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words at first failed me about today's events at Virginia Tech

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/?GT1=9246


then I began to ponder gun cultures, the availability of weapons over the counter in the US and furthermore

how strange it seems that a University could choose to email all on campus as events are unfolding and the gunman is being sought to tell them not to go outside...a very modern and strangely chilling response by the authorities I thought

I am disturbed tonight.

A truly dreadful tragedy.

NRA Rules in Ameica, so it will never change.

It's too sad.

Some world we live in.  Crazy.

It's tragic that modern cultures can create people that do this, good job we at least don't give them guns.

The weird thing is Canada has a higher gun/population ratio - but seems a hell of a lot safer WRT gun crime.

Really sad news.

Pointless tragedy

This kind of thing is separate from usual 'gun crime'. When people refer to gun crime they usually mean the relentless cases of robberies, burgalries etc which you get in the US (which is mainly fuelled by the huge disparity between the rich and poor in the US).

Cases like this are different - they can happen anywhere as they are committed by one-off nutcases. Remember Dunblane and Hungerford, which happened here? The two biggest spree killings in the world were committed by men who had no previous criminal history (South Korean policeman has argument with girlfriend, gets drunk and goes to the armoury to get tooled up before sweeping through villages and mentally retarded Tasmanian kills people in his town for no apparant reason).

It's worth noting that 33 people were killed by guns at the university yesterday. On average, about 30 people are killed by guns every day in the US.

guns don't kill people................people kill people.

Yep but people with guns make it much easier for people to kill people.

If you had to go and kill 33 people with your bare hands i'm sure you'd find something better to do that day

Was watching this on the news and they were interviewing a man from Texas i believe who was one of these people who believed that guns were not a problem.

During the interview they asked him how he would stop these mass killings from happening again and his reply was "Give everyone a gun, have all students walk round college with a firearm. This way there will never be another mass killing on this kind of scale because one of the students would have shot the gunman before it got that far"!!

Only in America............

 Matt , that is a right wing , vietnam veteran kind of opinion , im listening to a radio phone in just now and this is the hosts
 opinion , they are anti - gun control , they believe in their right to defend themselves from would be robbers , rapists etc.

 and i think they are using this event as a political opportunity to express those views .

 this was exactly what the host said '' if the gun control laws did not stop the students from their right to defend themselves by having a gun , this son of a bitch would maybe have killed 4 or 5 people before one of the students or professors killed the piece of shit ''

 apparently there were several bomb threats on the campus this week , and the place has been swarming with FBI , and '' every cop in the state , and neighbouring states ''

 you definitely havent heard the last of this event , this is stirring up some major concern and debates and no doubt political action in the USA

 no doubt a horrific tragedy and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims families and friends.

"There is no connection between having a gun and shooting somebody and not having a gun and not shooting someone. And anyone that suggests otherwise is a fool and a Communist."

If you want to bear arms - wear t-shirts.

One can't help but think that if a country has such laxed control over its gun laws that it brings these sort of masacres upon themselves.

My thoughts are with the famalies and friends of those shot dead.

Dunblane? Hungerford?

This kind of thing does seem to happen a lot more in America

agreed. I went to Detroit once for work. Scary scary place that.

If someone is so mentally instable as to want to kill scores of people, the legality of gun ownership in most cases wont stop these acts.. its like drugs, they are easy enough to get hold of if you really want them, and it would be the same with guns.

The cause in my non professional opinion is probably in the conditioning of the human through films/video games/music all glorifying violence, and you cant stop that because it punishes the many millions of people that can watch/listen/play this stuff without feeling the urge to kill people.

Sometimes humans just go bad no matter what you do.

As a society we're becoming more and more isolated from the people around us. The guy that did this was, surprise surprise, 'a loner who kept himself to himself'. If you don't routinely engage in proper social interaction with others then you're a lot more likely to view them as just things, rather than people like yourself. And things are a lot easier to hurt/kill than people you can relate to.

Add in a society where it is very easy to get hold of handheld objects which can kill a lot of things in a short space of time and stuff like this is going to happen.

I read a comment over on Slashdot about the killings from someone who said that he lived in a city, and yet he couldn't tell you the name of anyone who lived within a mile of his house. I've just realised I can say exactly the same thing - there's something quite sad about that.

