The "gun culture" is to blame for Virginia Tech

I'll have to do more research into this.

I think you should stop equaling pot with guns.

Of course they can. You know someone has a heart condition, feed them food with lots of fat. High blood pressure, lots of sodium. Diabetics, lots of sugar. It takes time and patience, but I can dig a grave for someone I hate with a fork and spoon just as easily as I can with a knife or gun.

Now there's a handy way to depopulate your school

Yet I don't think either should be restricted.

Takes time and effort. Taking a gun to school and start shooting can be done in an instant.

More children are killed each year in school sporting event than in school shootings. Perhaps banning school sports is in order?

You know, this thread is slowly sliding into the absurd

In addition to my strong beliefs that food isn't designed to kill, I shall extend that belief to school sport. Guns, on the other hand, are.

You mean like the time and effort that the Columbine shooters put into their unsuccessful propane bombs? Or the time and effort that the VT shooter put into manifesto videos mailed to media outlets?

Maybe "somebody" shouldn't get mad?

It doesn't matter if school sports are designed to kill. The fact remains they do.

I'd say those are exceptions. From the amok runs we get over here, you can usually find the trigger quite quickly.

A letter from the bank.
The ex standing on the doorstep.
The people foreclosing the house arrive.
Something like that.

Now, how this works is clear: if such a trigger occurs and there are guns available, there might be shooting. If they aren't, there is no shooting. In 99% of the cases the trigger goes away after some time and no blood is spilled.

Of course the story is entirely different when somebody is planning a big exit. You can't prevent that at all, except for somebody being there and reading the signs. In short: guns just make it easy and don't allow time to consider. That's my problem with seeing them as simple household objects.

As do cars. And falling tree branches

All true. So if we're looking out for the children why aren't cars and tree branches also banned?

Someone that pulls a gun in a school didn't magicly get one on the spur of the moment out of a Bag of Holding. He brought one from home, had time to think about it on the way to school, and to continue to think about it until time to put the first round downrange. It's not a spur of the moment thing like getting pissed at your wife and giving her five across the face when she says the wrong thing at the wrong time. Taking a gun to school requires intent.

And yet they represent two of the worst, most infamous shootings in history. Not acts of impulse, acts of pure deliberate planning. The epitomy of evil, if there is such a thing.

And yet guns are not integral to tragedy. Human intent is.

I thought banning guns would solve that problem?

"!"

Out of rep but . The Columbine shooters were building whole BOMBS in their bedrooms without their parents noticing. The Cho guy had mental illness that triggered off several of his teachers' Whack-O-Meters. The many other copycats had other crazy shit rattling in their own heads when they decide to get revenge upon the school and classmates (more often than not, the ones that got hurt were kids that never interacted with said nutjob before that day).

That is the kind of stuff that isn't going to go away with banning guns. Personally, I *don't* see such need to have firearms myself. But just like most everything else, you have to learn to use them right, just like driving a car or using a computer. Tons of accidents from reckless people each day and tons of hackers and child molesters online, but we don't ban those for many from the actions of a scant few.

YMMV.

Aw, how quickly we've forgotten Eccentric's contributions here.




Oh, well.

I think the problem with school shootings today is that in the old days whackaloons and goofballs wound up getting "handled" () one way or another before they became too big of a problem, and nowadays loonies can get away with pretty much anything.

Valparaiso High School was actually victimized by a machete wielding student a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

If someone wants to kill a bunch of people, they'll do it.

You mean to tell me you've never seen a movie or heard of someone getting hit in the head with a fire extinguisher?

I know I have, several times.

She must not have seen Live Free Or Die Hard

95% of everything happens in the US, we live it baby, thats why so many people want to immigrate here.

As wise as your screen name (or Dan Leach's for that matter), I suppose!

Well, I don't consider that part of an addiction (considering I haven't gone shooting in 3 years), rather a "stance" or a "belief system." Some people vote solely on a candidate's views on abortion, or religion. I simpley can't vote for someone who wants to take away a basic right I value, along with several $K worth of personal property without due process, and makes it a pointed campaign issue.

Can you imagine to public reaction if a politician decided that SUVs cause more traffic deaths than other cars, therefore their sales must be banned and everyone must turn in the ones they own now? Or that no one has a need for "sports racing cars" just to commute to work, and all Porsche, Mustang, Corvette, etc, owners must surrender their vehicles to their local police for destruction? You're gonna say it's an absurd comparison, but it's exactly how I felt when NJ outlawed my AR-15.

What happened there anyway, did they confiscate it or what?

There is no simple answer to the question of why school shootings are happening with more frequency than in previous decades. Adolescense has always been a difficult period to get through, but in an era of broken, blended, and generally dysfunctional families, kids don't have the support and structure at home to be able to handle the stress and pressure.

Availability of guns? I don't see that as the problem. Violence on TV? That's not the problem, although lefty-lib social crusaders have been trying to blame the boob tube for decades.

What I think is that there's a level of anger, bitterness, rage, despair, in today's youth that has reached an intensity, a critical mass that makes revenge fantasies seem not only attractive, but eminently do-able.

I blame fat, ugly, grouchy flight attendants. And deregulation.

I can't wait for someone around here to use an Atlatl in a fatal crime.
These things are badass - incredibly efficient application of physics by ancient people.