Virginia Tech Shootings:

Gun law hoo-ha

As is common with mass shootings in the US, the Virginia Tech incident kicked off debate about America’s gun laws, in particular the second amendment to the country’s constitution that prevents congress from infringing on ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms.’

In the wake of the massacre the pro-gun lobby was quick to capitalise on the tragedy to push their message stating that the incident provided sufficient evidence to support their calls for more guns on campus. In fact, for a long period of time gun-groups such as the National Rifle Association have been calling for the Federal Gun-Free School Zone Act to be repealed and for public school teachers and other education workers, including lecturers to be armed.

Despite the problems his open gun-use caused him, wrongly identified ‘gun-man’ Wayne Chiang has shown his support for pro-gun ideologies, clearly stating in interviews his view that if just one of the victims had been armed the massacre would have been prevented.

An image, featuring a picture of a hand-gun posted on his livejournal page states: “Virginia State Law allows concealed carry on [guns] on campus: Virginia Tech administration forced students to be unarmed on pain of expulsion.”

“Concealed carry could have saved 32 lives, but VT rules guaranteed disarmed victims for the murderer,” it concludes.

The high-profile Brady Campaign, the national campaign to prevent gun crime, were just as quick to push forward their message for tighter gun-control laws following the tragedy.

Highlighting the ease with which Cho Seung-hui was able to obtain the fire-arms with which he made the killings. Anti-gun lobbyists pointed to the fact that Cho had already been profiled as having mental and emotional issues and that tighter checks during the sale of guns could have prevented the massacre.

The Brady Campaign, are fighting against what they call America’s ‘gun epidemic’ and state that gun-related killings are the nation’s ‘daily tragedy’ and wrongly it takes events like Virginia Tech to make the nation realise this.

Their website offers the startling statistic that in 2004 11,334 people were murdered with guns in the US, a number that eclipses the figures in Australia (56), Canada (184) and England and Wales (73). This figure does not include accidental deaths caused through the use of guns.

Not surprisingly the press outside the US fell clearly on the side of tighter gun-control. An article in The Washington Post the day after the shooting provided a round-up of the reaction to the shootings in Europe.

In short, the general theme was to question the gun-laws and the second amendment, in particular the ease in which people can obtain weapons.

Editorial - May 2007