Brief Response to the Virginia Tech Shootings
There's not much I can add to the ongoing conversation about yesterday's shootings at Virginia Tech University, other than to concur with those reminding us that a slow day in Iraq produces a body count at least double what was produced in Blacksburg, Virginia, yesterday......and we generally tune those grim figures out like elevator music.
From a public policy standpoint, I'm skeptical that any significant steps are taken in support of gun control measures. Since the shooter used a 9-mm handgun, proponents of assault weapons bans won't have much standing to renew the ban that expired three years ago. The expiration of the assault weapons ban only months before the 2004 election speaks volumes about where the political fault lines lie on the issue of gun control. Even if 80% support an assault weapons ban, their support is soft, while 20% who opposes an assault weapons ban is hard in their opposition, negating the premise of majority rule. Truth be told, I'm skeptical about the degree of success that significant gun control measures would have in a nation as obsessed with firearms as this one. Just as I don't think prohibitions are capable of working with narcotics or prostitution, I can't imagine firearms can be legislated out of existence in American culture.
Anti-immigration radicals originally harped on the fact that this guy was a Chinese national as was first reported, but that argument is DOA now that it's been established that the shooter has lived in America for 15 years. Censorship evangelicals will make predictable pleas for less violence in the media, and may get some temporary cooperation, but I'm doubtful too many attitudes outside of rural Virginia will change much. If we're as desensitized as we appear to be about the daily carnage coming out of Iraq, it seems unlikely that an isolated school shooting is going to serve as a beacon for cultural change.
From a public policy standpoint, I'm skeptical that any significant steps are taken in support of gun control measures. Since the shooter used a 9-mm handgun, proponents of assault weapons bans won't have much standing to renew the ban that expired three years ago. The expiration of the assault weapons ban only months before the 2004 election speaks volumes about where the political fault lines lie on the issue of gun control. Even if 80% support an assault weapons ban, their support is soft, while 20% who opposes an assault weapons ban is hard in their opposition, negating the premise of majority rule. Truth be told, I'm skeptical about the degree of success that significant gun control measures would have in a nation as obsessed with firearms as this one. Just as I don't think prohibitions are capable of working with narcotics or prostitution, I can't imagine firearms can be legislated out of existence in American culture.
Anti-immigration radicals originally harped on the fact that this guy was a Chinese national as was first reported, but that argument is DOA now that it's been established that the shooter has lived in America for 15 years. Censorship evangelicals will make predictable pleas for less violence in the media, and may get some temporary cooperation, but I'm doubtful too many attitudes outside of rural Virginia will change much. If we're as desensitized as we appear to be about the daily carnage coming out of Iraq, it seems unlikely that an isolated school shooting is going to serve as a beacon for cultural change.
posted by Mark at 9:38 PM
1 Comments:
Some good news on the California front: Pete McCloskey (primary challenger to Pombo in CA-11) has now switched from the GOP to the Democrats! I know exactly how he feels, as I myself did that switch for similar reasons.
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