Ryan ChartrandOur nation was unified in mourning this past week, as gunshots shattered the peace, quiet and tranquility of Virginia Tech, a school not unlike our own in many respects. Indeed, the events in Blacksburg were of great weight for Cal Poly students, who carried the knowledge that the two schools are eerily similar in size and educational focus. Many whispered the words: “This could have happened here,” and indeed, it very well could have.
It has only been 8 years, to the week, since Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School. It has been six months since five schoolgirls were gunned down in an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pa. Each of these events froze the nation in awe and bewilderment; shock that someone could perpetrate such an awful event and bewilderment at why it wasn’t prevented. And after every event, it is sworn that something like this will never happen again. And yet they still do.
As close to home as the shootings in Virginia came, it was also a vivid, in-your-face reminder of the impact gun violence has on the United States. Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot to death in the United States. sixty thousand more are injured. That’s almost 1,000 off-camera deaths for everyone at Virginia Tech. As startling as the event last Monday was, it serves as a more startling reminder that it is only the tip of the iceberg.
Cho Seung-Hui purchased the Walther .22 and the Glock 7 mm handguns he used to slaughter 32 innocent people in a completely legal fashion. All Cho had to do was wait the standard 30 days to purchase a firearm in Virginia, and submit to the standard state and national background checks. But serious questions have to be raised about the fact that someone who had been so clearly identified as mentally disturbed can so easily purchase high-powered handguns.
Unfortunately, politicians of both parties are complicit in the horrible gun violence that plagues this nation. The day of the shootings in Blacksburg, President Bush stated that he was “saddened and angered by this senseless tragedy.” But will this president do about it? He already has: In 2005, George Bush signed legislation that gave the gun industry wide immunity from consumer lawsuits. Now, the gun industry has full protection from lawsuits in which they knowingly sell firearms to killers. No other industry has this protection, not even the tobacco or alcohol industries. In President Bush’s eyes, what makes the gun industry so special, particularly when they make the devices that kill 30,000 people a year? Saddened and angered indeed.
Nor can Democrats be spared in the matter. Days after the Virginia Tech shootings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “I hope there’s not a rush to do anything.” No rush, Harry? No rush before another 30,000 are killed next year? The callous indifference shown by Reid is enough to make one angry, particularly when it comes in the aftermath of such a vivid, graphic display of gun violence.
So here we sit, in the aftermath of yet another graphic reminder of the gun violence that plagues this country. And again, we have politicians that will sit on their hands, except when an opportunity arises to protect gun manufacturers from the families of those their product kills. We need tough, sensible gun control laws that ensure that guns only fall into the hands of those who will use them in a safe, legal manner. And we need politicians that will recognize the horrendous gun violence this country faces, and take the actions necessary to stop it. Our country deserves better.
Zach Austin is a political science junior and Mustang Daily political columnist.