After the Virginia Tech massacre, everyone started throwing around comfort clichés as if an entire local high school football team was in bed with the measles right around homecoming weekend. We shall prevail. This, too, shall pass. We cared and stood together, of course (how quickly it turns to past tense), but each of us was so relieved it wasn’t us getting the measles, and, God forbid, anyone we knew. But damn it, there goes a good football game.
I’m here to tell you, buddy, that there is something the hell wrong with the human race. This is it: We really don’t care much about each other. In addition, it is our goal to try very, very hard to forget everything that makes us sad. That’s why CNN is milking its coverage for all it is worth. Because over the next few days, we are going to be working hard to forget this happened and try to get things back to normal. It will be all about us! Mass killings are unpleasant and everyone knows that, including your local Democrat and the National Rifle Association. In fact, the NRA released a statement signaling just how important Virginia Tech is: “We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.” What did they say? Nothing.
Some people did have things to say. The Diamondback’s Cyrus Hadadi thinks I should be allowed to have my very own gun on the campus. For protection, you know. College, of course, is an exceedingly safe place to keep firearms. I’ll put mine in my underwear drawer. Guns and drunks – it’s worked before. Try the Sand Creek Massacre. More guns, more, more! This way, when a lunatic comes to class with a Walther P22, we’ll talk allergies or something while I pull out my own. He’d be good enough to wait.
This, too, shall pass. You know what happens when something passes? We forget about it. We forgot about Columbine, because no one really cared when a ban on full assault bans expired – until now. Sixty-six percent of murders were committed with a gun in 2004, according to your government. Most statistics are full of crap, so buy this instead: A lot of good people die from guns because guns are everywhere.
The NRA, an organization full of people who wonder why all the people that didn’t get shot never make the news, doesn’t want us to forget that bad people die from guns too. You can search their “Armed Citizen” archives on the Internet and read gushy, heartwarming stories about the good people who used their guns on the robbers and stuff. And for every one of THOSE stories, there is one about a baby girl or boy who got shot while sitting in front of a window. But no one ever talks about that. Right now, while the NRA is waiting for this to blow over, these 32 good people who are now dead so that Hadadi can keep his right to tote a gun.
We will prevail. In a month, you’re not going to be thinking about Virginia Tech. When you prevail over something horrible, you slowly put it behind you and try to forget about it. No, we will never forget the victims. But we’ll try very hard to forget the way they died. And as we prevail, we’re going to let the horror of that slip away, and it will still be alarmingly easy to get to a gun.
There’s a decision to make in here somewhere. Do we support the right to carry around things that kill, or do we want the right to live? It’s not your choice; it’s ours. Psychos will still get their hands on a gun, but can’t we make it a lot harder for them to do so? Listen, whatever you do, don’t get over Virginia Tech. Or else, it will be that much easier for it to happen again.
Nandini Jammi is a freshman English major. She can be reached at jammin@umd.edu.
