One Korean student was among the injured in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech University (Korea Times):
Park Chang-min, a student in the civil engineering doctorate program, was in class when he was hit in the arm by the shooter’s bullet, Yonhap News confirmed the Korean injured, from association president Lee Seung-woo. Park is studying in the U.S. by himself.
The bullet penetrated the arm and scraped the side of the body but did not damage any bones, Lee quoted doctors as saying. Park is expected to be released soon.
33 people were killed in the attack, including the assailant.
42 Comments
description of the murderer:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i.....63&p=1
May those whose lives were cut so senselessly short today rest in peace.
Certainly the first thing I worried about was whether any Koreans were wounded.
Being that this is a Korea-centered blog, the Korean angle is what I chose to post about.
There is no shortage of general news about the attack.
(And no, that does not mean I don’t care about the 32 people killed by that guy.)
Yet apart from a few desultory comments from background commentators, the issue of gun-laws will continue to be ignored in the states. Unreal.
I read the shooter (one of the shooters?) was Asian. I assume they mean East Asian.
“….Yet apart from a few desultory comments from background commentators, the issue of gun-laws will continue to be ignored in the states. Unreal.”
What you-all did with your gun laws down in Australia was well-noted by hard-core gun rights Americans. I don’t anything remotely like what happened in Australia (large-scale gun confiscation) happening here in CONUS — at least, not unless attacks like this become a routine occurrence.
50 to 100 iron men of Islam, well-trained in accurate rapid fire and reloading like this guy, and inured to committing equivalent mass killing before suicide, might raise enough outcry to cause the passage of extreme gun-control laws. But I don’t think something like that will happen unless some Islamic state-sponsored intelligence agency organized the effort, and then the Americans would most likely find out and exact a terrible vengeance.
And even then there are so many guns outstanding that “the state” would never get them all. Even 500,000 troops sweeping the streets of America house to house for 10 years wouldn’t do it.
It’s part of the price we pay for our extreme version of civil liberties. Gun ownerhsip is right up there with freedom of speech, religious liberty, etc etc.
What can I say? If the prospect is truly horrifying to you, don’t come to America for a visit.
“…I don’t [see] anything remotely….”
The presence of a “preview” function here would help to prevent such misfires. I know it’s been asked for (and ignored) many times, yet I renew the request.
There’s something about the smaller print that makes it hard to catch typos, especially because it’s somehow harder to see your own.
“I read the shooter (one of the shooters?) was Asian. I assume they mean East Asian.”
Maybe Chinese according to FOX News.
#4: Not a slam on you, Andy, but on the nature of newspapers (yes, you can see that kind of headline in the U.S. as well).
I am afraid. I insist that my protectors, the U.S. government, immediately take the following measures for my safety and that of my countrymen.
Institute painstakingly thorough inspections of all student backpacks at every school in America. After all, there could be a student with a gun.
Make all students take off their shoes prior to entering their respective campuses. Indeed, there could be a student with explosive-filled heels.
Limit all water and soft drink containers to no more than three fluid ounces. One can’t be too careful, you know.
Thank you in advance for taking these measures, brave, intelligent, and extremely competent defenders of me. Without your protection, I would surely be killed by this kind of domestic terrorist. In fact, just to be safe, I think I’ll stay inside my safe little house in my safe little neighborhood until you make an announcement about this on TV.
‘i read he’s asian.’
why is his race an issue? are you implying race is a factor here? i don’t recall many talking about the columbine shooters’ ethnicity.
Race is a factor here if by here you mean Korea. Or Korea-related blogs. Or the internet. Or the world.
Race is always a factor. Get with the program.
The gun-control issue IS in the media though I can’t help but think they are spinning it in a seriously wrong direction.
From http://mediamatters.org/items/200704170001
In the wake of a deadly shooting rampage that killed over 30 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University, host John Gibson asked on the April 16 edition of Fox News’ The Big Story: “So, theoretically, in this lecture hall where all 31 were killed, there could have been someone with a carry permit carrying their gun to shoot the shooter?” Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano replied: “No,” adding, “Virginia lets you carry a gun at a gas station or a bank or a stadium, but not on a college campus, where you may protect kids.”
