Clear Thinking on a Tragedy

America's national treasure, Ann Coulter, weighs in on the Virginia Tech murders. See her column at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20329.

Our other national treasure, Michelle Malkin, points out at http://www.michellemalkin.com/:

Late last summer, a shooting near campus prompted students to clamor again for loosening campus rules against armed self-defense. Virginia Tech officials turned up their noses. In response to student Bradford Wiles's campus newspaper op-ed piece in support of concealed carry on campus, Virginia Tech associate vice president Larry Hincker scoffed:

"[I]t is absolutely mind-boggling to see the opinions of Bradford Wiles…The editors of this page must have printed this commentary if for no other reason than malicious compliance. Surely, they scratched their heads saying, 'I can't believe he really wants to say that.' Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him. He even implies that he needed his sidearm to protect himself."

The nerve!

Hincker continued: "The writer would have us believe that a university campus, with tens of thousands of young people, is safer with everyone packing heat. Imagine the continual fear of students in that scenario. We've seen that fear here, and we don't want to see it again…Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

What is happening to us?

The shootings at Virginia Tech and the terrible tragedies they created are now being eclipsed by a dizzying display of fingerpointing and calls for more gun control/less gun control/firings, etc. See http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20298.

What happened to the grieving process? What happened to waiting for all the facts to come in before engaging in irresponsible speculation and assigning blame?

This same dynamic happens all the time whenever something bad happens. Immediately, conspiracy theorists and others begin imagining scenarios in which tragedies could have been magically avoided. This isn't "24." We just can't reposition satellites, hack into building schematics, and use space-based infrared technology to find people inside buildings on rural university campuses.

The beauty of university campuses is that they are open, purposefully, in order to encourage interaction and just to be nice places for students and faculty. The downside of this openness is that campuses are ripe for mischief or worse.

So what's the answer? How do we prevent these types of attacks from occurring? At this point, we don't know, because we don't know all the facts. Let's exercise some patience and, whatever we do, let's remember to blame the person actually responsible -- the killer.