seems that a gunman rampaged in the campus, shooting at least 22 people in two different locations before killing himself (cops still not saying how he died).
on CNN right now. sympathies to the families involved. also, get ready for big changes to university campuses - taiwan walls with glass on top?
Wait, just wait. Here come the knee-jerk responses of people just wanting to push their own political agendas, rather than show any sensitivity towards the people who were victims of this rampage.
To me, it’s simple:
Crazy nutter + a gun = tragedy
There are lots of crazy people in this world. Lots of people this close to the edge. To exrapolate one lunatic’s actions to ills of greater society is as shallow and facile as it gets. The only thing this represents is one man’s insanity. It says nothing about “greater society” and to do so is insulting to all the victims of this monster’s rampage. It is blaming the victim.
From what I’ve seen so far they haven’t identified the person yet, though they’re saying Asian, mid-twenties, probably a student. The news reports so far have been mostly hearsay about what happened, but they do know that he had two nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistols and a bulletproof vest. Apparantely he chained up the main entrance to the building and went in a class and opened fire.
[quote=“Quentin”]
There are lots of crazy people in this world. Lots of people this close to the edge. To exrapolate one lunatic’s actions to ills of greater society is as shallow and facile as it gets. The only thing this represents is one man’s insanity. It says nothing about “greater society” and to do so is insulting to all the victims of this monster’s rampage. It is blaming the victim.[/quote]
Of course, but surely something can be infered from the relative frequency of such events in the US in comparison to Europe / Australia. More crazy people or more crazy people with the ability to blow the brains out of so many people? I’d be inclined to believe the latter.
It also clearly seems to be the domain of men. Women have a monthly release of craziness so that it doesn’t build up.
Good morning to you guys. But what a sucky way to get up…
I caught it when it first broke, so I don’t know what’s transpired in 6 hrs. The shooter went in looking for his girlfriend. When he couldn’t find her, he began taking killing excution style. He did this in two buildings. That’s what I heard when it was breaking…
[quote]
Of course, but surely something can be infered from the relative frequency of such events in the US in comparison to Europe / Australia. More crazy people or more crazy people with the ability to blow the brains out of so many people? I’d be inclined to believe the latter. [/quote] What can be occured from this is the break down in social support. I’m assuming that in Europe, there is a stronger sense of community, or network. Also keep in mind, that we do have a lovely gun law over here, so it’s fairly easy to get a gun, if you don’t have a history on record with the police. And each state has its own laws. Oh, that’s if you want to do it legally. :s
Interesting…apparently it was a Chinese exchange student (according to Drudge)
[quote]He was said to have quarreled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the fight. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser…
A Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa.
The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai. Investigators have not linked him to any terrorist groups… [/quote]
My first reaction was the same as yours, Quentin. I couldn’t believe, when I woke up this morning, how quickly so many had turned this tragedy into an opportunity to advocate for their own policy positions.
Some were arguing that this shooter would have been taken out much sooner if students had been allowed to get self-defense carry permits, and pointing out that many of the worst tragedies seem to occur in jurisdictions with strict gun control laws that essentially render the victims completely defenseless. Some were arguing exactly the opposite, saying that in fact the solution is to enact stricter gun control laws, so that would-be killers would need to pay a lot more to buy a gun since it would only be available on the black market.
Like you, at an emotional level I found this rush to score political points while victims were still being treated extremely distasteful. But I still can’t say that I’m 100% sure that I am right.
If one strongly believes that enacting a certain policy would save lives and help prevent these kind of tragedies in the future, is it really wrong to use a moment like this to try to get support for that policy? What if you believe that the damage done to the feelings of the families of the victims is outweighed by the damage you can help to prevent by using the tragedy to advance what you believe is an important policy change? And how much damage is one’s lack of sensitivity really doing?
What do you all think? (Not about which policy position one should support as a result of this --there’s already plenty of other threads on that-- but rather on the issue of whether it’s wrong to take advantage of events like this to advance a position)
i don’t mean to trivialize this and i know the point is often made but it’s funny how people get so upset over these incidents (and CNN goes into 24/7 saturation mode) but when it happens every night in baghdad it’s just business as usual…don’t get me wrong it’s a sickening news event but the victims are equally unknown to me as any in Iraq and no more or less tragic by virtue of being “american”…
“…to take advantage of events like this…” kind of prejudices the question, does it not?
It’s distasteful.
I’d prefer to see people make serious policy decisions after sober reflection, but maybe the power of emotional/affective responses is just what’s needed to break habits of thought. We get stuck in the rut of well-worn patterns of thoughts–maybe it takes a strong gut reaction to move beyond that.
Hobbes, I think it sucks. I watched the press conference/feeding frenzy on CNN. Questions about kids jumping out of windows, a second shooter…and not one about have all the families been notified.
I don’t know how to stop this kind of crime against humanity, but hugging your kid when he/she is young more often and saying “I love you,” doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
It’s tragic and sad that it happend to young people at a college, but to put in perspective … in the US die 80 people a day of gunshot wounds … about 40 of these are killed by way of gun violence …
I was walking by the newspaper stand with my morning box of lemonade when I saw the headline. And it disgusted me that already people were pushing their political agendas right in the article that was reporting the incident.
As for Iraq, that is a good point, but this isn’t the time to talk about that. It is sad that these kids who had nothing to do with the shooter, were killed. Then again, most people who go on a homicidal rampage don’t do so because they have a strong social network. So perhaps, this may again wake people up that they need to take care of each other and appreciate each other.
I was at my old uni today studying for some exams comming up, and all of my old teachers took this very seriously, of course. In fact, the English department has only one way in or out. They’d all be sitting ducks. No one ever thought of that before. It’s incidents like these that change America. We’ll have to start assuming the worst and then structuring our lives, from building design to city lay out, around it. Actually, after 9/11 and Katrina, we’ve already begun this on a larger scale. Not this is getting close to small town home. This saddens me. Ultimatly, our constant fears that we will lose the lifestyle we all feel entitled to will cost us our freedoms and self determination. THEN, maybe, someone will pay attention to their children again and some of these kinds of things will stop.
What do you all think? (Not about 
