Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech senior blamed for the bloodbath, obtained one of the two handguns he used, a Glock 19 automatic, five weeks ago. He walked into the Roanoke Firearms store, put down a credit card and walked out with the weapon and a box of ammunition. The card was docked $571 (€420).
"It was a very unremarkable sale," said John Markell, the store's owner. "He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious."
-- Domestic, rare horror
Attackers set off deadly bombs in neighborhoods across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 66 people and wounding others, an Interior Ministry official said.
-- Foreign, usual horror
I realize that we are more upset when it is our own and when it is more up close and personal,* but there is a limit here. A certain multiplier effect, maybe -- we care deeply for the three thousand or so of our dead, while three hundred thousand (or more than thirty thousand, per a number given some time ago by el jefe) of Iraqis are mere statistics. We care more about loved ones etc., sure, but if a mass of people die who are strangers (see Virginia) we care as well. The numbers are surely high enough in Iraq ... plus we as a country have more blame.
Some might say we have blame here too ... lax gun laws, cultural dissension, not dealing with signs he had mental problems, etc. I'm unsure here. Well, definitely about the gun laws. We generally respect broad state discretion, even those who have a "collective rights" view of the Second Amendment. So, can a federal law really do much, surely to stop massacres like this that simply put are rare?
Maybe, a law involving the size of the clip or chamber, limiting the number of shots fired without re-loading. The law very well might be of limited use though ... heck, he could have used home made bombs too. The guy was legal, that is, had the right to buy the guns. And, though he had some problems, it is unclear if he had enough to target him too much without bringing in many others who might be loners etc. but not dangerous. Thus, though some loopholes might exist (certain gun shows etc.), a background check very well might not be too useful here. Virginia, btw, according to some accounts is a major source of illegal guns in N.Y. ... this interstate affect supplies an opening for federal regulation and some more state responsibilities.
Maybe -- again yes we are dealing with a lot of them -- some sort of training regime. A requirement that can encourage more oversight and help provide the person with a certain mind-set that leads to safer gun use. Or, more training to kill if they snap? I seriously don't know what can be done here ... tragedies like this happen. We can think of various ways to temper the likelihood of them occurring, but going overboard -- where have we seen that before? -- doesn't help either. [Deleted citation of Michael Moore movie/Canada; see, e.g., here.]
Our more violent society and the ways it in various cases promotes anomie is a factor as well. That too is a big hill to climb. No easy answers really. The dead in Iraq still lingers too. I don't know either set of people honestly. And, NYC is a city of immigrants and people of all types. My niece is in college, not that one, but my sister-in-law's nephew is probably liable to be tossed into that briar patch (he's in the military, college age) too.
Oh well.
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* One that has the usual bravery and remarkable components. Thus, we learn of Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old engineering professor and Holocaust survivor, killed while he barricaded his door and allowed his students to climb out of a second-story window, students said. As they say, can you make this stuff up?