Illinois Shooting Tragedy Pushes Election Off The Top, Mostly

Yesterday's shooting tragedy at Northern Illinois University was shocking late-breaking news event that pushed politics clear off the page and screen, at least for a while. I say "shocking" but of course it is, alas, less so than it would have been a year ago, after Virginia Tech but more recently after a spate of similar events like the Omaha mall shooting, Colorado church shooting, the Missouri City Hall shooting, as well as the three other school shootings — in the last week — in Louisiana, Tennessee, and California. So perhaps "shocking" is no longer the word.

The story took the top spot on all the nightly newscasts and was widely covered on cable, but not nearly the way Virginia Tech was almost a year ago. MSNBC broke in with the news at the end of the 4 p.m. hour with a detailed ongoing report, then went to the regularly-scheduled programming of Hardball and Tucker; on CNN, The Situation Room teased four top stories — three election-related — and led with the Romney-McCain endorsement before switching to coverage of the shooting. Though it made virtually all the front pages today (the Oregonian's top headline is particularly heart-stopping: "'Run, He's Reloading The Gun'"), it is surprisingly not one of the five-part switching top stories at Time.com (only a headline, no photo), though it is the second of six switching top stories at Newsweek.com. It has been the big story today on cable (in addition to the Bobby Cutts conviction), and was big on the morning shows, but though the story will likely appear at the top of the three evening newscasts this evening, none of the anchors will be traveling to DeKalb, Illinois for the story (as they all did for Virginia Tech and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, for example). As for the political media, the story has not yet cracked Politico.com with a political angle (which we've seen before), nor does it appear on The Page or First Read, and though it's been an above-the-fold top story here at the Huffington Post since yesterday afternoon, it's been one of the smaller headlines under the top box. Between the rush of the campaign and the shocking regularity of these shootings, it just doesn't seem as big of a story, particularly in light of the campaign.

Or is it? Between the rash of shootings and the shock of this story, could this become a campaign issue? Maybe — but probably not. Senator Barack Obama has already given a statement, but seems to show no intention of returning to his home state, where this tragedy happened — and no one seems to be asking about it. The sad fact is that we're in election season, and gun control is a well-known loser for the Democrats. It's been a non-issue thus far in the campaign; indeed, the only time I can recall seeing it really dealt with in a debate was in the CNN/YouTube debate with the guy who called his gun his "baby." That question was answered by Bill Richardson (background checks and no guns for mentally ill people!) and Joe Biden, who was just getting into it when moderator Anderson Cooper called "time." That was in July 2007; now it's February 2008. Only two Democratic candidates remain, and gun control is still not an issue. Will five school shootings in a single week change that? Will the fact that a kid on medication could purchase three handguns and a shotgun, walk into a packed lecture hall and use them change that? That will depend — on whether the candidates make it an issue, and on whether the media asks them about it.

Comments

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: No. Illinois College Terrible Tragedy Continued February 17, 2008


These terrible College tragedies point up the fact that we need guns to protect our children and ourselves!! We cannot let criminals harm us ever.

Furthermore, let me explain the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution people are discussing in reference to these terrible awful killing tragedies of students. The 2nd Amendment means that because the British Troops came over here and planted themselves in peoples' homes which was deeply resented and abused and offended the people thus the 2d Amendment was put in.

The famous patriot Patrick Henry feared the President would make himself King with an Army against Americans and put in 2nd Amendment to Constitution to guard against this. The book states though that this is not needed anymore since we have Congress to protect American citizens. They will protect ourselves and our children at colleges,schools,churches. Vanza Devereaux The Government of a Free Nation '63. I presume it means Armies,Navies,Marines,Air Force,etc. to protect Americans.

Eva Hart Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109 Rec job Sec of Def 64

[evahartselftlanguages]

TO: No. Illinois College Terrible Tragedy February 19,2008 Continued

Again, let me emphasize that we need to protect our schools with children by teachers and security having guns to do so. The more crimes exist the more we need weapons to protect ourselves. The criminal will always obtain a gun and if not a gun he can use something else maybe more ruthless and merciless than a gun to harm terribly someone. Why was there not security officers on campus to protect students? Why didn't the teacher have a gun to protect the students especially after awful Virginia Tech College massacre not that long ago? People sadly and tragically never learn. We must never let down our guard.

