Politicians, the Media, & the Virginia Tech Shootings

April 17th, 2007 Posted in Miscellany, Rants

My buddy Cliff over at Spiralbound.net wrote a story this morning expressing his displeasure with all of the armchair quarterbacking of the Virginia Tech shootings that happened yesterday.  I entirely agree with his point of view … hindsight is 20/20 and pointing fingers doesn’t do any good.  What he neglected to mention though is the deplorable behavior of the media and politicians. 

The shootings in Norris Hall, which claimed the lives of the majority of the victims started at approximately 9:30 am.  By about 2:00 pm, asshat Senator/Lawyer Jack Thompson from Florida was making an appearance on Fox News using the shootings as ammunition for his fight against videogames.  For what seems like years now, Jack Thompson has been trying to outlaw violent videogames based on the theory that they are a major cause for violence.  Mere hours after a senseless massacre, while the nation is in shock and mourning, and the full story of what, why, and how it happened hadn’t even broken, there was Jack on his soapbox telling the nation that videogames were the cause.  Where the hell does he get off?  Using a tragedy such as this to further his position without any information and worse yet, less than 5 hours after it started is absolutely despicable.  I hope the voters of Florida recognize this and send him packing.  I sure as hell wouldn’t want him representing me.  Don’t get me wrong, not all of my anger is directed at Jack Thompson, some of it is also directed at Fox News for condoning this behavior by letting him speak.

I’m sure Jack isn’t the only politician who is going to try to use this to their benefit … those against the 2nd amendment will be out in force shortly I’m sure.  ABC News and others are already laying the ground work for them with polls asking whether this could have been prevented with stricter gun laws.  Hopefully they have a few more brains than our buddy Jack, and will at least wait a few days before pushing the issue.  One of those people I’m sure will be Carolyn McCarthy, a democrat representing New York in the House of Representatives.  Carolyn is the sponsor of H.R. 1022, titled: “To reauthorize the assault weapons ban, and for other purposes.”  Essentially this bill would reinstate the Clinton gun ban, and expand it to include all semi automatic rifles and shotguns.  Apparently she didn’t bother to look at the statistics that clearly showed that the Clinton ban did nothing for the crime rate in the US.  Washington DC had some of the most stringent gun laws in the US until recently, and they’ve been home to the highest crime rate in the country regardless.

When will the politicians learn that videogames and guns don’t kill people?  Sick fucked up people kill people, and they’ll continue to do it even if guns and videogames were outlawed tomorrow.  I guess my only hope is that the people who use tragedies like the Virginia Tech shootings to further their agendas are dealt with as harshly as Don Imus was, and that the media will stop giving them the attention that they so desperately want.

   

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  1. One Response to “Politicians, the Media, & the Virginia Tech Shootings”

  2. By Jenny on Jun 7, 2007

    Another good argument opposing the videogames=killing people argument is that people have been killing each other for how long? and we have had video games for what..maybe 20 years?

    It is always easy to find the scape goat, rarely easy to find the cause.

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