Virginia Tech shootings

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:11 am

Was anyone here affected by this? I thought we had at least one person here from Blacksburg/VT. EDIT: It was PFUNK I was trying to think of.

The three people I know from there are fine.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:14 am

All one has to know is that something had to go horribly wrong for this to happen.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:32 am

the shooter is asian...on a visa

PFUNK · Post by **PFUNK** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:23 am

West AJ resident here. Crazy day, ominous wind, been keeping myself from watching sensationalist news. All I can say is the mood is pretty confused on campus.

I myself didn't hear any gunshots, but I've heard a bunch of testimonials by those that have. Next few weeks are going to be not so good.

Post by **badinsults** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:55 am

Are you guys in exam period right now? I'm sure this incident will make those plans complicated.

It is horrible how we have these people going postal like this. Though I am going to wait until the facts are out before making any judgement. My roommate is already calling for harsher gun control, though as someone who grew up in a rural area, I do not automatically believe in that solution.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:09 am

Gun control != Everything fixed

The problem has to stem from other factors, and very likely from home, enviornment, and experience. It is simply not a coincidence that the US is experiencing these issues (not that it limited to the US, but this is just too much).

Gun control is supposed to be for paying attention to how much one desires for a gun anyways. It is all about intent.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:12 am

PFUNK wrote:West AJ resident here.

You were the one I was trying to remember. I got your name mixed up with LDAWG, and then got him mixed up with AntoineWG. You might see the connection there.

I'm glad you're doing all right.

badinsults wrote:Are you guys in exam period right now? I'm sure this incident will make those plans complicated.

I think most colleges in Virginia have a few more weeks of class left before exams.

Though I am going to wait until the facts are out before making any judgement.

Agreed.

My roommate is already calling for harsher gun control, though as someone who grew up in a rural area, I do not automatically believe in that solution.

Same on both points.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:36 am

I have a few friends who it affected, but not myself

yes gun control is an issue, the only problem is that people who are desperate enough to get them for ill will find a way anyways, just like drugs, there isn't enough law enforcement around to stop this kind of stuff. but then again if there was we would have a cop at every street corner, which wouldn't be good for public tension either.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:38 pm

Right. What good is gun control reforment? How many of these incidents take place by people who have legally purchased licensed guns?

Those people who are determined to get guns are going to get guns regardless of gun control laws. No amount of laws can stop drugs and no amount of laws can stop guns.

Demios · Post by **Demios** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:01 pm

Oh lawd! Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil are on the bandwagon again!

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:30 pm

In the UK, various similar massacres to this involving a lunatic with guns have occurred such as the Dunblane and Hungerford massacres. Both of these events led to tighter gun control, which ultimately resulted in the total ban of handguns in 1997. Although the UK still has gun crime (you are not going to stop the most determined as Nightcrawler says, that's for sure), it is much harder for the average joe to obtain guns. Just a random quote from wikipedia:

In 2005/06 there were 766 offences initially recorded as homicide by the police in England and Wales (including the 52 victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings), a rate of 1.4 per 100,000 of population. Only 50 (6.6%) were committed with firearms, one being with an air weapon. The homicide rate for London was 2.4 per 100,000 in the same year (1.7 when excluding the 7 July bombings).

By comparison, 5.5 murders per 100,000 of population were reported by police in the United States in 2000, of which 70% involved the use of firearms (75% of which were illegally obtained). New York City, with a population size similar to London and similar firearms laws with almost all firearms prohibited to normal citizens (over 7 million residents), reported 6.9 murders per 100,000 people in 2004.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:49 pm

Bah, Kids around here settle stuff in fist fights.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:40 pm

of course inevitably we become more and more caloused to this sort of behavior. There were more killed in this shooting but it didn't make nearly as much noise as say Columbine. I wonder if the NRA is going to respond to this, they got some pretty bad press after going on with their meeting in Denver RIGHT AFTER Columbine.

PFUNK · Post by **PFUNK** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:07 pm

badinsults wrote:Are you guys in exam period right now? I'm sure this incident will make those plans complicated.

Exams aren't for another three weeks I believe. Now that classes have been canceled for a week and Norris hall is closed, I'm just trying not to think about how we're going to do most of this work.

Not that I'm completely desensitized to this event and all the tragedy, I'm still human damnit.

ReRuss · Post by **ReRuss** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:54 pm

I honestly dont beleive gun control can really stop someone who's going to do something like this anyway , from what I heard he bought the gun legally but sanded the serial # off

if you're here on a visa I think you shouldnt be able to buy a gun until you've been here for x# of years and never had any violent crimes on your record

I personally know it's easy to get a gun with a clean record , 10 minutes to fill out paperwork , get checked out , and be out the door , and if you know what you're doing you can reload ammo (with the equipment of course) in large numbers and have rounds more lethal than store bought rounds and at a cheaper price , you can also find old armor peircing bullets on ebay and at gun shows (not loaded ammo , just the bullets)

I know it's a risk to allow students to have a weapon on campus even with a license , but since they arent allowed nobody can really stop one retard who has a gun on campus shootin up the place

But I live in Okla and you can expect a lot of people to own guns just cause the nuts we have around here , we had 3 shootings near me (reported on news) just saturday night , we cant go a week without a shooting within my 50 mile radius

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:31 am

Demios wrote:Oh lawd! Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil are on the bandwagon again!

