April 17, 2007

Virginia Tech, Guns and the Korean Reaction (revised)


The terrible events of yesterday morning have shocked America, the world. The Irish blogs (UI, Balrog) mix their genuine sympathy with an astonishment at the widespread availability of guns in America. Which I agree with. And at the proposal by some here that gun laws should be -further- liberalized, so that everyone would be packing heat, at the ready to shoot it out with an attacker. I agree with my European friends there too.

Japan and Britain are places where private gun ownership is rare to unknown, and they have always had vastly lower murder rates than does the US. New York City has tight restrictions on gun ownership, and it has the lowest homicide rate of any big city in the US. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Today, it was learned that the murderer was Cho Seung-Hui, a 23 year old native of Korea. He moved to the US with his family in 1992.

I think that the people of Korea, and Korean-Americans are going to take this very hard. They're good people, and they're a very proud people. They'll be ashamed of what this sick person has done, at the dishonor they believe he brings upon them.

But this is a wrong reaction. He is no more typical of the Koreans or Korean-Americans than David Berkowitz is of New Yorkers or Americans.

Tonight, there are unconfirmed reports in the Korea Herald that Cho's parents
have committed suicide. If true, this would not be a surprise. But it would be a terrible thing.


It appears that the Korean Herald has removed the above link.

The Korean Govt. is apparently going to apologize for the incident. They should not do so. This action was not the fault of any other person than Cho, the murderer. The Korean people/government bear no blame for this.

That having been said, it was noted on a Korean site last night that if a black or white American had murdered 32 Koreans on a Korean campus, the reaction in Korea would not have been as serene and nonviolent as the US reaction to Virginia Tech has been, and will remain. True too.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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