Breaking on Sky News now.

Some dude gone apeshit with a shotty at some university in Illinois, apparently he's 'no longer a threat' so probably topped himself.

What a stupid goon

Gutless ****ing bitch. Should've saved everyone some grief and done the topping part first. He might've started a shootout with the cops though, but that's basically suicide anyway.

Why do these mentalist gun-freaks always feel the need to waste innocent people before topping themselves? It's not like they can sit there and appreciate all the media attention after they're dead.

Scary, stupid, stupid, scary.. what is wrong with you people?! How many of these stupid campus incidents have to happen so there are some frigin' metal detectors on entrance???!! I don't get it!

And guns are fine, great lovely handy things!

Seems this one wasn't as major as others, but still

/me waits for someone to come in and say "if only the students were armed too..."
/me decides right now not to get into a gun control discussion

Quote from Boris Lozac :

Scary, stupid, stupid, scary.. what is wrong with you people?! How many of these stupid campus incidents have to happen so there are some frigin' metal detectors on entrance???!! I don't get it!

Who wants to go to a school where everyone's treated like a criminal? They should repeal that stupid law that says you can't carry on campus (and the laws like in my state that say you can't carry at all...) so people at least have a chance to defend themselves. Afterall, the police are not obligated to protect citizens, even on the off chance they get there in time, which never happens.

EDIT: lol, hank.

I really hate hearing about such incidents. Why can't these people just join the army? They need crazy people who can shoot at people and don't mind getting shot at in a war. Instead, they are just shooting innocent people for no reason. I hope these gunmen burn in hell. :bananadea

Well, at least it wasn't as bad as it was here at VT...

Quote from Forbin :

Who wants to go to a school where everyone's treated like a criminal?

Because you guys out there ARE criminals, even worse, wierdo idiots who can't find the meaning of life so they take the life of others!!? Metal detectors in EVERY school, campus or any place where there are lots of people, meh, who am i kidding, there's no cure for the sickness of US..

You don't see Danes or Australians or British or Germans or Canadians committing such atrocities in such large numbers with anything approaching the same frequency, so I suppose it's logical to assume that, somewhere deep in the "American soul", there's something dark and twisted that isn't as prevalent elsewhere in the world. Leaving gun laws completely aside (because crazy people will always find a way to inflict cruelty and misery, method being irrelevant), the question needs to be asked - what is this dark stain on the soul and why don't we see it elsewhere?

Don't get me wrong - I like America and the Americans I've met and I do not wish to tar all 300 million of them with the same brush. I just look at all the shooting sprees, insane fundamentalists like the soldier-hating, funeral-picketing Westboro Baptist Church and those who murder abortion doctors (and the considerable power & influence of the fundie religious right in general), the large numbers of insane cults (see previous), the world-beating serial-killers, the over-the-top nationalism, the constant wars, the (still!) overt racism (in some parts), soul-darkening things like lethal injections and electric chairs and think "what the hell is wrong with this beautiful country?" I feel sorry for normal, everyday, moderate Americans who think the same things but can't mention them because they'll be branded 'unAmerican' (whatever that is).

If you're American, don't take that as a dig at your country. It's an observation from someone impartial. It's a perspective a lot of people share and it's not just about what happens in the US. The negatives about America invariably seem to be expressed by whoever's in charge at the time, which always impacts the rest of the world. We've had 8 years of macho, faith-based posturing, misgovernance and hideous violence that's affected the entire world and I think some of us may be worried that there's still room to slide further downhill. Every time another shocking story like this latest shooting emerges from the US, we think "what the hell is going on over there?"

Quote from Hankstar :

Every time another shocking story like this latest shooting emerges from the US, we think "what the hell is going on over there?"

Yeah - well, you'd be surprised just how many of us on this side of the ocean are wondering the same thing!

More and more people are starting to ask themselves, and others this same question. My roommate and I were actually talking just today about this issue. The fact is that America has many, many problems, and guns are just one of them. We got on the subject because the headline on the CNN website stated, "Boy shotguns sister in face over chips" and goes on to detail a story where a 10-year-old boy took a shotgun, loaded a shell in it, and shot his (9?) year old sister in the face at point blank because she refused to share her bag of chips. Guns and access to them are a real problem over here.

