorized by Hollywood also bears some examination. (Personally, I am more dumfounded by the voices on the Right who are saying that EVERYONE should carry a gun to prevent something like this from happening). Just so the facts are clear - guns were an integral part of 30 people dieing the other day. They were not stabbed one by one. They were not gassed as a group. They were shot by multiple, semi automatic weapons. To dismiss any discussion as to why and how this disturbed man got his guns (and how a tragedy like this might be prevented in the future) is simply another example of denying reality to fit a political ideology. Of course we have to look at that - whether the NRA likes it or not. What better time to do that then after a terrible incident like this?
(BTW - I always have to chuckle when I hear 2nd amendment fans call out for people to “obey the constitution”. If only their love of that document included the fourth amendment too. Unfortunately, there has been mostly silence as these rights have been dissembled by your gun loving president).
Lets, face it. We cannot have absolutes when it comes to the freedoms granted to us. We can’t yell fire in a theater and we should expect law enforcement to have some discretion when it comes to searches and seizures. So too with the 2nd amendment. Which brings us to the fact that the law was not followed.
Under federal law, the Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho should have been prohibited from buying a gun after a Virginia court declared him to be a danger to himself in late 2005 and sent him for psychiatric treatment, a state official and several legal experts said Friday.
Federal law prohibits anyone who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective,” as well as those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, from buying a gun. (NY Times)
If anyone here wants to argue that mentally ill people should be able to purchase a gun because it is protected by the second amendment then I would like to hear it your logic. Personally, I think the constitution does allow citizens to keep and bear arms. But I also believe that reasonable restrictions are absolutely necessary. If you disagree, then I hope your have an ACLU card in your wallet right next to your card from the NRA. Otherwise let’s admit that people with guns do sometimes kill the innocent, and that it only makes sense to try to find ways of keeping weapons from people who seem likely to do just that.
MQA, your argument does make some sense. Even I will concede there is a place for reasonable restrictions upon our 2nd amendment rights. The example you note about a mental health restriction certainly would seem to apply in this case. That that can be a slippery slope does scare me but, on the whole, I can live with it.
However, I cannot accept your analogy to the 1st amendment exceptions for shouting fire in a crowd or even search and seizure exceptions. In fact, that's my very point. Look at how little we are willing to give up of our 1st amendment rights. Perhaps we'll draw the line at outrageous statements like the theater one, maybe place some restrictions on public speech for decency and vulgarity, etc. But that's about it. Now compare that to the great degree that the 2nd amendment has already been limited. Some states deny citizens the right to carry a gun. Some cities deny citizens the right even to own a gun. Others (including the federal govt) decide what kind of gun is allowed and what kind is not.
Would I advocate underage college students openly carrying a gun to school? Probably not. But perhaps if one of those professors had the means to defend himself some part of this tragedy could have been limited? And, just maybe, if this freak thought that someone nearby might have equal force he might have thought twice about the whole thing? I will grant maybe not, since Cho obviously had a death wish. But it couldn't have hurt.
Sadly, however, college campuses are one of the least gun-friendly places in America, as ROTC and military recruiters draw pie-in-the-sky student ire at nearly every corner. I'm sure Cho was devilishly well aware that it would be some time before he encountered equal force. Ironic but sad this should happen at such a place.
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