#13:
Bullshit mm. For Koreans in Korea, race is rarely an issue. For foreigners, however, it can be an issue.
That being said, I do not recall race ever being brought up — at all — when the Columbine Massacre occurred eight years ago.
Back then, when the media marched out their bevy of experts to take apart Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’ personal lives, it was this psychiatrist saying neglected kids are XX times as likely to commit violent crimes, or that NRA spokesperson saying ‘guns don’t kill people…”, or this social worker saying ’so goeth the decline of the nuclear family’, or this psychologist saying that kids nowadays are spoiled rotten, etc.
NOT once was race ever brought up as an issue, nor is it ever when a white or even a black or hispanic commits a crime in the U.S.
But God forbid an Asian commit a crime, and now it’s all about race suddenly? How hypocritical.
I can imagine the fallout — let’s lock up all those Asians, let’s restrict Asian immigration, etc.
Race in this instance is the ultimate red herring. Second-amendment gun nuts, anti-immigration activists, neo-Nazis, and your run-of-the-mill racial bigot would probably have us focus on the perp’s race, rather than more important issues like gun control or racism.
But I believe the American public is smarter than that, realizing that this issue is NOT about murder’s race.
That being said, why is it that otherwise law-abiding Americans have such easy access to firearms, that serve no other purpose than to kill and maim people?
There is no reason for your average civilian — let alone college student — to own nine kinds of pistols, six kinds of assault rifles, three kinds of grendade launchers, and enough ammo to re-fight WW2., unless he’s the Pentagon or the FBI, so let’s keep race out of this and stick to the real issues of what happened here if at all possible.
#14: Having a gun handy certainly worked for that Korean-American guy in Philly.
Kind of like the knife helped that soldier in Sinchon?
So, I take it you weren’t reading the news reports on this at Naver.com today, let alone the comments?
I’m sure I’d be several times dead if Australia had as ridiculous laws as certain states in the US.
Very sad state of affairs letting civilians own handguns.
The first time the shooter’s ethnicity was mentioned was in response to a remark about America’s gun culture over on the open thread. If a foreigner is accused of any kind of crime in Korea, their foreign identity is made very, very clear in the Korean media.
Yeah. This never would have happened if they’d have banned guns there, you know, like the Russians did in Beslan. Oh, wait.
Now, compare and contrast.
Yeah, this never would have happened if our society was more like Russia (except Beslan, of course) and we’d have had the foresight to ban guns at Virginia Tech.
Oh, right….
Of course, there would be some downsides to that.
Yeah, what about all those stories in the Korean media about the number of crimes committed by foreigners being on the rise? (with a little bit of calculation the reporters could easily find that foreign residents are still far less likely to commit crimes than Koreans citizens…but that’s another story)
“Very sad state of affairs letting civilians own handguns.”
I disagree. Why do these massacres happen in schools? Because schools are gun-free zones. No one can shoot back.
We Americans cherish the right to bear arms, which is not a right cherished by others. The Koreans I know recoil at the idea. Rights are not universal, but particular, which is why, in response to the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said, “I know nothing of the Rights of Man, but I know something of the rights of Englishmen.”
I am beginning, however, to think that we Americans are no longer worthy of this right or most others. The founding fathers knew that freedom required great responsibilty. We no longer know the difference between liberty and license. We’ve let the culture fall too far into decay.
As far as I know, the fact he’s Asian first came up when CNN reporters asked a female student to describe the shooter–she said he was a young looking Asian man, nearly six feet tall, wore what looked like a boy scout uniform with a dark cammo vest. That’s it. I doubt many people, if any at all, are making it an issue. People are just trying to understand who this guy was and what motivated him to do such a thing.
