Tragedy at Virginia Tech

[BallHawk]

You can add 75% of the music today, too.

[retailguy]

This country is seriously f*cked up. This is a trend for this country, which is a country fueled by guns and violence. I agree that video games, movies, and rap culture are all a part of this. Kids, nowadays, are attracted by violence, drugs, sex, gore, etc. So the companies give the people what they want and look what results.

Gun control is the main issue here, though. Does this time of thing happen in the other countries of the world? Not very frequently. A teenager could easily get a gun in this country if he tried.

My condolences to the family and the students that are affected by this tragedy. It's a shame this bastard killed himself. I really would of liked to see justice and revenge served here.

That's a cop-out with you claiming rap music has anything to do with this. I will agree with you that rap and hip hop needs to do more to improve its image but that's still a cop-out. What about goth music? That kind of music is more disturbing than rap.

He did not say rap MUSIC. He said RAP CULTURE. Culture is not music.

I agree with him. RAP CULTURE is a problem.

[Partial]

Rap culture isn't good by any means and certainly has its own fair share of violence, but when talking about school shootings I would argue that the goth/outcast/emo culture is involved much more heavily.

[MJZiggy]

What if we just blame the dude with the guns? I mean, after all, we don't know what his musical tastes were. We just know he chained the doors shut and started shooting up classrooms. We don't know why.

[Partial]

What if we just blame the dude with the guns? I mean, after all, we don't know what his musical tastes were. We just know he chained the doors shut and started shooting up classrooms. We don't know why.

That is exactly right.

[GrnBay007]

Most elemetary schools here in Oregon only keep the main door open. Visitors, therefore, have to enter the main door by the office and register. Many middle schools do the same.

Since some high schools are so large, they have to keep several or more doors open just to keep open the flow of student traffic.

That proactive precaution of just keeping one door open, of course, would not prevent anyone from just walking in the front door and start shooting away.

Some inner city schools in the Northeast use metal detectors but are cost prohibitive for most schools. Not only are the metal detectors expensive, but you have to pay a security guard to be there and go through the packs and/or belongings of the students/visitors.

Though some precautions can take place, in the end there is no true effective way to stop some deranged individual from wreaking havoc on a school.

At our schools after the kids enter the school all door are locked and any visitor has to come to the front door, state who they are, and have to be permitted in. But do you know why this started about 4 years ago? Because a notorious, high risk to re-offend sex offender walked into a school and sexually assaulted an elementary girl in the school restroom. How sick is that? A place where this little girl should have felt safe was violated in the worst way and no doubt will have a life long affect on her. This is what I mean by being pro-active. Why wait for a tragedy to happen to take action?

Yes the cost would be extensive. They raise taxes for things I feel are far less important to the community then the safety of our children.

There are two officers at the door at the Courthouse. There are two separate detectors. They do not go through bags....they go through a machine similar to an airport and then you empty your pockets and walk through a separate detector. Very costly? probably, but how do you put a cost on a single life?

[falco]

craziness

[GBRulz]

I just heard about this on the news when I got back into my room tonight. I am absolutely sickened. Sadly, the news seemed to be more focused on the idea of concealed weapons vs the tradgedy itself. Here in Utah, they said they are the only state in the US that allows concealed weapons to be carried in universities and some of the staff went on and on about how if what happened in Virginia today, happened here, many lives would possibly have been saved because the gunman would have been able to be confronted.

I live in WI, which is one of the few states in the U.S. that does not have a concealed and carry law. I am not convinced that by carrying a gun it is ultimately safer.

Anyhow, God Bless the families of this horrible incident. What the heck would possess someone to do this?

A couple of you before were also asking about why classes weren't cancelled after the first two shootings. Great question. The news here just said that the officers thought it was an isolated incident and had no idea the gunman went to another building.

[Partial]

I am not trying to be insensitive but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that students didn't charge and tackle this guy knowing they were likely to be killed anyway.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I am not trying to be insensitive but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that students didn't charge and tackle this guy knowing they were likely to be killed anyway.

I kind of thought the same thing. Everybody talked about how they hid or ran or jumped out the window. Then again, put in their shoes it's hard to say how one would react. You'd like to think you'd gang up and go after the guy.

Apparently, the shooter is a Chinese man that arrived last year with a student visa. That part of the story is going to open up a whole new can of worms. Just a bizarre story. I'm sure guns will be blamed. And I'm also sure hardships that the Chinese guy had to endure will be used to try to excuse what he did.

[MadtownPacker]

The first reaction is to get out of the way. After that you have to decide if you are gonna go first and likely take a bullet. Plus the maniac had two pistols and it sounds like he was just popping off shots rapidly. Like mentioned, he was going off like it was a video game.

[the_idle_threat]

Horribly sad turn of events.

While I'm tempted to speculate upon what factors caused the tragedy, we just don't know any of the details yet.

The only one to blame at this point is the sick bastard who pulled the triggers.

[cpk1994]

I just heard about this on the news when I got back into my room tonight. I am absolutely sickened. Sadly, the news seemed to be more focused on the idea of concealed weapons vs the tradgedy itself. Here in Utah, they said they are the only state in the US that allows concealed weapons to be carried in universities and some of the staff went on and on about how if what happened in Virginia today, happened here, many lives would possibly have been saved because the gunman would have been able to be confronted.

I live in WI, which is one of the few states in the U.S. that does not have a concealed and carry law. I am not convinced that by carrying a gun it is ultimately safer.

Anyhow, God Bless the families of this horrible incident. What the heck would possess someone to do this?

A couple of you before were also asking about why classes weren't cancelled after the first two shootings. Great question. The news here just said that the officers thought it was an isolated incident and had no idea the gunman went to another building.

Well, the police and the University president will have a lot of explaining to do why they didn't warn ANYONE that there was a murderer on the loose. I mean students were walking about the campus unaware that their is a crazed gunman at large. This is a total police screwup and I think the university president could even lose his job over it.

[PaCkFan_n_MD]

I am not trying to be insensitive but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that students didn't charge and tackle this guy knowing they were likely to be killed anyway.

You could only tackle him if you were behind him and I don't think that was possible with him chaining up the doors. But do you seriously think some kids sitting in a classroom at 9:00 in the morning listening to their teacher lecture and all of s sudden a mad man walks in and starts shooting people one by one that their first reaction is going to be let me tackle him. For that to work more than one person would have to do it and at least two or three are surely to die if they rushed him. No way can you ask someone in that situation to give up their life and basically become a hero.

For us not being their it makes sense because at least only a couple people would die, but its a lot harder for the people in that situation.

[Partial]

I don't necessarily agree with that because he shot 30 people in Norris Hall that were not himself. That takes a significant chunk of time assuming he is doing it from afar and is missing a couple of shots.

Maybe its just the cowboy in me, but my immediate thoughts would be if I charge and leap at this guy he isn't going to be able to get a good shot on me, and if he does it will likely only be one. If thats how god has deemed me to die, than I would let fate run its course.

Certainly if you have 3 guys charging him he is going to get taken down. I've seen plenty of class rooms and unless is was very unusually shaped, their were desks probably 10 feet from the door. You can cover that distance in slightly more than one second. I don't know that his reaction would be fast enough to get a shot off even.