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What a Sad Day...Tech shooting

  • #21
imagine what would have happened and how many lives could have been saved if students and faculty who chose to and were legally able to carry a concealed hand gun. alot fewer lives could have been lost

College students are not mature enough to carry weapons. Period.

xvart.
 
  • #22
Weapons don't belong in school. No. That's bad no.
 
  • #23
First this was a complete waste of innocent lives. Its horrible that things of this nature happen.

Violent video games are not the problem. If anything the way that violence is portrayed in our culture, often times as a heroic action not as what often times it is a futile waste of life.

I support the right of V. Tech to ban weapons from their campus. An institution has the right to ban weapons and this student had three choices as I see it. He could have found a different institution that would allow him to carry it (though I am not aware of any), carried the weapon and taken the risk of being expelled, or not carry his weapon and abide by the rules. He understood the risks and chose to continue to attend this university. He has no right to complain the rules did not change on him before this incident. He clearly felt that his graduate career was more valuable and more important to him than carrying his gun.
 
  • #24
Absolutely. If he was that concerned about his safety he would have gone to a different school. The college selection choice is one of the craziest, most random things ever. While in my higher education administration courses we studied research on the college selection process. Some of the factors that came up that might surprise you as factors that have had significant impacts are things such as boyfriends and girlfriends, wireless internet, close or far away from parents, campus security and safety, coke or pepsi products (not joking), oh, and occasionally, financial aide and academic programs. Apparently, among all the choices and reasons this guy chose to go to Virginia Tech, safety was not that important.

I think it's absurd that this guy has the audacity to create such propaganda and claim he had such a lack of safety. Apparently he is alive if he is posting this. How many people died while being escorted by the SWAT teams he described? I'm not sure but I bet it's zero.

What is most important at this time? Second amendment rights? Please.

Apparently, Virginia Tech administrators should all be apologizing to the parents and students out there that we didn't have armed students that could have easily capped that punk.

xvart.

edit: oh, and by the way, it sounds like student senators were involved in the process of banning guns. Since senators are the elected body of students representing students there should be no talk of how guns should have been allowed on campus. This is neither the time nor the place to be talking about second amendment rights.
 
  • #25
Personally I don't think it was the intent of this thread to start another 80 page asinine debate on guns and gun control and banning guns. None of you are going to say anything you haven't written in the past dozen debates, so how about having a bit of respect for the thread and the situation and taking your arguements to pm's?
 
  • #26
Personally I don't think it was the intent of this thread to start another 80 page asinine debate on guns and gun control and banning guns. None of you are going to say anything you haven't written in the past dozen debates, so how about having a bit of respect for the thread and the situation and taking your arguements to pm's?

I completely agree.

What is most important at this time? Second amendment rights? Please.

edit: oh, and by the way, it sounds like student senators were involved in the process of banning guns. Since senators are the elected body of students representing students there should be no talk of how guns should have been allowed on campus. This is neither the time nor the place to be talking about second amendment rights.

I guess that's the point I was trying to make, but was a little too long winded about it. My apologies for my little tangential rant. It was neither the time nor the place for it, either.

xvart.
 
  • #27
I apologize xvart, I actually didn't get down to your post before I got annoyed and just added my post to the end of that page.
 
  • #28
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.
 
  • #29
nows not the time? hell im already hearing screaming that the second amendment should be repealed.......................when is the time?



Don't play stupid. You know exactly what I meant. This tragedy can set the stage for the type of discussion that the young man you quoted wants, but making statements like that only a few hours after it happened is completely insensitive. By all means, make moves toward progress, but AT LEAST WAIT A DAY OR TWO.

------------------
 
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  • #30
dude calm down, people have their own voices don't be bashing on them.
 
  • #31
This is horrible. The thought of putting myself in the victim’s place… well I just cant do it. It blows the mind. Most of us, if we are lucky, will not ever be able to truly comprehend what those people felt and experienced without going through a similar experience ourselves. How sorry I am I cant even say. In cases like these, my instinct is to want to help the victims and their families. Alas, there is not much I can do besides send a prayer their way.
 
  • #32
Any time innocent people are brutalized it is grotesque. Whether we are aware of it or not. Something like what has happened today just makes us so horrifically aware of all violence that it is overwhelming. It's just so heart breaking because it makes you feel like there is no hope for humanity at all.
 
  • #33
Don't play stupid. You know exactly what I meant. This tragedy can set the stage for the type of discussion that the young man you quoted wants, but making statements like that only a few hours after it happened is completely insensitive. By all means, make moves toward progress, but AT LEAST WAIT A DAY OR TWO.

i refuse to wait a day or two because those that want to take away my rights are not waiting a day or two they are going to take this dreadful incident and use it to take away my right to defend myself, my family and my property.......what you fail to realize is that they are also taking this right away from you........im sorry if you can not compriehend just what the second ammendment means......i, fortunatly, have grown up in an area where police protection is not guarenteed. there is to much ground to cover by to few officers. if i want to be protected all of the time it is up to ME and no one else to take a pro active aproach. and thats what the student who i quoted above also realizes.............if you want to be a sheep, so be it but allow those of us familiar with the wolves to take care of the things if they chose to screw with us..............
 
