I noted yesterday the number of stupid comparisons swirling on the blogosphere between the tragedy at Virginia Tech and somebody's pet project. Unfortunately, the trend has only gotten worse.
Today, we have Barak Obama comparing the shootings at Virginia Tech with outsourcing. (Via Reason)
"There's also another kind of violence that we're going to have to think about. It's not necessarily the physical violence, but the violence that we perpetrate on each other in other ways," he said, and goes on to catalogue other forms of "violence."
There's the "verbal violence" of Imus.
There's "the violence of men and women who have worked all their lives and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them because their job is moved to another country."
There's "the violence of children whose voices are not heard in communities that are ignored,"
And so, Obama says, "there's a lot of different forms of violence in our society, and so much of it is rooted in our incapacity to recognize ourselves in each other."
This shouldn't need to be pointed out, but having your job outsourced is tough, but at least you are still alive.
I thought the stooge who compared the Virginia Tech shooting with civilian deaths in the war in Iraq was the dumbest comparison I'd seen until I read about Obama's slimy attempt to use the V. Tech tragedy for his political benefit.
Unfortunately, Obama's not alone in stupid and disgusting comments or comparisons.
There's the European press blaming Charlton Heston for the tragedy, saying that all we need is more gun control laws and this sort of thing wouldn't happen. Of course, the fact that guns were prohibited from the campus of V. Tech didn't seem to stop the gunman. Why, in 2005, a Virginia Tech student with a concealed-carry license was disciplined for bringing a gun on campus. So, it isn't like the "no guns" theory hasn't been tried. As the Chronicle post states,
"These things do seem to take place in locations where it's not legal for people with carry permits to carry guns," wrote Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor well known for his conservative blog, Instapundit. "I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset."
In the annals of campus mayhem, there is precedent for such rough justice. Peter Odighizuwa, who shot professors and students at the Appalachian Law School in 2002, was apprehended by armed students (The Chronicle, January 17, 2002). Charles Whitman, who fired at people from the tower at the University of Texas at Austin, took fire himself, not only from police but also from armed civilians. The Texas incident led President Lyndon Johnson to push for stricter gun-control laws.
See, the problem that the gun control crowd doesn't discuss is that gun control laws only work when people obey them. Criminals--and nuts on a mission--don't obey the laws. And it was because of the Luby's tragedy that Texas implimented a conceal and carry licensing law in the first place.
Let's face it, nuts typically don't attack people who can shoot back. That's why they go to schools--because they are gun-free zones. The perpetrators know that no one will be able to shoot them.
So, no, this isn't about outsourcing jobs or the need for more gun control laws. It isn't Charlton Heston's fault and this isn't about the Iraq war.
What we have is a tragedy. Not a platform. If only people would remember that.
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