Less than two months later in Port Arthur, Tasmania, a gunman opened fire and killed 35 people. New Zealand, a country of just three and a half million people, has experienced a spate of such incidents since 1990. In Australia and New Zealand alone 70 people died in 11 mass murders between 1987 and 1993. In the wake of the Jonesboro incident a variety of self-styled experts and social commentators have weighed in with their explanations. In general, these explain very little.
Some commentators blame television and film violence.
The religious right rails about the breakdown of so-called Christian values. Many speak about the absence of individual responsibility. The response of federal and state officials centers on the question of how to more efficiently lock up minors and turn schools into fortresses. Here pig ignorance goes hand in hand with a reactionary social outlook. Attorney General Janet Reno, as we reported yesterday, is looking into the possibilities of trying the two children in Jonesboro under federal law and of charging the 13 year old as an adult.