The shootings at Virginia Tech have been used by many to justify their prior agenda. While all the details are not in yet, most likely this was an isolated tragedy which, by itself, does not provide justification for any policy or viewpoint. That won’t stop many people from trying.
Debbie Schlussel has a long series of posts in which she uses this to justify her xenophobia. In one post, she writes, “Remember that the next time you hear President Bush and Condi Clueless waxing lyrical about how we need more foreign students in America. We do not.” Opponents of restrictions on guns argue that the problem was an isolated nut, and his actions should not be extrapolated to responsible gun owners. Similarly the actions of this one foreigner should not be extrapolated to other foreigners. Of course those who look at everything from the viewpoint of the Muslim threat will not see things this way. Schlussel even initially predicted that the killer must be a Muslim:
So who is the shooter? What is the shooter’s nationality? What is the shooter’s religion? Waiting to find out. And wondering why the police and media are referring to the shooter as “Asian” and not by specific nationality.
If I were Asian, I’d be legitimately upset with this broad generalization of the mass murderer’s identity.
Why am I speculating that the “Asian” gunman is a Pakistani Muslim? Because law enforcement and the media strangely won’t tell us more specifically who the gunman is. Why?
Finding that this was not the case just provided another opportunity to attack Muslims:
And remember: Just because this attacker was not Muslim, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of potential and hopeful ones among the thousands Muslim nations are sending here to “study” under Saudi King Abdullah’s scholarships.
Debbie Schussel also thinks that the solution would be to have more people running around with concealed guns, as do other conservatives such as at The American Spectator.
The Carpetbagger Report points out an even more absurd argument from The National Review as John Derbyshire blames the victims:
As NRO’s designated chickenhawk, let me be the one to ask: Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn’t anyone rush the guy? It’s not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness’ sake—one of them reportedly a .22.At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren’t very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can’t hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren’t bad.
Some find yet others to blame, such as Dr. Phil who blames video games. After the Columbine shootings, Ken Ham blamed the shootings on the teaching of evolution. Ham has similar views on Virginia Tech:
We live in an era when public high schools and colleges have all but banned God from science classes. In these classrooms, students are taught that the whole universe, including plants and animals—and humans—arose by natural processes. Naturalism (in essence, atheism) has become the religion of the day and has become the foundation of the education system (and Western culture as a whole). The more such a philosophy permeates the culture, the more we would expect to see a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness that pervades people’s thinking. In fact, the more a culture allows the killing of the unborn, the more we will see people treating life in general as “cheap.”
I’m not at all saying that the person who committed these murders at Virginia Tech was driven by a belief in millions of years or evolution. I don’t know why this person did what he did, except the obvious: that it was a result of sin. However, when we see such death and violence, it is a reminder to us that without God’s Word (and the literal history in Genesis 1–11), people will not understand why such things happen.
Update: Archie Bunker Logic and the Right Wing Reaction to the Shootings at Virginia Tech