A Few Shiny Pebbles

At the Barking Moonbat Blog, a really great blog—check it out!—the Skipper has a post listing some of the European reactions to the Virginia Tech murders. As to be expected, they mostly deal with how rotten we are in America and how we have a lax gun control system. It is a matter of “the usual suspects”, or in this case, “the usual griping”. When I read the quote from the German Bild, I thought it was interesting for several reasons (Emphasis mine.):

Now we will probably begin discussing the overly lax gun laws in the United States. There, buying a machine gun is often easier than getting a driver’s license. And a new ban on violent games and killer videos will also be put back on the agenda. But in the end, nothing is likely to happen. And the next killer already lives somewhere among us. But we have little reason to point an accusing finger at the Americans. Despite strict gun legislation, we (in Germany) have experienced the school shootings in Erfurt and Emsdetten. We have to consider the problems in our society. And we have to take care of our fellow humans.

The reporter is wrong, of course, about machine guns, but that’s a typical gripe. What I find more interesting is that it actually mentions the fact that even with their strict gun control they have had such school shootings in Germany, and that it means that they have to “consider the problems in our [German] society”. I would normally think, “Maybe there’s hope that people will start realizing it’s not the guns that kill people,” and other such hopelessly optimistic thoughts. But instead, I remembered two other articles I read recently. They bring a spotlight to bear on the line that I emphasized in the quote: “And the next killer already lives somewhere among us.”

The first is an excerpt from an article about how the EU is pressuring the UN into a world-wide ban on the Death Penalty:

The European Union has vowed to step up efforts aimed at a global ban of the death penalty in the wake of the recent executions of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and two of his aides.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said on Tuesday the bloc was planning to submit a resolution to the United Nations to put the moratorium on the agenda of the UN General Assembly.

"We all believe that the death penalty is something that should be rejected," her colleague, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, told reporters after informal talks with his and Zypries' EU counterparts in the eastern German city of Dresden.

"The EU will continue to campaign for a worldwide abolition," he stressed.

I guess even murdering, burning, using a wood-chipper to kill, torture, rape, biochemical murder methods, and all of the other means Saddam Hussein used to destroy and murder people still isn’t enough for the Death Penalty according to the sanctimonious EU and others. This really sickens me. It’s bad enough that they think imprisonment is a proper penalty for all murders, not even separating out the Saddam Husseins of the world. But, combine this idea of imprisonment as the highest penalty with the knowledge about the fact—and it is a fact—that the next mass killer in Germany (or anywhere else) is already alive and paying attention to decisions on crime and punishment, makes the information in the next article obscene [Emphasis mine.]:

“GERMANS FREE RADICAL KILLER AFTER 24 YRS” Reuters

March 26, 2007 -- BERLIN - Germany freed ex-Red Army Faction militant Brigitte Mohnhaupt yesterday, more than 24 years after imprisoning her for her role in radical left-wing killings that rocked West Germany in the 1970s.

Mohnhaupt, 57, co-led the RAF, aka the Baader-Meinhof Gang, which left an indelible mark on this nation through a series of abductions, murders, bombings and robberies.

A court last month ordered Mohnhaupt, who was sentenced to five life terms for kidnappings and murders that peaked during the so-called German Autumn of 1977, freed on five years' probation after completing the minimum [life] term under German law.

Her release comes as President Horst Koehler weighs pardoning her colleague Christian Klar, also in prison 24 years.

Founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF rose from the student protests and anti-Vietnam War movement of the late '60s. Suspected of killing 34 people from 1972 to 1991, it disbanded in 1998.

Five life terms for kidnappings and murders. What was it the Bild reporter said? “And the next killer already lives somewhere among us.” Well, yes, he does.

And he must be laughing his head off.