As students returned to Virginia Tech yesterday, the college rang a bell for each of the 32 victims of the massacre. But to judge by the discussion of the past week, there is another potential victim for whom the bell could be tolling: freedom.

We have heard more than enough about the horrors of what happened on the campus, and the narcissistic ramblings of Cho Seung Hui. We have also heard far too many simplistic theories and pat solutions. There is now almost an A-to-Z of who or what was allegedly to blame: from America, Bullying and Campus security to Video games, Xenophobia and the Y chromosome. (The one that is often missing is C for Cho — in an age when anybody can be a victim, many appear to accept his plea that “they” made him do it.)

Moral crusaders are trying to recruit the dead of Virginia Tech to support all manner of pet causes. But one way or another, all seem to agree that the problem is too much freedom. These powerful responses pose a bigger threat than any lone gunman.

Apparently the shootings prove the need for more restrictions, not just on guns but on violent video games, rap lyrics, eBay and the news. More security and tighter lockdowns on campuses, more powers for the police. And perhaps most of all, we are told there is a need for tighter controls on people who seem loners and oddballs, like Cho. Once, America’s legal system was seen as a global beacon of freedom. Now the world is offered the alternative model of new Labour’s authoritarian Mental Health Bill, granting the authorities the power to lock up those deemed to have a personality disorder even if they have committed no offence.

There is no evidence that any of these illiberal measures would make violence less likely or the rest of us safer. But banging on about the need for them can definitely make society more fearful, and less free.

Just as passing draconian antiterror laws marks a victory for the bombers, so accepting the postVirginia view of “too much” liberty would be a defeat for democracy.

It is even more important to stand up for freedom during hard times like these. For an old British libertarian Marxist like me, that includes defending Americans’ right to bear arms; some British commentators might think that right “bizarre” and “extraordinary”, but then their forebears thought much the same about the revolution that gave rise to it.

Cho wreaked enough carnage; let’s not volunteer anybody else to be his victims. Why should we want to reorganise the laws and outlooks of entire nations out of fear of the odd madman? Why should the lives and liberties of 300 million in America be altered thanks to the isolated actions of one individual? That really would be allowing the lunatics to take over the asylum.

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