VT and Stupid Exploitation

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting two groups emerge from the tragedy to both defend and fortify their positions. Pro-gun and gun control groups are likely to spar over the reasons that this horrific event was able to be carried out. The NRA, although not making any any attempt to spin this yet, issued a condolence ending with the ominous words, “We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.” Seems to me they are waiting until the story is over so that they can make the argument that guns don’t kill people, only people kill people, in addition to the argument that if someone had been carrying a concealed handgun they could have stopped this shooter. Then we have the people  on the gun-control side saying that if guns were harder to obtain there would be no way for this kid to go on a ramapge like this. Both sides are right, in their own way. The fact of the matter is that this tragedy would have occured no matter what. If this kid really wanted to kill people he wouldn’t have to use a gun to do it.  80 years ago some guy used dynamite to blow up a school he blamed for making his taxes so high he couldn’t keep his farm land. So the issue here shouldn’t be whether or not GUNS had anything to do with it. I better not hear about how Grand Theft Auto or Death Metal Music prompted this kid to go on a shooting spree either. While I agree with trying to understand why this happened and how it can be prevented from occuring again, blaming everything under the sun is not the way to do it. All these groups looking to promote their own cause should stop and look around at the hurt that Virgina Tech is going through right now. It’s too late now to say what if there where stricter gun laws, or what if someone was carrying a concealed weapon. It’s not to late however to shut up about what caused this and figure out how to prevent it from occuring again. There is no doubt that stricter gun laws will not prevent this sort of thing from occuring, nor would the highly improbable event of a person with a concealed weapon being in the right place at the right time deter this from happening again. So stop the shameless exploitation of this event to plug your own agenda and look at the real factors that contributed to this violence, and help Virginia Tech get over its pain.