So I was watching the Today show yesterday. They had a graduate student from Virginia Tech on. The reason they were interviewing her was because she went to high school at Columbine.
Yep. That's right. She was there at Columbine and she was there at the Virginia Tech shooting. Talk about having the worst damned luck in the world.
She was actually in the cafeteria when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were going from table to table, extermininating all of the kids who had ever done them wrong. And now, years later, she's got to live through this shit again.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't stand next to this chick during a lightning storm...
All in all, this whole thing in Virginia sucks. The thing is, every time something like this happens, I can't help but sympathize with these poor guys who freak the fuck out and start shooting people. I was one of those kids who wore dark clothes in high school. I was one of those kids who got picked on by the beautiful people. My friends and I were a little too smart, a little too weird, a little too nihilistic and misanthropic.
I understand. Not that I went that way, but I understand.
I have two concerns with this whole mess. First, that it will give the Democrats in Washington an excuse to institute additional gun bans. I'm a liberal. I'm REALLY liberal. But I also grew up in a family of sportsmen who hunted. Also, my father was a cop. I grew up around guns and I differ from many of my liberal counterparts in that I feel the Second Amendment is inviolable and sacred. And, if the liberal pussies at most American universities (Virginia Tech included) would allow licensed concealed carry holders to carry their weapons on college campuses, 33 people might not be dead right now. We don't need more gun laws, we need common sense loosening of the current laws. Guns - in the hands of licensed citizens - are the first line of defense. Cops can't be everywhere and can only respond to situations like this after people begin dying. So where does that leave those who are there, defenseless and facing the psychotic gaze of a mentally unbalanced nutjob?
My second concern is that this tragedy will allow the anti-gun agitists to push their agenda and, in so doing, bury the deeper issues that should be at the forefront of any rational evaluation of this tragedy. Namely, that there are kids out there who need help. Kids who are walking timebombs that have all the signs. To extend the metaphor, they are ticking so loudly that anybody with a reasonable ability to interpret such things should hear it. Generation Y, the current generation of kids born after 1980, have lived their whole lives with the belief that they are the center of the universe. They are the "Baby On Board" generation who have been told that they can be anything they want and do anything that they set their minds to...all while being catered to and pampered by overindulgent parents. This manifests itself in increased rudeness, a sense of entitlement, and a need for continued attention. And when they don't get it - - some of them end up like this guy Cho. Or Eric Harris. Or Dylan Klebold. And that's where the focus should be...
Enough for today. I know return you to your regularly scheduled mental breakdown...
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