| Public Shootings |
[Apr. 20th, 2007|08:40 am] |
I'll be honest, I don't know a whole lot about the most recent shooting at Virginia Tech, but I'm forced to muse on the fact that it happened so close to the 8 year anniversary of the Columbine High School Massacre. I remember exactly what I was doing that day; hanging out in the AV room at the Career Center's Broadcast Communications class. I remember turning on the TV to images of people crying and holding one another, and helicopter flyovers. I remember the sick feeling I felt in the pit of my stomach when I found out that a girl I was in choir with had actually attended Columbine. I remember wondering what could possibly cause anyone to commit such an act.
Those feelings are echoed today as people are asking for moments of silence and prayer.
I seriously can't figure it out. I know we live in a world where nearly anything is possible, but what sort of events cause a person to make that choice? I had a pretty rough time as a teenager, often wondering what purpose my life would serve and if anyone would miss me if I were gone. I recall wanting to seriously hurt, possibly even find a way to kill a few people. I never confused them for the innocent people surrounding them; the innocent. I never even went as far as pushing someone around. Even putting myself in the place of a madman, I can't find the gall to imagine shooting anyone in sight.
Then there's the fact that the Westboro Baptist Church is planning to picket the funerals of victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. Don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG supporter of free speech. I think we should be able to say what we say when we want to say it. I balance that against the fact that these people are harassing, even assaulting people attending these funerals, and I find it hard not to be enraged. These people don't believe in love or any positive religious message. They only exist to push their shallow-minded morals on others and promote their own elitist ideals. I can't imagine there haven't been laws passed protecting funerals and other such functions that by their very nature are private. Nothing good can come from preying on the dead.
Do me a favor, dear reader. If anyone from WBC or any other such group shows up to my funeral to exercise their first amendment right of free speech, exercise your second amendment right to bear arms and drive those vultures away.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
taigitsune's journal
aggravated