Virginia Tech

The statement that you can 'pretty much guarantee' horror filmmakers didnt write things such as that while in school is ridiculous and holds no water.

Im actually in the film business and I can tell you that many of the best horror filmmakers had troubled childhoods and had an outlet for their anger through creativity. Be it drawing and/or writing very disturbing imagery ( at least to those on the outside).

Instead of putting words into my peers mouths I will reiterate again that I, personally, spent a lot of time in school writing and drawing what would be percieved as very 'sadistic' imagery...including the mutilations of my teachers and classmates , yes I know how immature this sounds, but this was my catharsis as I was VERY angry as a child...and through my years in the 'horror' business I have found many other filmmakers and artists who did similar things.

Cho didnt show signs of being any more physically dangerous than many other troubled youths. EDIT: I should say SO FAR from what Ive seen he didnt seem any more physically dangerous than thousands of others. If theres some fact Im missing such as torturing animals or something else that shows PHYSICAL violence..please correct me.

I feel strongly on this subject as I remember being forced into counseling in high school because people felt my art and stories indicated I could be 'dangerous'...which is a laugh because Im one of the most non-violent people you'll ever meet.

I post again what JohnnyS wrote because he said it exactly how it really is.

"Originally Posted by JohnnyS

At what point does a different personality get tagged as dangerious? Who makes that decision? People say the "system" failed, I don't think there was a system. If he didn't commit a crime, why would he be put under supervision or placed in jail or a mental ward? We have laws designed to prevent this type of society behavior and protect individual rights. Just because someone is quiet, lives alone, walks backwards, looks funny,....etc..... is no reason to take them out of society. We are all free untill we break the law.

It always easier to "see" that someone is having a mental problem AFTER they break the law. It is very difficult to predict it before. If they have a mental problem and cause no problems, then there is no reason to isolate them."

So yes..I guess in your world we can persecute thousands of disenfranchised and angry youths seeking out that .0001% that actually will end up being a threat to the general public.

 

Yeah right, so far, you couldn't tell to anyone what would have happened if the guy couldn't have bought legally (read easily) these weaponS.
And again, for sure any idiot would get another weapon if firearms were forbidden, but i doubt it would be bombs, rather knives and baseball bats.
As you say, the receipe for bombs is easy to find, as are the ingredients.
So why aren't there any such bombings ? Because there is a -big- risk of hurting yourself before having the weapon ready. Same for buying weapons in the black market if you're a timid asian neird, they'll get your money and that's it. No gun except the one pointed right to your face as a gentle invitation to run.
Your complete absence of arguments (except if that counts for anything, "err...i have the right to have a gun because i have the right to", and some patriotic crap driven by the absence of understanding or arguments) is i fear symbolic of the IQ of gun lovers.

Too bad.

 

I agree that guns shouldnt be permitted on campus.

But it wont keep people like Cho from killing people. People like Cho are so committed to their act of showing the world the physical incarnation of what they are feeling inside they WILL make bombs or find other ways to kill multiple people. They will not resort to knives or bats...thats not in their psyche. They need to make a spectacle...bats and knives wont accomplish this.

What Im saying here isnt new..its well known psychology when it comes to people like Cho or the Columbine kids.

Keeping guns off campus will result in less kneejerk shooting over arguments that have escalated beyond rational thought. But it definately wont deter psychopaths.

Theres plenty of books on the psychology of mass murders out there if you want to learn what goes on in their head.

 

Wanted to say something else to those who feel banning guns will stop people like Cho...

Look at the trouble he went to with the videos, etc... this kid wanted to make his mark on history. He felt insignificant and helpless. This was very planned out and he was from all accounts a bright kid. He was out to set the record.

If he didnt have access to guns I guarantee you he would have created a bomb and there most likely would have been even more deaths.

 

About the Iraqis, they all have more guns @ home than you could ever dream off, they use bombs because against an M1-Abrahams tank, bullets just don't really do the job...
For the bombings, great, two samples, against what ? 30'000 deaths a year by firearm (~12000 murders a year) ? Any other example ?
For the dictatorship argument, if it gets that far, i wouldn't bet that they'll leave you running around with a gun (see Germany for that).
The way a country with little population, almost empty spaces to colonize and local tribes to nail down starts can change as time and circunstances do change.

