Thursday, April 19, 2007

Home grown Terror

"You had a hundred billion chances and a way to have avoided today,"
Mass Murderer Cho Sueng-Hui

I want to blog about some other stuff but this Virginia Tech thing is still on my mind. I'm not looking for answers and I haven't actually watched the extended coverage on TV which I think is overkill to an extent but still as the details come to light I've just got to speak some more on this issue.

For one to my U.S friends just accept it the man is American. Stop harping on him being South Korean. He came to the U.S as a kid. If someone comes to the U.S as a kid and does great things like develop a cure for some disease or wins an Olympic medal his heritage and birth country are brushed over and he is called American. So to me if someone comes to the US and does something horrible I think the same should hold too. Leave out the double standard. Accept him as an American, even though he wasn't a citizen. He had been in the country 15 years, he spent his formative years there, did his schooling there. He's one of yours.

Stop giving him the Ben Johnson treatment. Oh not sure what that is? That's when you go from one day being feted as a Canadian Olympic medal winner to the next day being tarred and feathered as a Jamaican drug cheat.

Another detail that stuck out to me as details come to hand was that Cho mailed his raving manifesto to NBC between killings. All I can say is dammmmmn! Admit it if this wasn't so real and horrific and was like some Bruce Willis or Arnold movie we'd all be talking about this like it was cool. I mean how cold do you have to be to stop a bloody rampage and go to the post office, line up and send a package? That is just dread! And I mean that word dread however you wish to interpret it.

Oh and will someone step up and blame something other than our usual scapegoat hip hop music here (thank God they haven't mentioned it yet) cause I mean come on take a look at the photos he sent in the manifesto. You know that kid had to be influenced by popular entertainment. The man pose off with his guns like he was a movie star. Of course knowing hip hop's present luck we'll ignore violent movies and video games and someone will find a copy of Biggie's Ready to Die in his crib or 50 Cents DVD Get Rich or Die Trying (an absolutely dreadful movie by the way). Yea I'm just waiting.

You know its going to happen.

The other thing that caught my attention as the details were released was this interview with the owner of the gun shop where Cho bought his guns. The gun stop owner claims that this atrocity occurred not because gun controls are too loose as most have asserted but in fact due to the opposite. He thinks if gun controls were looser then this wouldn't have occurred. He said they need to allow students and staff members to bring their guns on campus at Virginia Tech.

Now off the bat I said to myself wha kinda eediat ting that? This man head musse bad! Oh you want looser gun controls than the ones that allowed a mentally disturbed kid to buy two guns and kill 32 people? You want guns in classrooms so that students can shoot teachers over grades? Way to go ya pieca poppit! Yea that was my initial thought.

But then this morning my wife agreed with my stance and since that rarely happens in my household I went back and thought some more about the gun owners statements. The man is simply taking a classic Cold War stance. If we have weapons and they have weapons they wont attack because they know we can strike back and do damage. Interesting philosophy isn't it. The US and Russia used it for years, Pakistan and India are still using it. It works sort of. You just live with a heightened sense of fear.

Mind you that philosophy assumes that we're dealing with sane, logical persons not persons who have flipped and gone stark raving mad like Cho. So umm no that theory wont stop these types of incidents. It only works if the aggressive party is afraid to die and since Cho and others like him are quite ready to take their own lives its not a deterrent

Of course I really find the American fascination with guns quite unique and also rather interesting and troubling at the same time. The right to bear arms (and I'm not talking about wearing short sleeve shirts) is tantamount to sacred in the U.S. I mean, and this isn't an original thought here, Americans are willing to accept losses of civil liberties supposedly to combat terrorism and they do this with little furor but let anyone talk about taking away someone's guns and lines get drawn for a Civil war. I'm of the opinion that the American government would have greater success passing a law asking U.S men to each give up one testicle than passing a law strengthening gun control.

16 comments:

Dee said...

you are right right right
you can post this post again at some point in the future
I am not really American but I've been here for 18 years. Most Jamaicans don't really consider me Jamaican (it hurts but it is what it is).
Also, I must admit. The love/hate relationship with guns is a tough one. My brother got mugged at gunpoint some time last year. Within a week I was at the gun shop. I only bought pepper spray but still, I did inquire about target practice and did my research on licensing for handguns and shotguns within the city limits. And I don't like guns. Imagine what your Vermont deer hunters are feeling right about now.

Crankyputz said...

I knew we thought alike but this is a little scary.

