Here’s what two conservatives idiots had to say in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy. These comments are not only in incredibly poor taste, but demonstrate such poor judgment and such a complete lack of understanding of basic human instincts, it makes one wonder why the people who said them still have a venue to spout their opinions.
John Derbyshire, from the conservative National Review (yeah, this guy):
Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn’t anyone rush the guy? It’s not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness’ sake—one of them reportedly a .22.
At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him… And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren’t bad.
Yes, yes, I know it’s easy to say these things: but didn’t the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything?
Nathaniel Blake of the conservative Human Events Online:
College classrooms have scads of young men who are at their physical peak, and none of them seems to have done anything beyond ducking, running, and holding doors shut. Meanwhile, an old man hurled his body at the shooter to save others.
Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture. Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that. …
Like Derb, I don’t know if I would live up to this myself, but I know that I should be heartily ashamed of myself if I didn’t.
And thankfully, the strongest condemnation comes from conservative quarters, proving there is sanity on that side of the aisle. Derbyshire’s colleague at the National Review, John Podhoretz, steps in:
I have to dissent, in the strongest possible terms, from John Derbyshire’s shocking posts on Virginia Tech. The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow “fight back” against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason.
Amen, brother. Now get your coworker who is “ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason” booted from your office.
