Shooting at Illinois College

[rebeccajo 14]

Then feel free to debate with yourself or anyone else comes through, since, personally, I'm tired of being egged on by you.

Amen M.

Aww, she has a friend.

People are DEAD. Do we have to have an argument about this RIGHT FREAKING NOW?

Yeah, that was lame of me to stoop.

This really is a messed up situation and I think we, as a country, need to start looking at ways to stop it from happening again.

Young people with promise just beginning their lives, with a madman in a hall of learning.

WVU has set up an alert system via text-messaging for the students. How horrible that this even has to be a consideration at our institutions of higher learning.

[LuzyC 0]

This scares the hell out of me. My son is at West Virginia University. I can't imagine the horror....

It scares the hell out of me too!!

I am worry sick every time my son off to school. I just don't understand how guns allowed inside school? Is most of the school here don't have extreme security ?

It really worry me..

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

Then feel free to debate with yourself or anyone else comes through, since, personally, I'm tired of being egged on by you.

Amen M.

Aww, she has a friend.

People are DEAD. Do we have to have an argument about this RIGHT FREAKING NOW?

Yeah, that was lame of me to stoop.

This really is a messed up situation and I think we, as a country, need to start looking at ways to stop it from happening again.

Young people with promise just beginning their lives, with a madman in a hall of learning.

WVU has set up an alert system via text-messaging for the students. How horrible that this even has to be a consideration at our institutions of higher learning.

You should try to find out if the alert system has been tested. A while bag, after the VT shootings, two exchange students were murdered in a dorm on LSU's campus. They activated the alert system, but it miserably failed. It has been fixed since and I'm sure LSU shared the information with other colleges, but it's worth checking out.

[rebeccajo 14]

Then feel free to debate with yourself or anyone else comes through, since, personally, I'm tired of being egged on by you.

Amen M.

Aww, she has a friend.

People are DEAD. Do we have to have an argument about this RIGHT FREAKING NOW?

Yeah, that was lame of me to stoop.

This really is a messed up situation and I think we, as a country, need to start looking at ways to stop it from happening again.

Young people with promise just beginning their lives, with a madman in a hall of learning.

WVU has set up an alert system via text-messaging for the students. How horrible that this even has to be a consideration at our institutions of higher learning.

You should try to find out if the alert system has been tested. A while bag, after the VT shootings, two exchange students were murdered in a dorm on LSU's campus. They activated the alert system, but it miserably failed. It has been fixed since and I'm sure LSU shared the information with other colleges, but it's worth checking out.

That's a relevant point. I'll ask my son. Thanks.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

That's a relevant point. I'll ask my son. Thanks.

No problem. I really can't believe that our society has regressed to the point that it has. Obviously many things need to change to bring peace back to America. Maybe we could start spending some of that Iraq and drug war money to fight violent crime. There is something terribly flawed. Hopefully it was a generationally thing (my generation, unfortunately) and more proactive parenting can help alleviate this for our children.

[kaydee457 13]

That's a relevant point. I'll ask my son. Thanks.

No problem. I really can't believe that our society has regressed to the point that it has. Obviously many things need to change to bring peace back to America. Maybe we could start spending some of that Iraq and drug war money to fight violent crime. There is something terribly flawed. Hopefully it was a generationally thing (my generation, unfortunately) and more proactive parenting can help alleviate this for our children.

Everything's about Iraq? You clearly need some perspective, or some real life experience. be thankfull that there's people looking out for you and your ilk, lest there'd be chaos in this country.......

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

That's a relevant point. I'll ask my son. Thanks.

No problem. I really can't believe that our society has regressed to the point that it has. Obviously many things need to change to bring peace back to America. Maybe we could start spending some of that Iraq and drug war money to fight violent crime. There is something terribly flawed. Hopefully it was a generationally thing (my generation, unfortunately) and more proactive parenting can help alleviate this for our children.

Everything's about Iraq? You clearly need some perspective, or some real life experience. be thankfull that there's people looking out for you and your ilk, lest there'd be chaos in this country.......

It surely is in a time when we can't spend the money to rebuild New Orleans, but we can rebuild Baghdad.