Every instance like this produces a misguided…no I don’t like that word - deceitful is better…deceitful effort by the liberal anti-gun crowd to further absolve people of any notion of personal responsibility while clammering for such inane rights as the right to be equally educated or the right to be comfortable or the right to offend religion and expect no response. Yet we are loath to institute discipline and fail to teach that actions have consequences, some of which hurt. Personal responsible has declined in this post-modern world in proportion to our ever growing cravings for rights - bullshit rights! One right I will never give up is my right to protect myself, my family and my property from terrorist, thief or government. The failings of society to produce disciplined, socially-coherent individuals bears no weight on whether I will take what measures I need to ensure my self-defense. Do not expect the police to be your protection panacea; the ultimate responsibility lies with you and me. This complacent attitude of society towards discipline, in conjunction to an ever growing call to restrain any manner of self-defense in favor of the criminals will culminate in anarchy. Anarchy can only be brought back under control by those well-versed in discipline and self-protection.
WC,
Schools are gun free zones? Kids get shot at school by other students in the US. I know a couple of cases where teachers have been threatened by students with guns in Canada.
“….There is no reason for your average civilian — let alone college student — to own nine kinds of pistols, six kinds of assault rifles, three kinds of grendade launchers, and enough ammo to re-fight WW2., unless he’s the Pentagon or the FBI…”
It’s possible for a citizen to own that many semi-automatic pistols and rifles, in many places here in USA.
Though not in every state/local jurisdiction, depending upon individual laws. For example,
I don’t think anyone can purchase a handgun legally here in California anymore. If I wanted to buy a weapon for home defense I think I’d have to get a shotgun.
It’s going to take many hundreds of dollars to purchase “6 kinds and 9 kinds” of pistols and rifles legally, also federal purchase permit form has to be filled out, I think there’s a mandatory waiting period to see if the purchaser is a felon or not (if he is, he won’t get permission).
The higher powered and/or larger caliber rifle and pistol ammo isn’t that cheap either.
All that being said, it’s indeed possible for someone here in US to legally acccumulate “9 kinds of pistols, six kinds of assault rifles”.
Not grenade launchers though. GL’s are military weapons which fire explosive rounds, only legal for US military and maybe some police agencies.
I’ve never heard of a civilian crime here in US committed by anyone using a grenade launcher of any sort. There’s no place in US where a private citizen can buy a grenade launcher, much less the ammunition for it.
If somebody were to be found with one, he would have had to smuggle it into the country from a foreign source, or steal it from US military. This latter would be extraordinarily difficult; for at least last 35 years, all US military arms rooms where GL’s are stored have been subject to extraordinary levels of security (reinforced walls, locked in racks, arms rooms electronically alarmed/linked to nearby military/civilian police station, etc).
Military explosive ammo items, such as rounds for grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets won’t be stored in military arms rooms, but at separate military ammunition supply points. These will be located in outlying areas away from population, stored in heavy doored bunkers surrounded by a fenced perimeter. Perimeter will be guarded 24/7 by an armed military or civilian guard force.
There’s no need to exaggerate the facts or build straw-man arguments, to reinforce an argument (perfectly legit) for strict gun control in the US of semiautomatic pistols and rifles. Since these are in fact still obtainable here legally in the USA, to a degree almost unprecedented elsewhere in the world.
But NOT the heavier military weapons, nor fully automatic weapons. I’m going to some trouble to state this, since there are readers here from elsewhere in the world who may be getting this idea from US “action” movies.
Remember that movie directors are prone to make up facts when they need to do so to fit a plot. (Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Commando” breaks into a civilian gun store in LA, gets various anti-tank rockets and grenade launchers, besides pistols and fully automatic rifles and machine guns).
Fully automatic machine guns and rifles, and grenade launchers and rocket launchers, shown as “for sale” in US gun stores in Hollywood movies? Pure fantasy, written for dramatic effect by a movie scriptwriter.
I may have misread but was just on the news (ticker style) that the guy was Korean.
“I may have misread but was just on the news (ticker style) that the guy was Korean.”
My wife just told me they’re reporting the same thing.
