On the gun control thing, it's pointless to try and control firearms. Guns aren't exactly high tech. Anyone with a library card and access to a hardware store can probably make a zip gun as well as their own ammo. In fact, the number of equally deadly homebrew weapons is staggering. This guy could have just as easily soaked saw dust in gasoline, crammed it into a lead pipe, used a primitive matchbook fuse and killed just as many people if not more. Remember, 1 cup of gasoline is equal to six sticks of TnT.
As for his motive, I'd say he had a medical condition that made him emotionally erratic and that didn't show up on his background check. It's easy enough to fix this problem, it's just too bad that more thorough checking for mental problems was a rule that needed to be written in blood.
Once again we have pro vs. anti gun ranting. It is beside the point. I can at this very moment drive 30 minutes to the bad side of town and a wad of cash and buy guns, knives, and EXPLOSIVES to my heart's content, all very illegal.
Why did he do it? What drove a (by the accounts of those who knew him) a generally stable, well adjusted person to do this? I have also heard those reports that he was off his meds (just what they were hasn't been said), and that his demeanor seemed erratic in the last few days.
Sorry to address your post directly, its not all directed at you.
Anti-pro gun is and isn't really the issue its more how it all interconnects with it all. There needs to be some tighter gun controls because the US system for treating people for mental / emotional issue frankly is a mess.
Rather then treat, we tend to med people up and hope they will somehow get "fixed" through their use. Its not just these high profile cases like this. It repeats at just about every level.
There are so many things that influence these types of things.
In general, as an ex-soldier / expert with 9mm pistols, 120mm main guns of M1A1's, M240 MG's and M-16's, (read - used weapons in combat) I must say "guns" are not toys. Yes a person has a right to "protect" themselves but arming a mentally / emotionally unprepared and untrained population is NOT the way to go about it. Weapons are for killing, they need to be respected, they are not toys. I was recently in Dallas and I saw some jokes walking around with their "fancy" pistols on their side all dressed up in their goofy cowboy outfits and as a weapon expert, I was offended that they treated the weapons as nothing more then props...toys. These two guys were nothing more then two little boys showing off their toys hoping to score by looking "manly".
Now a days, not only do I feel we need to control weapons like we control the use of autos, but we really need to look at the root of our treatment system. Insurance companies have driven up medical cost so high all anyone can really get is a quick in and out treatment. This is pushing the treatment system to rely more and more on "quick fixes" like meds rather then addressing the individuals actual problems. Its been a trend now in the field for awhile.
Many people suffer from a variety of mental issues from mild depression to full blown mental issues but in the US we phobic about even talking about it. Yes, people have problems but no one likes to face that. Instead we want the docs to give us a pill and make it all better and society not only encourages but expects it. I currently live in Europe and guess what? They treat first. Amazing.
There is a lot more to this subject (education, economic, social factors), it could go on for hours but that's just some of it IMHO. I have been a soldier, I'm a vet, earned a degree in Psychology and currently work with the military community putting these kids back together after 2 or 3 years in Iraq who will never, ever be the same people they were again but are in desperate need of help. I have been at the front lines of war and violence my entire adult life in some way or another in service to my comrades.
I generally never post on this "off topic" board as this site is only for my gaming thoughts but it caught my attention and I did attend that school many years ago. Pretty sad. These past 10 years have been very dark times for my country. We grind away at a catch 22 war with no real end, treat our peoples issues as disposable jokes and everyone at home thinks a trip to mall is just what the doc ordered while our economy sinks to point of a third string nation and our infrastructure erodes away.
But what the hell do I know? I have been busy trying to keep these kids from putting a bullet in their head for the last 5 years.
Prepare for videogames to get the blame once again. They'll find out that back when he was 9 he played Super Mario Bros. and deem that because of all the fireballs it desensitized him to explosives and therefor was able to use a handgun so easily. In doing this, they'll completely neglect that all of his favorite movies were Rambo flicks, and that at the age of 13 his parents gave him extensive weapons training classes for "self defense" and hunting. Of course this is all fictional, but my point stands. Videogames = desensitized youth. Violent movies, hunting, weapons = normal activities for young people. *sigh*
Yup pretty much right on the money. Looks like Jack Thompson, massacre chaser extrodinare, blames vidoe games on it.
I swear to God, how does anyone give this nutball avoice anymore. He is like a modern day vampire, feeding off the misery of others to line his pockets with lawsuit money.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Once again we have pro vs. anti gun ranting. It is beside the point. I can at this very moment drive 30 minutes to the bad side of town and a wad of cash and buy guns, knives, and EXPLOSIVES to my heart's content, all very illegal.
Why did he do it? What drove a (by the accounts of those who knew him) a generally stable, well adjusted person to do this? I have also heard those reports that he was off his meds (just what they were hasn't been said), and that his demeanor seemed erratic in the last few days.
Someone said it already, the 2 things (guns, and random killings) are interconnected.
I tryied to explain the concept in my previous post.
You wonder how can someone be driven to do something like that?
Well it is really easy actually, all start from vulnerability which turn into desperation.
The reasons range from the most stupid to the serious ones, from being continuosly bullied at school to losing your job,house, wife due to gambling.
We all can have that odd period of madness, where we become someone else due to the unbeareable pain that we suffer when something too big happen to us.
We can call it impulsive behaviour, or doing something that you wouldn't do if you had the chance to cooldown.
Usually you deal with those sort of things by shouting at someone or beating someone, or just crying yourself to sleep.
But when you have a gun in your drawer, the temptation might be too much to use it, because you are not yourself anymore, and you don't care anymore.
Even perfect sane people that lived an immaculate life, can fall for it.
In the case of Universities massacres though, the pattern seems to be pretty much the same.
