Curmudgeon's Corner

Most of us watched at least part of the coverage of the single most devastating killing spree in America’s history. I was nearly speechless except for being angry with a system that had permitted this killer to pass through several “checkpoints” where he should’ve been identified and dealt with long before his death march across the VT campus.

This was an angry young man that showed his discontent many times. If only those around him would’ve but taken the time to notice and to let someone in authority know of their concerns. If only in those few times when that occurred, had those in authority responded appropriately.

This was an angry young man that knew he would be the sole possessor of guns that fateful morning on campus. He knew that the campus was a “no gun” zone in a state that had approved the conceal and carry law some years earlier. This angry young man knew that even the campus police were not permitted to carry firearms. He had it just the way he wanted it…a killing zone all to him self! He was so emboldened as to take a break from killing to mail a tape and other items to NBC before he again turned to killing the others.

This was an angry young man who despised those around him. He refused to speak for days at a time. He lived in a dormitory where his room mate said that it was not uncommon for no words to be exchanged for days or even weeks. This was a young man for whom things weren’t right.

This was an angry young man who obeyed the law when he went to purchase his guns. Even though he had been declared a danger to himself and others following a psychiatric examination a couple of years earlier, no one had wanted to file the report so as to prevent damage to the young man’s reputation. Had that been filed, the mandatory record check by the gun store owner would’ve shown this angry young man was not fit to purchase a pistol…let alone two pistols a short few weeks before the fateful day in the killing zone.

As it was, the cameras found the gun store dealer who violated no laws and pilloried him instead of the system that had fallen down months and years before.

This was an angry young man who skated through politically correct academia for a seemingly endless time demonstrating again and again that he didn’t belong in this institution of higher learning…and yet his “rights” were protected…to a fault!

And…what of the rights of the thirty-two innocents? Who was so concerned about their rights to draw another breath, or to see another sunrise, or to enjoy another kiss, that they thought to protect society from a killer-to-be who tried desperately to expose himself, but all for naught. No one paid him any mind; everyone who thought him strange, chalked it up to their imagination, or told themselves it wasn’t their business, or any number of other things to excuse their turning their backs.

Now the anti-gun folks are out lamenting that firearms are so readily available. Yet, what if the campus had not been a gun free zone in the middle of a “conceal and carry” state? Would someone who was carrying a concealed weapon lawfully have taken note and interceded? We’ll never know will we? But I submit to you, the outcome certainly couldn’t have been any worse now, could it?

Would a seventy-three year old holocaust survivor and professor not have had to barricade the door to his classroom with his body so his young student wards could flee through the windows to their safety while he died for them?

Would moms and dads have been able to welcome sons and daughters home this week-end instead of attending the funeral of a child lost to craziness?

When, if ever, will we learn the high price of political correctness? When our liberties are fully eroded…or just before when it is too late to correct the failures of the years before? The years before when we could’ve stood for the things that, at one time anyway, made this country great?

I am greatly saddened on many counts, far more than the thirty-two counts of negligent homicide of which we citizens who did nothing are guilty!