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Comment by jack-r-abbit | Hacker News Reader

As the call for tighter gun control heats up in the aftermath, it seems just as appropriate to see similar tragic events that did not involve (significantly) a firearm as a counter-point to the "without guns, these 20 children would be alive" argument that is already being made across the nation. This is a heated topic and both (all?) sides will have those that handle themselves tactfully and some that are crass. But just as swiftly as the gun control voices sprang up, others with different ideas will spring up. You can't tell one to STFU without telling them all to STFU. All we can ask for is tactfulness. I don't think there was anything tactless about this submission.

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I don't think the original poster or the article was intended to draw attention to the particular weapons involved in either incident, and I certainly did not. I don't think anything about this post or my comment addressed either side of those debates or their validity, so I don't know what point you're trying to make about that.

To address the point about tact, which does get to the heart of what I was saying, I have to respectfully disagree. This submission was posted with a title beginning "The deadliest school massacre", obviously leading readers to draw a comparison between the value of the lives of those killed in the incident in Bath Township and the incident in Newtown.

All over the internet I have seen an outcry about how the mainstream media is handling the recent incident, treating the numbers as though they are some sort of "high score" to be feared and, at worst, bested. If we are to place these sorts of morals and expectations upon the professionals in that field, should we not also expect the same of ourselves?

The article was really just a Wiki post so I doubt it was meant to do anything other than state the known facts. I can't speak for the OP as to the motive for submitting it to HN... so nothing is obvious to me in that regard. But my comment was attempting to explain its appropriateness as a counter to you thinking it inappropriate . That was all. And my point was made in my post with regard to it being a counter-point to the a current point being made that without guns, the 20 kids would be alive. This event simply serves as an example of other (non gun) ways that bad people have committed mass killings of kids at a school. It would have served as an example even if the numbers were the same or lower. The fact that it happens to be the highest body count was not significant to me. I agree that we don't need to keep resetting the bar for the next psycho to best.

Or "without video games and violent movies/TV shows".

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