Again Patrick Henry, fiery orator and famous patriot, warned of the danger of a Preisdent's Army to harm the American people. This 2nd Amendment quieted fears people had putting in U.S. Constitution as well as First 10 Amendments to Constitution the "Bill of Rights."

In past I sent to T.V. Media L(although didn't put on TV and I got no reply) and put on blog on Huffingtonpost the fact we need to have "Walking Beat" police officers to protect people from crimes and terrible terrorists because if no one is around to see anything the crimes will happen. Having "Walking Beat" police officers around will prevent crimes. We must be smart too and have group of police officers, not just one police officer walking a beat so police officers would be protected smartly as well. Just having one or two is not enough. We do not want to send just one officer out on patrol on a "Walking Beat" for he would not be safe, but to have three or four police officers then all police officers would be safe and citizens would be safe as well.

Finally it is our Democratic Right to have police officers to protect and keep safe all American citizens. This is the police officers' job.

Eva Hart Christian In Army 62-70 670 Eddy St. Sfc 94109 Rec job Sec of Defense 64

[HowardRoarke]

Why is it always the same?

Something bad, no, tragic happens. And the people mourn. Then someone shouts we must prevent this from ever happening again, at any cost.

So we gladly throw away the liberties this nation was founded on to a government who says it will protect us. The 4th Amendment? Gone. Spy on me all you want, I have nothing to hide. The 2nd Amendment? Gone. I don't hunt. The 1st Amendment? Gone. I was offended to see that nipple/language/garbage and it is best if no one else sees it too.

I love America, but frankly some of you don't deserve her - those who don't understand why the Bill of Rights are the foundation of our freedoms. Their purpose is to give us the freedom to control our government, rather than have our government control us.

A government that spies on its citizens can coerce them, blackmail them, and single out troublemakers for personal, professional, or actual destruction. A government than judges which speech is not permissible is one that can operate unchallenged. A government which reserves all power and force to itself is one that can openly ignore the will of the people.

There are other ways to deal with tragedies than trashing our Constitution. But if that's the route you want to go, Cheney will be right behind you. He just wants to start with different Amendments.

[ProfessorDuh]

I agree. But the Constitution does not forbid reasonable control of weapons. We don't let people haul bazookas around, do we?

[PerryWhite]

The "kid" was 27.

[pizzmoe]

No, most politicians don't have the spine to deal with the NRA and gun control.

[1will]

and 80 million gun owners. 80 million gun owners of voting age.

[ProfessorDuh]

People have a right to defend themselves. But that doesn't change the fact that in America, guns are just a way for small, inarticulate, impotent men to make themselves feel important.

[Nuketroop]

What I want to know is how is the government going to get all the drug dealers/gang bangers/mafia thugs/rapists/kidnappers/serial killers/burglars/maniacs to turn in their guns if the 2nd is repealed? As a law abiding citizen, I'd have to report my weapons had fallen into the lake should the day come we loose the right to bear arms.

I live across the street from an elementary school. You better believe it if I heard shots coming from over there I'd get my armor on and go defend.

Read this http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm

[ProfessorDuh]

Yes, I'm sure you hoping into your armor would solve everything, Iron Man.

[ProfessorDuh]

By the way, you should realize that is just these kinds of Peter Gunn fantasies you indulge yourself in that make the rest of the world think Americans are retarded children.

[ProfessorDuh]

And another by the way. If you strapped on your guns and your armor and ran over to an elementary school to start blazing away, do you know what would happen? The police would shoot you in your empty head.

