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What a Sad Day...Tech shooting

  • #41
The greatest tragedy here is that people died and the media is more intent on making it a circus so they can have rating than on actually reporting news. That they are blaming the police force is unconsionable. There is but one person responsible for what happened yesterday at VT and that is the gunman.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and it disgusts me that the media and others are actually agruing that based on how it turned out is proof that it was handled wrong. How can you act on information that does not exist because the act has not happened? THe cops did the right things in the right way according to the information they had. Anyone who says otherwise is just organizing a witch hunt because they want someone to blame in liue of the one responsible who put himself beyond reach of the law by taking his own life.

How can you say the police did things wrong? The police had someone in custody after the first shooting, someone they thought was the shooter. Do you keep looking for something you lost once you found it?

Or those who make decisions about whether or not the campus should remain open? Be serious people!! How many other people were shot yesterday in cities like NY or LA or Miami or Atl? Are you really going to try and tell me that for each one of those the 26000 people surrounding each of those shootings was personally contacted by email and phone?? Can you honestly tell me that for each and every shooting that happened yesterday that an areas equally as large as the full campus of Va Tech was totally and completely shut down, no on ein and no one out and with absolute knowledge that everyone in each shut down area was 100% safe?

If you really believe that then I pity you. Here is a quarter, use it to buy a clue.

Innocent people are dead. Parents have lost childern. That is all that is important right now. This is not a time of agendas and witch hunts. This sure as hell is not a time for sensationalism for the sake of ratings.

We should all be mourning the lives lost.
 
  • #42
Rattler,

I wanted to address some of what you said as well but did not feel it belonged in my other post.

I respectfully have to disagree with what you are saying. Like you I am all for the second amendment (I am sure you recall our conversations after I was burglarized) but what that student wrote has nothing to do with the second amendment. He was not thinking rationally, he was just reacting. Being reactionary is not going to do anything worth while.

Look at it logically. How would yesterday have been any different if that kid had had his gun with him on campus? He was not in the same building as the shooter. He was not even aware there was a shooter. 33 people would still be dead. It would still be a horrible tragedy. Nothing would be different.

Or look at it this way: Do you think he felt safe before he learned about the shooter? Obviously I can not know for sure but I am inclined to say "Yes, he did feel safe" because you do not knowingly go into unsafe situations (unless you are an idiot). So, if he felt safe, without his gun, before he had any knowledge of a shooter what good would it have done him to have had his gun when the situation was such that he was already safe? Even after he became aware of the existance of the shooter was not actually near the shooter and was never under any threat by the shooter. So again I ask, what difference would it have made if he had had his gun?

In fact, all things being equal, his reactionary comments are an argument for why people like him should not be allowed to carry guns into certain areas. A gun does not make you invincible but this kid is acting as if the presence of his gun would be all he needed to keep himself and the world safe. The truth of the matter is that if he had had his gun then nothing would have changed except he would have been hauling an additional 2 kilos worth of weight as he was evacuated from the building under the protection of armed law enforcement personel. If he had actually been dumb enough to pull his gun out under that circumstance then odds are pretty good the police would have had him relinquish the weapon immediatly. If the police were jumpy from the whole situation then they may have ended up shooting him. And who knows how many others might have been hit if that happened.

The truth of the matter is that that student was scared. For that I do not blame him. Unfortunatly he just does not know how to deal with that. So rather then admit he was frightened (because that would not be "manly") he chose to put on a bunch of bluff and bluster to make himslef feel better... "If I had just had my gun, things would have been different..."

I am sorry to say they would not have. Whether or not he had his gun, 33 people would still be dead. Nothing can change that. We need to understand that. We need to accept that. And we need to mourn for those whose lives were lost and support those who lost someone.
 
  • #43
Words can't express the grief everyone is feeling here. :cry:

For those not from Virginia, not only is Tech a VERY popular school (choice of thousands of Richmond high school seniors), it is an extremely close knit community moreso than any other college or university in the state. I don't know why, but students are bonded in a way like no other. There is something special about being "a Hokie." Tech is known for its great sports teams, particularly football, but it goes beyond that. Everyone is proud to be a Hokie...even alumnae are "always a Hokie." One of my coworkers went to Tech and she still goes back to the school for class reunions and remains an avid "Hokie girl". Our receptionist's 12-year old son is bound and determined to go to Tech and he collects all kinds of Hokie items and even has his room painted in the colors. You can't drive 10 feet down the road without seeing a car with a "VT" sticker, license plate or flag. The state is saturated with Hokies and Hokie-lovers. So this monstrous tragedy is a hard, hard thing for Blacksburg, folks here in Richmond and the entire state. I still can't believe such a devastating thing happened there; its such a quiet place nestled in the mountains.

