Another
troubled young man highlights
right
to bear arms in the United States. …
La Nacion, Chile
The Slaughter
at Omaha:
Avoid Snap
Judgments …
"The
new tragedy has provided the Spanish news media, once again, a chance to show
contempt for the victims, by assigning blame for this and other such massacres to
the fact that the U.S. permits easy possession of firearms."
By José Carlos Rodríguez
Translated By Virginia Gillenwater
December 11, 2007
Chile
- La Nacion - Original Article (Spanish)
Eight
people who thought only of spending time doing some Christmas shopping at a mall
in Omaha, Nebraska, encountered death instead. A young man of 19 years, unable
to shoulder a few minor setbacks, decided to kill himself. But before ending
his own, he wanted to take a few others with him, people who were strangers;
anyone would do. “Now I’ll be famous,"
he left in a note, but perhaps with a tone of irony.
The
new tragedy has provided the Spanish news media, once again, a chance to show
contempt for the victims, by assigning blame for this and other such massacres to
the fact that the U.S. permits easy possession of firearms.
For
if episodes like this one really brought regret, one would think people would
have the courage to ask how they got into this situation in the first place.
After all, what is the history of the right to bear arms in that country and in
Europe? Tragically, the slaughter at the mall is more typical than what one might
think.
As
in the case of the killings at the University of Virginia [Virginia Tech], this
shopping center had been declared a “weapons-free zone.” Most such shootings occur
in areas in which bearing arms is forbidden. Murderers, including those who
commit suicide, operate quite rationally in that they prefer to act where they
feel safe - and because those who initiate a firefight in areas where bearing
arms is permitted cannot carry out their plans without being killed themselves.
But
the victims deserve our respect and, therefore, we shouldn't attend to tragedies
like that of Omaha with a spur of the moment judgment.
Click Here for Spanish
Version