Just go through the recent university shoot outs and investigate about the reasons behind it, you ll discover that were all people with few friends, maybe snobbed by the object of their love, or they've been heavily bullied.
Usually those people kill themselves, because they don't have the means to hurt anybody else.
But in US is different.........you can buy a machine gun, and bring as many people as possible with you in hell, because life has been unfair with you.
When you have free access to guns, like you described in your post, everyone in a moment of madness can unload them towards innocent people.
That's why the guns should be illegal to the general public, so loners (or people in temporary distress) won't be able to get hold of them, and the gun fatalities due to stupid reasons will fall drastically.
That's what we do in Europe, what they do in Australia and the rest of the world, and the results are clear.
Comments
On the gun control thing, it's pointless to try and control firearms. Guns aren't exactly high tech. Anyone with a library card and access to a hardware store can probably make a zip gun as well as their own ammo. In fact, the number of equally deadly homebrew weapons is staggering. This guy could have just as easily soaked saw dust in gasoline, crammed it into a lead pipe, used a primitive matchbook fuse and killed just as many people if not more. Remember, 1 cup of gasoline is equal to six sticks of TnT.
As for his motive, I'd say he had a medical condition that made him emotionally erratic and that didn't show up on his background check. It's easy enough to fix this problem, it's just too bad that more thorough checking for mental problems was a rule that needed to be written in blood.
Sorry to address your post directly, its not all directed at you.
Anti-pro gun is and isn't really the issue its more how it all interconnects with it all. There needs to be some tighter gun controls because the US system for treating people for mental / emotional issue frankly is a mess.
Rather then treat, we tend to med people up and hope they will somehow get "fixed" through their use. Its not just these high profile cases like this. It repeats at just about every level.
There are so many things that influence these types of things.
In general, as an ex-soldier / expert with 9mm pistols, 120mm main guns of M1A1's, M240 MG's and M-16's, (read - used weapons in combat) I must say "guns" are not toys. Yes a person has a right to "protect" themselves but arming a mentally / emotionally unprepared and untrained population is NOT the way to go about it. Weapons are for killing, they need to be respected, they are not toys. I was recently in Dallas and I saw some jokes walking around with their "fancy" pistols on their side all dressed up in their goofy cowboy outfits and as a weapon expert, I was offended that they treated the weapons as nothing more then props...toys. These two guys were nothing more then two little boys showing off their toys hoping to score by looking "manly".
Now a days, not only do I feel we need to control weapons like we control the use of autos, but we really need to look at the root of our treatment system. Insurance companies have driven up medical cost so high all anyone can really get is a quick in and out treatment. This is pushing the treatment system to rely more and more on "quick fixes" like meds rather then addressing the individuals actual problems. Its been a trend now in the field for awhile.
Many people suffer from a variety of mental issues from mild depression to full blown mental issues but in the US we phobic about even talking about it. Yes, people have problems but no one likes to face that. Instead we want the docs to give us a pill and make it all better and society not only encourages but expects it. I currently live in Europe and guess what? They treat first. Amazing.
There is a lot more to this subject (education, economic, social factors), it could go on for hours but that's just some of it IMHO. I have been a soldier, I'm a vet, earned a degree in Psychology and currently work with the military community putting these kids back together after 2 or 3 years in Iraq who will never, ever be the same people they were again but are in desperate need of help. I have been at the front lines of war and violence my entire adult life in some way or another in service to my comrades.
I generally never post on this "off topic" board as this site is only for my gaming thoughts but it caught my attention and I did attend that school many years ago. Pretty sad. These past 10 years have been very dark times for my country. We grind away at a catch 22 war with no real end, treat our peoples issues as disposable jokes and everyone at home thinks a trip to mall is just what the doc ordered while our economy sinks to point of a third string nation and our infrastructure erodes away.
But what the hell do I know? I have been busy trying to keep these kids from putting a bullet in their head for the last 5 years.
Phew, sorry about that...rant, back to gaming...
Yup pretty much right on the money. Looks like Jack Thompson, massacre chaser extrodinare, blames vidoe games on it.
I swear to God, how does anyone give this nutball avoice anymore. He is like a modern day vampire, feeding off the misery of others to line his pockets with lawsuit money.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
Someone said it already, the 2 things (guns, and random killings) are interconnected.
I tryied to explain the concept in my previous post.
You wonder how can someone be driven to do something like that?
Well it is really easy actually, all start from vulnerability which turn into desperation.
The reasons range from the most stupid to the serious ones, from being continuosly bullied at school to losing your job,house, wife due to gambling.
We all can have that odd period of madness, where we become someone else due to the unbeareable pain that we suffer when something too big happen to us.
We can call it impulsive behaviour, or doing something that you wouldn't do if you had the chance to cooldown.
Usually you deal with those sort of things by shouting at someone or beating someone, or just crying yourself to sleep.
But when you have a gun in your drawer, the temptation might be too much to use it, because you are not yourself anymore, and you don't care anymore.
Even perfect sane people that lived an immaculate life, can fall for it.
In the case of Universities massacres though, the pattern seems to be pretty much the same.
Just go through the recent university shoot outs and investigate about the reasons behind it, you ll discover that were all people with few friends, maybe snobbed by the object of their love, or they've been heavily bullied.
Usually those people kill themselves, because they don't have the means to hurt anybody else.
But in US is different.........you can buy a machine gun, and bring as many people as possible with you in hell, because life has been unfair with you.
When you have free access to guns, like you described in your post, everyone in a moment of madness can unload them towards innocent people.
That's why the guns should be illegal to the general public, so loners (or people in temporary distress) won't be able to get hold of them, and the gun fatalities due to stupid reasons will fall drastically.
That's what we do in Europe, what they do in Australia and the rest of the world, and the results are clear.