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On the NIU shootings

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* The day after the tragic shootings at NIU, congressional candidate Aaron Schock had this to say…

A state lawmaker says recent shooting sprees that killed people at Northern Illinois University and a Chicago-area shopping center might have had “different outcomes” if Illinois law allowed citizens to carry a concealed firearm.

* Schock told the Tribune even more and was rebutted by a Chicago legislator…

“It wasn’t until the individual at NIU turned the gun on himself that the killing stopped, and perhaps it would have stopped sooner had there been a security guard present or had there been somebody with a concealed weapon.”

[Rep. Ed Acevedo] called that kind of thinking “ridiculous.”

“What’s going to happen when someone pulls out a hairbrush that someone else thinks is a gun?’’ Acevedo asked. “Are we going to turn this state into the Wild West, where everybody gets to carry guns?”

* I just wish all politicians would take a deep breath in situations like this. Rep. Ruth Munson struck the right tone, as far as I’m concerned…

“I just ache for all these parents whose children didn’t come home,” Munson said. “I’m just really thinking about the parents and the victims right now.”

* The reason I didn’t want a discussion on the shootings last week is because when tragedy strikes everybody in the world wants to blame said tragedy on his or her pet peeve, whether it’s gun control, or increasing police response times and technology, violent imagery in the media, or Satanic tattoos, or drugs, or whatever, everyone has something to point to as the “Eureka!” moment, including snarky partisan politics…

So to extend Mitchell’s logic, I guess Kazmierczak was an Obama voter.

* For once, I completely agree with Steve Sauerberg…

“Far too often in the wake of tragedies, we see opportunistic politicians attempt to exploit the pain and suffering of others to promote their own agenda. In the aftermath of the tragedy at Northern Illinois University, I urge politicians on both side of the partisan aisle to show restraint. Now is the time that we should unite as a state and as a nation to pray for the victims, and their families and friends, of this terrible event.

“In the months ahead there will be plenty of opportunities for political debates and policy discussions about how tragedies like this can be avoided, the morning after, however, is not the time for politicians to look to score cheap election years points at the expense of the suffering of others.”

And that’s why I’m still not opening comments on this topic.

…Adding… I forgot to mention this story…

Illinois lawmakers moved swiftly after last year’s massacre at Virginia Tech to make it harder for anyone with a history of mental illness to buy guns, fortifying what already were some of the nation’s toughest weapons laws.

But the new measure does not take effect until June. And whether it would have prevented last week’s bloodbath at Northern Illinois University is far from clear. […]

The measure, when it takes effect, will require health professionals to inform state authorities about patients who display violent, suicidal or threatening behavior. Right now, such information is reported to state officials only on people who have been institutionalized, not on those who receive only outpatient treatment.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 19, 08 @ 10:46 am

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