VA Tech: What is the world coming to? Are people simply bad at heart?

[Sunta 5]

I am so depressed. I've been watching the news all morning about the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.

Then my co-worker pointed out that 600,000 civilians have died in Iraq and 500 die every day.

I was like "Oh thanks I feel alot better now."

Then I started thinking about Darfur.

Maybe I should call my doctor and go on anti-depressants.

[susannah 2]

Hi Sunta, This is horrific. I feel so sad for the families of the dead. How and why did the person who comitted this heinous act have a weapon?

So sad. Susannah

[Alexandra 55]

This is so incredibly heartbreaking and confusing. What I don't understand is why maniacs with a death wish don't blow their own heads off BEFORE committing horrific massacres.

I know that's simplistic and my anger talking, but it's just so sickening.

[Fran 1]

The world has gone nuts. I think some TV shows that promote violence and video games add to this insanity. There is nothing that anyone can say to help the hurt of the parents and loved ones from todays masacre. The only savings grace is that he is dead and cannot do this again. Where are we safe?

Fran

[susannah 2]

Hi, This is so tragic. Gun control anybody? Frankly I understand about the American Constitution, but everybody does not have the right to bear arms/ have a weapon etc. I am sorry they just do not. This is awful. Susannah:confused:

[wavydaby 1]

people are inherently evil. period.

We debated this in college.

I just think some people are better at going against the evil than others.

[lo2us 1]

I grew up around Blacksburg and this says it all...

[faithmd 14]

Hi, This is so tragic. Gun control anybody? Frankly I understand about the American Constitution, but everybody does not have the right to bear arms/ have a weapon etc. I am sorry they just do not. This is awful. Susannah:confused:

Oh for GOSH GOODNESS SAKES!!!! It is NOT about the GUNS!!!!!!

Sheesh!!!!

It is about a twisted, mentally ill individual who wanted for some reason that we can never understand to die, and on the way to take many people with him. Remember Jim Jones? 909 people died there, and that was kool-aid. Though that was a mass suicide, it would be just as easy for this person to have put some poison in the Powerade dispenser in the cafeteria.

If someone wants to kill a large group of people as this sicko obviously did, they can very easily make a nice little bomb and bring it to class and detonate it. Remember the pipe bombs bombs in the backpack at the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996? Eric Robert Rudolph's bombs were made of dynamite surrounded by nails which acted as shrapnel. He made four attacks across the Southern US, using the same bombs. He killed three people and injured 150 in those attacks. No guns involved, and anyone can find the instructions for how to make bombs on our beloved internet.

[faithmd 14]

Here's a snippet about the worst act of mass murder in a school in US history, and it WASN'T commited with guns:

The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. During the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing.

[TommyO 5]

Lets not have strict gun laws because someone can make a bomb? Now that makes sense!!!

Here we go another issue in the US that the rest of the world shakes their head at in disbelief.

[Alexandra 55]

I know stricter gun laws won't prevent gun crimes, far from it. But the proposal for a national database of criminals and people who for whatever reason shouldn't be able to buy guns makes a LOT of sense. Anyone who has been reported for the sorts of things this guy was reported for should show up on a CAUTION list available to gun dealers. He had no criminal history, but clearly people were very concerned about his potential for doing harm. But under VA laws, nothing showed up.

Second-guessing is our favorite pastime, I know. But I can't see why any law-abiding citizen would object to this sort of database being put into place.

[396power 2]

I know stricter gun laws won't prevent gun crimes, far from it. But the proposal for a national database of criminals and people who for whatever reason shouldn't be able to buy guns makes a LOT of sense. Anyone who has been reported for the sorts of things this guy was reported for should show up on a CAUTION list available to gun dealers. He had no criminal history, but clearly people were very concerned about his potential for doing harm. But under VA laws, nothing showed up.

Second-guessing is our favorite pastime, I know. But I can't see why any law-abiding citizen would object to this sort of database being put into place.

I agree with you. Take guns away from criminals. It was like that young man said last night. (He was in a gun club from the university.) If he would have had he's chl and could carry his gun then alot of people would not have lost thier life. the problem is in a world w/ so many who do you trust to carry firearms. I got pulled over for speeding in my father-inlaws truck. And he had a .45 in the console I told the officer it was there and that it was my paw-inlaws truck his gun. And was arrested the only time in my life. ended up not going to court but still was very scary and cost some money to deal with.( of course it was 2 months after 9-11.

[anonemouse 1]

It was like that young man said last night. (He was in a gun club from the university.) If he would have had he's chl and could carry his gun then alot of people would not have lost thier life.

Or there would have been a lot more people killed. It's really easy to look back and say, "Well, if this had happened or if I was able to do this, I would have done that." For all that guy knows, he might have gotten in a shoot-out with the gunman and gotten a lot of other people killed. Heck, he could have gotten killed himself and really pissed the gunman off to the point where he shot a whole lot more people.

And personally? I would rather risk having one nutcase come to my campus and kill a lot of people than have a thousand people on campus carrying weapons. Especially in a place like Virginia, where just about anyone who wanted a gun could buy one.

[Alexandra 55]

It was like that young man said last night. (He was in a gun club from the university.) If he would have had he's chl and could carry his gun then alot of people would not have lost thier life.

The picture this draws in my head is really frightening, thought I've heard a lot of people say the same thing. But imagine if the police responded to a shooting and found not one, but several people with firearms drawn! What a nightmare that would have been for the innocents. Would fewer people have died? I doubt that--I think rather many more people would have been shooting and there would have been several accidental deaths.

Besides, who wants to go to school knowing some of their classmates are armed? Nuh-uh. The only rational approach is making sure there are FEWER guns available, not more.

[Alexandra 55]

Laurend: JINX!!!