Show your true colors
By By: John P. Flannery
We must do something that really matters. We must tell our elected representatives at the federal and state level, and the school officials, that they have endangered us and these young students each and every day that they failed to act to control the easy distribution of hand guns.No one seriously believes that "limiting" every citizen in the commonwealth to the purchase of one gun a month is gun "control."
We might also do something to take serious the complaints of women about stalking and pay more attention to protective orders when issuing weapons to anyone who wants them.
Isn't it remarkable that not a politician in sight has said a word about how easy it was for this disturbed student to get the guns that killed his classmates and teachers?
To borrow the words of Mel Brooks in "Blazing Saddles," our public officials are too concerned about keeping their "phony baloney jobs."
I respect the right to bear arms but there is no right that gives license to anyone to compromise any individual's right to life and liberty.
We must weigh the right to live and to be let alone at the point of sale of the hand gun, not wringing our hands afterwards over the damaged bodies of our young.
When our society takes serious the question of gun control and sexual harassment, then we might begin to get a handle on the frequency and dimension of these mind-numbing tragedies.
We are being "handled" by these public officials with posturing and the same kind of dilly-dallying that allowed 30 students and teachers to be killed on Monday who might have been saved had Virginia Tech been less concerned about their "image" and more concerned about the security and safety of their students.
If you think that is too harsh: Ask yourself one question: After the first shooting incident on campus, did they have the shooter in custody?
The unfortunate answer is: No!
How could anyone fail to be alarmed and warn others on campus immediately that a shooter was at large? What law enforcement experience does one need to know what to do? Since the movies of James Cagney to the latest cinema shoot-em-up, we know to send out the alarm? What could explain the hesitation on this campus? Sound trucks, security forces, local police should have been called to the campus to warn everyone immediately.
There should have been speakers blaring, and local radio alerts. But there was none of that. Could the school administration have thought of anything less effective than sending out a belated e-mail?
How could anyone who knew the size and dispersion of that student body think that an e-mail warning was sufficient to alert the students already in class or any of the off-campus students commuting to the campus? Also consider the fact that the shooter was able to walk around in that terrorizing get-up and chain classroom doors shut to trap his prey.
The school is now talking about closing classes early and giving posthumous diplomas. If you did not think carefully, you might mistake this for a generous gesture. But it is also open to another interpretation, namely, that the school seeks to dissipate the political energy of the families who, once they grieve, will be asking the same tough questions about these laws and the failure of the school administration to warn anyone in the hours that they had to avoid this disaster.
If you want to do something for those whose lives were cut off needlessly, if you want to honor the heroics of the teachers and students who risked their lives so others could live, then do not follow the lead of the school administrators or our so-called public officials, and just wring your hands, show your true colors and write in protest to your elected officials and the school authorities about the flimsy protections against gun violence that we have suffered too long in this nation.
Do not mimic the inaction that followed Columbine. Do something that might make a difference for these grieving families and that might avoid the next American tragedy.
If we only wear the Hokie colors, and the days slip away without doing more, then we shall have failed the memory of those who fell who could have been saved.
John P. Flannery is a former federal prosecutor and former Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and to the US House Judiciary Committee and practices in Leesburg; comments may be forwarded to JonFlan@aol.com.