[Golden Legacy]

http://news.yahoo.co...ap/niu_shooting
http://news.bbc.co.u...cas/7246003.stm

What a tragedy... unfortunate too that these school shootings are happening more frequently in the United States.

[Split Infinity]

These people are pathetic. Slaughtering a crowd of innocent people and then blowing your brains out. I can hardly think of a more cowardly way to solve your problems.

[Caael]

I cant see how shooting innocent people justifies anything. If I shot an innocent, it would just make life worse.

[Ironsight]

I blame homework.

[Laharl]

i blame gun laws

[Sea of Time]

My extended family lives in Illinois, so obviously this hits home for me. Though I don't personally know anyone who died in the attacks, my heart goes out to the families and their friends. School shootings have got to be stopped, because whatever is being done now is clearly not enough.

[Envy]

It's so true, it's becoming so much more frequent these days.

It's very, very, very sad.

I don't know why in the world they have to make such a big scene before they take themselves down. I guess you'd have to have a pretty bad mentality to actually have the ability to kill yourself. I've personally, been a person to think of it several times. But I just don't have the will to do it.

I do not condone suicide, or think that anybody should do it, but if someone has to do it, they shouldn't make a big scene out of it.

Really, I can not give my sympathy to anybody that kills another, and this, there is no excuse behind it at all.

I feel very bad for the families involved, even though I didn't know any of them. From looking at the people that died, they looked like very nice people. :P

[TheEnglishman]

I'm so glad that things like this don't happen over here. I just can't understand the mentality of someone who could do that.

[Lightning Star]

Y'know, it's interesting, because my dad and I were talking about it, and we were saying that a lot of it is because a popular form of entertainment is violence, and pretty soon, teens get used to the mentality that a way to release stress is through violence, and we don't realize how final death is. Once you're dead, you're dead.

Then ironically, we had a red lockdown today, because someone apparently had a gun on campus, and a bunch of students said there was going to be a shooting at 3:00 (five minutes before we get out of school). I was so freakin' scared at first, 'cause I thought it was a bomb or something. (but then I realized they would evacuate us in that situation). Still my adrenaline was really high. It didn't help that yesterday there were creepy messages written all over the school saying "It will be over soon".

My teacher almost started crying because she was so sad at how demoralized todays society is becoming. She said something like, "at my school, we never had to worry about shootings. People had guns in their cars, 'cause in wyoming a lot of kids went hunting, but no one shot each other. Then a few years ago at my old middle school, a kid got stabbed."

How can we fix this without fixing society first? And how can you fix a society that doesn't want to fix itself? All we end up doing is just feeding the habit of destruction. Seriously, at the rate we're at, Armageddon won't be long.

[TheEnglishman]

It's scary the number of times that I've read about stabbings around England. Luckily it doesn't happen around where I live, but that doesn't mean it couldn't. It's a scary thought.

[Someone Else]

Envy, on Feb 15 2008, 02:10 PM, said:

I don't know why in the world they have to make such a big scene before they take themselves down.

They feel ignored and lonely. They think it would be good that in their final moments, the whole world is finally paying attention to them.

Might be hard to grasp, but it's true.

[Elliott]

Icy, on Feb 16 2008, 11:24 AM, said:

Y'know, it's interesting, because my dad and I were talking about it, and we were saying that a lot of it is because a popular form of entertainment is violence, and pretty soon, teens get used to the mentality that a way to release stress is through violence, and we don't realize how final death is. Once you're dead, you're dead.

Violent games are just as popular here in Australia and I don't think we've ever had a school shooting (correct me if I'm wrong). The problem therein lies not with kids playing shooting games or games that depict graphic violence, but with the laws in place that allow people in America to so easily get their hands on a gun. Change the laws, and there will be a definite drop in violence of this magnitude in schools, I can all but guarantee it.

[Envy]

Wind Dude, on Feb 15 2008, 07:12 PM, said:

They feel ignored and lonely. They think it would be good that in their final moments, the whole world is finally paying attention to them.

Might be hard to grasp, but it's true.

I understand that. I just think it's wrong.

But any attention is attention, I suppose. =\

[Split Infinity]

Agatio, on Feb 16 2008, 12:13 PM, said:

Violent games are just as popular here in Australia and I don't think we've ever had a school shooting (correct me if I'm wrong).

Might want to read this.

http://en.wikipedia....ersity_shooting

[Eugine]

I second what Envy said, but let us move on to the bigger picture.
What causes it, and how can we prevent it.

