[Optimus Prime]

More terrible, depressing news.

Another bright young American decided it was a great idea to go on a shooting rampage today. He killed 5 people and himself (of course) at Northern Illinois University this afternoon. He also wounded at least 16 others...some of whom may not survive the night.

Why? What possesses these people to do this? And what the hell can we do to prevent this from happening. It is such a helpless feeling.

I have a friend that attends graduate school there. Thankfully, he wasn't even on campus today. But this is seriously screwed up.

Argh. Stupid world.

[pastures]

that sucks.

i do think, though, that pple snap for a reason. no one kills themself without strong reasons.

[Optimus Prime]

Suicide...however senseless it may seem....isn't a black and white issue.

Shooting innocents, who are unarmed and defenseless, is not. It stuns me that this continues to happen. The media are all over like maggots on a corpse of course...and sometimes I think this only helps future incidents. Nutjobs all over the place see the coverage and think, "yeah...that is how I'll send my message. Mass Homicide!"

Fucking ridiculous.

[Mentalist]

grrr.. I just read a chapter on agression that dealt with such shootings:

Essential reasons--frustration;
Exposure to violence in the media that
a) glorifies violence
habituates/decensitizes to violence
c) changes perception of the real world

also, possible abuse during childhood, various sources of negative affect, social learning... did they mention where the stident was originally from?

[Illuyankas]

Anyone who says computer games is going to be punched in the face.

[Silencer]

Damn right Illy!
They always blame Computer Games. And yet, most of the ones that do have violence make it out to be a bad thing.

A large part of it is the news coverage, as Xander suggested. Most of these people are either on drugs, have been on drugs, are insane, or otherwise have pent-up frustrations. Probably brought on by a bad upbringing. Then they see what happens when someone else does these things.....

[Aptorian]

Here's the automatic danish reaction when ever this happens in America:

"Stupid Americans, what do they think is going to happen when anyone and everyone in the country is armed?"

The reason to why there isn't crazy incidents like this in Denmark, isn't that we're more sane and welladjusted (well, that too) but that nobody, except criminals, have easy access to guns!

Stop stockpiling semiautomatic weapons and small firearms in your houses! The right to bear firearms, that is supposedly ment to let you protect yourself is what hurts you the most. It's not like having a firearm in the house is going to matter one way or another if Canada marches in over the border.

[sorry, I'm hungover and tired]

[pastures]

i think its more a result of school bullying than anything else.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

My theory is that there's just too many people. The odds are that much higher to produce someone screwed in the head.

[Optimus Prime]

Aptorian;259342 said:

Here's the automatic danish reaction when ever this happens in America:

"Stupid Americans, what do they think is going to happen when anyone and everyone in the country is armed?"

The reason to why there isn't crazy incidents like this in Denmark, isn't that we're more sane and welladjusted (well, that too) but that nobody, except criminals, have easy access to guns!

Stop stockpiling semiautomatic weapons and small firearms in your houses! The right to bear firearms, that is supposedly ment to let you protect yourself is what hurts you the most. It's not like having a firearm in the house is going to matter one way or another if Canada marches in over the border.

[sorry, I'm hungover and tired]

Trust me dude, I HATE the fact it is so easy to get or own a gun here. People here are crazy about their "right" to own any type of weapon. I grew up in the South...and was viewed as very abnormal because my family neither owned a gun or wanted one. I had a neighbor whose father owned

a pistol, numerous types of shotguns, a few semi-automatics...AN AUTOMATIC machine gun (automatic weapons are illegal) and A FREAKING ELEPHANT GUN.

I'm just wondering whether these killers are just missing that piece of their mind that tells normal humans not to do this...or they just snap...and it could happen to anyone?

[Aptorian]

Anyone can snap, In Denmark they just use a knife and such weapons are "less lethal" in that they are easier to try and defend against (just run the other way) and it's hard to target more than one person ( they just run away)

We've recently had a wave of stabbings in the nightlife. This has led to there actually being visitation zones in the capital and various other actions against knives. There's a serious motion in parliment, backed by most of the public, for the outlawing of carrying any kind of knife in public.

