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The Slaughter at Omaha: Avoid Snap Judgments …

December 13th, 2007
By WILLIAM KERN


Is this the time, after the massacre at an Omaha mall, to question the wisdom of the right to bear arms in the United States? According to this op-ed article from Chile’s La Nacion, whatever the truth of such criticism, it is time to show respect to the victims and avoid the usual finger-pointing.

“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.

READ THE REST ON WORDON.US

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Crime, Media, Americas - N & S, Latin America (Central/South). Both comments and pings are currently closed.


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