I would be surprised if a Richmonder isn't among the dead. I feel crushing grief for all those families and friends who have or will get the worst news. One minute its a normal day in a classroom and the next its carnage. You can make no sense of it other than to say life is fragile and live each moment to the fullest.

This is a gut-wrenching tragedy for the parents, the friends, the students, the school, the town, the state and the nation. :cry:
 
  • #44
... but you know better than to believe that spur-of the moment, reactionary knee-jerk propositions by some unknown pundit (or indeed an entire advocacy group) is going to have any effect on your long term rights. Instead of going into automatic self-defense against such wild propositions (im a gun control advocate and even I know that that’s not going anywhere), wouldn’t it be more prudent to wait and see if they still have support a week later before going up in arms about it?!
.

alright Finch, you want facts as to why im so worried about a knee jerk reaction?

on April 26, 1996 in Port Arthur. a crazed gun man opend fire shooting 35 ppl. the ppl and the government and the populous did the knee jerk reaction cost the Aussies to loose all semi autoautomatic fire arms. doesnt matter if it was a 22 rimfire or a semi auto shotgun designed for bird hunting.

within 12 months of the ban there was a 44% increase in armed robberies, 8.6 increase in aggrivated assults and a 3.2% increase in homicides.

according to the Austrailian Board of Statistics 2 years after the ban armed robbery is up 73%, unarmed robbery is up 28%, kidnapping up 38%, assults are up 17 percent and manslaughter is up by 29%

consider over the 25 years before the ban Austrailia shoed a steady DECREASE in both homicide with a firearm and armed robbery.

licencing in Austrailia is difficult, protection of family and self are not considered viable reasons to own a firearm and the right of self defence, unlike in the US, is not recognized in Austrailia...........

Finch....................TELL ME ONE MORE TIME TO IGNORE KNEE JERK REACTIONS!!!

-------------
 
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  • #45
Maybe I;ve been desensitized to this kind of thing, but it doesnt bother me. Yea its horrible, people died, boo ho. Yea the kids probably were messed up, but people are dieing every day, kids getting beatin, raped, all this other crap, but do you go and cry about this when it happens?

The media blows things out of proportion, playing the same clips over and over, 4 hours after it happens they have "special reports", It is dumb the way the media works things. They dont know any thing more than the swat team did when they went in.

Just another day in America.


Nep, I totally feel the same. I feel horrible for the families of the people who were killed in VA Tech but like you said, there are hundreds of people getting killed here and in other countries everyday. The media should really play clips of what happens in Darfur, Bangkok, Tibet, Vietnam,.....24/7 so people can see what terrible things are going on out there. People in other countries are going to war to fight for their land, food, and safety. Here, some guy snaps and kills 30+ people just because he's "snapped" or couldnt handle his issues anymore.
 
  • #46
Knee-jerk reactions are going to find a hard time changing the constitution of the United States. The document is designed to resist those types of change. Nearly every state in the union has ADDED the ability for citizens to carry concealed weapons in the last 30 years. That's progress in the direction in favor of private gun ownership. I don't see any wild reversal because of this.

Fortunately, law-makers won't be making knee-jerk reactions. Not on this issue. It just won't happen.
 
  • #47
Austrailia

The country is spelt AUSTRALIA. :angry:

I can say that I feel 100% safe in my own home, walking down the street or anywhere else in this country to be completely honest. I have never felt the need to own a gun and never will. To say that the reason for the jump in those stats is purely down to the banning of semi-automatic rifles is absolute crap. The weapon of choice down here are semi-automatic pistols- which unfortunately are still legal and were never banned as you claim.
 
  • #48
Knee-jerk reactions are going to find a hard time changing the constitution of the United States. The document is designed to resist those types of change. Nearly every state in the union has ADDED the ability for citizens to carry concealed weapons in the last 30 years. That's progress in the direction in favor of private gun ownership. I don't see any wild reversal because of this.

Fortunately, law-makers won't be making knee-jerk reactions. Not on this issue. It just won't happen.

explain to me exactly why its impossible? the Patriot Act ignores and throws out parts of the Constitution including the right to a speedy trial and the right of free speach in some cases among other things. why is it so hard for you to fathom that a simmilar act could do away with the majority of the second amendment?
 
  • #49
Good for you Sean but i personally know several of your countrymen that moved and became citizens of the US because they did not feel safe.........because the fact that violent crtime was raising rapidly in your country.................
 
  • #50
I didn't really start this thread as a gun control debate. This was an expression of sympathy to all the family, friends, students and faculty who are living a nightmare of terrible proportions. Yes, there are countless events worldwide that are tragedies...Darfur, the war, floods, famines... But knowing that doesn't lessen the pain of what those victims are suffering right NOW. Try to talking to the parents of those dead students and faculty about Darfur and see how much they care right at this moment.

This isn't to argue who's tragedy is the worst. No senseless death anywhere in the world happens without someone suffering. And there are a lot of people here who are devasted and trying to come to grips with this terrible event.

