@OP
Seriously? Again how many "shootings" have we had over the past months?
One too many?
I guess it's a matter of opinion, and everyone has one; whether based on compassion, intuition, empathy, logic, social knowledge or String Theory.
As for my apology in being the messenger of bad news again; it seems like the last few discussions I initiated over here at the Current Events Forum has been about some disaster or another. I wish I had more good news. The event had happened for quite some time, and upon checking GTP, I found that there was no discussion on it - so I felt compelled to bring it to the table. If I had waited another few minutes, Dennisch would have done it.
The major problem is not guns nor violent video games, neither gun control nor a militaristic attitude, but mostly how our society deals with and represses mental problems. People do not talk about their problems for fear of what others think of them, and in turn, how their place and stature in a smaller society or circle is perceived. On rare occasions, this largely ego-protective attitude permits inferiority complexes to dangerously manifest themselves as superiority complexes with no regard for others.
But being the free society that we are, we can't just lock up everybody who's ever had a naughty thought. We also can't allow the constant monitoring of free individuals' behavior, and attempt to fend off trouble that has been hastily misdiagnosed. I think that only tolerance and mental help for people, without the shame and labelling, without both the back talk, rumors, and whispers are only true way out of becoming a society that is confident in seeking help and returning it in kind.
This is the kind of post we are looking for. One that makes sense and clarifies our own thoughts.
...................Changing the law is the means to an end, not the end itself, and so assuming that changing the laws will fix everything is only going to to make the problem worse because you're pretending the problem no longer exists.
..........................
Absolutely. 👍
For those of you that need an extended and indepth discussion on the pros and cons of guns - please, listen to the members (and staff!) that have asked you to go to the relevant threads. Go by what TheBook says:
For those of you debating over the issue of guns, take it
here. Leave this thread for the discussion of the event itself.
Am
I against guns? Uncategorically? No. There is a time and a place for them. If I was facing the Man-eater of Kumaon, I would surely like to have Corbett's entire arsenal. If I was riding shotgun on the Wells Fargo to Laredo, I'd like to have a Sharps on my lap, a Winchester in my hands, and matched Peacemakers on my hip so as to do my job and prevent the savage outlaws the world breeds, who would attempt to rape the women in my coach, and steal the gold. To do that job I must have the tools for it. A lightsaber, and forcefield shield, would be nice - but that is still to come.
If his mother had not owned guns, would he have used a bag of anthrax powder instead? How many more deaths would that have caused?
Ideally, we must ban hatred first. The demise of weaponry, as tools of human destruction, will then follow. But that is an Utopian idea. We can argue this for decades. In fact most of the arguments I've read here are arguments I've heard for decades - most of them heard long before many of the posters here expressing them, were born.
So, on topic - the subject being another human gone wild and taking the lives of innocents (by whatever method used) what do we know so far?
That he killed his mother Nancy, at home before heading off to the school to continue what he was expressing. That the guns he was using for this mission, including the .223 Bushmaster he had left behind in his vehicle, belonged to his mother. That his father is still alive. That his parents were divorced. That he used his brother Ryan's ID. That according to his former classmate, and playdate, Alex Israel, he was a 'genius', but there was 'something' about him that wasn't right, that he was unusally quiet, reserved, a loner, and rarely 'out there' socially. That according to prominent psychologist Xavier Amador, the warning signs were there - and not just ignored - but just not recognised.
Mark Boughton commented that this was an absolute international tragedy - and I have to agree - having received a letter from my kid's school today that his school was locked-down by the TDSB at 12.50 PM.
Let's forget the modus operandi (or take it to the threads that are discussing such) and focus on
why this is happening. Around the world. Why mental illness of this sort is not recognised and dealt with appropriately.
Does anyone think he enjoyed doing it? Does anyone think there were other options that could have been offered to him? We don't know as yet what drove him, or the others - all the recent mass killings that have happened recently, whether brought to the table at this Forum or not. Will there be copycat killings? Was
this one? There are many other underlying issues to what is happening here.
Take the Empire State shooting that we discussed recently - again several altercations between the shooter and the victim before the actual shooting - yet no one recognised the signs.
When will the next massacre happen?
There
won't be one?
No. There
will be one. That's a chilling thought. How do we, as people of current life, stop it?
That is the topic.