Yes, okay - the right to bear arms. Got it. But there is no reason that ANYONE should need to defend themselves by using an AK-47 or other high-powered weapon. If you really need to defend against that many people, you're probably better off dead. The fact is, that many of us (particularly in the Northeast) are starting to wonder where exactly this country is headed. I know many people who want to move out of the United States because of the past 8 years.

But back to the topic at hand. I honestly think that a big part of the issue is simply the availability of firearms over here. I was surprised when I moved down to Virginia Tech this year, to find all the major supercenters down here displaying cases and racks full of all kinds of firearms. Sure there are definitely more hunters around here, but there are also a lot more rednecks with pickups - and those guys carry a weapon for no other reason than to "defend themselves." The simple fact is, however, that as long as you aren't some kind of high-powered official, you aren't likely to run into an assassin in real life. MAYBE a SINGLE handgun at the MOST could be justified, but when people start walking into schools with high-powered rifles and fully automatic assault rifles, you have to wonder if our current system might benefit from a few tiny revisions.

As for Forbin's comment, I cannot possible imagine a world where every person had a gun on their person. Analogy:

Take a random group of 100 people, and give 10 of them a paintball gun and a facemask. Stuff them all in a gymnasium, and tell them to keep the peace between everyone else. Odds are no-one is going to get into much of a fight with the threat of instant pain. Now give everyone a paintball gun and mask, and I'm fairly certain that you'd have an epic battle within minutes.

That's right, there's something about the deep, dark American psyche that causes otherwise healthy and balanced individuals to turn into cold-blooded mass-murderers...Think about it - have you ever been sad or angry enough to literally want to mow down crowds of people you didn't know? Of course not, you have a conscience and you value life. None of the people that have perpetrated these crimes were particularly stable individuals...

It's all a fairly new phenomenon in the history of the U.S. that simply became the popular thing to do if you're depressed and disturbed. Your handiwork is guaranteed to be all over the news for about a week, along with your picture - in the internet age, you can count on being famous world-wide. These individuals idolize those that came before them and desire to be in the "club" founded at Columbine. When those two first killed all of those people, it broke down the invisible barrier that kept people from believing something like it could actually happen. It was horrible, powerful stuff. That kid in Finland, or the one in Germany are just examples of how this phenomenon is transferable to other cultures.

If you want to blame American culture, you can blame their free society, prosperity and emphasis on the importance of the individual for giving these guys the selfish notions that their feelings are important enough to grant them control over the fates of others.

IMHO

I'm starting to get worried here in Canada. My school is one of Vancouver's main ones.

there is actually a kid who brought a butterfly knife to school, stabed some one in the back, punctured the victim's lung, but the ironic part is... the knifer was beat to the brink of death by the stab victim... the stabber is in juvie right now, he has always been kind of a scary dipshit...

I heard the gunman didn't even go to the school. I don't know if this is true or not, I was just informed by a friend of mine who is from Illinois and has friends that go to that school.

As for the little boy shooting his sister over a bag of chips... I dunno, I can't even comment on such an act!

Quote from XCNuse :

As for the little boy shooting his sister over a bag of chips... I dunno, I can't even comment on such an act!

Here's a link to the video - if it works.

Quote from Hankstar :

You don't see Danes or Australians or British or Germans or Canadians committing such atrocities in such large numbers with anything approaching the same frequency, so I suppose it's logical to assume that, somewhere deep in the "American soul", there's something dark and twisted that isn't as prevalent elsewhere in the world. Leaving gun laws completely aside (because crazy people will always find a way to inflict cruelty and misery, method being irrelevant), the question needs to be asked - what is this dark stain on the soul and why don't we see it elsewhere?

Don't get me wrong - I like America and the Americans I've met and I do not wish to tar all 300 million of them with the same brush. I just look at all the shooting sprees, insane fundamentalists like the soldier-hating, funeral-picketing Westboro Baptist Church and those who murder abortion doctors (and the considerable power & influence of the fundie religious right in general), the large numbers of insane cults (see previous), the world-beating serial-killers, the over-the-top nationalism, the constant wars, the (still!) overt racism (in some parts), soul-darkening things like lethal injections and electric chairs and think "what the hell is wrong with this beautiful country?" I feel sorry for normal, everyday, moderate Americans who think the same things but can't mention them because they'll be branded 'unAmerican' (whatever that is).

