Binghamton shooting predictably brings out the bigots

The tragic shooting in Binghamton, N.Y., yesterday left 14 dead, including the gunman, and dozens, perhaps hundreds of other lives altered forever. Sadly, though, it also gave the crazed wingnuts another reason to rant.

Looking at the extensive online coverage of the incident from the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, I was disgusted to read comments from one local citizen person who calls herself "Nemesys." She is truly a disturbed and sick individual, as these comments* attest:

When your life is seconds away from ending - help is only minutes away. Gun restriction laws are EVIL. "Diversity" and gun grabs created THIS mess.

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He probably was despondent over a loss of "honor" (shame) if he was laid off. Asians are shame-based. He would percieve himself as an utter failure, in HIS culture. The picking-yourself up/moving forward is a White cultural more.

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[responding to a comment about the language barrier] Well - this is a huge issue for emergency personnel, all over the Nation. The Tower of Babel social engineering is a DISASTER. "Diversity" is a nightmare.

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Thousands of Americans are out of work. Why are these "employers" (slavers) bringing in all this dangerous, unstable, unassimable foriegn "help"? The dislocation makes the immigrant worse, and adds to the utter destruction of the USA.

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Vigilantism is much more effective in controlling crime, then your type of totalitarian hatred. You WANT people to be sitting ducks, just ripe for the mowing down. You are evil.

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There are plenty of examples of well-trained, armed citizens DROPPING shooters. Just ordinary people. Responsible gun owners practice shooting. So when some foreign born nutjob throws a lead-filled tantrum, it's really good to have actual American shootists around.

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I am condemning a truly racist Racial faction seizing power, and shutting down the First Amendment. No-one is more arrogantly racist than a Jew.

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...they hail from a DISTINCT Racial Supremacist ethnic group. The group that owns Wall St. The group that literally owns the "Fed". And they are NOT White. They pass as White - but they are NOT White. They tend to be "dual" citizens, with loyalty to another Nation.

Who am I referring to? Think fast.

...It's Jews. They've been kicked out of 109 Nations, over a perios of 200 years. They play nice, at first. That's how they get their cloven foot in the door.**

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Just think. If [the victims] had stayed in their own countries, they might very well have lived to see the sunset. Terrible sad, really.

Nemesys' profile picture is very small and you can't see much detail, but it's obviously a young woman outdoors aiming a rifle into the sky. Lovely. (This counters the very reasonable supposition that these comments were written by CNN's anti-immigration troll Lou Dobbs.)

Hate speech always seems to rise to the surface when something like this happens, especially on the Internet when writing such drivel from the safety of Mommy's basement. Whether it's Binghamton, Virginia Tech, or the Beltway sniper case, if a non-white shooter is involved, it comes down to bigotry. They certainly weren't spewing their racist hate after Columbine, or the recent shootings in southern Alabama ...

The bottom line is that this incident, like all those before it, is a senseless tragedy. And these tragedies are compounded by the thoughtless racists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis who find empowerment in them.

UPDATE (9:51 am 4/5/09): PatchyFog makes an excellent point in Comments: I assumed that "Nemesys" was from Binghamton ("local citizen," "deranged cretin in Binghamton"), and I shouldn't have done so. She could be from anywhere, thanks to the anonymity of the Internet. I apologize.

I've changed the "local citizen" reference above as well as the title of the post. Thanks to PatchyFog for bringing that unwarranted leap of logic to my attention.

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* Links are to articles from which each comment, and the ones that follow without links, are taken.

** Edited for clarity, drawn from two different comments.

Remembrance

April 16, 2007

Guns don't kill people; however, faculty might

I have a friend who is a professor at the University of Nevada-Reno. I ought to call him and ask about this:

The University of Nevada system is one step closer to letting professors, faculty and staff carry guns on campus.

It's a controversial plan that the Board of Regents agreed to on Thursday. Some students and staff are concerned it may not be the best idea.

The tragedy of Virginia Tech is still fresh in the minds of many in the collegiate world and campus police departments from Reno to Las Vegas are trying to find a better solution. But students are dumbfounded by the plan to arm teachers.

"So there would be no reason for a teachers to run around, just try to play hero with a gun," said Chris James, junior.

Still the Board of Regents plan would allow faculty take a 21-week course in Carson City. That class would cost more than $3,000 per person and the universities would pick up the tab. But it would use a legal loophole to essentially deputize the employee. That way they wouldn't break the law.