[rubicon101]

First off I'd want to give my sincere sympathies to all that have been affected by this horrible tragedy.
Something that strikes me is the fact that many of these tragedies of late is of people that have been not taking their antidepressant medications...could it be possible that the medications are poisoning us and our children...they have "meds" for kids now and everybody that has a problem there is a medication for...when I grew up, we had none of that and there were no killings of this sort.
Is it possible that being on these medications, than getting off of them creates so much anxienty that people go insane?
I'm not saying that this is the case but is it possible??
I think it is something where we need to find another way to deal with life without artificial labortory drugs. The drug companies will not assist us in this area...We need to look at ourselves, our mentors and our leaders to guide us.
Love and peace to all who have suffered from this sadness.

[screwedrus]

Don't get me wrong here, this shooting was a horrible tragedy and my heart breaks for the victims and their loved ones. I can't imagine the pain they're going through.

But this amount of carnage wouldn't even get a second glance if it had come out of Iraq.

We see a relatively small group of young people murdered and we're horrified if it happens here. Yet this is what the Iraqis are seeing multiple times every day. And often the victims are much, much younger.

The administration wants us to become so jaded that we don't even see them as human any more. Just numbers. Numbers that are so staggering that it's easy to forget all the pain and grief associated with each and every one of the innocent lives lost in Iraq.

Are some terrorists getting killed, too? Sure. But how many innocent Iraqis die for each terrorist (terrorists that we attracted to their country, by the way)? What's an acceptable ratio of civilian to terrorist? 10-1? 20-1? 100-1? I don't know. Do any of you? I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know.

Plus, don't forget the thousands of dead and tens of thousands of wounded U.S. soldiers that have been sacrificed on the altar of Bush's incompetency.

Anyway, I don't even know if I have an actual point to make. It just makes me stop and wonder what the hell is going on when our entire country stops and gasps in horror (and rightfully so) when a tragedy like this happens. But if this same number of deaths had happened in Iraq on one day the only shock would have been from the small number.

[VillageMutt]

Thanks Huffpost for not making this a top story and focusing on petty delegate counts. God forbid you should ask real questions of any of the pres candidates on issues of gun control or hate crimes or violence in our schools or teen suicide.

Stick with important things like veering from what your original objective was – to expose hypocrisy and inadequacies in our political, judicial and social systems.

Better to worry about Obama getting the nod than children killing children.

You’ve become what you first stood to fight for…hot air with no substance.

[ObamaEdwards]

GUN CONTROL IS NOT THE SOLUTION. Having a stable and compassionate government led by a sane president who inspires people to help one another, is the solution.

You don't want to admit this, because it's complex and it takes time. Changing a gun law is simple and short-term. We need to try harder to be more sympathetic to all individuals in need. As Bowling for Columbine demonstrated, other nations with guns don't have our violence problem. We have to adopt more compassionate policies, social programs, and personal attitudes, if we want long-term social stability and a decrease in these incidents.

You can easily get people to cry out against guns. But can you get people to take more care with one another? I challenge you to try.

[frozen01]

Bowling for Columbine did make some great points about how other nations don't have the violence issues that we have (especially recently) but who in their RIGHT MIND would allow someone taking psychiatric medication to purchase multiple guns?
It's one of those things that you hear and immediately think "Isn't there some kind of LAW against that?"
My brother-in-law and his girlfriend, a close friend of mine, are both NIU students. She actually witnessed the shooting, watched people running for their lives, screaming, and recalled to me that the most vivid thing for her was a woman running towards her with blood gushing down her arm. She frantically sent text messages to all her fellow students to warm them to get the hell out. After the chaos was brought down to a murmur, she found out that her roommate's boyfriend is dead and her roommate and good friend is in the hospital in critical condition. All because of a man who shouldn't have had a gun, much less MULTIPLE guns, in the first damn place.
Life goes on, and we're trying our best to give her some kind of normalcy, but she'll have those images in her mind for the rest of her life. She, like the other NIU students, will spend the rest of their lives wondering why their fellow students are dead.
This nutjob was under care. And yet he LEGALLY purchased guns and murdered 6 people. Sometimes, being neighborly just doesn't cut it.

[LibsRway2funny]

This guy could have used a SUV to do the same amount of senseless damage like this moron did last night!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/16/drag.race.deaths.ap/

Drag racing is ILLEGAL yet some dumbs ass decides he's cool and ends up killing 7 innocent people.

