America's worst gun shooting

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 16 Apr 2007 18:07

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20 ... 899040.htm

At least 33 people dead at Virginia Tech university.

Commiserations.

I just wanted to add that while people consider what the best way of making sure such events do not happen again, as is always the case after such events, in Australia between 1986 and 1996 we had 11 gun shooting massacres. The last one, in my home state, killed 35 people. In response to that (although actually the legislation had been written over 8 years prior to that shooting), we introduced new gun control laws, limiting the sale of guns to people who could demonstrate a very strong reason for needing that type of gun. Since the change in laws there have been 0 gun shooting massacres in Australia.

So it went from 1 a year to none a year.

It's also important to note that deaths due to guns have dropped from a yearly average of over 600 to a yearly average of about 300.

Something to keep in mind.

Drew Hamilton · Post by **Drew Hamilton** » 16 Apr 2007 18:39

I live in Virginia, and this is very disturbing to me. I know one person involved in the incident and my parents knew one of the professors. This massacre was totally eye opening to the lack of gun safety our country has. It's a dark day in Virginia to say the least. I hope it all works out the best way that it can.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 16 Apr 2007 18:57

Props on your sensitivity, while the bodies are still warm, and details unproven ...to leap in to advance your gun control, with shaky logic at that.

This massacre was totally eye opening to the lack of gun safety our country has.

This has nothing to do with gun safety. Do you know what gun safety is?

-n

.

PegLegHolly · Post by **PegLegHolly** » 16 Apr 2007 19:50

i dont know what to feel about this event other than fear and unease. i dont know if there is anything to blame for this... other than the man who did it.

they said the guy did a shooting then 2 hours later he shot some more students across campus. was it the same guy? should they have closed down the campus when the first shootings happened? if they would have shut it down, would that have stopped the man from killing others?

im glad i dont go to a huge college, but this kind of thing could happen at more places than just schools.

brian relly · Post by **brian relly** » 16 Apr 2007 20:46

the blood hasn't even dried yet and I'm already seeing shit like this

Switch Kicker · Post by **Switch Kicker** » 17 Apr 2007 07:17

32 were killed, not 33.

Yeah, this is bad preparation at it's worst. They could've called the college into an emergency around 7:30, but no, they didn't, and 2 hours later, 30 more people had to fuckin' die. Just pisses me off when people in power do nothing.

Switch Kicker · Post by **Switch Kicker** » 17 Apr 2007 07:22

And... it's not just a dark day for Virginia. This is the worst school shooting in US history.

Just thought I'd point that out. There's been moments of silences across the nation today for this, including at my town's high school.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 17 Apr 2007 07:53

i read in an article that only two people were killed in the first shooting at the dorm room and that the school thought it was a personal thing and the gunman had fled the school so they just sent out emails. obviously they were wrong.

its 33 if you include the gunman.

jay7 · Post by **jay7** » 17 Apr 2007 08:29

First I heard of it. And final reason for me not go to the US for University

I know that the likelyhood of getting shot it so terribly small, however it is things like this that really skew the view that Americans as a whole, right or wrong, are seen to the rest of the world.

That is just, disturbing and sad.

Switch Kicker · Post by **Switch Kicker** » 17 Apr 2007 08:36

mtoolan wrote:i read in an article that only two people were killed in the first shooting at the dorm room and that the school thought it was a personal thing and the gunman had fled the school so they just sent out emails. obviously they were wrong.

its 33 if you include the gunman.

Papers and news said 32 this morning, but I'm not gonna argue. They probably did mean just 32 people killed, and left out the 1 suicide.

Why is it that when ever something like this (Maybe not this magnitude.) happens anywhere else in the world, we don't (The US) don't fuckin' hear about it?

