Asian Kids with Guns

Debbie Schlussel:

So, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre is a Chinese national here on a student visa. And, today, this alien did “the job that Americans just won’t do.”

Odious, indeed. And incomprehensibly stupid. While it’s axiomatic that a well-enforced ban on Chinese immigrants would have prevented this tragedy, it’s no more so than saying that, had we rounded up everyone named “Oswald” and put them in a concentration camp in October 1960, John Kennedy might still be alive today.

Surely, those Asian students studying engineering at Virginia Tech are providing some benefit that could be weighed against the risk that there’s another mass murderer among them?

FILED UNDER: Blogosphere, Borders and Immigration, Guns and Gun Control, Law and the Courts, , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Matt says:

    I can never tell if she wants to be the next-generation Fred Phelps or if she’s just the world’s biggest attention whore.

  2. James,

    She even brings up the Tampa School bus story. What Debbie fails to do, is mention the outcome of that.

    http://thefloridamasochist.blogspot.com/2006/06/harmless.html

    Alot of the anti-immigration or anti-islam ranting in the conservative blogosphere is thinly veiled bigotry. Little brains, just pure hate.

    Bill

  3. LaurenceB says:

    It was hard to mistake the bigoted subtext of the comments I heard from Michael Savage on the radio yesterday. Nothing would please him more than to see a gay, illegal alien, Arab go on a shooting spree.

    Savage is a truly odious person. And I’m not in the habit of making that kind of statement lightly.

  4. Anderson says:

    What did these people say about Timothy McVeigh?

  5. cian says:

    Just like a gun, a blog in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing too.

  6. not the senator says:

    And of course, even here she got it wrong since he was Korean.

  7. legion says:

    Wow. After a quick glance at the article & the reader comments, I truly fear to see what the more professional asshats, bigots, and hatemongers in the comment threads at LGF or Powerline have to say [shudder].

    And Matt, I’m pretty sure she’s both a bigot _and_ a huge attentiopn whore. Lord knows there’s enough overlap in that crowd…

  8. Bithead says:

    A bigot? I doubt it.

    Guilty of writing before she’s thought this through, and speaking in fear? Far more likely.

    I note her reference to the arab/Muslim surnamed people…. Oh, come on…I mean, is she really suggesting that Chinese nationals who are exchange students, are a threat based on some kind of ideology endemic to the breed? Based on, what, exactly?

  9. legion says:

    Bithead,
    From her unrestrained glee that it might have been a Muslim shooter, to her slurs of Pakistanis, to her reaction to the report of the shooter being Chinese – yeah, she’s a bigot. Don’t buy it? go here and scroll through the comments to see her insistent defense of the use of the term ‘Paki’. Her comments are easy to spot – THEY’RE THE ONES IN ALL CAPS.

  10. Anderson says:

    A bigot? I doubt it.

    bigot, n. – a person who is characterized by prejudice or intolerance.

    Uh, yeah, she’s a bigot.

  11. Bandit says:

    bigot, n. – a person who is characterized by prejudice or intolerance.

    Uh, yeah, she’s a bigot.

    Take a look in the mirror

  12. Bithead says:

    We’re all bigots by that description, ANderson… the definition you offer is useless, in context.

    It comes down to what we will and will not tolerate, anymore as to who lgets that particular label.

    And be honest, Legion; would the shooter being muslim shock you at all? It wouldn’t most people, post 9/11. Is that bigotry, or hard learned experience, talking? I say the latter.

  13. Rick DeMent says:

    If Asians are outlawed, only outlaws will have Asians…

    Scary…

  14. Rick says:

    My fears are realized. As an Asian male, I knew this type of bigotry and racism would occur. First, the shooter was Korean, not Chinese. For those bigots who refuse to tell the difference, I ask you to tell us the difference between German and French or Dutch and Swedish. You could tell us they are not the same. True, same as with Koreans and Chinese. Pick up a book one day.

