Condolences, and my two cents.

Merciful God in Heaven, King of the Universe and the Just Judge,

Bless those, victims and survivors, of the Horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Have mercy on the soul of the murderer, and his family. You will judge Cho Seung-hui, as you are the Just Judge.

Help us Lord, as a people and a nation, find our way. Back to your Holy truth, and back to our identity as a community.

Blessed be you O God, now and forever.

Amen.

With a heavy heart, I write this post.

As I look around my country, I feel that we as a people have lost our way. We have forsaken the Torah (law) by which Mankind should live. We have labeled bad as good, and good as bad.

The innocent perish, and the guilty go free.

Is this what our social experiment has wrought?

I think it has.

The Matriarchy destroys much more than what it saves.

As I read on the Gun Blogs (by Rustmeister):

I'd like to say at the outset that this is not an indictment of any victim's actions at Virginia Tech. Something like this should never happen, and I doubt anyone would know how'd they react when put in a similar situation.

I've already heard the cries of "America's gun culture" as the cause of this. As Nylar so ably points out below, anti-gunners are going to use this incident to advance their agenda of disarmament.

There is a cultural factor to all this. It concerns fight or flight; the most primal reaction to confrontation. Very few at VT managed to do either. Only a handful of people jumped out of windows to avoid being shot. So far, only one has been pointed out as trying to fight back by holding a classroom door closed.

How did this instinct not kick in when those folks knew there was a shooter on the floor? Because they've been taught since early childhood not to resist an attacker. Don't fight back, just give them what they want and they'll go away. Same thing for running away; you might provoke your attacker - don't do it.

Looks like we've managed to do what intellectuals have been wanting for years: we've overcome our most base instincts. We've risen above the animals. Fight or flight is a thing of the past, and we've become a bovine herd. Hooray for smart people!

One problem: there's a substantial segment of our population who haven't done away with their most base instincts. They've harnessed them, embraced them, and have no reservations using them to get what they want. They are predators in every sense of the word. They identify the weak and pounce. If the prey runs or fights, the predator simply employs their own fight or flight instinct. Many times they go off in search of an easier target. Predators don't want to work hard.

There are 60-80 million gun owners in America, depending on who you listen to. There are over 300 million Americans total. That means 20-27% of America owns a gun. Does this mean 73-80% of Americans have lost the will to fight or flee? Once all the facts are in, do the math and see for yourself.

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.

- Thomas Sowell

Amen to that.

We have the internet, we have Starbucks, we have international flights across the globe.

We are more tolerant, more multicultural, more egalitarian than ever before.

And yet, we are more socially isolated, more dependent on chemical happiness than the real thing, forsaking marriage and childbirth, casting off the old, the weak, and the sick to die.

What kind of people are we?

Do we no longer have any sense of justice?

Do we worship Self more than we do God?

Do we just not give a damn about the lives of other people?

I leave it to you to answer those questions.

I will say this though... we as a culture are in serious trouble. This shooting rampage is a symptom of our ever-growing cancer.

We will continue into our decadent decline, unless we unleash the creature known as MANLINESS, that beast that can deal with and destroy evil.

That force that seeks justice and ambition.

That spirit that leads to mighty and prosperous civilization.

Properly channeled, the Thumos that can right wrongs, and replenish and subdue the earth.

One man (or woman) with a handgun, and the willingness and training to use it, could have ended this tragic Virginia Tech incident with a minimum loss of life.

As John R Lott notes:

Question: ...In March of this year [1998] four children and a teacher were killed by two school boys in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Won't tragedies like this increase if more people are allowed to carry guns? Shouldn't this be taken into consideration before making gun ownership laws more lenient?

Lott: The horrific shooting in Arkansas occurred in one of the few places where having guns was already illegal. These laws risk creating situations in which the good guys cannot defend themselves from the bad ones. I have studied multiple victim public shootings in the United States from 1977 to 1995. These were incidents in which at least two or more people were killed and or injured in a public place; in order to focus on the type of shooting seen in Arkansas, shootings that were the byproduct of another crime, such as robbery, were excluded. The effect of "shall-issue" laws on these crimes has been dramatic. When states passed these laws, the number of multiple-victim shootings declined by 84 percent. Deaths from these shootings plummeted on average by 90 percent, and injuries by 82 percent.

For other types of crimes, I find that both children as well as adults are protected when law-abiding adults are allowed to carry concealed handguns.

Finally, after extensively studying the number of accidental shootings, there is no evidence that increasing the number of concealed handguns increases accidental shootings. We know that the type of person who obtains a permit is extremely law-abiding and possibly they are extremely careful in how they take care of their guns. The total number of accidental gun deaths each year is about 1,300 and each year such accidents take the lives of 200 children 14 years of age and under. However, these regrettable numbers of lives lost need to be put into some perspective with the other risks children face. Despite over 200 million guns owned by between 76 to 85 million people, the children killed is much smaller than the number lost through bicycle accidents, drowning, and fires. Children are 14.5 times more likely to die from car accidents than from accidents involving guns

.

An armed society, is a polite society, only if the citizenry are armed not only with weapons, but with the will and the intelligence to use them.

The protection of the nation, through the force of arms, is not a just a right. It is also a DUTY.

United States v Miller.

The American Colonies In The 17th Century', Osgood, Vol. 1, ch. XIII, affirms in reference to the early system of defense in New England-

'In all the colonies, as in England, the militia system was based on the principle of the assize of arms. This implied the general obligation of all adult male inhabitants to possess arms, and, with certain exceptions, to [307 U.S. 174, 180] cooperate in the work of defence.' 'The possession of arms also implied the possession of ammunition, and the authorities paid quite as much attention to the latter as to the former.' 'A year later (1632) it was ordered that any single man who had not furnished himself with arms might be put out to service, and this became a permanent part of the legislation of the colony (Massachusetts).'

The government cannot, and will not protect us at all times.

They failed on 9/11, they failed during Katrina, and they failed at Virginia Tech.

The fullness of peace and prosperity that man can hope to have can only come in a society that respects the rights of Men (and of course, women and children), and obeys the Universal Law.

If we fail to change course, to encourage what is appropriate and just, and eliminate, as much as humanly possible, what is unjust and against the Law of Heaven, our civilization is surely finished.

We have yet to witness the carnage and suffering that an imploding society can unleash on itself.

To all the victims, Rest in Peace.

Kumogakure.