“Fully automatic machine guns and rifles, and grenade launchers and rocket launchers, shown as “for sale” in US gun stores in Hollywood movies? Pure fantasy, written for dramatic effect by a movie scriptwriter.”
When I was on working holiday in the states I went to a pawn shop in Reno and posed for photos with glocks, an AK-47, an Uzi and loads of amo. I still have the photos somewhere. The owner told me that if I had the cash I could walk out with them that very afternoon, no questions asked. A guy in a John Deer hat who was lounging at the counter told me he could convert one of the guys to full automatic for a small price. He asked me what i liked to shoot: “fridges, dogs, muthafuckers?” I kid you not.
Paul H:
“I don’t anything remotely like what happened in Australia (large-scale gun confiscation) happening here in CONUS — at least, not unless attacks like this become a routine occurrence.”
They’re not routine enough yet?
By the way, I’m aware of how the US gun lobby covered the gun buy-back scheme in oz - i was asked about it often enough in the shop i worked at in Sierra Nevada by locals who had been told all sorts of falsehoods about it by the NRA. I told them the truth - that it was a buy-back scheme which my father, a farmer and former soldier, partook in happily. It was not without opposition, but most Australians embraced it and it was largely a success.
I’m aware of the difficulties of enforcing strict gun-laws, but there is a hell of a lot of tightening/improvements that can go on to make the US a safer place (IMHO). An outsider’s opinion only.
“If the prospect is truly horrifying to you, don’t come to America for a visit.”
Sorry, been there already and had a great time.
“I may have misread but was just on the news (ticker style) that the guy was Korean.”
Are you guys serious? I can’t find any articles in English about that yet. An article from an hour or so ago says “Asian student,” but nothing on a country of origin yet.
Western Confucian wrote (#23):
“Why do these massacres happen in schools? Because schools are gun-free zones. No one can shoot back. “
Shooting rampages don’t just happen in schools. They happen in malls, restaurants, offices, and other workplaces, too. Anecdotes like Philly six-shooter Jason Lee are heart-warming but do not provide statistical proof that more guns in the hands of citizens makes America safer.
My wife just told me the 9 o’clock news reported he was a Korean.
This article in the Washington Post reports that the shooter may have been of Korean descent.:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00456.html
Imagine the fun we’ll have in here if the shooter really does turn out to be a Korean. It’ll be like a wet dream coming true.
YTN says he’s Chinese; MBC says he’s Korean.
The medi’s reporting that he’s surnamed “Wang.” Huakyo?
I’d simply like to point out that race WAS brought up after Columbine, when there was speculation that the shooters were neo-Nazis, Hitler enthusiasts, or Klan devotees. There obviously would not have been such speculation if the shooters had not been white.
The issue of heavy metal music was also brought up. If they had been black, it would have been rap music. Race is always an issue, whether or not it ought to be.
What does this mean? The fun? Wet dream?
Rob if there is posting that needs to be removed it is this one. CM if it does get removed be thankful.
Stupid post, just stupid.
Posted April 17, 2007 at 9:59 pm | Permalink
Imagine the fun we’ll have in here if the shooter really does turn out to be a Korean. It’ll be like a wet dream coming true.
“A guy in a John Deer hat who was lounging at the counter told me he could convert one of the guys to full automatic for a small price.”
What’s the use? Fully-auto is no fun if all you have is a few dozen rounds. I hated fully auto on the rifles. You end up emptying the whole magazine in 6 seconds, and half of the rounds didn’t even hit the target…but a machine gun, now that real fun. Probably my favorite weapon. Mind you, rocket launchers were fun too; but with two layers of ear protection it still felt as if I had stood in front of the speakers at a rock concert the next day.
“Imagine the fun we’ll have in here if the shooter really does turn out to be a Korean. It’ll be like a wet dream coming true.”
# 35:
CM:
Now that we know that the killer was Korean we have much less fun about that fact than the Korean media seem to derive from exposing some hapless foreigner in the ROK for some minor misdemeanour.
So, who are the real racists ?
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