Massacre At Virginia Tech
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Massacre At Virginia Tech
At this point in time, it doesn't matter what the motives were anymore. It doesn't matter why two hours later, the Asian killer decided to go on a killing rampage in the university campus and kill thirty other students after killing two at seven in the morning. It doesn't matter why the authorities issued only an e-mail to warn the students about the shootings in the school, and it doesn't matter that the school ignored the bomb threats issued last week and the lack of security. The fact is, that thirty-two innocent lives were lost in Virginia Tech yesterday morning(Local time). That's it.
As if Columbine wasn't enough to warn the general public about the idea of possessing a gun, the same thing happens in Virginia eight years later with a crazed gunman rampaging through the campus and killing people at will and without a true motive. Obviously, the country took no heed of the implications behind the killings eight years ago, and I start to wonder if they are going to reconsider the gun culture in the States. As much as you want to argue that guns are essentially for self-defense, you cannot deny that there are a lot of angry lunatics running about in the streets with guns in their pockets as well. How many more lives should be lost, before somebody steps in and say that we should abolish the idea of guns being commercially available? Do we really need semi-automatic and automatic weapons in our homes?
People can argue that the civilians should possess guns for self-defense. In the case of an intrusion into your house for example, shoot first and think later. But personally, if I am put in the same situation with a burglar in my house, am I going to fire my gun at him and risk missing, only to have him return his rounds on me? Seriously, I don't think my life is worth less than a television or a DVD player, and definitely not jewelries or money. Because I know as long as I live to see the sunrise of tomorrow, I will get over these materialistic losses and move on in life. To risk your life over your properties like that really isn't worth it. And let's say I do kill the intruder and my life and possessions are saved. In the days to come, I'd have to live with the fact that I killed a man with my hands over a television set. That doesn't make sense at all, and I don't think the world of 2007 and the future needs guns in our homes anymore.
Discovery Channel has a great show called Tribe which I was watching yesterday afternoon, hosted by Bruce Parry. Basically, what the show does is to put the host into a native village of any chosen country, and have him learn of the cultures and the lives of the villagers, still living at a very primitive level. Yesterday's episode involved Bruce living with a Suri tribe in Sudan, and his involvement in the annual stick fighting competition between different villages. The stick fight is basically like a soccer game or a basketball game, with two tribes sending out representatives with long wooden sticks sharpened at the end to compete. There are not a lot of rules in the game, save for the fact that once a person is on the ground, you cannot hit that person anymore. Other than that, it is really up to the referee's discretion when it comes to the winner and the loser. Bruce was supposed to participate in the game as well, but because of the danger involved(Past participants suffered broken fingers, fractured legs and skulls), the leader of the tribe pulled him out of the list of competitors.
On the day of the stick fight as Bruce watched from the crowd of women gathered eagerly around the two men in the middle of a circle fighting for their lives, one of them collapsed and was accidentally hit in the back by the opponent's stick. Because of the accidental breach in the game's rule, a series of gunshots were fired into the air by the opposing tribe and the crowd fled the scene, with Bruce and the cameraman ducking and shielding their heads from the firing as they ran. So ended the annual stick fight, and the opposing tribe carried their winner around with a bunch of sticks and AK-47s in their hands, cheering and firing more ammos into the sky.
At the end of the episode, Bruce talked about the introduction of fire arms to the primitive community, and how it changed their culture forever. Instead of cows, guns became the symbol of power in the Suri tribes, and the culture that they used to know slowly disintegrated with the power of guns overpowering everything else. He expressed his worries of the Suri tribes, and talked about the way the controlled violence(Such as the stick fight as well as the permanent mutilation to the women's bodies) will be taken over by guns, for their deadly killing abilities. Even in the remote corner of the world like Sudan, GUNS are causing such disruption to a community. But this is America we are talking about, the supposedly all-powerful, all-civilized country. So what happened?
Perhaps it is time to rethink the policy about guns. Let this be the last time innocent people are killed in places thought to be safe. Because in our world today, with guns being commercially available, nowhere is safe anymore. Not your home, not your school, not anywhere. Because there are angry people in every corner, and they all have excess to guns and other firepowers.
Every from this side of the world, watching the news saddened me. I can only imagine how it is like to be one of the four students to walk out of the German class unharmed, while your other classmates laid wounded or dead inside the classroom. I can only imagine how it'd be like, running your finger down the list of casualties, only to find a familiar name or two. No amount of candles or prayers can bring these dead people back, all because some lunatic couldn't get over the breakup with his girlfriend. Even from this side of the world, the sound of the gunshots over the speakers as I watched the news coverage, felt like hammer strokes in my heart, one by one as the lives were lost, ticked off like a checklist of some kind.
At the end of the trip to Sudan, Bruce Parry paid a visit to the leader of the tribe and thanked him for his care and hospitality. Before he left, the leader took Bruce's hand and said," We all have two eyes, two ears, one mouth and one stomach. We are all the same, we are all humans." But I think with guns and violence in our lives, some people will always treat others as animals, all the while acting like an animal as well. Enough blood have been spilled and enough innocent lives lost. When will the guns be taken away? It's about time, please do something. Please. Because we can do something.
Don't let our world go to hell.
R.I.P.
