LOTS OF PEOPLE WANT ME TO SAY MORE about the Virginia Tech shootings, but I don’t have a lot more to say at the moment, particularly as it’s still unclear exactly what happened.. However, Helen knows much more about school shootings, mass shootings and the like and you can read some of her writings on the subject here.
UPDATE: Rand Simberg has thoughts, though, starting with “Get ready for the political posturing.”
Meanwhile, Mary Katharine Ham says that GOP candidate websites dropped the ball by, er, not posturing fast enough. You just can’t win. (This was pretty fast.)
And here’s more from A.C. Kleinheider.
And while I’ve been busy, Eric Scheie was rounding things up in spite of being without power.
Lots more from the Bitchgirls. Including this: “My cousin is fine. Her friend was shot in the leg. We probably won’t know more for a while.”
359 comments at Radley Balko’s post.
There’s also much more at BoingBoing, including a — very legitimate, I think — worry about copycat attacks.
And there’s lots of discussion in the comments here. In answer to one question about professors — the University has never given me any training on what to do in a mass shooting situation, and I’d be surprised if very many universities train their professors in that sort of thing. These events are, of course, very rare, but in fact I haven’t had any disaster or attack training from the University at all, though I’ve had some from other sources.
FleetAdmiralJ, a Kos diarist from Blacksburg, has been blogging this all day.
More thoughts at Hog on Ice.
And, speaking of “copycats,” a Virginia Tech alumna in Kabul blogs: “Eight years ago, after Columbine, a group of students (including myself) from my high school met with then-President Clinton to talk about gun violence. I made a comment that the media was largely responsible, with the glorification of violence in big-budget blockbusters, and constant bombardment of violent images as ‘fun.’ Clinton shook off my comments, and it’s funny, because now something on the same terrible scale has happened at a place close to me, and I still stand by them.” I actually think that the sensationalized news coverage 24/7 is worse than the entertainment products.
More thoughts here. Plus, some history. And Roger Kimball has thoughts, too: “Of the many things that can be said about the horrible shooting at Virginia Tech today, one thing that we have already heard too often is that the shooting is offers a compelling argument against citizens owning guns. . . . A famous Roman military historian noted that si vis pacem, para bellum: if you want peace, prepare for war. Good advice, that. And if you want domestic tranquillity, an armed and responsible citizenry ready and able to protect life and property is not a bad way to start.”
Virginia Tech alumnus Jonathan Wilde has more thoughts over at Catallarchy.
MORE: The New York Times doesn’t get it. You think?
Plus, thoughts on campus security in response to the murders. “Campuses don’t need more security. Although simply reassuring the student body probably will require some beefed up security in the short run, neither Virginia Tech nor any other college campus needs to make any long term commitment on the basis of this shooting.”
STILL MORE: “McCain backs gun rights after shootings.”
“Like clockwork:” The vultures are arriving.