I think I've been a little bummed about life these past few days because of the massacre at VT. The shooting itself is upsetting, but it seems like the repercussions of it are making me a little agitated. It seems like everyone wants to use a tragedy to push their own agendas, and everyone's looking to blame somebody. I've been frustrated by some of the things that are going on, and I'm probably joining the masses in criticizing issues that I don't know enough about, but what else am I supposed to do with this blog?
The Media
The Media, specifically NBC, has really mishandled the whole tragedy, as it usually does. I don't blame the parents of Cho for vacating their homes for some sort of safehouse, because it's hard enough to lose your son, it's even tougher when your son is responsible for deaths. To have the media scrutinize your parenting is something I never wish any parent has to endure.
Last night I logged onto CNN and a photo of Cho, brandishing a gun toward me, was on the splash page. Now I myself don't particularly find that tasteful, because it fulfills exactly what Cho had wanted to do. To be elevated to a celebrity status, a martyr without a cause. Cho practically sent a press package to NBC, and NBC, for unknown reasons, decided to use portions of the videos and photos to a nation that's still trying to come to grips with it. A slap in the face for the families and the students at VT.
Furthermore, the media and authorities are just looking for answers and somehow falling into the trap of saying that he's delusional, he's a loner, a creep, and so forth. I don't know if he is a loser or not, but the media sure is giving Cho a lot of airtime. Like a misdirected classmate said, he's going to try to go on the air every chance he gets so that Cho doesn't get any airtime. Valiant effort, albiet a bit self-serving. But yeah, there was a bombing in Baghdad that killed scores a couple days ago. It's gotten very little coverage.
The media is a double edged sword - I mean, I'm guilty of scouring the net to find out more information, why, and how it happened. I suppose there should be better standards regarding the ethical glorification of any individual who's done something terrible. Cho absolutely got what he wanted. Exact violence, and be remembered for it.
The Gun Debate
Let it be known, that I do like to play with guns. At the gun range. I like the way they feel, I like shooting them, I like the inherent power within, I like their destructive power. However, I do not like to kill. I wouldn't go hunting, even if it were small game like birds or rodents. I like Futureweapons on Discovery Channel, but somehow my mind doesn't connect that these weapons are used for killing other human beings. Nonetheless, I think guns have their place in society, but only in the hands of law enforcement and military. There's a fear that citizens would be unable to arm themselves if the inevitable happened, whatever the hell that may be, but it's a paranoid assumption that a couple handguns in your home would protect anyone if The Threat really wanted to get you.
The current debate now is that if Virginia didn't have a law forbidding people with concealed weapons permit to carry guns on campus, the shooter might have been stopped sooner. The gun advocates like to point out the case of Luby's Diner in Texas, whereby a victim had a gun, but it was in her car because of the law. There is that assumption that she might have been able to stop what was until recently, the worse mass killing by firearms in America. However, that is still just an assumption. Another case, which I don't have the specifics now, was another shooting that was effectively stopped because two students/workers ran to their cars, brandished their firearms, managed to get the shooter to surrender.
All this sounds logical, but gun advocates also tend to forget that for every law-abiding, gun respecting American, there is a hot-tempered, judgment impaired American who really don't need to brandish anything sharper than the edge of a credit card. There was a shooting last year at Westlake Mall whereby this guy, who was threatening with a knife and was mentally unstable, was shot and killed by a man who had a permit. They ruled it as self-defense, but I think that might have been a little much. Excessive force is often used by law enforcement against people who pose little or no threat, we simply do not need everyone walking on eggshells. Allowing guns on the street "just in case" is really no different than the sentiment during the Cold War. And what fun that was.
The Videogame/Movie Debate
This isn't a new one, and yes, I like videogames. I have a certain bloodlust when it comes to Grand Theft Auto, Black, or God of War. They went through Cho's home and found no videogames, and Jack Thompson had to put his megaphone back into his closet.
Unless there was someone going around throwing videogames at other people, I can't find the argument that videogames inspire people to kill. By that rationale, shouldn't millions of people be going around with antisocial mindsets, killing everyone with chainsaw guns? And yes, videogames in the wrong hands of children may confuse their sense of reality and escapism, but on the whole, it would take a lot of neglect on the guardian or parents part to not instill a sense of right and wrong about videogames.
On the whole, I don't think videogames and movies have much bearing on violence in schools. They're just an easy target because nobody can effectively blame our society as a whole. Nobody can blame how a child can feel so alone. Nobody can blame why a child doesn't have a circle of friends and family that can be trusted. Nobody can blame the lack of community that binds people together.
The Fallout
Thankfully, I haven't heard of any real severe backlash toward Koreans, but there are a handful. Kids being spat on, stupid phrases like, "go home to your country" being uttered. I think it's hard though, that Cho is a silent, brooding, shy type that is a little off and antisocial, because that was me 10 years ago. I was probably funnier that he ever wished to be, and I think his scriptwriting skills are crap, but hell, Cho managed to fit the profile of a lot of Asians. I wonder racists ever got around to spitting on White People's faces when the Unabomber or McVeigh were revealed to the public. Absurd? Yeah.
This whole thing has touched off so many issues and it's frustrating because we are a nation already burdened with too much unnecessary blood on our hands. Well, enough politics. I just needed to get all these thoughts out of my head.
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