At this point in time, it doesn't matter what the motives were anymore. It doesn't matter why two hours later, the Asian killer decided to go on a killing rampage in the university campus and kill thirty other students after killing two at seven in the morning. It doesn't matter why the authorities issued only an e-mail to warn the students about the shootings in the school, and it doesn't matter that the school ignored the bomb threats issued last week and the lack of security. The fact is, that thirty-two innocent lives were lost in Virginia Tech yesterday morning(Local time). That's it.
As if Columbine wasn't enough to warn the general public about the idea of possessing a gun, the same thing happens in Virginia eight years later with a crazed gunman rampaging through the campus and killing people at will and without a true motive. Obviously, the country took no heed of the implications behind the killings eight years ago, and I start to wonder if they are going to reconsider the gun culture in the States. As much as you want to argue that guns are essentially for self-defense, you cannot deny that there are a lot of angry lunatics running about in the streets with guns in their pockets as well. How many more lives should be lost, before somebody steps in and say that we should abolish the idea of guns being commercially available? Do we really need semi-automatic and automatic weapons in our homes?
People can argue that the civilians should possess guns for self-defense. In the case of an intrusion into your house for example, shoot first and think later. But personally, if I am put in the same situation with a burglar in my house, am I going to fire my gun at him and risk missing, only to have him return his rounds on me? Seriously, I don't think my life is worth less than a television or a DVD player, and definitely not jewelries or money. Because I know as long as I live to see the sunrise of tomorrow, I will get over these materialistic losses and move on in life. To risk your life over your properties like that really isn't worth it. And let's say I do kill the intruder and my life and possessions are saved. In the days to come, I'd have to live with the fact that I killed a man with my hands over a television set. That doesn't make sense at all, and I don't think the world of 2007 and the future needs guns in our homes anymore.
Discovery Channel has a great show called Tribe which I was watching yesterday afternoon, hosted by Bruce Parry. Basically, what the show does is to put the host into a native village of any chosen country, and have him learn of the cultures and the lives of the villagers, still living at a very primitive level. Yesterday's episode involved Bruce living with a Suri tribe in Sudan, and his involvement in the annual stick fighting competition between different villages. The stick fight is basically like a soccer game or a basketball game, with two tribes sending out representatives with long wooden sticks sharpened at the end to compete. There are not a lot of rules in the game, save for the fact that once a person is on the ground, you cannot hit that person anymore. Other than that, it is really up to the referee's discretion when it comes to the winner and the loser. Bruce was supposed to participate in the game as well, but because of the danger involved(Past participants suffered broken fingers, fractured legs and skulls), the leader of the tribe pulled him out of the list of competitors.
On the day of the stick fight as Bruce watched from the crowd of women gathered eagerly around the two men in the middle of a circle fighting for their lives, one of them collapsed and was accidentally hit in the back by the opponent's stick. Because of the accidental breach in the game's rule, a series of gunshots were fired into the air by the opposing tribe and the crowd fled the scene, with Bruce and the cameraman ducking and shielding their heads from the firing as they ran. So ended the annual stick fight, and the opposing tribe carried their winner around with a bunch of sticks and AK-47s in their hands, cheering and firing more ammos into the sky.
At the end of the episode, Bruce talked about the introduction of fire arms to the primitive community, and how it changed their culture forever. Instead of cows, guns became the symbol of power in the Suri tribes, and the culture that they used to know slowly disintegrated with the power of guns overpowering everything else. He expressed his worries of the Suri tribes, and talked about the way the controlled violence(Such as the stick fight as well as the permanent mutilation to the women's bodies) will be taken over by guns, for their deadly killing abilities. Even in the remote corner of the world like Sudan, GUNS are causing such disruption to a community. But this is America we are talking about, the supposedly all-powerful, all-civilized country. So what happened?
Perhaps it is time to rethink the policy about guns. Let this be the last time innocent people are killed in places thought to be safe. Because in our world today, with guns being commercially available, nowhere is safe anymore. Not your home, not your school, not anywhere. Because there are angry people in every corner, and they all have excess to guns and other firepowers.
Every from this side of the world, watching the news saddened me. I can only imagine how it is like to be one of the four students to walk out of the German class unharmed, while your other classmates laid wounded or dead inside the classroom. I can only imagine how it'd be like, running your finger down the list of casualties, only to find a familiar name or two. No amount of candles or prayers can bring these dead people back, all because some lunatic couldn't get over the breakup with his girlfriend. Even from this side of the world, the sound of the gunshots over the speakers as I watched the news coverage, felt like hammer strokes in my heart, one by one as the lives were lost, ticked off like a checklist of some kind.
At the end of the trip to Sudan, Bruce Parry paid a visit to the leader of the tribe and thanked him for his care and hospitality. Before he left, the leader took Bruce's hand and said," We all have two eyes, two ears, one mouth and one stomach. We are all the same, we are all humans." But I think with guns and violence in our lives, some people will always treat others as animals, all the while acting like an animal as well. Enough blood have been spilled and enough innocent lives lost. When will the guns be taken away? It's about time, please do something. Please. Because we can do something.
Don't let our world go to hell.
R.I.P.
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on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 4:08 PM.
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10:59 PM
"When will the guns be taken away?"
Many countries that ban guns are often the most violent because the people that still possess a weapon, possess it against the law, and noramlly those breaking the law in these countries belong to organized crime, which actually increases the rate of violence.