A Response To A Friend Regarding The Virginia Tech Shooting

Hay, Codja, good to hear from you again. Happy birthday, by the way for last week. American legislation allows for the 'free' sale of firearms. British legislation does not. As a politics bod I hope you know more about the ins and outs of said legislation than I. You're right when you say if you want to get your hands on a gun in Britain you can quite easily do so, but acquisition is usually a criminal act. If you wan to buy a gun in the United States you go to a gun store and buy one. So you think "gun crime is a huge worry particularly in inner city areas"? You've been sucked in by the huge media panic about gun crime at the moment, propelled by the conservative print media and the Daily Mail, the mother of all non-papers. The visual media's now jumped on the bang wagon as well, in search of easy viewing figures. Sky One hastily sends Ross Kemp into London to film 'Teenage Gangs of South London'. Beware the sensationalism. Gun crime in urban centres really is not that bad. I live down Smithdown Road, Liverpool (if you know Liverpool, you know why that's significant) and gun crime is not a problem. Urbanisation is not a metaphor for degradation as the media would have us believe. Honest!

A 90 day cooling off period? Ok, so I got to Virginia, I have the constitutional right to buy a good thanks to the second amendment (more about that later). I have to wait 90 days but then I can shoot as many people as I want. Background checks? They must be really thorough: Cho Seung-hui was referred for counsilling because of disturbing writings; Professors warned the university about his behaviour; he had an obsession with his first victim; and, he was taken to a mental health facility in 2005. He was still able to get himself a gun. They must be some though background checks!

Dunblane was bad. But because of our gun laws, and subsequent action by politicians, it was and is (so far) a one off incident. Virginia Tech is another in a long line of similar incidents. The very first paragraph on the BBC website: 'the Columbine shooting was one of a spate of killings at US high schools.' Like I said. This will happen again.

"The second amendment itself is not the problem." Yes it bloody well is. It is the main contributing factor behind gun crime in the US. The second amendment is no different to the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling. The supreme court ruling allowed segregation through the 1900's, tens, twenties, thirties, forties and early fifties. For half a decade, white people avoided black people because it was accepted, not because they wanted to (see John Howard Griffin, 'Black Like Me'). The civil rights movement did not begin with Brown, but the ruling gave it momentum. The momentum for social change came from political change: Rosa Parks, the bus boycotts, the march on Washington, the New York riots, the NoI, the Alabama marches, the LA riots, all came after the political act of courage. Repeal the second amendment and social change will follow. Sadly that will probably never happen because of conservative thinking.

Here's one last thought though: a sociology student confided in BBC hack Matt Frei that he wished he had had a gun so that he could have shot the gunman dead. Think about it. Just think about it.

Peace and love.

Yours, wherever you may be,
Daniel C. Wright