by Charles Q Blair

Created on: April 19, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

On Tuesday I awoke here in Australia to the radio and the story that a gunman had killed 32 people in a University in Virginia. I felt my head start to spin and legs go numb, not again.

Beslan, Columbine and Dunblane all flashed through my reeling mind as I wished I could offer whatever help I could to those in need.

It is now Thursday though and the increasing media attention and the questions that must be asked will, as always in America, be swept aside after a lot of empty gestures.

The gunman, as always, will be painted as a loner, warning signs will have been unheeded - the gun law debate will rage like a storm in a tea cup as the powerful NRA and Pro-Gun & Anti-Abortion, God loving Republicans will move fast to a stance of inaction and quote their 2nd amendment, enshrined in pure madness.

I do not condone the actions of the media covering this event but as one person here in Perth said on a phone in - what about Iraq - 200 People died yesterday, that is 167 more than in Virginia, not to mention the 60 the previous day, the 32 the day before that - yet we do not get the half masted flags, we do not get 7-page pull outs, we do not get insights into the minds of these loners.

We get footnotes in the paper or more hot air from politicians. Indeed John Howard spoke today of fighting the War on Terror - as if you can fight a high strung emotion - in a country where, for all the reasons of going to war, terror was never mentioned!

I know I digress but I am trying to look at our reaction to these events in my head.

I am amazed that already the Pro-Gun people have stated perhaps if more guns had been on campus this chap might have been stopped and he may have only killed, say 16 people - so therefore, guns could have stopped this!?!

Personally, I like to think that if all guns were banned he may not have got access to them and perhaps 32 people would not have been killed. People think that guns make them safer or able to protect their loved ones but some simple stats below (collected by an acquaintance of mine) show a darker truth.

Economic Costs of Gun Violence
In 1992 the estimated cost in pain, suffering, lost quality of life, and loss of productivity due to gunshot violence was $113 billion. Miller, Textbook of Penetrating Trauma, 1995 The estimated cost of direct health care expenditures for firearm-related injuries in the United States in 1995 was $4 billion.
Kizer, Journal of American Medical Association, 1995
http://www.rileyhospital.org/document.jsp?locid= 1439

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