  15. G.A.Phillips says:

    Rick, We are all human beings created for God’s pleasure but it’s so easy when something goes wrong to blame the closest thing that we perceive to be the cause of it, and why is it so hard to keep such a simple and perfect commandment as “you should love one another”, I would say that it’s all our own fault from turning away from the one true God and the plan he has for us, so I just want to say their is a way to take away your fear but not your realization of the ways of the world.

  16. legion says:

    And be honest, Legion; would the shooter being muslim shock you at all? It wouldn’t most people, post 9/11. Is that bigotry, or hard learned experience, talking?

    Bithead,
    Actually, I’d say bigotry. Because I don’t think that expectation is reflected in reality. Aside from that one fruitloop who drove his car through a college campus awhile back, I can’t think of any specific incident along these lines linked to Muslims. The guy shooting up his office in Detroit last week wasn’t Muslim. The guy who killed a woman outside CNN in Atlanta wasn’t a Muslim. The kids who shot up Columbine weren’t Muslim.

    So in the absence of such attacks being carried out by Muslims, I gotta say – yeah, that’s bigotry.

  17. Bithead says:

    I can’t think of any specific incident along these lines linked to Muslims.

    Really? I guess you HAVE forgotten, eh?

  18. legion says:

    Don’t be pedantic, Bithead. Using 9-11 as an excuse to expect violence from all Muslims, or to assume Muslims are behind horrid attacks like this, proves my point – it’s bigotry.

  19. Jim Henley says:

    Alot of the anti-immigration or anti-islam ranting in the conservative blogosphere is thinly veiled bigotry.

    Veiled? Veiled????

    As if.

  20. All those who want to turn this tragedy into a justification for xenophobia need to be reminded that Liviu Librescu, the professor who sacrificed himself to save his students, was also a foreigner.

  21. Bithead says:

    Don’t be pedantic, Bithead. Using 9-11 as an excuse to expect violence from all Muslims, or to assume Muslims are behind horrid attacks like this, proves my point – it’s bigotry.

    Nonsense. 9/11 was merely the beginning. Or had you forgotten the other locations around the world both after… and come to think on it, before 9/11, which were Muslim attacks on the west?
    (Spain, England, Germany, etc)

  22. John Burgess says:

    Schlussel can take her choice in how she’s characterized:

    A) A bigot
    B) An ignorant and hate-filled promoter of stereotypes who’s quick with knee-jerk reactions
    C) A general, all-purpose tosser
    D) A prototypical blogger with lots of opinion but little knowledge

    Any and all explain why she’s eminently ignorable.

  23. Anderson says:

    The latest reports show that the killer was … an English major.

    Obviously, it’s time for America as a nation to re-evaluate whether we should continue to allow the teaching of literature on college campuses. Isn’t one student’s life worth all the sonnets ever written???

  24. Bithead says:

    Burgess;

    One of the problems with running a current events blog, that involves politics and social issues, is the necessity for shooting from the hip. This occasionally will allow fear to sneak into one’s comments. I suspect that’s what’s going on here.

    Given the size and scope of what it is she’s reacting to, her comments, while incorrect, are certainly understandable.

  25. Michael says:

    For those bigots who refuse to tell the difference, I ask you to tell us the difference between German and French or Dutch and Swedish. You could tell us they are not the same.

    I wouldn’t count on it. Bigotry usually requires an extremely high level of ignorance about anything beyond one’s self. Most bigots probably couldn’t locate France, Germany, Sweden or the Netherlands on a map. Heck, most wouldn’t even know that the Dutch are from the Netherlands

  26. Michael says:

    Bithead:

    “I can’t think of any specific incident along these lines linked to Muslims.”

    Really? I guess you HAVE forgotten, eh?

    Don’t be an ass, he was talking about individual shooting rampages as revenge for perceived personal offenses.

    You knew that but chose to build a straw man anyway. If you can’t respond to what is being said, just don’t respond.