We should all be mourning the lives lost.

Thank you Travis. You understand.
 
  • #51
Er, of course.

I had lost sight of that momentarily. Gettin cussed at made me feel obliged to respond.

Sorry
 
  • #52
This is so tragic. I always loved Virginia Tech for the shear solitude of the campus. There was nothing around for miles except for the school. I had several friends from high school that went there and I would go often to visit. It was tucked away in the mountains and the most peaceful and tranquil campus that I have ever visited. This is truely a shock and I really don't have the words...
 
  • #53
Making this post to indicate I'm returning to the original post at hand.
 
  • #54
It was apparently some weirdo named Cho Seung-Hui. 23 year old English Major. One of those kids everyone knows is weird as hell and creepy. Apparently he spent his time making fun of the "rich kids" and blamed everything on them, yet his sister went to Princeton.

His Engllish teacher reported the disturbing yet not immediately threatening nature of his writings and the administration couldn't do anything about it (which was right, since it's free speech and not immediately threatening). Since then the teacher took him on 1 on 1 for like a whole semester yet he never opened up. He lived on campus.

I just woke up so I can't remember why they said he did it but I think he was obsessed with a girl , or the boyfriend of some girl and he went nutz.

I with I could spew out vulgarities lmao.
 
  • #55
Vulgarities were removed earlier.
 
  • #56
Nah I never cuss unless it's in my Pm's. Isn't that right Andrew :)

It said he was an immigrant from South Korea and has been here for 15 years, and the guy that sold him a gun said he looked like a nice college kid.
 
  • #57
This sort of tragedy, as someone pointed out, is NOT a gun control issue. People who are on a violent rampage FIND ways to do their damage. Many people do not realize that as bad as this shooting was, it was NOT the biggest school massacre ever. In 1927, in Michigan, a gentleman was so upset about his failing finances, which he blamed on a tax to fund a local school, that he killed 45 people and wounded 58. He did not use a gun, but rather arson, dynamite, and a shrapnel-laden truck. Where there's a will, there's a way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_Disaster

Capslock
 
  • #58
I agree you ya, Max. And even if this were a gun control issue, then take that discussion somewhere else. That was not the purpose of this thread (at least I don't think that's what Pak had in mind!)

The act was obviously premeditated, so yes, where there's a will there is a way. According to firsthand reports, the guy apparently chained some of the exits shut to prevent people from escaping, that sort of thing implies premeditation.

I was listening to Loveline last night when they managed to get a hold of one of the students of the university, a DJ. He left to go to class in the day, the very class where a bunch of the shooting apparently took place. He later talked with the survivor of the room. He said that when the shooter walked in, everyone just froze. His eyes met his lab partners until the partner was hit in the face with a bullet. Everyone hit the floor and all they could do was play dead. According to the story when the police came in to the room they said "If there's anyone alive, stand up." He was the only one to stand up.

Was very creepy to hear that account on the radio last night like that.

It's a damn shame and a damn waste of life, and the fact is that people don't just "snap." It's always a process and there's always someone who noticed that the person was becoming unstable.

People's reaction when this sort of thing is always weird to watch... Shocked to numb andfeelings that it's all so surreal, to sadness, and then to rage. But the sadness persists.

:-(
 
  • #59
There are always warning signs. Older folks shake their head in disappointment and ponder, "What has this world become?" Well, it's not much different than it used to be, but even at my age it's plain to see: the world has become so completely connected, and DISCONNECTED, at the same time.

We are in touch with more people around the world than we've ever been, thanks to the internet and personal communication devices. At the same time, though, we're so disconnected from each other. Our families, our neighbors. I can name 10 friends I have strictly through the internet that I know better than 10 people that live within one square mile of myself.
 
  • #60
Good for you Sean but i personally know several of your countrymen that moved and became citizens of the US because they did not feel safe.........because the fact that violent crtime was raising rapidly in your country.................

Let me guess, you know them personally from one of your gun forums???

The day that you can convince me that in general the US is a safer place to live than Australia is the day I crawl up and die.

Let me make another guess, these friends of yours got a bit upset that they could no longer parade around with their semi-automatic guns so decided to move somewhere that they could. You are welcome to them as my country is better off without them.

I'll allow this thread to return to what it should be discussing, the abhorrent deaths of innocent people. I find that altering it to suit a personal agenda is poor form.

The only reason I jumped in here was to defend the reputation of my country which was made to appear as crime ridden, which anybody who lived here would realise is not- (ie- if the US relaxes it's gun laws it will turn out as bad as Australia). To suggest that is the case is a case of arrogant self-righteousness as far as I am concerned. That might not be the way you intended it to be portrayed, but that is the way it read to me.

RANT OVER, BACK TO THE TOPIC AT HAND
 
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