A tough call

The lovely and talented Sara asked my opinion about the following: Should the Va. Tech shooting victims’ families receive some sort of payment from the state for their loss?

I am of two minds on this. I feel for the families who lost so much that day. It seems to me that someone should try to make them whole. With the shooter dead, I have no idea who that party is. So perhaps some of the Hokie Spirit Fund should be allocated to the families.

That said, the Commonwealth has zero culpability in the matter - none. In a free society, no amount of security can prevent a crazy bastard from killing a bunch of people. I cannot see how anyone could win a lawsuit claiming that Virginia was somehow negligent in protecting students at the university. Threatening litigation looks like a ploy to force the state to pay the families off – the whole thing is so tasteless.

Compounding that, the lawyer representing some of the families sounds like a complete and total shyster prick.

Thomas J. Fadoul Jr., a Vienna lawyer who says he represents the relatives of 22 slain students, said the fund should be modeled after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which Congress created in 2001 to distribute more than $7 billion to victims of the terrorist attacks and their relatives.

Fadoul said he is not sure how large the Virginia Tech fund would need to be. But he said the relatives of the 32 slain students and faculty members are entitled to "at least what the 9/11 people got [emphasis mine]."

At least what the 9/11 people got? 9/11 people… Are you fucking kidding me? This son of a bitch has zero class and even less tact. Seriously, conflating one national tragedy with another for monetary gain is ghoulish and really just awful. There ought to be a special place in Hell for people like this.