The spree stabbing at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., that left at least 24 individuals injured comes as President Barack Obama was ready to spin up a national gun-panic while standing on the fresh graves of the victims of the April 2 spree shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
Sixteen-year-old Alex Hribal has been charged as an adult for the rash of stabbings after he was treated for injuries on his own hands at a local hospital.
After the Dec. 14, 2012 spree shooting at Sandy Hook School, Newtown, Conn., the president said: “We won’t be able to stop every violent act, but if there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try.”
The statement is a neat construct that basically concedes his proposals will not work, yet should be “tried” anyway because, because, because? Because of the wonderful things he does—dah, da-da, dah, da-da.
Just as an armed citizen would have ended the Newtown slaughter in seconds, not the 15 minutes it took the police to arrive, the spree stabbing in the Pittsburgh suburb would have been over quicker with a less miserable outcome if someone was armed at that school.
Further, just the hint that there might be armed citizens—let alone armed guards—at either one of those schools would have been enough to deter the sprees in the first place. This is not speculation. This is a simple fact.
Just to pile on, consider the peace and prosperity our country would have enjoyed had armed pilots been allowed on airliners the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
One of the great slogans in American politics is: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
As the slogan has become a tired cliché, we need to update the sentiment. Guns make communities more safe. Sadly, this point it starting to break through after the helpless victims lost at Aurora, Colo., the Navy Yard, Newtown and twice at Fort Hood.
The Democrats are losing the rhetorical battle when they argue that society is a safer place, when unarmed victims should be content to hide until they are killed.
I was at Camp Basra, Iraq when Nov. 5, 2009 Maj. Nidal M. Hasan went on his rampage. Then, the victims were soldiers preparing to deploy to Iraq. Then, one of my immediate thoughts was that it is one thing to hear that your loved one was killed deployed overseas to a hot war. It was another thing entirely, to be told that your loved one was killed waiting in line for a cursory dental screening or a review of paperwork to make sure your dependents were covered by Tricare.
When I heard about the most recent shooting, I shuddered at the thought that this was something completely avoidable, but for the Democrats’ refusal to restore gun rights. The same Democrats, led by Obama and enabled by the Republican leadership, that will exploit the deaths for political gain.
In USA Today coverage of the president, reporter Rick Jervis betrays his inner hack with this lede: “FORT HOOD, Texas – Same spot. Similar tragedy. Echoed sad words.” #wow #really
In defense of Jervis, USA Today is an extension of the White House communications staff, so why wouldn’t he sing backing harmonies to Obama’s dribble: “It is love, tested by tragedy that brings us together again.”
Of course, it goes without saying that armed military personnel would have ended the shooting quicker that it ended. In fact, it was the shot by a military policeman that missed the shooter that made him stop long enough to blow his own brain out.
It also goes without saying that Hassan was an agent of jihad against the United States, who operated openly because his superiors were afraid they would be accused of an anti-Muslim bias. Everyone knew he was hostile to the Army and the United States, yet he thrived in the Army and was promoted a few months before his killing spree.
Specialist Ivan Lopez was a hothead and criminal murderer, who grabbed his gun knowing Fort Hood personnel were still unarmed.
The only thing that is the same is that the dead are dead—and they died helplessly.
Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Human Event’s “Guns & Patriots” e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for “The Pilot,” Boston’s Catholic paper. He was also the editor of two free community papers, “The Somerville (Mass.) News and “The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.).”
