An example of the right response
Today I have a fairly sad post, but I think its important to talk about what's happened, and look at the good that's come out of this.
According to various national, and Seattle newspapers:
After a rave in Seattle, an after party was held by the sponser. There was around 500 people in attendance, among them was Kyle Huff. After a little while, he left the after party, whose theme was "Better Off Undead", and returned with his pickup loaded with firearms, a machete, and about 300 rounds of ammunition. He proceeded to enter the party with a shotgun and a pistol, as well as bandoliers of ammunition, and fatally shot 6 different attendees, ranging in age from 14 to 26. When a police officer showed up, Huff turned the gun upon himself, and ended his life.
I say the above for the sake of those who died, in order that their story may be told. It is horribly tragic, but there is a good twist on this story. The blame for such a heinous crime is not being put on them, for liking raves, for the culture, not even for the theme of the party, but squarly on the shoulders of Huff. This is a tremendous step away from what we see with video game culture. I applaud the mayor who said there will be "no crackdown" on rave culture, or parties, and that this is because of a "deranged individual", not the music or culture.
The city is acknowledging that this party scene is one of the few accepting ones in Seattle, in fact one of the victims was an "outcast" who no one accepted, until he went to these parties. In fact, it goes to show that the after-party let Huff in without knowing him, something that you don't see at least on a collegiate level, and impresses me a lot.
In fact, this whole incident gives me a lot of hope. We have a sadistic killer who will be blamed for the incident, not the guns he used, not the party he was at, not the theme of the party, or any drugs associated with the culture, but the individual. In my mind, this is the best thing that can happen for the victims, who won't be getting the cop-out answer, "You're to blame. If you didn't rave, you wouldn't have gotten shot." They will be honored, and the rave scene is holding many tribute parties to them, as a way of mourning.
It interests me how much this story has moved me over the past few hours. As I was reading it for the first time, it struck me that, this is what I would want, if something happened to me. Many people could blame a school shooting on the games I play. Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike: Source, all the First-Person Shooters that I love would be the ones blamed for my getting shot. That wouldn't be justice. I would want someone to say, "Its not his fault, its not the games fault. This individual made the decision to take another person's life and its all on him."
So, to this end, I urge you to say a prayer for the families involved. If praying's not your thing, then send them happy thoughts. However you can show support go for it. As a nation we need to support this idea that people's lives are sacred, and we owe it to a murder victim to get the killer not give a cop out. So I will be writing the mayor of Seattle, much like I did in a previous post to Tuttle, but praising his decision, and offering my condolances.
