Wrong

Even in this instant information, blogasphere/vlogasphere era, NBC crossed the line with its release of those videos sent to them Monday by Mr. Cho. I gained absolutely nothing from having that angry, self-indulgent killer thrown at me. It did nothing to inform, educate or enlighten the viewers, especially so soon after the event. It was inevitable that the tapes would surface and could justifiably be aired on a mainstream outlet at the right time. But timing is everything. There is such a mad rush and flooding of information to help the public "understand this tragedy."

There is not that much to understand or walk away with other than the fact that it was a tragedy, a pathetic waste of life.

Kudos to the families that have boycotted being interviewed by NBC.

One Man, Many Tools, Many Gone

I grew up in a part of the country where this infamous bumper sticker was very common, and I always wanted to respond: "Yeah, right, that's the whole idea." I hope this is my last post on the Virginia Tech news item, having just watched gun proponent Ted Nugent rant against why gun free zones don't work. I really don't have a desire to enter into the debate since like abortion there can be no debate, just screaming on both sides. But having spent plenty of time in Guatemala where guns were once in the hands of the two opposing sides, they did not go away with the signing of the peace agreement. Now Guatemala City is the second most violent city in the western hemisphere. It challenges the claim that guns alone are not the problem. It takes people to use them to kill, but the more guns that there are around, the more likely they are going to be used for murder. And, in the case of Blacksburg, it took one person and a lot of guns to do the damage.

EST and Guns

If there is one thing most disturbing about today's violence on the Virginia Tech campus, it's the rush by media outlets to categorize it as the "est" of all campus shootings -- deadliest, biggest carnage, greatest body count -- and trying immediately to put it into perspective of other shootings. It's not surprising that they compared it to the Texas massacre in the 1960s with another lone gunman. What is interesting is that they also mentioned Kent State. Was that an admission that it was another case of crazed individuals?