[Optimus Prime]

Aptorian;259349 said:

Anyone can snap, In Denmark they just use a knife and such weapons are "less lethal" in that they are easier to try and defend against (just run the other way) and it's hard to target more than one person ( they just run away)

We've recently had a wave stabbings in the nightlife. This has led to there actually being visitation zones in the capital and various other actions against knives. There's a serious motion in parliment, backed by most of the public, for the outlawing of carrying any kind of knife in public.

Wow. That is crazy.

I just can't imagine the pure terror that must race through you if you are in that classroom when that guy just comes out of nowhere unloading....fucking mind blowing.

[Aptorian]

Most be scary as hell. There's a part of me, I'm the take charge kind of guy in a sticky situation, that makes me think I'd just charge the guy if I could. I'd probably end up with a couple of new airholes.

The sad thing is, earlier, like when Columbine happened, the shockwaves hit everywhere and even danish students were shocked and there were serious discussions and sympathy in Denmark for the american students and parents. Now, when stuff like this happens, it's just mentioned briefly in the news.

[Optimus Prime]

The Terrible becomes the back page news....what a country. (America...not Denmark)

I'd love to say I'd charge the guy as well...but never even been involved in anything close to that terrifying of a situation. I'm more the guy who would try to help those wounded while getting the hell out of there...

Though the worst situations can bring out the best in people...that is my hope...I'd embody that.

[Zanth13]

I agree that the media plays a part in it, if it wasnt given as much coverage I am sure that it wouldnt be as big of a problem... damn copy cat sicko's...

maybe without so much almost glamorization of it, they would just kill themselves instead of a bunch of innocent people...

I also dont see how a single person can kill so many people in an inclosed enviroment... what wasthe death toll on the last one in virginina like 32... that means the fuck head had to stop and reload and then go and shoot some more...

I know people react differently in these situations, but I would rather catch a bullet in the chest then the back trying to run away, it wouldnt be to terrible hard for a group of people to take down a gun man using what ever means were available... but alas I have been raised/trained differently then young college students so maybe i am to judgmental... its got to be a scary ass mind blowing situation for them, completely blasting them out of thier normal world is safe, nothing to worry about sesame street mind set...

Doing such a act is probably mone of the most cowardly things possible... using guns to attack unarmed civilians.... yeah your a real hard ass now.. fucking cowards...

reminds me of a line from Shoot em up... "I hate a pussy with a gun" or something close to that...

[Optimus Prime]

Yeah the problem is...you would like to think you'd charge the gunman...but wait...HE HAS A FUCKING GUN and a you are just thinking...

"Holy shit I've got to get out of here."

It is a very small percentage that wouldn't think of getting the hell out of there and charge the guy...but if people did that at the start the carnage would be less I guess.

It's just so hard to know what you'd do unless you were there...

I agree Zanth. The shooters are just fucking cowards.

[paladin]

school life is stressful, can easily lead someone to snap. if you dont succeed in school you're fucked, so thats how that goes. we put too much stress on our children, and it drives them crazy.

[Mezla PigDog]

It's pretty clear that easy access to guns is the problem. There is no way that America is producing proportionally more screw ups than the UK and the rest of Western Europe. The only difference is that the mentalists in Europe don't have access to firearms, plain and simple.

[stone monkey]

At the danger of sounding glib:

If you put young people who haven't necessarily got the maturity to have developed good coping strategies in a stressful environment (and college does get stressful for most people at one time or other, for whatever reason) some of them are bound to go off the deep end. I can guarantee you that anyone who's been through Higher Education has heard of one or more people who lost it during their time there.

And then you add a comparatively easy access to firearms to the mix. The results are, most unfortunately, inevitable.

[Morgoth]

which is why I almost cried when the NRA went out after Mitchigan Tech and said that this wouldn't have happened if all the students had been armed.

Come on, it's the same in all countries. A university is a place were people not fully in control of their hormones, drink, do drugs, fall in love, have one night stands, take exams, get grades that in ways will define their lives, get into arguments, fail and so on and so forth. The only difference between pretty much the rest of the western world and the US is that in the US getting a gun is easy.