The Talk Of The Town Part I

Adam Gopnik on Virginia Tech Massacre:
When Adam opened his essay with the information about the dead students' cell phones ringing as they were carried out of the school, I was taken aback and drawn in at the same time. It made me think of all the petite tragedies that occur during these events that make the reader feel sick inside. He then went on to talk about how everyone talks about restricting guns or waging war after events such as this when all that should happen, at least initially, is a healing process. But the answer to this is quite obvious, because the mass media reacts to the emotions of the public. If the public is angry at the killer, the media looks up information on (in this case) his mental health, trying to degrade and tarnish him as much as they can. If the public is angry at gun control laws, or perhaps even the vendor, the media looks at the laws and the vendor and fuels a biased movement in order to appease public opinion. Adam also talks about how the same goes for the government and politicians who must unsuccessfully (until Obama's presidency) appease both sides of the political spectrum, causing stagnation and little legislation to be passed. Finally, when Mr. Gopnik talks about how the reasoning for restrictions on assault weapons in America is simple, and that nations that have restrictions on such weapons do not come close to America's gun violence, I would have to agree and disagree. I agree that restricting assault weapons would help with the majority of potential killers, but there is still a good amount of such people that could and would easily be able to attain these weapons illegally. Also, when he talks about killings with rifles and shotguns being "exceptions" I have to disagree with him, because of (among other events) the Red Lake Indian Reservation shootings of 2005. This event occurred when a troubled teenager stole his grandfather's shotgun, killed his grandparents, a security guard at his High School, a teacher and five students, as well as himself.