by SWALKER 128 Replies latest social current
And Iraq is related to this topic exactly how? How is it a "good example of that?" BA- Dumbfounded.
My dear Brother Apostate if you can't see how concentration of weapons and people taking things into their hands to "solve" problems resembles to extremes such as Iraq I can't help you there. But perhaps if you even think of that term that came out of Stats called Wild West you will get a sense of what I'm referring to. Nuff said.
Just watch over your loved ones, and tell them you love them often.
Amen free2beme! That is all we have! We must all begin to live in the moment. For there is nothing else.
Nvr
That is all we have! We must all begin to live in the moment. For there is nothing else.
Very well said Nvr!
BA, do you really think putting guns in the hands of immature young men will remedy this situation? It wouldn't make me feel safer knowing that more idiots were carrying guns!
Swalker
These mass shootings have only been a problem since the mid sixties. The US has always had alot of guns in the hands of citizens. If guns were the source of the problem this would have been going on since the beginning of this country, and it hasn't. The news media has exploited these tragedies to the point of making them a reality show.
Suicide bombers can kill alot of people just fine without any firearms. Several years ago a lady in Reno Nevada decided to mow down a couple dozen people on a sidewalk with her car. You can argue all day about what is a weapon and who should have it but it completely ignores what is MOTIVATING these deadly activities.
Until we find out and address the motivation of mass killings they will happen with or without guns. It is a complete copout and taking the easy road to blame a piece of steel. Nobody wants to dig deep and do the hard work to find out how to intervene when someone snaps.
We could start limiting the number of cars people could buy and drive as a pretense to limit drunk driving deaths. Just blame it on a piece of steel because that is the easy way out. It does not require any deep thought.
I don't think that trying to blame anyone, or making stricter laws, tighter security, or better free mental health care will bring a solution, or offer a solution to this kind of tragedy. These things happen from time to time, thankfully they are rare. Some people lose it, or snap, it is rare, we should keep living our lives with the knowledge that most people are freindly, and not out to gun somebody down.
"they can voluntarily check themselves in for treatment."where could they do that?
And whose going to pay? My good grief, carrying a gun is a right in the USA but health care is a privilege. Go figure. You get shot by someone and you don't have health insurance and you end up with a million dollars in medical bills to pay off. Thats insane when you even think about it!
A lot of insurance companies don't have psych care in their policies and a lot don't even have rehab for drug addiction which is another reason people fall through the cracks. Use up the little insurance they might have to cover the cost of treatment and once that's up, you're out the door. It's a mess.....sammieswife
Here is the fact about this kind of thing.
1. After this, schools and universities will put in place stricter ways of handling things and it will seem to work. As this will not happen again for awhile.
2. Despite all efforts, it will happen again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The fact is, you can not stop all tragedy in this world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6562259.stm
Anger over US shooting warnings
 |  The campus has now been closed and students evacuated   Scene of shootings |
Survivors of the worst shooting rampage in US history have
criticised authorities for waiting too long to alert people a gunman was on the loose.
The rampage at Virginia Tech university killed 33 including a suspected gunman.
There were two hours between the two separate attacks, the second of which saw 31 deaths, and students have asked why the campus was not locked down.
University officials defended their actions, saying they could not have foreseen the second incident.
President George W Bush said the US was "shocked and saddened" by the attack at the university in the town of Blacksburg, home to 26,000 students.
Motive unclear
Many unanswered questions remain about the attacks.
Police have still not said for sure that the two attacks were linked. They have confirmed that two handguns were recovered.
Click here to see a map of Virginia Tech campusThey say they have a preliminary ID of the dead gunman but have not released it. There is no clue yet as to any motive.
Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum also refused to rule out the possibility of a co-conspirator.
|  The shooter shot the door twice at chest level, which resulted in two holes in the door, one of which hit the podium in the front of the classroom Nikolas Macko, student Shooter tried the door E-mail witness accounts |
"I'm not saying there is someone out there, and I'm not saying there is someone who is not," he said.
Police have also not said whether the gunman was a student but witnesses said he seemed to know a lot about the buildings, chaining doors to stop students escaping.
One student, Erin Sheehan, described him as "a little bit under six feet tall, young looking, Asian, dressed sort of strangely, almost like a boy scout, very short-sleeved light, tan shirt and some sort of ammo vest with black over it".
Some students complained angrily that they had received no warning from the university until an e-mail more than two hours after the first incident.
There were no public-address announcements, they said.
Student Billy Bason, 18, said: "I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident."
Graduate student Erin Mabry said: "There was a two-hour gap between the two incidents. There is no excuse for a two-hour time gap with no information."
But Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said: "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur.
"We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."
Chief Flinchum said emergency services received a call at 0715 (1215 GMT) alerting them to a shooting at a dormitory - West Ambler Johnston Hall.
The second shooting was at the engineering building, Norris Hall.
Police said they thought the first incident was isolated and "domestic" and that the gunman had left the campus.
Counsellors
Eyewitnesses said some students jumped from classroom windows to escape the gunfire, which triggered panic on campus.
| WORST US SCHOOLS SHOOTINGS  1 August 1966 - Sniper Charles Whitman kills 14 people and injures dozens at University of Texas 20 April 1999 - Two teenagers at Columbine High School, Colorado, kill 13 before killing themselves 21 March 2005 - A teenager on an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, kills nine In pictures: Virginia shootings In quotes: Shooting reaction Timeline: US school shootings |
Some of those locked down inside the university buildings were using the internet to try to glean information about what was happening and many e-mailed the BBC News website.
Nikolas Macko described how his class in Norris Hall barricaded a door against the gunman.
"The shooter tried to open the door, but my classmates kept it well shut, as they held the table against it from floor level.
"The shooter shot the door twice at chest level, which resulted in two holes in the door, one of which hit the podium in the front of the class room and the other continued out the window. At this point he reloaded, shot the door again - this shot did not penetrate - and moved on to the other classrooms," Mr Macko said.
Officials said counsellors were in place at the campus for student families.
The names of the victims have not been officially released but information has been trickling out and students are beginning to learn of the deaths of their friends.
The deadliest mass US shooting prior to the Virginia attack was in Texas in 1991 when George Hennard killed 23 people and himself in a cafeteria.
The US also has a history of deadly school shootings.
In 1966, the day after killing his wife and mother, gunman Charles Whitman opened fire from a tower on the campus of the University of Texas killing 14 people and injuring 31 others.
In 1999 two teenagers at Columbine High School in Colorado killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.
VIRGINIA TECH CAMPUS  1. 0715, shooting reported at the dormitory building 2. About two hours later a further shooting is reported |
It said on the news that the shooter was a student who was here from South Korea on a year visa. How in the heck does a person get a gun when he's only visiting? I don't think more security at schools is going to do it - as someone pointed out, this type of violence appears to be rising and if we think back to the beginning of more of this type of violence in our lives via movies, music, video games etc., I think there is a strong corelation. Back in the day, you didn't solve your schoolyard issues with a gun - you most likely had a physical fist fight. Violence seems to have become mainstream now. sammieswife.
