The march of the wingnuts

Via Lindsay we get a list of all the wingnuts who have taken to blaming the victims for yesterday's slaughter at Virginia Tech. The blame is being cast all over the place, including taking a shot at co-ed dorms as the root cause for someone going right of their nut.

By far the worst out there, however, is that admirer of 15-year old girls, John Derbyshire.

As NRO's designated chickenhawk, let me be the one to ask: Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren't very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can't hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren't bad.

Yes, yes, I know it's easy to say these things: but didn't the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It's true—none of us knows what he'd do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I'd at least take a run at the guy.

First, Derbyshire admits he's a chickenhawk, and we can use any definition of that word that we want to.

Second, Derbyshire has a point: Why didn't all those students count the shots? I mean, there was fuck all else going on at the time, right?!

Derbyshire then suggests, based on his own pathetic markmanship, that the shooter couldn't possibly have been that good. This leap of logic defies all facts. The guy managed to kill 33 people and send several others to hospital in critical condition. Then there is the suggestion that a .22 round can't do any real damage. I wonder what kind of blubbering mess Derbyshire would become if somebody grazed his earlobe with a .22 round?

Finally, there is the Derbyshire bravado that, given he was probably going to die anyway, he'd rush the guy. Really. How, pray tell, would he do that while he's slipping in his own shit just trying to stay on his feet?

Salvage decided not to let Derbyshire get away with it and sent him an email... to which Derbyshire replied. That alone indicates that Derbyshire is more of an idiot than we all realize and Salvage makes the point well. His exchange is definitely worth reading.

James Wolcott finds the wanker community picking on another target, namely the gun control community fronted by Sarah Brady, whose husband Jim Brady took a bullet in the head during the March 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

Roy, at Alicublog takes on a wingnut who can't seem to understand why the shooter wasn't dealt with before because he seemed weird. The wingnut is Ace O Spades, who has a history of odd behaviour and Roy is only too willing to point it out and suggest that Ace's idea has some merit.

If we lived in the kind of world Mr. Spades favors, he'd be in a nuthouse quicker than you could say Preventive Detention. For the moment we live in another kind of world, and one which I prefer -- though it's nice to know that, once that other world comes around, it will have an upside.

And there's more. Lots more. Because the wingnuts just can't stand it when reality doesn't look like an episode of 24.