Lastly i don't get why the fact to own/carry a gun is a "good" freedom, if 90 % of them are pure idiots, while it's good to ban smoking or even to fire people because they're fat...I'd rather take the freedom to smoke, be ugly or whatever than the freedom to carry a gun, but you probably can't understand that, so it's better to leave like that

 

Oh, and last thing, out of the 11,624 people killed by someone else shooting at them, 143 were "justifiable" homocides by armed citizens (that doesn't say if the police would have sorted the issue out).
It's all just a matter of odds now. You could have the "chance" to be in the 143 group, but far more chances to be in the first group.
Funily, each year about the same amount of people die in the US by firearms than americans died at the Korean war.
There is a memorial for those soldiers, but for those many innocent victims, i haven't seen it yet.

 

The news is reporting some guy is on the loose in Cali with an AK-47 and bombs and calling in threats. That he'd make the VT shootings look "mild." wow

 

What news agency is reporting that? I haven't seen anything thus far.

 

this is getting ridiculous and so out of hand. theres an outrageous threat being reported in florida as well.

someone better make good examples out of these clowns

 

You folks are silly.

While much of the discussion pertained to the right of the citizens to arm themselves for protection, some have simply questioned the virtue of the right of weapon ownership itself. Although personal protection may seem like the obvious reason for the right to bear arms, you must realize it goes far beyond that.

You folks from across the ocean and other places must realize that the United States was founded on the belief "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." We did not start with Kings given a divine right of power from God. This country has always been about the people as individuals, and the government only exists to serve the people. Whenever the government oversteps its bounds and subjects the citizens to tyranny, it is the responsibility of the people to form a new government.

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States)
assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise
it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times
armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of
religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press." -Thomas Jefferson

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation
that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the
difference between having our arms in possession and under our
direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our
defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they
be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own
hands?" -Patrick Henry

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." -Abraham Lincoln

 

Wow, if this is true(a quick search revealed nothing) then the melt down is in full swing. With all the guns out there it's a powder keg and bonanza for all the whackos. Hopefully we're not going to see all this blow up in our faces.(euphemisms aside)

 

I've seen less drama and more factual information on the front pages of tabloids...

 

And how about that guy in Long Beach who went into City Council with a package and lit himself on fire. Anyone see that today??

 

here you go.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18203613/

 

Just frinkin' great.

 

It's a weird time America is going through, and even worse that it's becoming almost normal. I hate to say I have a strong feeling that soon something will happen that's worse, it just seems the media has made it seem almost all too easy.

 

WTF

THat is just PERFECTGod whats wrong with the world.

 

"Man sets himself on fire at Long Beach City Hall"

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-ex-manonfire19apr20,0,6107587.story?coll=la-home-local

Shlt, I need to be packing serious heat with all this stuff going on.......

PS - I think Kaleefornia harbors about 60% of the countries whacko's so we're in for some fun over the next while.

 

Crap..I wanted to do that first !

 

Sorry I haven't kept up with this thread....

but if you close your eyes, doesn't the shooter sound like Napoleon Dynamite?

 

I found myself doing voice impersonations of him all day yesterday. Sad i know but he does sound like Napoleon D.

I saw the pictures of all the victims yesterday, saddens me deeply. I also read that a Brit was the last one shot (3 times) before the ****head shot himself. The Brit survived apparently, not sure but i've still to read the story.

 

it's a darned if you do, darned if you don't kind of situation. a guy on msnbc said that 9 out of 10 bomb threats are faked, but what if the police department chooses to not act on that one? or, if they act on a hoax, then that costs mucho $ and strays away from people who really need the services that police and emt's provide. i don't get how some people are so dumb that they feel the need to call in a bomb threat.

 

Exactly. I think the slow reaction at VT was a result of too many false alarms. There were 3 bomb threats the previous week alone I think it was. When the real thing happened they treated it as an isolated incident figuring the guy had taken off.

 

Gunman on the loose at Johnson Space Center in Houston. WTF?!?!