I've heard of massacres in other countries maybe 2 or 3 times from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and on CNN in the past, but that's it. But no matter where you are, who you are, where you're from... If something like this happens in the US, the whole world knows about it.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 17 Apr 2007 09:57

brian relly wrote:the blood hasn't even dried yet and I'm already seeing shit like this

Please pleeeeeease tell me that's a joke. That's so incredibly horrible.

quadgun · Post by **quadgun** » 17 Apr 2007 10:20

this is really hard to understand ... what drives a person to do something like this?

mc · Post by mc » 17 Apr 2007 10:58

that's gotta be a joke, but it's a terrible, insensitive one.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 17 Apr 2007 13:05

I won't lie, I laughed when I saw it. Definitely fucked up though in every regard.

sanuke okumatzu · Post by **sanuke okumatzu** » 17 Apr 2007 16:48

I remember when columbine happened, Marilyn Manson got blamed. I only wonder what metal artist[s] if any are going to get blamed this time? Guess they can't use that card because the gunman wasn't ' An alienated teen trying to fit in'.

Yeah, I know it was a horrible thing that happened. But, you have to think, how many times does shit like this happen in other countries across the world? None you say? Wrong, it happens plenty, it's just that America likes to blow shit up into greater proportions than what it is in actuality.

I dunno, I'm just a bit indifferent on shit that happens like this.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 17 Apr 2007 17:52

Millions of people listen to Marilyn Manson and don't go on murderous killing sprees. It's pretty clear that there was something else wrong, other than music tastes, video game habits or any other cultural influence.

Even if he were influenced by all those things, why did he behave the way he did, when most people do not?

Regarding massacres in other countries, most other countries don't have them.

Australia hasn't had a mass shooting since 1996, the UK hasn't had one since 1996, New Zealand hasn't had one since 1990, Europe's last was in 2002, Asia's last was in 2001.

In fact of the last 20 civilian criminal massacres, 12 occurred in the US, 2 in Australia, and one in Japan, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Yemen and Nepal.

The last one outside of the US was the Erfurt massacre in Germany in 2002. Since then there have been 6 in the US.

I don't really know what gets reported in the US, I do know that these events are reported in Australia whatever country they occur in.

Switch Kicker · Post by **Switch Kicker** » 17 Apr 2007 19:13

sanuke okumatzu wrote:I remember when columbine happened, Marilyn Manson got blamed. I only wonder what metal artist[s] if any are going to get blamed this time? Guess they can't use that card because the gunman wasn't ' An alienated teen trying to fit in'.

Yeah, I know it was a horrible thing that happened. But, you have to think, how many times does shit like this happen in other countries across the world? None you say? Wrong, it happens plenty, it's just that America likes to blow shit up into greater proportions than what it is in actuality.

I dunno, I'm just a bit indifferent on shit that happens like this.

Heh, I didn't say they don't happen, I just said we (the US) don't hear about them if they do happen.

But as usual, Jeremy's already done more homework in the past 5 minutes than any of us have done in the past week, and provided all the answers for us. (FYI, that's not a negative statement.)

dp · Post by dp » 17 Apr 2007 19:36

I've stopped watching television news because of all the bullshit on it. Like all that crap about Ann Nicole Smith. Jeremy, I guess I just assumed it was like this everywhere, but in the news in Austrailia you didn't get 3 weeks of straight coverage about Ann Nicole Smith's death?

I saw a Fox News show recently and they actually have 80 seconds where they talk about stuff outside of America. They don't even hide it, they call it "Around the World in 80 Seconds" or something like that.

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 17 Apr 2007 22:12

That Anna Nicole Smith stuff was taking up page 3 in the Daily Telegraph for about a week, but that paper is a tabloid and not that highly regarded. I think the Sydney Morning Herald and other more respected papers gave it alot less attention.
It annoyed me though that it even had page 3, i mean its really unimportant news compared to what else is going on in Oz and abroad.

I felt sick reading about the shootings... the thought of it happening at my own University was a vivid thought

kyle · Post by **kyle** » 17 Apr 2007 22:13

I got teary eyed when i heard about the heros of the shooting. The one that stood out the most was an old proffessor who got shot and died holding the door of his classroom shut, protecting all the students inside from the gunman.