My opinion: These things happen everywhere, the USA just do a better job at reporting it.

[Split Infinity]

People don't seem to realise that under the pressure of school, teenagers are prone to doing almost anything, and while I'm not saying everyone is a hooligan, we still need basic precautions such as metal detectors. Just like any public building.

[Moonear]

It's scary how this is happening in schools, which is supposed to be a safe haven for everybody. I agree that the gun laws should be changed, because every one of these last few school shootings were done by people who illegally got guns.

Oh yeah, I was listening to the news and they said that the shooter didn't take his medications for the last few weeks.

[Golden Legacy]

Agatio's point is sound. Gun control needs to be more restrictive. They hold gun shows in the South, as an example, as if it were some luxurious commodity. It's sickening.

On a side note, I believe this problem is inherent for the United States. Other places have a lower drinking age, for example, and there are hardly accounts of drunken rampages, rapes, and acts of violence as there are here.

Definitely a societal issue within the United States, encompassing guns certainly, but also a broader mentality.

[Eugine]

I think both sides have interesting points.

I'm personally for a Japan style gun control (where it is very, very hard to own a gun). Unfortunately in places like USA the bad people who wants a gun, will get a gun, while the good people who follows the laws usually are defenseless and are usually killed.

I think you have to change the mind set of the people first rather than try to 'fix' gun laws imo.

[Caael]

Agatio, on Feb 16 2008, 01:13 AM, said:

Violent games are just as popular here in Australia and I don't think we've ever had a school shooting (correct me if I'm wrong). The problem therein lies not with kids playing shooting games or games that depict graphic violence, but with the laws in place that allow people in America to so easily get their hands on a gun. Change the laws, and there will be a definite drop in violence of this magnitude in schools, I can all but guarantee it.

Everybody blames videogames for everything. Seriously, according to my parents i'm going to fail my GCSEs because I play too much 360.

[Split Infinity]

Well if they're interrupting your studies, then your parents are probably right.

[Caael]

But they're not. I go on for 2 hours a day max during weekdays. How is that enough to fail my exams?

[Split Infinity]

Depends. Did you fail any exams last year?

[Lightning Star]

The right to bear arms...It's amazing how our "liberty" has become our own worst enemy, here in the USA.

But I think the media also has some affect though. I mean, take a kid who comes from a sheltered home, then expose him/her to weeks worth of crude and sexual movies/videogames/etc, and after a while, he'll start swearing and joking around just like they do in said media. It has an effect on people, especially young adults as our minds are so easily influenced by the world around us (sadly.)

I know the whole "separation of church and state" is good and all, but there's a point where you've got to at least teach kids SOME morals and SOME respect for one another, other wise it just becomes this snowball effect. You accept one thing, then pretty soon you have to accept something worse. Unfortunately, a lot of the parents of kids in our generation were hippies, into drugs and love children and whatnot. If their lifestyles were like that, what do you expect their children's will be? I think as a whole, parents need to be more in-tune with their kids, talk to them, and not be "laid back" so they can be the cool mom or dad, 'cause where does that get a kid in life? My parents are really strict with me (hah, I think we've established that too) but I also know that I'm fortunate to have parents who love me enough to keep me from going the wrong way.

So yeah, that's my two cents. Again.

[Ironsight]

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. I go to and enjoy those evil gun shows, and they are always fun and interesting. Oddly enough, I don't see people organising raids and setting bounty's on people's heads. The gun laws don't need the be fixed, just the people.

[Caael]

Split Infinity, on Feb 16 2008, 05:45 AM, said:

Depends. Did you fail any exams last year?

Nope, and since I've had my 360 i've been getting A's in all my exams so far. People blame videogames because they're new and easy to blame. Like blaming the foreign guy.

[Split Infinity]

DarkSword, on Feb 17 2008, 11:30 AM, said:

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. I go to and enjoy those evil gun shows, and they are always fun and interesting. Oddly enough, I don't see people organising raids and setting bounty's on people's heads. The gun laws don't need the be fixed, just the people.

Unfortunately, that's just not happening DS. People will always kill people, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier to do it. Therein lies the problem.

[Nosferatu]

Alright, this is on topic I guess but someone took the opportunity to jump the gun.

Guess who.

[Golden Legacy]

Split Infinity, on Feb 16 2008, 09:06 PM, said:

Unfortunately, that's just not happening DS. People will always kill people, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier to do it. Therein lies the problem.

Nicely put Split. I can hardly believe people justify guns as a simple recreational activity.