Madam, - Will George W. Bush do anything about the weapons of mass destruction so freely available in his own country? Not a chance. - Yours, etc,
JOHN SHEEDY, Pine Valley, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Madam, - Your front-page report of April 18th says that "police identified the gunman responsible for the worst mass killing in US history".
The scale of the event in Virginia is horrific, as the related lack of gun control is tragic. However, I suspect that somewhere out there, a Native American is penning an historical correction. - Yours, etc,
DAVID O'GORMAN, Delgany, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - I wonder if the deaths of 200 people in Iraq on Wednesday received blanket news coverage in the US on the scale of that accorded the horror in Virginia. May I draw a link between the two massacres?
Is it any wonder that so many Americans resort to violence, particularly the gun, when their government's answer to everything is to go to war?
The sale of guns is a multi-billion dollar industry in the US. The deaths of a few college students are a small price to pay, it seems. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY, Viking Harbour, Ushers Island, Dublin 8.
Madam, - As a graduate of the University of Virginia and a former resident of that state I read with dismay your Editorial of April 18th and the article written by Dr Gerard Toal. Let us not forget that many young people of promise have lost their lives at Virginia Tech this week, nor should we forget to pause in grief for the loss of Prof Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who bravely lost his life as he protected the students in his classroom.
In my view, in these first few days, it behoves us to express some dignified sympathy and compassion from across the Atlantic rather than, as outsiders, to engage hastily in vitriolic rhetoric regarding the undeniably controversial (within the US also) gun laws. Nor should we, in my view, observe this tragedy by allowing ourselves to indulge in dismissive cultural stereotyping of a most reprehensible nature.
Your Editorial describes a prevalent climate of "embitterment and violence" in the entire state of Virginia, "the cultural centre of the US military" (whatever that means to your readers); and Dr Toal repeats a version of your words when he describes an entire nation of 279 million people as being "anxious, insecure, embittered and violent" and suffering from "an unhinged contemporary condition".
It is one thing to criticise current government policy, quite another to condemn a whole nation. - Yours, dtc,
Prof IRENE LYNCH FANNON (SJD, School of Law, University of Virginia, 1999), Faculty of Law, University College Cork.
PS: No self-respecting liberal in the US, many of whom I count as friends, would ever describe their country as "America", as Dr. Toal does. "The US" is the appropriate and correct political term, particularly in the context of federal and state laws, as the use of the term America is inaccurate and considered to be imperialist and disrespectful, not only to Canada but also to the countries of South America.
Madam, - I must admit to being puzzled by your editorial of April 18th about the tragedy in Virginia. You start off by blaming both the availability of handguns and the war in Iraq(!), but then conclude that "none of this can explain, much less excuse" the actions of Cho Seung-Hui.
You also dismiss the theory that a student (or indeed a faculty member) with their own gun could have averted this tragedy. It could be argued, however, that the Virginia Tech ban on carrying weapons meant that the gunman knew he would be able to kill unimpeded until the arrival of the police.
We must deal with the fact that bad things may happen to us in this world. If someone is determined enough to do something, we may not be able to stop him, even if we prevent him from getting a gun.
We could remember the 87 people killed in New York in 1990, when a man threw $1 worth of petrol into a nightclub to get back at his girlfriend. Or the thousands killed in Rwanda by machetes and spears. - Is mise,
LEO TALBOT, Moy Glas Way, Lucan, Co Dublin.