|
|
entry index
Inevitable entry on the Virginia Tech murders - UPDATEDShort and to the point
Already the news is full of the Virginia Tech
murders. And perhaps inevitably, the focus has shifted to blocking
guns.
I have called myself a reluctant gun advocate. I would like people to think about this. What would have happened if the gunman had known that some of his victims were armed and willing to fight back? The whole assumption that makes shooting unarmed students attractive would have been turned on it's head. And it wouldn't have to be very many armed students. Just the knowledge that there were some would have been a huge deterrent. That is not something you will see in the mainstream reporting of this tragedy. Update - I am not the only blogger who thinks that having a few of the other students armed so they could shoot back is a good idea. But this really caught my eye. A reminder: if someone commits mass murder with a weapon other than a gun, the national news media usually ignore it. For example, Hector Escudero started a fire at a casino in Puerto Rico in December 1987 as part of labor union activism, and killed 96 people. Julio Gonzalez threw $1 worth of gasoline into an illegal night club in New York City in April 1990 to get back at his girlfriend, and killed 87 people. These stories received almost no national news coverage at the time--while mass murders that were substantially smaller received vastly more coverage. Why? Gonzalez and Escudero's crimes didn't advance the cause of gun control. You can read my paper that was published by the Journal of Mass Media Ethics here for an examination of the role that excessive media coverage played in causing at least one of the mass murders of that era. So why is it being labeled as the biggest mass murder in American history? One of the cable networks spent most of today calling it exactly that. Tomorrow, I talk about profiling. 
Posted: Tue - April 17, 2007 at 01:25 PM
|
 Pagan Vigil
Pagan philosopher, libertarian, and part-time trouble maker, NeoWayland watches for threats to individual freedom or personal responsiblity. There's more to life than just black and white, using only extremes just increases the problems.  My Thinking Blogger Nominees
Recent
Comments Search
Categories
Guest
Articles Interested in Pagan•Vigil hosting your articles? I'm always looking for tantalizing content that makes people think. Look here for details. E Pleb Neesta AdSense
Pagan Vigil assumes no responsibility for the advertisement content provided by Google, which is neither selected nor endorsed by NeoWayland.
NeoLinks
The News Right Now Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Reason Magazine - Hit & Run Sunni Maravillosa and the Conspirators
Hammer of Truth Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of... Lady Liberty's Constitution Clearing House Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
no authority Center for a Stateless Society
Tammy Bruce.com Latino Issues: A Conservative Blog
The Nation
RealClimate
Papers, Please!
Letter from Hardscrabble Creek
You Are Not Alone A Big Idea from Eject! Eject! Eject! Fully Informed Jury Association World's Smallest Political Quiz Animated Introduction to the Philosophy of Liberty Institute for Liberty and Democracy
World of Ends 60 Second Refutation of Socialism, While Sitting at the Beach from Coyote Blog
World Religions - Religious Forums Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Who links to me? NeoBlogs
Books
Listmania - Liberty Basics 
Legal
All Guest Articles are © copyright by their respective authors for the date given and subject to the specific restrictions and permissions as stated in that article entry. Guest Article restrictions and permissions are specific to each article and may not be applied to another Guest Article.
Views and opinions expressed in Guest Articles do not necessarily reflect those of NeoWayland. Content from other sources is quoted under the fair use laws of the United States with clear reference to the source material. Unless otherwise noted, all other content at :
www.paganvigil.com Additional Redirect/Frame pages may be found at these web addresses:
members.aol.com/ If your web browser does not show one of these addresses, then this page being used without permission of the author. The views expressed by NeoWayland are his own and do not represent any other enity. NeoWayland freely accepts individual and sole responsibility for his words and actions.
XML/RSS Feeds
Statistics
|
