Unless you are either:
A: Living outside of the United States (Quite possible) or
B: Living under a rock.

You've probably heard about the massacre that occurred at the Virginia Tech institute/college/thinger.com

I personally think that this is a perfect example of the idiocy that we humans commit from time to time. This was borne of (as I have heard; please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) the same bullying type behavior that had occurred with Columbine. My question: Why the hell do we do this to ourselves? Do we really think that we can pick on those weaker then us without consequence? People have limits, I know this, you know this, everybody knows this, but we ignore it.

Why?

Personally, I'm anti-gun sale. If he hadn't been sold a gun Cho Seung-hui wouldn't have been able to carry out the massacre.

That being said I don't really think America itself is to blame. It sounds like he was a social outcast. He felt a great deal of resentment toward other people. He blamed everyone except himself for his social issues.

Edited by Samsara on April 20, 2007 at 16:11:29.

Gun Control is No Solution to this. There was an abated Appalachian mountains school shooting in which the casualties were cut because two students, hearing the shots, ran to their cars, brought out their shotguns, rushed the gunman (who was reloading) and forced him to surrender. If teacher and administrators had guns, this would potentially occur with less frequently. He was able to take his time, and fire at ease, because he wasn't looking over his shoulder. He was safe. No one else could threaten him. The cops didn't take any significant action until it was too late, there had been two shootings, and he was already dead. (No offense to the majority of law support). So, with that in mind, you have to look back and think: is the problem with school security (which is significantly lacking anyway, in my opinion of my school and many others), or is the problem that no security is actually working?

That said, now I'd like to give my opinion on the media's take on this. They are playing right into the dead man's hands by playing all the media he sent them, giving him all the attention and coverage. This will inspire others like him to say, "Hey, I can get attention like this too! Let me try it...", and if (hopefully not when) this occurs, the media will call it a bullying epidemic, not an media mistake.

Edited by MagimanV1.5 on April 20, 2007 at 13:13:11.


Edited by MagimanV1.5 on April 20, 2007 at 13:16:05.

Apparently the court declared this person as mentally unstable and a danger to himself and others, yet they never bothered to warn the school.

And don't give me any of that patient/doctor confidentiality crap, if it's a court-order they've got no choice but to release that info. If they had, maybe they'd have been a little more alert about this guy?

Just a thought.

That is quite my idea there. Me not being a US citizen, I think gun control would help quite greatly in lessening the amount of gun-related crimes commited throughout the US, although it certainly would not put an end to them, as here in my own country there have been two nasty political murders the last few years, whilst guns are illegal to people who aren't in the military, nor are cops. Maybe some of you have heard of Pim Fortuyn, or Theo van Gogh? Yeah, gun control certainly will not prove to be a perfect solution, as proven by those two examples and the one you just gave, Doc, but these... "events" are likely to lessen in number because of it.

I'm afraid that gun control would not help at all. As a former street urchin in Los Angeles and a current resident of California, I can testify to the fact that if someone wants a gun, they can get a gun without much effort. People are going to get guns from others if they want them, whether or not its illegal.

Personally, I figure the kid was disgruntled, and was ridiculed way too much. Goes to show you what some words can do to a psyche.

Gun control is not a solution. We made pot, heroin, cocaine, etc. illegal, and did that stop it, or god forbid, even lessen it? Absolutely not. It made it worse. People always want what they can't legally have, and that just makes it in even MORE demand. It may not be readily available but there are ALWAYS ways around that, as can be seen in drug deals and pretty much everything else.

In response to DM's previous question: We do this because it empowers us. We pick on the lessers to make ourselves feel more important and mighty, when we are in fact the ones who are the weakest of all. And yes, we think that we can get away with it scott-free. But every once in a while you get one of these things, and it shows that even the so called "weaker" person of the bunch can still have the last laugh. At least in their minds.

Bullying stems from a long line of social disorders and sometimes neglect from either their parents or peers. They feel a need to prove themselves otherwise, so they begin to hate those that have the qualities they lack; smarts, good family, good grades, etc. They make them feel inferior so that they can feel superior. So somewhere deep down, the bullies have problems too. It's not a one-sided case...

And if I'm not terribly mistaken it was actually started because of a failed relationship between the shooter and a woman he had feelings for. Which is enough to make any would-be Romeo consider taking a few people with him before he drinks the poison.

So, in short, the shooting was definitely in the wrong, no questions about it. But there were other circumstances leading up to the shooting that had caused the boy to crack and blast away. I'm not saying he should be excused, absolutely not. I'm merely stating that there were other reason for which he shot people, not just because he was a psycho or whatever. If you push even the most sane person to the edge, they'll react in a negative way, too.

There was a quote I once read.

"Expecting a criminal to care whether a gun is illegal is like expecting a suicide bomber to care that his car takes up two parking spots."

Simply put, if he was dedicated enough, no law would have deterred him.

I still think that you have to be inherently fucked up to have a few words drive you to kill however many persons. I'm not going to say that bullying is a good thing, but I'm not going to say it drives people to murder either. I think bullying affects self esteem more than anything.

And yeah, agreed with Mega X. No matter what gun laws we'd instill, the guy would have still gotten a gun if he really wanted it that badly. Now I wish we could just allow guns to hunters, collectors, and our army, but unfortunately nothing is ever as cut and dried as that.

People who really want a gun will get one, legally, or illegally. It would have been just as easy for him to get one on the black market.

And, it sounds like a lot of people made an effort to help, or be nice to the guy, and he just ignored them. He sounds like someone who WANTED to be angry and depressed.

Edited by Shadowfire on April 24, 2007 at 11:08:08.

I take offense at that, I didn't hear about it 'til Wednesday thanks to Disney World's lack of news channels besides CNN...

To tell you the truth I think everyone should be allowed whatever gun they want, I just would take all the ammunition away from you goobers and give you string instead, except Charles Heston, I wouldn't let him have the string.

Okay, i'll be serious. I did wear Hokies (Virginia Tech's) colors for a day, but the fact is this is Columbine all over again. I seriously think Schools need some metal detectors at this point because the school shooting craze is ridiculous. Seriously, 5 metal detectors at each entrance, with those fat airport security guards to keep an eye on things, and this'll never happen again.

Yeah, because we all know just how competent airport security is.

Right.

The metal detector idea IS a good idea, but some people would have some major delays due to the amount of metal objects they'd carry on them.

Yeah, but we'd kill two birds with one stone, Serial Killers, and Emo/Goth people.

Yeah, that's a point, 'round here the biggest colleges are around 9 or 10 buildings...

I never said it would solve the problem completely. However it would severely cut the number of gun related incidents. Maybe it wouldn't affect this case, but it surely wouldn't have helped him.

Turns out that I know a bit too much about guns. I had bet my classmates that Cho probably used a third generation Glock 19 with either the 19 or 33 round clip. I read in Time magazine today that it was, indeed, a Glock 19.

Does anyone feel that the media, by displaying images of Cho pointing various guns at the camera and playing his pretentious, whiny-ass videos, that they are, in fact, encouraging copy-cats around the country? What about ethics? These files appeared on major news networks mere days after the incident, offending many people who were originally going to be interviewed about the massacre. What about the fact that by doing this, the media is letting Cho win beyond the grave?

Does anybody else have any comments they would like to share?