<p>blucroo,
What exactly are the actions that you plan to engage in that relate specifically to this tragedy? I am just curious.</p>
<p>GUNS kill people. The total number of deaths in India with a population three times the size, from all terrorist acts, bombing of trains, in the conflict in Kashmir, from guerrilla groups, is less than 1/5th that of gun-related deaths in the U.S., in a population that is even more diverse, and with more social conflict than we have here. There is one significant difference - gun ownership. </p>
<p>The question, though, is not whether to have widespread gun ownership, but what is it in our collective psyches that makes us insist on having it.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to all the families and friends affected.</p>
<p>
I think that after multiple school shootings around the country in the last 5-10 years, counseling staff members are trained to respond to this sort of event. Obviously, back up is needed for the numbes involved and to help the resident staff that will inevitably have issues dealing with this as well.</p>
<p>Sad that it’s necessary, isn’t it.</p>
<p>Perhaps emergency lockdown notification could include the “blue light” systems. Campus security hits a button and all the blue lights on campus start flashing, if audio is available, an alarm sounds. Most schools already have these lights in place.</p>
<p>My nephew did not check his email first thing in the morning and did not get the initial warnings.</p>
<p>I have been and will continue to fight for gun control that gets semi automatic weapons out of circulation. Obviously, I can’t directly impact the situation in VA, nor will your/my prayers help these families. So, I will continue to be very politically active, helping to elect people who have the courage to face the reality of gun violence in our country. As Northstarmom said, countries with strict gun control laws do not have such common incidents. I will also continue to work toward intervention in Darfur where senseless tragedy occurs daily. There are plenty of places on this globe that need our outrage, not our complacency and “prayers.”</p>
<p>I am saddened by this horrific event. My prayers for all the injured and their families and the families of those killed.</p>
<p>One thing that came out of the Columbine killings was a profile of the two killers and a list of warning signs about the impending tragedy. I hope there is something that can be learned about the psychological make-up of this gunman, that will help school administrators’ act on the warning signs to prevent another massacre.</p>
<p>About the profile, according to an article on MSNBC that quotes research from the Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education: </p>
<p>"In fact, there is no profile. ‘There is no accurate or useful ‘profile’ of students who engaged in targeted school violence,’ the researchers found.</p>
<p>and social characteristics of the attackers varied substantially,” the report said. Attackers were of all races and family situations, with academic achievement ranging from failing to excellent. </p>
<p>Most, but not all, have been male, though that fact alone doesn’t help an adult rule in or out someone as dangerous."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15111438/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15111438/</a></p>
<p>Following up to the above post of profiles:</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/cognitivedaily/~3/109564282/how_can_something_like_this_ha.php[/url]”>http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/scienceblogs/cognitivedaily/~3/109564282/how_can_something_like_this_ha.php</a></p>
<p>The shooters in this incident would have gotten guns by any means necessary. To beat a phrase to death that has already been beaten to death “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Further restricting citizen’s legal access to guns would not have prevented this tragedy, nor will it prevent future tragedies. If students could have had concealed carry weapons on campus, maybe they could have taken out this shooter, and many of these senseless deaths could have been prevented. But go ahead and take legal guns away if you want to increase the number of incidents such as this.</p>
<p>I have known several people who have died violently, some were shot- some werent’, but since in my part of the country- concealed weapons aren’t as common as possibly in other parts- I will look up to see our murder rate.
I think it is a bad idea, to encourage more people to carry own weapons.
really bad
my thoughts
our former neighbor, who works in an area, where he felt it necessary to carry a weapon, had several weapons in his home, all liscensed and legal.
Two of them were stolen, since he doesn’t normally access them, he had little idea, where and when.
It makes sense that if you increase the numbers of weapons, even if obtained legally, you increase the number of weapons “out there” and increase the likelihood that they will be used.</p>
<p>If someone really wants to kill someone they will, I agree.