Perhaps we should ban automobiles? Imagine the lives that would be saved!

[mousesoup]

Yes, who in there right minds would let someone taking psychiatric medication own a gun? Never mind that, statistically, the mentally ill are no more likely to commit acts of violence than the general population, they are only more likely to be portrayed that way on television and in movies.

Which particular prescriptions do you think should nullify someone's constitutional rights? And how would you enforce this common sense ban of yours? Have a Federal database that doctors submit names to whenever they diagnose someone with a mental illness? Sure, that's common sense, who in their RIGHT MIND would not approve of that?

If we are going to take away someones right to own a gun, it should be based on a previous history of violence, not whether someone takes medication or not. The mentally ill suffer terribly and are stigmatized enough without people like Hillary saying "we’ve got to figure out how to get guns out of the hands of criminals, terrorists, gang members and people with mental health problems". I'm sure the millions of people in America who suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems really appreciate being lumped in with criminals and terrorists. Hillary is an opportunist; she goes after the mentally ill because it is politically popular right now. I though Obama demonstrated a lot more class and wisdom in his remarks following this horrible tragedy.

Of course I was shocked and saddened by what happened; my heart goes out to your friends and anyone else affected by this senseless violence. There is a debate worth having about what could be done to prevent these kind of attacks, I just would like to see people avoid the kind of knee-jerk histeria that characterized our country after 9/11. Instead of pointing self-righteous fingers and trying to score political points off this tragedy, let's console the victims and put the blame squarely where it belongs: on the shoulders of one evil individual.

[Hirnlego]

The media should refrain from publishing the picture and name of the madmen who is responsible for the deeds.

Do not give them that.

Others will take note and will try something similar

[LibsRway2funny]

I couldn't agree with your more!!

Let's honor the innocent lives, list their names, pictures and positive attributes instead of giving of this murderer the glory of "front page" status.

[Malarkey]

Repeal the 2nd Amendment! It's complete bullshit.

I am not going to sit here and comply with what gun-loving wackos want in order to think they're free.

This kind of shooting disaster is happening time and time again at an alarming rate. WHY ARE PEOPLE SUCH MENTAL ROBOTS? WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?

Outlaw guns, shut down gun manufacturing facilities, and arrest the makers of bullets.

[screwedrus]

After that we could arrest auto makers! Yeah, that's it. Outlaw any sort of motorized vehicle. After all, they kill more people every day than guns.

Then we'll go after knives and knife manufacturers. Those damn things are sharp!

Sorry, I'm not trying to bust your balls. I respect your opinion. But idiots who want to kill people will do it any way they can. It's not like a gun was whispering in this sick fuck's ear.

No guns sounds wonderful. But the only people that will suffer from that are the law-abiding citizens. Do you really think a psychopath like that is going to give a shit if the gun he's buying is legal or not?

I hope you never have the opportunity to need a firearm to protect yourself or your family. But I guarantee you that when that time comes you'll wish you had one. I've been there, and I'll tell you right now the only reason my family and I stayed safe was the sound of me racking the action on my 20 gauge. I didn't even have the damn thing loaded. All it took was the sound.

Now I'm all for MUCH stricter rules as far as who can legally acquire firearms. But, again, a criminal or psycho won't give a shit.

I just can't see a "My Pretty Pony" kind of utopia coming from repealing the 2nd Amendment. It's just a knee-jerk simplistic reaction to a very complex social problem. It's not a "magic bullet" solution if you'll pardon the pun.

