Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Elephant in the Room

Lets face it... the reason people are so pissed about the posts yesterday, here and elsewhere, is that we're talking about the ulitmate taboo; personal responsibility.

You are responsible for your own saftey. Not the government. Not the police. Not your professor. Not the principle of your school. Its up to you.

The police will never be able to stop insane attacks like VaTech. SWAT teams have the training and the tools... but they can't get there in time. In fact, for the most part.. these attacks are over before the police have time to figure out what's even going on. Generally the attacker has done his damage and killed himself.

That's the way it works.

There are two answers... put incredibily well trained and well armed cops in every building on every campus in the country... or allow qualified professors to carry firearms.

By the way... a year ago a law came up in Virginia that would've allowed the latter... but it failed. One of its opponents claimed it was a victory... that it would help students and their parents feel safer.

I'm sure they felt safer... obviously they weren't safer... but hey... at least they felt that way... for a while.

In a situation like that... the cops can't help you. You have to help yourself. Lots of them did... lots didn't.

And to those critical of my stance... writing me off as insane... find a transcript of Dennis Miller's radio show yesterday. He called them all cowards. Is he insane as well?

The fact is, the public reaction to this has been quite a bit different than the attacks before. The squishy among us just don't like it.

No comments: