And cue the loons

Anytime I think I can't be disgusted or surprised by the right-wingers any more, along comes an incident that makes me realize - yup, sure can.

Case in point, the massacre at Virginia Tech, with 32 students and faculty killed by a wack job.

A wack job who was able to calmly walk into two different stores and get two different guns used in the killings with nothing more than a driver's licence and a checkbook.

But the bodies weren't even cold when the gun nuts started screaming that the reason the massacre happened is because, even though Virginia has some of the laxest gun laws in the nation - hell, half the gun crimes comitted in NYC are with guns bought legally in Virginia - VTech was a gun-free zone.

That's right. The problem, they say, isn't that there's no sensible gun control laws - it's that there's too much gun control.

These clowns proclaim that if only the other students were armed, well, they could have "taken him out," you know, just like in the movies.

And, oh yes, that's just what we need. A bunch of panicked college students firing wildly at this guy and everything around him. Or rumors flying on the panicked campus: "Hey, I think that guy's the gunman. Get him!"

Not to mention the disaster just waiting to happen by having a bunch of college kids walking around, getting shitfaced at keg parties, or cracking under finals pressure - and packing heat too. Genius.

But the most distasteful, disgusting voice from the right is one John Derbyshire, a writer for National Review Online, who said the real problem at VT was that the students were cowards, because no-one tried to take down the madman who was firing point blank into their classrooms:

"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."

I wish he'd have taken a run at the guy too. More likely, though, like most of his ilk - who talk tough about the Iraq War, but strangely never seem to quite find the time to volunteer for the military - he would be pissing in his pants and cowering under a desk.