re Very OT: Virginia Tech

[nils at math.uio.no]

Dear Chuck Munson,

thanks for writing about this in such a direct and
heart-felt way. I do agree that our DCML forum
occasionally should allow itself (but briefly) touching
topics outside Duckburg, like on this sad occasion.
There is a sense of shock and grief in Academia
generally, a surely too naive thought that "one thing
is a deranged maniac at some strange high school
in Nowhere, but a real student at a real high-quality
university...". Among Europeans I think a common
reaction is also "how can the President (and other
leaders) respond to this by only praying for dead
students, with not a word touching _why and how_
they died".

With apologies for turning from something so Deadly
Serious as the Virginia Tech to something completely
innocent (?), in an effort to turn on-topic again, let
me ask, out of DCML-curiosity:

In which (and how many) Barks and Rosa stories
do we see our Ducks with real guns (hand-guns,
pistols, revolvers, rifles) in their hands? Duckburg
is (or has been) in several ways a reflection of
main-stream USA, so there would be quite a few
Duckburg citizens with guns in their houses. We
do see various crooks and bandits and weirdos
brandishing their guns (but rarely the Beagle Boys,
who prefer other tools and plans, most of the
time -- apart from that time in the car). But our
Ducks themselves? A very partial list on incidents
would be

** DD as Sheriff of Bullet Valley (FC 199) -- but then
Donald is of course very legally entitled to wearing
his gun and to shoot it out with Svartgorm McPisk
(his Norwegian name).

** WDC 89, Donald's safe (Oso) -- not with the
gun aimed at a person, though.

** US 57, the Swamp of No Return -- how did Scrooge
get the handgun he used to save the world on the
last two pages?

Nils Lid Hjort

> Hi DCMLers,
>
> I hope that you all will forgive this large off-topic
> post, but I'm guessing that I might be the only
> Virginia Tech graduate on the list and, since we all
> are connected to this world by more than a love of
> Disney comics, I'm guessing that a large number of our
> "outside-the-US" membership may be wondering about
> this tragedy that seems to reoccur here with
> frightening frequency in one form or another.
> Obviously, this all hit a bit too close to home and
> has occupied many of my thoughts over the past two
> days.