[Vision2020] Can We Accept Another Virginia Tech? (Bob Schieffer)

[Tom Hansen]

>From Bob Schieffer's closing commentary on today's (April 22, 2007) "Face
the Nation" -

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Can We Accept Another Virginia Tech?
By Bob Schieffer

Not since 9/11 can I remember a worse week than the one we have just
experienced. 

This week the death toll in Iraq went even higher; hundreds died as the
government prepared to send more American troops into the war zone. Yet I
don't remember even a casual conversation about that as the unimaginable
tragedy unfolded at Virginia Tech. 

Reporters love to cover big stories, but there was no joy in our Washington
bureau which carried the biggest part of the load in covering the Virginia
Tech horror - for our people, there was only revulsion and a sense of duty
that such things must be covered. 

It was what happened in the days and hours after the shooting that I found
most depressing. In the wake of 9/11, people demanded action. This time it
was different. 

This time, public officials reacted with despair, even resignation - despair
that no one seems to know what to do, resignation that these things are
going to happen from time to time as long as guns are available to the
mentally deranged, and because powerful forces oppose tightening the gun
laws, there is just not much that can be done about it. 

This is an enormously complicated subject. There is no magic quick fix,
including more gun laws. But Virginia Tech must have shown us one thing: The
current safeguards are not working, and unless something changes, it IS only
a matter of time until what we saw - or something worse - happens again. The
question that keeps running in my mind is: As a people, are we prepared to
accept that?

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho