15 Years After Columbine, How "Never Again" Became "Oh Well"

[Bazinga]

152. But it's not the families.

There is a big difference between contempt for the victims and their families (which absolutely no one has) and contempt for those who would use those victims to push an agenda that would never help those victims in the first place.

Those families deserve nothing less than our most heart-felt condolences, aid in coping with such a terrible tragedy, and every effort to prevent such tragedies in the future. Let them tell their stories as often as they wish to as large an audience as they can to encourage whatever measures they wish to promote, be it universal background checks, safe storage, mental health, gun-free zones, assault weapons bans, or anything else.

However, when one attempts to speak for them or use them as an example to promote some safety measure, they had better be sure that the measure proposed would actually help the victims or prevent others from becoming victims in like manner. Otherwise they are simply using the tragedy for their own benefit.

In essence what they are saying is "Look at these families who were victimized in a gun-free zone in a state with a strict assault weapons ban. We should should make all schools gun-free zones and pass a nation-wide assault weapons ban so that no one else becomes a victim like these people."

Doesn't that seem a bit disingenuous?