IT’S NOT THE GUN THAT NEEDED CONTROL

Oh, glorious Internet. Thanks to you, it now takes only a few hours for any news story of suitable gravity to become the launching pad for several million personal opinions. I can’t escape that conclusion now that the Virginia Tech tragedy has caused us to start placing blame everywhere except where it rightfully lies.

While the whacked-out theories go everywhere from overly-liberal immigration policies (crikey, he was eight when he came here) to (predictably) the teaching of evolution in science classes, I’ve been thinking all along, as the gun control issue has quickly taken over this story, that it’s probably true Cho would have had a hard time killing so many people so quickly if he hadn’t had a gun. But you can’t make the leap to saying that if he hadn’t had a gun, nothing bad would have happened. He might have gone to beat the crap out of a young woman, then gotten the crap kicked out of him by the RA. Cho would’ve been arrested and kicked out of Virginia Tech. That would have been less tragic, to be sure. But it’s not good enough to qualify as “better.” I’m not prepared to say that it’s alright for young men to beat up young women they’re obsessed with, so long as it keeps those young men from shooting people. The gun was just along for the ride here.

Cho was 23 years old and apparently completely incapable of dealing with anger or frustration, or of forming a healthy relationship with anyone. Maybe he was mentally ill or, maybe, as Nikki Giovanni suggested, he was just mean. Whatever is the case, he should’ve been able to control his emotions by this point in his life. There is no such thing as “a 23-year-old kid.” 23-year-olds are adults. We can blame Cho’s parents for not teaching him coping skills. We can blame university culture for being so focused on relationships and good times, isolating those who can’t participate or are just naturally awkward socially. We can blame society in general for glorifying violence. We can blame guns and gun culture for making killing so easy. We can blame the Virginia Tech administration for not immediately knowing Cho was responsible for the first shooting and still on the loose. We can blame the Great Gazoo if it makes us feel better. Cho isn’t around to blame any more, and what’s the point of blaming somebody who can’t be punished?