After the shooting deaths of a Roanoke, Va. TV news crew shocked the nation Wednesday, the calls for gun control immediately began pouring in.
Hillary Clinton weighed in with her hope that the tragedy would spur action to restrict the availability of firearms. “[I]f guns were not so readily available, if we had universal background checks…maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage,” Clinton told an Iowa crowd Wednesday. (RELATED: Hillary Responds To Shooting Of Journalists: Hopefully Now We Will Act)
President Obama said that the heartbreaking incident proved why America needs to enact legislation to combat America’s gun problem.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff stated that the most important lessons to draw from the Roanoke shooting was that this country needs more regulations on gun purchases.
But let’s be clear: no currently proposed gun restrictions would have prevented the tragedy.
Firstly, the shooter, Vester Flanagan, used a handgun instead of an assault rifle or another firearm which has been proposed for banning.
In any case, Flanagan would have probably passed one of the stricter background checks favored by the gun control lobbies with flying colors. He had no prior criminal record and no diagnosed mental illness.
The killer also could’ve used any weapon he wanted to commit his horrible act. Wide-ranging gun control would have probably encouraged him to use a knife instead of a handgun.
Which brings us to the real cause of the senseless slaughter: the twisted mind of Vester Flanagan. Mental health is the primary factor for why these maniacs killed innocent people.
But unlike James Holmes or Jared Loughner, Flanagan’s mental instability didn’t stem from a traditionally diagnosed illness. As far as we can tell, his irrational rage was engineered by a culture that encourages resentment and glorifies imagined injustices.
The fired TV newsman liked to blame his failures on racism — in spite of all evidence showing that notion to be false. Flanagan filed a discrimination lawsuit against a former employer. It was quickly thrown out in court. He claimed his victim, Alison Parker, used a racial slur in his presence. There is no evidence to substantiate that claim. (RELATED: Here’s What We Know About Vester Lee Flanagan)
Flanagan also declared in his manifesto that he wanted to start a race war with his murderous act. He said the coverage of the Charleston church massacre was the “tipping point” and inspired him to violence. (RELATED: In Manifesto, TV Shooter Said He Was ‘Human Powder Keg’ Sparked By Charleston Shooting)
It’s abundantly clear there was a racial motivation to the killings. It’s little wonder how the media’s coverage of Dylann Roof’s rampage would justify more bloodshed in the mind of a loose cannon like Flanagan.
There is no question Roof was motivated by racial hate to gun down nine black church goers in Charleston — but media outlets sought to blame “white America” as a whole for the killer’s personal inhumanity. Confederate flags and antiquated street names were all held up as examples of America’s supposedly endemic racism.
Numerous articles were penned that demanded white Americans take responsibility for the madman’s atrocity. TV reports were filed that looked into how white society caused the slaughter. Blame was thrown in every light-colored direction, except at the personal mind of Dylann Roof.
Unfortunately, racial resentment is not the only kind our society supports. Sexual resentment, age resentment, trans resentment, beauty resentment, skinny resentment — the list could go on forever. Those who feel that they are mistreated or oppressed can take comfort in the knowledge that our culture sees injustice everywhere, and failures are not the result of personal actions but of structural inequalities.
This is how Vester Flanagan thought. It’s also how his heroes — the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho — viewed the world. Those school shooters committed violence because of their hate, resentment and perceived social isolation. Just like Flanagan.
It’s no wonder why Flanagan praised Harris, Klebold and Cho in his manifesto.
The cliche phrase “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people” is overused because it carries a kernel of truth. Gun control wouldn’t have saved Alison Parker and Adam Ward from the sick motives of Vester Flanagan.
We need to stop blaming the tools these mass shooters use and look to what drove them to murder. In Flanagan’s case, the media and the politicians who love to stir up racial unrest should take a good look in the mirror.
For this man was a monster they helped create.