Blame Blame

How to Stop Future Massacres - Adam Kushner

A little late to the game on this sure, but considering the growing chorus of people insane enough to think that arming students and teachers will somehow prevent another massacre on a college campus, I thought I might say a few words. First, somehow the thought of arming a group of people who we have trouble letting drive doesn't seem like a winning idea. Sure, technically a college student is of legal age but considering how many car accidents happen to eighteen-year-olds I don't think throwing guns at them is a smashing idea. Second, arming teachers doesn't seem like a hot idea either since most teachers generally abhor violence and more than a few are far too absent-minded to be allow around firearms. Imagine your college philosophy professor or calculus teacher packing heat and then ask yourself if you feel any safer? Third, as my mother keenly pointed out, events like the Virgina Tech massacre are akin to tornadoes or hurricanes. They're acts of God and not something you really can prepare for. And even if you could, all you would succeed in doing is preventing a minuscule number of deaths when binge drinking and suicide are still the most likely ways a college student will die.
None of this is to mitigate the tragedy of the past week because it was a tragedy. But, as Andrew Sullivan pointed out, if this happened every other day then you would be living in Baghdad. They're both tragedies but life in America makes events like Virgina Tech rare and not something we should be overly concerned about. All it does tell us is that we should look out for each other a little more, but we didn't need the deaths of thirty people to tell us that.