If you're American, don't take that as a dig at your country. It's an observation from someone impartial. It's a perspective a lot of people share and it's not just about what happens in the US. The negatives about America invariably seem to be expressed by whoever's in charge at the time, which always impacts the rest of the world. We've had 8 years of macho, faith-based posturing, misgovernance and hideous violence that's affected the entire world and I think some of us may be worried that there's still room to slide further downhill. Every time another shocking story like this latest shooting emerges from the US, we think "what the hell is going on over there?"

You know there really isn't any explaining of school shooters or of kids that kill or whatever, but you're getting social issues mixed up with political issues.
What you really need to focus on is the social part. Politicians come and go. But the school shooter/ predisposition to violence thingee... you people are mistaken or isolated if you don't think that's going to be playing in a subdivision near you soon. Whatever safeguards you think you may have ain't going to work.

I sorta think arming the students might be an alternative, not a good one though. Most, not all of these shootings happen in areas with gun laws. I don't think making more laws is going to change anything. especially when the shooter has a suicidal mentality anyways. But it really does suck to have the prospect of living in a world where you have to carry a gun to get an education.

Quote from DrDNA :

Of course not, you have a conscience and you value life. [...] It's all a fairly new phenomenon in the history of the U.S.

is it? the us has quite a history of not valuing life with a lot of racism smeared on top of it to hide the underlying misantropic ideas

Quote from Racer Y :

I sorta think arming the students might be an alternative, not a good one though.

Yeah right that would work just fine.

Think about it for a second.

You are at school. Suddenly a person infront of you pulls out his gun. Naturally you think "Shit! He's flipped!" and pull your own gun out and shoot him before he has the chance to shoot anybody else. "Yay!" you think "I'm the hero!" Then the psycho behind you, to whos actions the person in front of you was reacting to, shoots your brains out and goes on to slaughter 10 more people. He was able to do this because you shot the only person who noticed his intentions. Way to go!

In the other version where you checked what the person was reacting to he was just wanting to see the colour of your brains and blew your head clean off because he had the 44 magnum.

Nobody has ever explained to me how you use a gun to defend your self. What if someone shoots you in the back? What good is your gun then? What if someone uses a sniper rifle on you?
Wouldn't a bulletproof west offer more protection than a gun? I mean a pistol or even a rifle is so small that it couldn't even cover your face let alone your vital organs.

Quote from DrDNA :

Think about it - have you ever been sad or angry enough to literally want to mow down crowds of people you didn't know?

Oh **** yes - I've been angry as hell sometimes at specific "types" of people who got on my nerves.

Sadly, the scope of my dislike limits the choice of weapons for dealing with such and firearms are woefully and pathetically limited. Also being a person of our age and customs, I'd like to adhere to the trends of specialization and mass-production just to keep it fitting with the era.

So, until there is an accurate and devastating enough weapon to fulfill my sinister plans I'll just have to resort to narrative imperative and skulk around in my tower kicking failed experiments around and preparing the speech I'll deliver which explains my plan and ends exactly the moment I activate the timer.

Quote from Zachary Zoomy :

I'm starting to get worried here in Canada. My school is one of Vancouver's main ones.

Yeah, UBC has had a few scares lately eh? Hopefully nothing comes of them.

The only way to deal with this kind of problem is to find out why it's happening and then address the causes. I don't believe that these guys are born mass murderers. It's just hopeless depression mixed with a lot of anger. For some reason there are a lot of these guys in modern society.

Quote from Racer Y :

I sorta think arming the students might be an alternative

Hahha, funny you mentioned this, a friend of mine up the hall from me mentioned the same thing that if he were to have a glock in his drawer.. we might all be safer.
Funny part though was what he said afterwards; if someone pulled a gun out in a class he could pull out his gun and shoot the other dude, and then he'd be called a hero.

Don't think it'd work out that nicely though lol.

What's really upsetting was the news this morning, that 5 total died.
Small number maybe, but that's besides the point.

Quote from Shotglass :

is it? the us has quite a history of not valuing life with a lot of racism smeared on top of it to hide the underlying misantropic ideas

There are pretty few nations in the history of the human race who could withstand that charge... your own obviously included. Not saying I disagree with the idea that there's something wrong at the core of American life, but I'd expand it to human life--just some undiagnosed factor in America that tends to bring it out more often.