I think lessons where learned by both of these events and the gun laws where definately tightened up as a result. 

There is no doubting though that these incidents seem to happen on an almost regular basis in America. 

THe most recent incident in the UK was the one involving the toddler just a few mile from where I live - Andrew Mortimer - and again since this there has been a crack down on air rifles and weapons of a similar ilk.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=261482005 just a refresher of that story.

I think the greater restrictions placed on gun ownership would definately cut down on gun crime.  Its true that a gun can be got hold of both in the US and the UK but I don't think its as easy as you suggest.    That seems like a line that would be used by the pro-gun bigade.

Secondly I think to blame films/video games etc is a weak arguement.  Its nonsense to suggest that these things contribute towards people going bad.  I remember when I was at school a guy in the same year was sentenced to 20 year at the age of 14 for a horrific stabbing carried out in Glasgow City Centre - he and his lawyer blamed it on Buckfast - absolute nonsense he was always and evil little barsteward - yet the rest of us where able to head out at the weekend and get a bottle of wine and not feel compelled to take a knife to someone.

I completely disagree, humans go bad if the society they live in rejects them, makes fun of them, bullies them etc. these people act like this because they are incredibly unhappy with their lives, they feel bitter and lonely, and eventually it twists them enough that this is the result. In my non professional opinion I might add.

The guy that did this was, surprise surprise, 'a loner who kept himself to himself'.

This is a terrible tragedy.

Try to catch a film called 'Arlington Road' it describes how authorities deal with these incidents.

Loner is the big buzz word. It is used to reassure the public that this guy is not part of some sect/cult and reiterates to a panicing public that there wont be a follow up attack.

Usually they announce that he has little close family tho in this case this is probably the case.

Naming the killer as early as possible and showing his picture brings a familiarity and calming feeling to the public. Thats the guy that did it, he is now dead, thats a good thing.

He will probably be described as 'acting strange' or 'seemed to be upset/disturbed' too. I cant remember the reasoning behind that but it happens.

A very sad incident all the same.

But it is true they are disturbed, the sad thing is people have a tendency to label these people as unusual freaks that can't be helped, as opposed to asking why someone would be driven to do this.

I think that is it Tragic, they are described in a way to make them sound weird/disturbed/unhinged so that it looks like it couldn't happen to a regular/normal guy in the street. In truth this guy was probably a regular guy and something flipped the switch.

As some of you may know  my family live in the States

my youngest sister is about to turn 22 and in her final year at Virginia Intermont College only some 150 miles away from Virginia Tech.

Although she doesnt know anyone that has been tragically killed she does have some friends that do attend Virginia Tech

A very scary time for all involved

Seems strange that while my mum has seen my brother do two terms in Iraq she also has to worry about my sister attending college

 it is also true to say knife crime would go up as it has done in Britain , people have a built in defences , sort of automatic , when you sense danger then you go into survival mode , and i believe any human being has the right to defend theirs or the lives of their family , if a gun or knife is used for self defence , that is fair , as it has been used this weekend is not.

[/quote]

Secondly I think to blame films/video games etc is a weak arguement.  Its nonsense to suggest that these things contribute towards people going bad. 

[/quote]

 it is also fair to say that this argument has a fair basis. when you look at todays culture of drugs and video games.
 some teenagers sit and smoke weed , snort cocaine amongst other drugs and play violent video games for hours and hours on end , when you are playing a game like Manhunt or Resident Evil etc for so long then you are programming your mind. you are desensitizing yourself to the violence , this can play a part in the warping of peoples minds and i think it is unfair to say this is a weak argument.

 but i do agree with some of your other points , drinking buckfast doesnt make you want to stab someone , a warped person drinking buckfast may be more inclined to carry out such acts under the influence of buckfast.

Must be a very worrying time for all involved

How sick and disturbed must you have to be to do something like this :o

I see George W.Bush is rushing down to attend a service to show his sympathy for this tragedy, shame he wasn't so enthusiastic during the New Orleans disaster.

I wonder how much the social economic demographics of the victims has to do with defining how compassionate George W.Bush is???

2 of his plays. strange and pretty sick stuff

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/ (http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/)

Wow, his plays are really rubbish.

Back in the news today, 2 people shot dead there.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-08/virginia-tech-campus-shots-fired/51745502/1