Thoughts on VT, Part I

I have wanted to comment on this since it happened, but decided to wait until more information had been released. I also wanted to see what, if any, legislation was proposed in response. I caught a fair amount of the coverage that day from MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. As is typical, they filled in what they didn't know by talking to experts, including former FBI and BATFE agents, profilers, and psychologists. Some of the speculation started wandering into the riduculous and I eventually just tunred the TV off.

Once the initial shock wore off, I started to wonder what would happen. These kinds of events are often followed by questions as to how it happened, then by calls to take steps to prevent it from happening again. These proposals are often knee-jerk and short-sighted. Some have little to do with what actually happened. Others can erode the rights of the people in ways that didn't seem possible at the time.

In 1999, Michigan was on it's way to passing shall-issue CCW. There was support in both houses of the legislature and Gov. Engler indicated he would sign a bill. In April of that year, two students killed 12 people in Littleton, Colorado, and Gov. Engler withdrew his support. It would be another year before legislation was tried again. This event also ushered in numerous zero-tolerence policies, in which students could be expelled for bringing drugs or weapons into schools. This included drugs like Motrim and weapons like butter knives.

At VT, despite calls by the Governor of Virginia for restraint, there were calls for action. Carolyn McCarthy issued a press release and proposed legislation several days later. The Violence Policy Center also didn't take very long before trying to exploit the tragedy. News pundits also threw in their takes. I won't reference them all, but I did want to point out an interesting one. Dan Simpson, from the Toledo Blade suggests a disarmament scheme that seems right out of Stalinist Russia. He suggests: The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm. Random, warrantless,searches?!?! Special squads of police?!? I will say that at least Mr. Simpson seems to be consistent in his disregard for the Bill of Rights.

Despite these calls for action, there were numerous calls for restraint. Some, from groups like the NRA, were not much of a surprise. Neither were the ones from pro-2nd Amendment politicians, like Ron Paul (R-TX), John Murtha (D-PA), and Craig Thomas (R-WY). I was surprised to hear these same calls echoed by Harry Reid, John Kerry and Bill Clinton. Reid has been luke warm on gun rights and Kerry and Clinton have been cold, to say the least. In the case of the last two, I doubt a change of heart, but maybe a sense that gun control should not be a major platform for the Democratic Party.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to say that I am not in favor of most gun-control. I wish the Supreme Court would use the same strict scrutiny reserved for 1st Amendment issues and apply it to 2nd Amendment issues. If so, most gun laws would disappear. Despite this, I doubt you would see an increase in crime. There is a tremendous amount of research that shows that most gun laws do little to prevent crime and that crime rates are more tied into issues like poverty and substance abuse. As for what happened at VT and why, I honestly don't know. The best I can come up with is that there are some truly determined, evil people in the world and no easy explinations as to why. I remember sitting in a clinical meeting around 8 or 9 years ago. One of the presenting was the head of MSU's Psychiatry residency program. We were discussing violent behavior in youth and he was asked about causes. He said there seemed to be a number of facors, like sexual abuse, poor parentling, neglect, etc. He also said that some people are just evil or sociopathic and that science and medicine can't always explain why this happens.

I have more to write on the mental health implications, but I save that for another entry.