Right now it's a Class E felony to carry a gun on campus.

I have never understood the logic whereby gun violence can be reduced by arming more people. The deterrent factor, in my opinion, is vastly overrated.

I also think the argument that Virginia Tech or Columbine or any other such tragedy could have been avoided or mitigated if teachers or faculty had been armed is flawed: no one knows what might have happened, and besides, it's hard to believe anything would have stopped the attackers (especially if they've locked the armed faculty in classrooms).

Actually, I'm kind of surprised this didn't happen in Florida first. After all, we're the home of "Shoot first, ask questions later."

Copycats suck

A copycat threat -- prank or not, still a threat -- has closed several university and community college campuses in south Florida.

"(Thursday) night, the Hollywood Police Department received information that a note was taped to the back of a sign saying, 'If you saw (what) happen at Virginia Tech, wait until you see what happens at [Broward Community College],'" Davie police Lt. Bill Bamford said. "The Hollywood Police Department notified us immediately, (Friday) morning that information was conveyed to administrators at (Florida Atlantic University) and BCC, and it was at that time, in an abundance of caution, they decided to evacuate the campus and make sure the students and faculty were safe."

Bamford said the note was found taped to the back of a sign at a construction site. He said Hollywood police were questioning a person who might have written the note.

All campuses of BCC have been closed, as well as all Broward campuses of FAU. This is not funny. And I hope the person who did it is apprehended and made to understand precisely why it's not funny. Preferably by a large, tattooed fellow inmate.

A military man's view of Virginia Tech

Again, not to minimize the tragedy of what occurred last week at Virginia Tech, but lest we forget, there's such incidents happening every day, often many times over, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And Sgt. Jim Wilt, stationed near Kabul, gets it.

"I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member," Wilt wrote.

He noted that Bagram obeyed President Bush's order last week that all U.S. flags at federal locations be flown at half-staff through April 22 to honor 32 people killed at Virginia Tech by a 23-year-old student gunman who then killed himself.

"I think it is sad that we do not raise the bases' flag to half-staff when a member of our own task force dies," Wilt said.

My point exactly. It's perfectly appropriate to mourn the deaths of the victims at Virginia Tech. But the deaths of American military men and women, most of whom are college-aged just like most of the victims in Blacksburg, are just as compelling ... just as sad ... and just as unnecessary.

Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, who works with Wilt at the U.S.-led coalition public affairs office, said the essay is a "soldier's commentary, not the view of the coalition and not the view of the U.S. forces."

Welch added that such outspoken opinion pieces are rare.

Shorter Welch (and shorter official military line): "Nothing to see here. Please move on." And that's just compounding the tragedy.

Remembering the dead

I want to take a moment to commemorate and honor the lives of those killed in the recent violence.

I'm not talking about Virginia Tech, although in no way do I mean to minimize that tragedy. I'm talking about this morning's news that, as of this writing, 157 183 are dead in four separate bombings in Baghdad.

Drunky McStagger was surprisingly eloquent and appropriately solemn in his remarks yesterday in Blacksburg. However, I'm sure he won't even acknowledge, much less mourn, the deaths in Baghdad today of nearly five six times as many as lost their lives in Blacksburg on Monday. Maybe he only recognizes deaths for which he isn't directly responsible; yes, I'm suggesting that he is responsible for the deaths in Baghdad, in violence that he and his crime syndicate fomented through their "war."

There were 157 183 lives ended this morning in Baghdad. You won't read profiles of them in the paper or online like you can with the Virginia Tech victims. You won't hear testimonials from their families about how wonderful they were or how much they had to live for. But don't think for a moment that their lives are any less valuable. Unfortunately, Drunky doesn't get that.

And so the tragedy of an unpopular and unnecessary war, like so many other tragedies caused by the current administration, continues unabated and, sadly, unlamented.

Sick, sick bastard: Fred Phelps plans to picket funerals of Virginia Tech shooting victims

This guy is so rancid, he doesn't deserve to walk freely in society. (And, no, I won't link to his site.)

Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., has announced that he and his minions will picket the funerals of those killed at Virginia Tech yesterday, evidently to claim that these people were struck down as God's retribution for society's tolerance of gay culture. Remember, these are the cretins who picket funerals of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the same reasons. You know, God Hates Fags and all that shit.

I'm sorry. I would never advocate violence or hatred against anyone, but this truly goes beyond the pale (as if the protests at veterans' funerals weren't bad enough). Someone needs to intervene and make sure this guy never has another chance to spew such vile, vulgar vitriol again.