I'm in no way anti-war or anti-military. It's just that we should be concentrating on Afghanistan instead of Iraq.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I grew up with guns. My Dad would take my brothers and I hunting from a young age. I know how to shoot them and clean them and I have a great fear and respect for their power. I am for gun to have as protection and hunting. I am not so much on just for shooting competitions. One has to differentiate between having guns readily avaliable to the mentaly ill and what is causing these people to resort to violence in public places. It's not the guns that kill people it's people that kill people.

In Idaho our legislation recentally voted to allow people to carry guns on campus with a concelled weapons permit and honestly I am glad for that. We have to face the reality of the world we live in. Many people are complaining guns shouldn't be allowed on campus but when the student body meeting comes to cite the reasons for or against guns on campus I'm going to stand up there with article supporting it. For instance the case in Texas were a man drove to a Luby's and started shooting up the place killing several people. One women in there had a concelled weapons permit but she choose to leave her gun in the car instead of taking it into a public resturant and she regrets that. She said if she had taken her gun in there she could have saved many lives that day including the lives of her parents.

[Ban Hammer 13,333]

I grew up with guns. My Dad would take my brothers and I hunting from a young age. I know how to shoot them and clean them and I have a great fear and respect for their power. I am for gun to have as protection and hunting. I am not so much on just for shooting competitions. One has to differentiate between having guns readily avaliable to the mentaly ill and what is causing these people to resort to violence in public places. It's not the guns that kill people it's people that kill people.

In Idaho our legislation recentally voted to allow people to carry guns on campus with a concelled weapons permit and honestly I am glad for that. We have to face the reality of the world we live in. Many people are complaining guns shouldn't be allowed on campus but when the student body meeting comes to cite the reasons for or against guns on campus I'm going to stand up there with article supporting it. For instance the case in Texas were a man drove to a Luby's and started shooting up the place killing several people. One women in there had a concelled weapons permit but she choose to leave her gun in the car instead of taking it into a public resturant and she regrets that. She said if she had taken her gun in there she could have saved many lives that day including the lives of her parents.

i lived about a mile or two from luby's when that happened. and yes, there was a woman who normally carried a pistol in her purse but didn't that day.

[Zee Bee 61]

My heart goes out to all those affected by this

Something needs to be done about this. How many school related shootings is that this week? 4?

[Nagishkaw 510]

How very sad.

[SnowyTater 0]

I don't know that guns need to be outright/mostly banned like they are in the UK or anything, but I agree that there needs to be some serious serious overhaul to our gun laws :\ There's no reason it can't be a lot stricter, and I know a lot of people would whine and for a lot of people it's about the principle of not giving up a 'right' and all of that, but really isn't a lot of the Lockean point that to live in a society or really large community that cooperates, we have to give up certain rights. I mean I could say I have a right to run around naked on the streets (which I'd kind of like to do because clothes suck) and go in a store and get a butterfinger whenever I want and roast other people's pets on the street and all these things, but these are things I've kind of...let go so that we can all get along in a society. And I'm fine with that. I don't wanna be stubborn about all this random stuff.

I don't know, just the way it seems to me...I mean I've thought about if I want a gun or whatever, and I just really don't. Yeh sure if someone breaks in my house it might would have alleviated the situation but it might also just escalate it by giving the robber a weapon. I also want to have more faith in people than that, which might be very naive - faith that just because someone breaks into my house doesn't mean it's actually the Devil himself and he'll rape and murder me and my entire family and neighborhood in the most horrid ways imaginable, etc. I don't WANT to live that paranoid. Charleston can get kind of bad at night and I walk around by myself a lot, so I've thought about getting mace or a taser before too, but really I just think it's much more likely to escalate the situation than help it. I'd just end up getting tased.

I just think it's like the arms race - you get a gun so I get a bigger gun, and on and on until bigger nukes and everyone's worried about their gun ego or something. It's only when people agree to mutually give up some of their 'rights' that the race can actually end.