Wait, Dr. Phil? Elaborate plz.

corronchilejano · Post by **corronchilejano** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:28 am

It's a big country... the fact that these things don't happen more than once a year, I think it's just normal. Some people just don't have somewhere to focus.

snkcube · Post by **snkcube** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:02 am

blackmyst wrote:
Demios wrote:Oh lawd! Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil are on the bandwagon again!

Wait, Dr. Phil? Elaborate plz.

http://blogs.ign.com/PikaPal13X/2007/04/17/52518/

I must say, Rush Limbaugh is actually smart about this issue versus those two other idiots.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:17 am

tell me about it, they say "Blame the video games!" we had a discussion in a film study that I have and the whole class and professor thought that hypothesis utterly absurd.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:20 am

snkcube wrote:http://blogs.ign.com/PikaPal13X/2007/04/17/52518/

Hah, and to think I actually used to have a little bit of respect for that guy!

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:29 am

snkcube wrote:
blackmyst wrote:
Demios wrote:Oh lawd! Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil are on the bandwagon again!

Wait, Dr. Phil? Elaborate plz.
http://blogs.ign.com/PikaPal13X/2007/04/17/52518/

I must say, Rush Limbaugh is actually smart about this issue versus those two other idiots.

Its scary that Rush makes sense here. He hit the nail on the head here about people using this to further their political agendas. Its already rampant. All you have to do is turn on FOX News.

I feel for the families of the victims here. They're going to suffer here, not just grieving the loss of a loved one, but because this will be a media circus. They won't have 2 seconds of privacy from the press.

Nightcrawler · Post by **Nightcrawler** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:15 pm

I stand corrected gentlemen.

In this specific case, the shootings were in fact done by a legally purchased gun.

Detailed Story on Yahoo

Based on this, better gun control or banning of firearms would have indeed prevented this incident.

But you know what else is a problem? If you read that article and listen to what people have had to say about the kid. It's quite obvious to me the kid had a problem. He never responds to anyone when they talk to him. C'mon.. that's a red flag. Anybody who won't respond in any way when people speak to them or ask them questions every single time has a problem.

Secondly, how did he not flunk out of school? If you don't participate in classroom exercises when asked, your grades have to suffer because of it.
Then you've got the teachers and professors who did nothing when the kid won't respond to them when they speak to him or ask questions.

I think there's a lot more people and policies to blame than just gun control here. We need to set things in place to catch and handle these red flag people who are going to go postal and kill people later.

He was quite obviously mentally unstable and not 'normal'. Can't we do something to try and catch these problems early? I know there's no easy answer, but there's got to be some improvements we can make that can help. Too many people watch these problem cases go by and nothing gets done about it. Now many people are dead and many lives have been changed forever because of one unstable jackass we ignored too long.

If you take a look at these school shootings, the killers aren't just an average person who had a bad day and lost control. They are mentally unstable people with problems who needed help or to be removed from the free society.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:31 pm

yes, there are often many signs. Doing some sort of stability test for gun purchase would be fine, but other than that I don't think it's fair to limit everyone's rights because of one guy.

Like Nightcrawler said, you gotta catch em early, the question is, how? what are the rules. Obviously if I had seen the guy I would have talked to him to find out what the deal is, but if there is nothing people HAVE to do, and they just ignore them, it WILL happen again, and that's really sad.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:58 pm

The simpliest way to deal with this is to cut off everyone's hands.

If you want a more practical solution, there isn't one. More rules or enforcement isn't going to stop the next one, nor would've it stopped this one.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:36 pm

funkyass wrote:The simpliest way to deal with this is to cut off everyone's hands.

If you want a more practical solution, there isn't one. More rules or enforcement isn't going to stop the next one, nor would've it stopped this one.

This man speaks the truth.

Like, seriously, what you are asking is stereotyping profiling and sentencing people for crimes "they might" commit in the future.

And no, "jail" isn't the only way to punish a crime, the sole idea of forcing someone to go for X amount of days for X amount of time to a shrink or something, you are taking away his freedom. For something he "might" or "might not" do? That doesn't sound nice.

We are returning to those years in which criminal analysts would say that they could state a person was a criminal because of the shape of his head? The size of his nose and ears?

Let's see, even if we could develop a 100% accurate profile of all the "will be killers" (Which is something impossible to begin with), then the issue of what to do with them would rise. Treat them as mentally unstable? handicapped? Force them to take meds?

For something they haven't done?

Something I would like to see is that, when someone would want to buy a gun, instead of just having himself be examined, they should examine those who live in the same house as him, and still, it wouldn't be fair for the sane person that would like to buy a gun, but has some very sucky relatives.