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  • #34
I won't continue to honor your comments with responses. I refuse to allow you to turn this into a reactionary political argument. Perhaps you could have some respect for the dead and save your tired arguments for, oh I don't know, sometime after the dead have been buried.
 
  • #35
Another Gun Tragedy - Repeal the Second Amendment
Written by Paul Levinson
Published April 16, 2007

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed" - Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, about President Bush's response to the slaughter of students by a gunman at Virginia Tech today.

The President is correct that Americans have a right to bear arms — under the Second Amendment to our Constitution — but that right should be repealed. And true, changing the Supreme Law of the Land provides no guarantee that the new laws will be followed, any more than the current laws, but anything that reduces the number of guns and rifles at large is a good thing.

It is also true that people, not guns, pull the trigger. But if the gunman at Virginia Tech had been armed with a knife, fewer people would have been killed.

Repealing the Second Amendment would not mean that all law-abiding citizens would have to turn over their weapons to the government. It would mean, however, that more stringent laws could be enacted to reduce the flow of guns, and these laws could be vigorously enforced without coming into conflict with the Constitution.

The gun from the moment of its invention was a revolutionary, unprecedented weapon. For more than three centuries, the Japanese samurai rejected as dishonorable the assaulting of someone from a distance.

Unlike knives, which can used to cut food as well as people, the gun and rifle have only one purpose: to wound or kill. True, this can be a good thing if we are using the gun to stop someone else with a gun, but wouldn't we all be better off if there were fewer of these weapons around to begin with?

We have a long road ahead whatever we do. But I would like to see police guns replaced by non-fatal weapons such as tasers, hunters limited to guns they rent and use only in designated hunting areas, and guns on the street reduced in all ways possible. We don't need to repeal the Second Amendment to do this, but repealing the Second Amendment would make it legal

this was posted hours after the shooting, when the body count 20........................i refuse to become a victem when members of my family have gone to war and died for my right and your right to freedom. be that freedom of speech, freedom of religion or the freedom to protect yourself..............
 
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  • #36
News like this is very saddening. I can’t begin to imagine what would drive a person to do something like this. Just to think that I could have been in the position of one of the victims sends chills up my spine. It’s plain horrible. Their families must feel completely devastated.
This reminds me of a part of Terminator 2 when John is talking to the terminator. He says something along the lines of “we won’t make it, will we?” He is referring to the human race in the conversation, and at that moment the camera focuses on two little boys playing with toy guns at the gas station. There will always be people that mean harm, and it sucks!!!!
 
  • #37
this was posted hours after the shooting, when the body count 20........................i refuse to become a #$%&ING victem when members of my family have gone to war and died for my right and your right to freedom. be that freedom of speech, freedom of religion or the freedom to protect yourself..............

... 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?!



And, for crying out loud, that article u showed is talking about police guns being removed. You know as well as i do that will never fly with almost anyone.
 
  • #38
this was posted hours after the shooting, when the body count 20........................i refuse to become a #$%&ING victem when members of my family have gone to war and died for my right and your right to freedom. be that freedom of speech, freedom of religion or the freedom to protect yourself..............

Okay. We understand you are upset that you can't carry a gun wherever you want.

Just to think that I could have been in the position of one of the victims sends chills up my spine.

I know what you mean. I just had a late staff meeting with all the residence hall staff that work for me. It is really sad and scary, especially for students. If anything, I hope that more residential students across the world start confronting (or reporting) strangers that are in residence halls for safety reasons. At most institutions there is some sort of "guest policy" or "visitation policy" where guests should be escorted around at all times. Most of the time, people don't bother to hold their peers accountable for this.

xvart.
 
  • #39
If anything, I hope that more residential students across the world start confronting (or reporting) strangers that are in residence halls for safety reasons.


But its pretty much a fact that in any given dorm you wont get to know or recognize more than 50% of the people living there. And thats a conservative estimate for a mid-sized, 4 story dorm. Plus everyone has friends from outside visiting or passing through all the time. I still see many faces i dont know every day here. Some may be living on the floor above, some may not even be from the town. How do you know? Often, you don't.
 
  • #40
But its pretty much a fact that in any given dorm you wont get to know or recognize more than 50% of the people living there. And thats a conservative estimate for a mid-sized, 4 story dorm. Plus everyone has friends from outside visiting or passing through all the time. I still see many faces i dont know every day here. Some may be living on the floor above, some may not even be from the town. How do you know? Often, you don't.

That's a very good point. I'm getting too accustom to small schools where everyone knows everyone. I remember when I was at a big state school with eight story high rise buildings very similar to what you describe. In those situations where you don't know someone it would be good if people would just initiate a conversation and get to know more people; but, I know that's asking a lot, and it would be near impossible to meet everyone. And not everyone is extroverted or feels comfortable doing such. Point well taken, Finch.

Maybe we should just start building smaller buildings...

xvart.

edit: I forgot my whole point. What I didn't articulate, but was trying to get at, is getting students (and people) to do is more personal interaction. In the new generation of instant communication and smaller amount of personal communication it is harder for people to express themselves and develop personal relationships, which I would imagine might have something to do with the shooting. We need to communicate people!
 
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