And for those that collect guns, just go...collect something else...God. I don't care. Gun shows are particularly bad aren't they? Because isn't this how a lot of people get around the rules of having to go through paperwork and wait a few months before getting a hold of a gun, because I think gun shows qualify as private individual to individual sales where they don't have to do any of that. That's ridiculous. It's more than just a tool. It's a murder weapon, that's what it's become, it's a symbol of power and intimidation. Hunting rifles and all that are fine I think, what guns were originally intended to be is fine. But just like all commercial goods now the gun is about profit and about emotionally appealing to its potential consumers, and gun companies know that their biggest base of potential consumers are probably power-hungry or status-symbol 'thugs' from whatever demographic background, not hunters or farmers or people using it as a tool.

My mom has guns, my dad has guns, my brother has guns. My mom and brother both have a concealed weapons permit. They're both pretty responsible people, about as responsible and mature as you can get really, but that doesn't mean that 1. I don't think there's some emotional vulnerability or unjustified paranoia behind their wanting the guns in the first place (and that this whole 'it's my right' thing isn't just a cover) and 2. that I don't think that there would be given contexts, and given situations, in which my mother or my brother would completely lose it and go psycho and just because they have a gun, get in some big trouble and end up with lots of dead victims. I think that can happen to ANYBODY. I don't want to step on anyone's rights but really numbers-wise, facts wise, I really just don't see any good enough heavy enough reason why anybody thinks it's a good idea to have such open gun access.

[AnewKINDofFEELIN 0]

I grew up with guns. My Dad would take my brothers and I hunting from a young age. I know how to shoot them and clean them and I have a great fear and respect for their power. I am for gun to have as protection and hunting. I am not so much on just for shooting competitions. One has to differentiate between having guns readily avaliable to the mentaly ill and what is causing these people to resort to violence in public places. It's not the guns that kill people it's people that kill people.

In Idaho our legislation recentally voted to allow people to carry guns on campus with a concelled weapons permit and honestly I am glad for that. We have to face the reality of the world we live in. Many people are complaining guns shouldn't be allowed on campus but when the student body meeting comes to cite the reasons for or against guns on campus I'm going to stand up there with article supporting it. For instance the case in Texas were a man drove to a Luby's and started shooting up the place killing several people. One women in there had a concelled weapons permit but she choose to leave her gun in the car instead of taking it into a public resturant and she regrets that. She said if she had taken her gun in there she could have saved many lives that day including the lives of her parents.

If I point my finger at somebody and say "BANG," they won't drop dead.

[SnowyTater 0]

I also don't want to take anything away from Olivia's post or what this woman at the restaurant went through, but...

I don't even remember where, but I heard that story in one of my classes sometime last year. And it's not because the story had just happened or anything, it wasn't like a recent news event - I just heard the exact same story as an argument as to why we SHOULD have guns.

So while it's really tragic, and yes MAYBE if the woman had taken her gun in that day, had seen the other gunman in time, had kept her purse on her, and had gotten the gun out of her purse in time. And had been a good enough shot to take the guy at with just the bullets she had, since I think I remember in this story the guy actually stopped to reload so had quite a lot more ammo than she probably would have, if not more guns...if she'd managed all this, then maybe yes she could have saved a lot of lives...

So while all this is true, it kind of makes me wonder that I heard the exact same story a year ago in whatever class it was, so it seems like this is quite the trophy sort of story for this side of the argument, which makes me wonder how many more example stories like this that side has? Compared to the hundreds or thousands of kids that die by accidental gunshots a year (or possibly in just a week), or how homicide is the #1 killer of young black men, probably most of which are done with guns, and all these things...just on their own basis, without even adding all the occurrences up.

It's what I mean. I mean I can SEE both sides. But I just think one side has far, far more weight than the other. And I know that demographically we're different from the UK and european countries and Canada and wherever else and I can understand why demographics matter with some other issues like health insurance and things, but I don't really see how it applies with gun control I guess.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Look at all of the mass shootings that have occurred in the last 5 years. The problem is that the guns are easily obtained due to lax laws regarding the purchasing of guns. Because the gun is available, they're able to shoot and kill people. I really can't think of a better time to discuss the problems with the gun culture in the US.

I think the question has to be asked. To be honest I'm not sure that the availability of guns is itself the cause of the psychotic behaviour that motivates these gunmen (Clearly they have a lot of repressed anger on top of a substantial ego), though undoubtedly it provides them with "capacity".

Still this happens way too often, and continues to happen with little more than a token "$hit happens".