I can't stand all the korean references, dude was as American as they get,

Everyone having guns doesn't help things, it won't make the world a safer place. The world would be a safer place, if we stopped allowing people to use weapons in which they are able to kill instantly. I mean bannign guns won't stop peoples vilonent tendancies, crazy people will always exist. But I would rather have people stabbing at each other with kitchen knives and base ball bats, than have them buy machattees, or automatic rifles....

Ms.Seven Supa Sized said...

"I'm of the opinion that the American government would have greater success passing a law asking U.S men to each give up one testicle than passing a law strengthening gun control."

HA!

Totally agree.

Campfyah said...

So true oh so true, but I never did think of the Angle of calling him a korean instead of an American. But you know how it goes in this country. Do right and you are ours, do wrong and you belong to them.

Gun control is under fire now, but the NRA and Charleston ein gonna let it go down like that at all.

Luke Cage said...

J, to this my brotha.. I have very little to add. From your point about South Korean (when he does evil) and American (when one does good), fantastic point. Overkill? A little but the tragedy is so fresh in people's minds y'know? And in the NOW era of live television and 24 hour news reports, this tragedy will be on display for at least the next few months. Be prepared to be inundated with it.

Plus 32 lives snuffed out and most of them our future benefactors who haven't had the opportunity to live their lives yet.

Amadeo said...

This country tries to distance itself from any maddness with a quickness...not just Korean or American style, but he must have got the idea from a movie or a song...no person in society would just do that. There's alot more people who would and they're part of us as well.

I'm for gun ownership...mostly cause I don't trust the government. However I also carry a knife and own a sword so go figure. As a side note since the mentioned dude used to wear shades all the time I am now a "person of interest".

SimplEnigma said...

Very, very well written.

But you KNOW this will only be an argument for stricter policies against ALL immigrants, right?

It's sad that although his parents are hardworking people, his sister is a graduate of Princeton University, all that will get overshadowed by "red-blooded Americans" who want to stop the influx of immigrants. Instead of this being an isolated issue, they'll use this, the DC sniper thing and God knows what else to make the strict immigration laws even stricter, despite the fact that over 90% of immigrants who come here are contributing positively to the nation's growth.

Miz JJ said...

He is not Korean. They need to stop with all that mess. They created that problem. Not Korea.

Also, I find it crazy that they have no gun control in the US. Over 10,000 people die a year from gun violence in the US yet they do nothing. Nobody even comes close to them.

Tafari said...

I am digging your blog & POV!

Bygbaby

Mad Bull said...

One thing that keeps occurring to me... it may sound strange, but...
You know how they say the Asian students are always doing so much better than the students of all the other nationalities? There has got to be something in that, after all, 32 people, rasta! When these Asians set out to do something, they are well determined! They seem to outperform in good and in bad!

Next up... you said that if everyone had guns, it wouldn't have stopped him, because he wasn't afraid of dying... well, if everyone had weapons, I don't think he would have been able to kill 32 people... between 5 and 8 maybe, max.

Am still not in favour of looser gun control though. With tighter controls, he wouldn't even have had a gun! He would have had to be stabbing people, and you just know some opeople woulda rushed him and kicked his ass.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Ugh, too many errors in that last comment.

Brasilians voted to keep the guns on the street. I still can't believe that. You should see what's happening there now. The only ones who are happy are the gun manufacturers.

Anonymous said...

Great Post. It is rather ironic that the way they distanced themselves from him and stamped him as Korean may be the same underlying reason this mentally ill person was not recognized as such.

The Cold War mentality ain't really that dead you know. Iran and N. Korea is bringing to the Security Council indeed.

The gun laws of the US baffle most civilised people - they insist it is a part of democracy - wird right. I am actually thinking of writing an academic paper on a co-relation between this ideology of "gun democracy" in so called "democratic states". Maybe we could co-author...LOLLOLOL

Jhaldir said...

The thing that gets me is that the Democrats are even afraid champion the gun control issue in a time when it shouldn't be that hard to champion it all because dem 'fraid ah dih NRA (National Republican Association).

Punks.

Abeni said...

This whole thing is just so chilling. Every one armed would just be war..that cannot be the way to go at all

Lola Gets said...

I made some similar comments about gun control on my blog too.

Let me get back on my soapbox for a moment: Congress has, or is about to, get rid of DCs gun laws because they violate out Second Amendment Rights. Um, ok, how does it do that? What many folks dont know is that DC residents are allowed to own shotguns and keep them inside their homes. So why would we need handguns?? Most shotguns have more firepower than a little old hangdun, so thats one pro. Another benefit is that with shotguns you dont need to have good aim - youre guaranteed to hit something! But no, to the gun lobbyists, thats not enough. Oh well.
L