Virginia Tech Tragedy, Media Coverage, and Gun Control
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I believe that the national press coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, should be condemned for their “total annihilation of the tragedy. While I believe it is important for the public to be informed of situations occurring in our country, it is disrespectful to both the dead and to their loved ones to see graphically explicit hour-long epics about the event when the police have barely had time to secure the crime scene. In addition, one must point out that this type of irresponsible reporting can cause irreparable damage to the reputations of innocent people especially when suspects are alluded to who will later be proven to have had no involvement with the tragedy.
A case in point would be the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta where the media openly reported that Richard Jewell was a suspect in the case. In fact, Jewell turned out to be a hero who had found the device and tried to warn bystanders to leave the area. Unfortunately, for Jewell, his exoneration and subsequent monetary settlements from the networks has been unable to remove the suspicion of guilt from his name.
In the case of the Virginia Tech tragedy, viewers had the option to change the channel to avoid this type of program, but they may not be able to avoid the ever-louder cry for the enforcement of gun control measures. Therefore, while most of us acknowledge that the right to own a firearm is a fundamental right, others refuse to see the danger of relinquishing this right to a government that is breaking the law under the Patriot Act. For those of you who are unaware of how the Patriotic Act is illegal one only has to look at citizens who are now being questioned without the right to an attorney in the name of Homeland Security, the illegal wire-tapping of citizen’s phones, or to the governments intention to monitor citizens, via satellite, using RFID devices. My fear would be that with the current government’s philosophy they could continue to whack away at our constitutional rights and while they would still be armed leave the American citizenry without any means to fight back to regain our civil liberties?
Our forefathers saw this danger and choose to codify gun ownership in the Constitution to ensure that they would be able to protect “the security of a free State,” specifically the one that they had just created. Even then, they saw that threats to their freedom and individual liberties could come from both external and internal sources and I don’t think that they believed that the federal government could be trusted to protect those hard-won freedoms. It is obvious given those facts that they knew an unarmed public would not be unable to successfully resist foreign or domestic tyranny. However, they did know that a well-armed, well-informed public is less impressionable than a disarmed, uneducated one, therefore, it seems strange to me that modern society doesn’t seem to understand the basics of the issue, much less the affect it might have on them or their children.
In essence then let’s not let a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech be compounded by an attack on our constitutional rights and freedoms. Instead let us mourn with the families of the victims and not give in to the political pressure to use this event as a stepping-stone for a destructive political agenda.
[tags]Virginia Tech tradedy, Media Coverage, Gun Control, tyranny, Dangers of gun control, Patriot Act, Constitutional freedoms, 1996 Centennial Olympic Park Bombing, Richard Jewell, irresponsible news reporting, Danger from too much government [/tags]
6 Comments
kp
April 21st, 2007
at 10:13am
Americans NEED to bear arms to protect themselves from their criminal, unelected government.
Also, hopefully the events at Virginia Tech will allow more Americans to wake up to the reality of the illegal, immoral Iraq war where they’ve been having even more serious events EVERY DAY for the last 4 years.
A lot of people who call themselves Christians don’t even know the meaning of the word!
reflections
April 21st, 2007
at 5:41pm
I agree 100%. If you check some of my other articles you will see that Too have been complaining about our involvement in Iraq and the illegalities of what is occurring there. Christians should be tolerant and loving and I believe that is missing in this war.
I also hate a lot of what this administration has forced on the American citizenry and hope that the people will wake up prior to the next election.
Have a wonderful day. Jackie
BEVERLY BASKIN
April 21st, 2007
at 8:48pm
WHY WASN’T A SIREN SYSTEM SET UP TO WARN THOSE ON CAMPUS THAT AN EMERGENCY IS IN PROGRESS. A SPECIAL SIGNAL THAT TELLS THOSE WALKING TO FIND REFUGE IMMEDIATELY; THOSE IN CLASSROOMS TO LOCK THE DOORS AND GET DOWN; EMAIL AND TELEPHONE WARNINGS ARE NOT SUFFICIENT ENOUGH TO INSTILL THE MEANING OF THE EMERGENCY AND ONLY AS GOOD IF THE PERSON IS WITHIN THE AREA TO RETRIEVE.
reflections
April 22nd, 2007
at 4:40am
Dear Beverly
It is beyond me as to why there was no warning system in place. I worked for several years at a small junior college and even there we had an emergency system in place that called for lock down procedures if anything looked dangerous. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all schools and businesses to put such a system in place in order to avoid another tragedy such as this one.
In the meantime we can only pray for the victims and their families and hope that they have the strength to make it through this terrible time. I will never understand the mentality of those who can kill innocent people without conscience.
Have a good day.
Jackie
dd
April 22nd, 2007
at 11:52pm
The media has turned this and every other tragedy into a miniseries. With the heavy production, fancy graphics, sad music, and non stop video coverage and analysis, it has become a golden goose that gets taken too many times. It is sad what happened, but what is worse that the mourners have to be reminded about the incident and revisit the pain they feel until the media decides that they are done with the issue.
If you have paid attention to recent shootings, they have been in areas that guns are prohibited. The reason is that the shooters know that they will not encounter resistance from those who are able to defend themselves and others. I’m not a gun nut, and not everyone should be able to carry a concealed weapon, but those that understand the heavy baggage that comes with it, have the strong mental sense, and the skill to know when to use it and when not to, should be able to defend themselves from these cowardly gunmen. There is no way to say how many lives would have been saved, but one life is worth it.
reflections
April 23rd, 2007
at 4:01am
Hi dd
I am in agreement. SInce the constitution defends our right to carry arms I truly believe that it is the right of every American, who isn’t a proven felon or dangerous to society, to carry one. I wish that everyone could be tested for mental stability but as we are aware that is not going to happen.
I also believe that anyone who is a criminal will manage to get a gun with or without controls which would only leave the honest, law abiding citizen without protection. Fortunately, I live in an area that has proven safe to this point in time but one never knows when that could change. If it ever does I want the protection of a gun to defend myself and my family if need be.
In the meantime, we should all pray that another tragedy such as the one at Virginia Tech doesn’t happen and if it should that the media will be more responsible in its coverage.
Have a nice day. Jackie