[Sandmann]

Ugh...Not again with the 'ol repeal the 2d Amendment cry.
The media delivers another school shooting story and the public panics like it's armageddon:
-Repeal the 2d Amendment
-It's a Disaster
-Metal Detectors and RFID chips
-"Alarming rate" soundbytes abound
-Arrest the gun manufacturers
-It all started with Janet Jackson's breast
**These people have no sense of personal responsibility**
Maybe it was bad parenting, maybe these kids are sick of having their individuality stripped for "the greater good", maybe they are strung out on prescription drugs (which seem to be a parental replacement doled out like sweet-tarts).
I never knew a kid I grew up with on anti-depressants, somehow we made it though--ADD, Restless Leg Syndrome, Depression be damned. Maybe tough love is in need of a comeback.
Just quit blaming everyone but yourselves for things that go wrong...and please quit flipping out evertime the media presents you with a new (great for ratings) death and destruction story.
BTW: You calling people mental robots is truly the "pot calling the kettle black", because it is you, and those of like-mind who are the ones being controlled by a culture of fear.

[sandiegoconservative]

We had a stabbing here in San Diego last night, where a guy who was drinking and smoking a large amount of weed flipped out and stabbed a guy in front of his complex.

Not that Malarkey is one of them, but- I laugh when I see the same people on here giving all of this nonsense talk about outright bans on weapons and gun laws which do not make sense, then advocate for alcohol rights and drug use rights. It never ceases to amaze me.

There is such a thing as responsible gun ownership and ban or not, bad people will get their hands on them and use them in a bad way. Just like bad people do with alcohol or cars, or knives, or their fists, etc. When are we going to ban those as well? Almost everyone who owns a firearm uses it and stores it safely, yet most people fail to realize that the criminals who use guns don't care about the laws for them.

There are about 25-30k people killed per year in gun-related deaths, depending on which stat finder you want to use. Some are valid killings by police or in defense of oneself. Some are accidental and quite a few are either intentional or reckless.

There are about 18-20k people killed in drunk or impaired driving driving deaths.

There are a large number of people who are murdered using other methods as well.

When are you going to start advocating for outlaws of those items? My guess is tonight a lot of you will read this after having a few beers or using some recreational drugs and will fail to realize how hypocritical you are . . .

[LibsRway2funny]

Mararkey,, you're an idiot plan and simple.

Go here and tell me if we should outlaw cars.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/16/drag.race.deaths.ap/

[jesuswazasocialist]

In Australia we have a Police Force that does an outstanding job of protecting the ordinary citizen and their property.
Is not the American Police Force good enough to protect you? Is that why everyone needs a gun.
Maybe you should just get rid of your Local Law Enforcement agencies if they are so hopeless.

[loki]

Just like they did at Port Arthur when 32 died
Or in Melbourne last year
Or how about the Asian gangs in Melbourne and Sydney who are slaying people with swords for a couple years now. Now thats interesting..

The police can only do so much. No matter where you live.

[1will]

The majority of our law enforcement officers are very profesional and do an outstanding job. They can't be everywhere at once.

[Fernando]

My heartfelt sympathies to the families affected by this.

The reason why this hasn't gotten more coverage is a welcome one; the copycat effect was evident after Virginia Tech and Columbine. It would be odd not to report it at all but I the rationale behind it is valid. When some jerk runs naked through the field in a baseball game the TV station does not cover it, because the attention they get excites others to do the same.

No one is putting politics above this. It is a concerted effort by TV stations to prevent further shootings by not perpetuating the attention they get.

[loki]

My sympathies go out to all those and their families involved in this horrible act.

I dont condone this, but I will say after hearing just how bad Universities and Colleges are screwing students with over charges, high pressure push to have students take out students loans, these stupid student ID debit cards called Higher One that charge students fees and charges even if they dont use the card, and suck what little funds the students have for school dry without their knowledge, then add in the pressures of school, trying to buy books to keep up with class while the schools hold onto the student loans so they can collect interest on them, the way the school personnel and consolers arrogantly and sometimes rudely blow off or just ignore student concerns, and all the daily problems, Im surprised you dont see more of this nowadays.
When Universities became corporations and worried more about the bottom line, they went to the , we dont care who we screw or how hard we screw them, we want the money, I have heard many stories of students who are on the edge and ready to blow. Many just quite and eat the student loan. But I wouldnt be surprised if some have considered doing more. I hope they dont.

[frozen01]

So you think his actions are JUSTIFIED?
Being stressed out over bills is NORMAL. Going psycho and killing 6 people is NOT.