Leonid Bershidsky writes on Russia, Europe and technology for Bloomberg View. That’s not surprising, what is surprising is the pro-gun article he wrote and got published on the Albuquerque Journal:
Russians had considered their country immune to the kind of school violence that the U.S. has suffered in incidents such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings and the Columbine High School massacre. Now, 15-year-old Sergei Gordeyev has disabused them of that notion, killing a teacher and a cop at his school in northern Moscow.
News of the shooting, which occurred around midday Monday, immediately prompted comparisons to the United States. “Have we caught the American disease?” user Tanya Morozova wrote on the Russian social network Vkontakte. “It’s all about American movies and cartoons,” user Nadir Kuramshin tweeted. “Kids ought to be brought up on Soviet or Russian ones so they do not seize schools like they do in America.”
Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/348501
No Tanya, you have caught Bloomberg’s disease, making blatant statements about isolated incidents.
Pundits and officials expressed similar sentiments. Television and radio commentator Sergei Dorenko told the website actualcomment.ru that more instruction in Russian literature would be the cure. “We must draw conclusions from the monstrous examples that take place almost daily in the U.S.,” parliament security committee chief Irina Yarovaya said.
Gun-Tootin’ Putin
Really? I doubt reading Dostoyevsky is going to make a diffence: Besides, let’s take a look at Russian Gun Laws:
In Russia, only licensed gun owners24 25 may lawfully acquire, possess or transfer a firearm or ammunitionGenuine Reason Required for Firearm Possession
Applicants for a gun owner’s licence in Russia are required to prove genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example, hunting, target shooting, collection, personal protection, security2Gun Licence Background Checks
Gun Owner Licensing Period
In Russia gun owners must re-apply and re-qualify for their firearm licence every five years27
Regulation of Handguns
In Russia, private possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) is prohibited23
Civilian Gun Registration
Carrying Guns Openly in Public
Yet all those stupid laws did not stop the following:
Gordeyev was reportedly an A student in the 10th grade (the equivalent of a U.S. high school junior) at School 263 in northern Moscow. He showed up at the school with his father’s hunting carbine and rifle, forced the school guard to let him in, and walked into a biology class. He fired at geography and biology teacher Andrei Kirillov, 29, and, finding him still alive, killed him with another shot to the head. The sensationalist website Life.ru reported, after speaking with Gordeyev’s classmates, that the shooter was mad at the teacher for giving him grades that could spoil his perfect A record. Gordeyev’s true motives, however, remain unclear. He told the class after shooting Kirillov: “I am very scared of death. I wanted to see it up close.”
By the time Gordeyev shot the teacher, the guard downstairs had hit his alarm button, and police promptly arrived. The 15-year-old opened fire at them, killing police sergeant Sergei Bushuev and gravely wounding another officer. Later, Gordeyev’s father reached him on his mobile phone, persuading him to release the hostages and drop the guns from a window.
Which is why the former head of the KGB (Putin) wants to “We need to educate a new generation of spectators with a good taste in art, an understanding and appreciation of theater, drama and music,” he said. “And if we did this right, maybe there would be no tragedies like the one that occurred in Moscow.”
But wait, it gets worse:
Ultranationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested that all guns be confiscated from citizens and stored for them at police stations. He also said that Gordeyev must have seen too many films and TV shows about school shootings in the U.S.
The article itself admits that “Russia already has strict gun controls. Obtaining a gun license is an obstacle course that includes medical and criminal background checks. The fact that this did not prevent Gordeyev’s crime suggests that a determined shooter will be able to obtain a weapon.”
The rest of the article explains that “Russian schools are run by scum,” that teachers bully the students, and are sadistic, that teenagers can react violently to stress.
Russia should wake up to the enormous body of research in school shootings that exists in the U.S. and start looking for ways to reduce social stress in the school system. In a country without a tradition of school violence, prevention might work better than it does in the U.S., where, despite growing awareness of the problem, the number of violent deaths at schools has been fairly stable over the last 20 years.
Well said, Leonid, I would also suggest having armed guards and giving those teachers that desire a gun for self-protection, the opportunity to get one. That is a far better tactic than Zhirinovsky’s Stalinist practices or Putin’s culture war against America.
Of course, The Alantic disagrees:
Convincing the broader population of the need to expand gun rights in Russia, where the murder rate is higher than any country in Europe, will likely be a difficult proposition.
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/russias-emerging-gun-lobby/266512/
Will it? Maybe if the Russian put on their thinking put on their thinking Ushankas they will realize that all the gun control they had did nothing for them, so why not try freedom instead?
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Gregory Smith