Just like if someone wants to jump off a bridge they will.
BUt should we make it harder for them to jump off the bridge, and put a 10 ft fence in their way, or should we keep the fence at 3 ft.
Should we make semi automatic weapons illegal, require liscensing and checks at gun shows, and do our best to keep weapons out of the hands of anyone who isn’t trained military/police officer?
Forcing those intent on bodily harm to actually have contact with their victim, at least increasing chance of capture?
Or should we continue to manufacture sniper weapons and make statements that mass murder doesn’t mean that US citizens should have to give up their automatic weapons.
Guns just make things too easy.
Too easy for a 5 year old to shoot their 2 year old brother
Too easy for a 17 year old to commit suicide
Too easy for a father of 5 to commit murder/suicide on his wife and children
Would we have so many accidental deaths, with stricter gun control laws?</p>
<p>How can the “right”, of citizens to build an arsenal, compare with the right of a child to grow up?</p>
<p>VA tech press conference on now----plenty of questions to answer</p>
<p>if the shooter killed someone in a dorm, which it appears they did, then either 1. someone let them in the dorm, or 2. they were a student.</p>
<p>This can happen on any campus. School buildings, aside from dorms, are open to everyone. Anyone can just walk in. It’s not hard to get a gun. Anyone on campus, student or otherwise, could walk into ANY building and start shooting people, and it would probably take a minute or two for campus police to get there. The same thing can happen at ANY PUBLIC LOCATION in the whole country.</p>
<p>I think it’s a pretty big exaggeration that no one on the campus can function because of their mental state. There is no way they should end their semester, IMO.</p>
<p>To me, the issues are 1. how the person got into the dorm (if they weren’t a student), and 2. why the campus wasn’t locked down immediately.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>University Massacre in the land of gun control </p>
<p>Montreal Quebec,
<a href=“http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/marc_lepine/index.html[/url]”>http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/marc_lepine/index.html</a></p>
<p>I am of the opinion that this is no time for grandstanding the issue. I imagine a homicidal maniac will always find a way. There is always a way… as there was in Montreal. The cause, rather than the effect, is worth considering.</p>
<p>From MSNBC:“Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes said he understands the shooter was a student and that he turned the gun on himself.”</p>
<p>i am not going to rush to judgment against vt. think about the logistics of communicating a lock down. i’m sure (as just confirmed) that they thought it was an isolated (domestic) event.</p>
<p>how to you send a message? text message? email? what if they don’t check their phone or computer</p>
<p>it takes time to do things…and to contact faculty? staff? students? </p>
<p>it is tragic, tragic and even more than tragic. my prayers to everyone involved.</p>
<p>31 + 2 killed in the dorm - I guess I have to ask the same - why wasn’t the campus shut down when the initial shooting occured - there are many question in all of this.</p>
<p>When the initial shock wears off - and when the memorial service planed for today happens - it will hit even harder. There are some incredibly difficult times ahead for all involved in this.</p>
<p>am i hearing correctly? a shooter dead at the dorm? that would be a big issue for assuming that all was over…but maybe i heard that wrong.</p>
<p>Unfortunately not much information at the Press Conference. </p>
<p>Earlier they interviewed a parent who’s daughter called her after seeing police outside her dorm and receiving an email saying there had been a murder at the dorm next to her and to be alert to any suspicious activity. The mother, ex FBI asked her daughter if there was a lockdown on campus and the daughter replied no and the mother told her “well you’re under lockdown now per me”.</p>
<p>WBOW - i didn’t hear that the shooter was dead at the dorm - but an RA + another student - and that the shooter was no longer in the building when the police arrived.</p>
<p>wbow: at the press conference he is saying one student and one RA killed in the dorm…not another shooter. Shooter left the dorm, went across campus to the engineering building and chained some of the doors shut before shooting there.</p>
<p>There is a student at a college 15 minutes from VTech who’s asking the best questions at the PC.</p>