Follow up: my stepniece is fine

Thank you for all of the kind words sent to me through my blog and by e-mail.

My stepniece wasn't in either building at Virginia Tech when the shootings took place, although she was in class elsewhere on campus. But she's fine.

Just thought you'd like to know.

People with guns kill people

The Virginia Tech tragedy (I hate that the networks are calling it "Massacre at Virginia Tech." Insensitive bastards ...) is yet another reminder of the horrible consequences of our gun-happy society.

Would Cho Seung-Hui have been able to kill 32 people with a knife, or his bare hands, or really any other weapon besides a gun? A bomb, maybe, but that's about it.

The gun lobby always says "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." No, people with guns kill people, at least more readily and more effectively than people without guns. The logic doesn't hold up.

And we look like a lawless society to the rest of the world.

There was harsh condemnation for U.S. gun control laws. In Sydney, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday the university shooting in Virginia showed that America's "gun culture" was a negative force in society.

Howard, who staked his political leadership on pushing through tough laws on gun ownership in Australia after a lone gunman in his country killed 35 people in a spree, said the Virginia university shooting was a tragedy of a kind he hoped would never be seen again in Australia.

"You can never guarantee these things won't happen again in our country," Howard told reporters. "We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," he said.

He offered his sympathies to the victims of the Virginia shooting and their families. In India, which has some 80,000 students in the U.S., commentators called for greater protection and stricter gun laws.

"It's not a question of an Indian professor getting killed in the firing. This is related to the American gun laws," said K. Subrahmanyam, a former member of India's National Security Council. "We can't do anything about it. It is something which has happened in the United States. They have got to change the law."

But as long as there are gun nuts who twist the Second Amendment into support for arming every man, woman, and child in America, there will be no change to the law. Never mind that the Second Amendment's dependent clause refers to the right to bear arms because "a well-regulated militia" is "necessary," meaning that said right is one for the military, or perhaps the National Guard, but not every freaking citizen.

No, this sad scene will be repeated over and over again, thanks to those misguided, fearful people who think the answer is more, not fewer, guns. How tragic. How stupid. How wrong.

Virginia Tech

The horrifying news from Virginia Tech today has hit close to home. I believe my stepniece is a student there, but I can't reach anyone for news and I don't want to call her mother for fear of unnecessarily upsetting or worrying her. I also know several people who work there or who have worked there over the years.

Here's a link for free live video on MSNBC, for as long as it lasts.

And here's the statement from Virginia Tech's president, Charles Steger:

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16, 2007

The university was struck today with a tragedy of monumental proportions. There were two shootings on campus. In each case, there were fatalities. The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. I want to extend my deepest, sincerest and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims which include students There are 22 confirmed deaths.

We currently are in the process of notifying families of victims. The Virginia Tech Police are being assisted by numerous other jurisdictions. Crime scenes are being investigated by the FBI, University Police, and State Police. We continue to work to identify the victims impacted by this tragedy. I cannot begin to covey my own personal sense of loss over this senselessness of such an incomprehensible and heinous act The university will immediately set up counseling centers. So far centers have been identified in Ambler Johnston and the Cook Counseling Center to work with our campus community and families.

Here are some of the facts we know:

At about 7:15 a.m. this morning a 911 call came to the University Police Department concerning an event in West Ambler Johnston Hall. There were multiple shooting victims. While in the process of investigating, about two hours later the university received reports of a shooting in Norris Hall. The police immediately responded. Victims have been transported to various hospitals in the immediate area in the region to receive emergency treatment.

We will proceed to contact the families of victims as identities are available.

All classes are cancelled and the university is closed for the remainder of today. The university will open Tuesday at 8 a.m. but classes are cancelled. The police are currently staging the release of people from campus buildings.

Families wishing to reunite with the students are suggested to meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech. We are making plans for a convocation tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon at Cassell Coliseum for the university community to come together to begin to deal with the tragedy.

This hits home in a less personal but nevertheless still profound way: I work at a university, and it's not impossible to imagine a similar tragedy occurring here. Security is relatively lax and anyone can walk into pretty much any building (save perhaps dorms) during working hours at least. It's very sobering and, to be honest, upsetting.

My thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims, and I will continue to try to learn about the status of my stepniece.

UPDATE (4:21 pm 4/17/07): My stepniece is okay and safe.