Deadly shooting at US university. 33 dead - Worst in US history

[Grandor]

It's getting to the point where schools aren't safe anymore. The biggest question on my mind is why? Not really who...that's trivial compared to why would you do something like this? In most murder cases nobody just wakes up and says "Hey, I'm going to go to a school and shoot up a bunch of people for the hell of it." It takes time and it's carefully planned out. Their must be a good motive to attempt and carry out something like this.

 

[ama55]

Okay, you people, there are innocent shot all across the country, our own peopel are the worst and msot frequent terrorists in our country. And you don't see people compliaing that often. This is just one of many tragidies that occured all over the country. Gang violence, robberies, lots of bad shit all over the place.
Its just another columbine like incident. LEts stop attackign terrorists in forign countries and deal with the ones that are actualy harming us in our own country. Our OWN people. And it is all caused by a lot of societal problems.
Its sad, but it happens so frickin often.

While I do agree with everything you say, including sending troops to foriegn countries when we should be worrying about problems at home, the shooter was Korean (DO NOT TAKE THIS AS ME BLAMING A CERTAIN GROUP OF PEOPLE FOR THIS! I'm simply saying that this certain incident was not born here)

I agree totally with Volrath and Fox.

For more info on this, I found this article on it
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/17/AR2007041700563.html

 

[Grandor]

I didn't know professional gunman could use games like Doom and Vice city to practice. Jack Thompson, really needs to get out more or something.

 

[Rhazdel]

I didn't know professional gunman could use games like Doom and Vice city to practice. Jack Thompson, really needs to get out more or something.

Oh, didn't you know?

Pointing and clicking a mouse = same experience as shooting a real gun

Shooter games are really exactly like murder VR trainings.

....People are so stupid.....

Jack Thompson needs to lose his license.

 

[Lene]

Um, this debate is nice and all, but can y'all move it to a Symposium Topic on Gun Control? The fact that 32 (not including the gunman) people died is still fresh in some peoples' minds...and while gun control is an obvious deviation from this, it's getting off topic. If you have to talk about Gun Control, then talk about it in the context of the event.

Also, the lists of victims have gone out. It seems that American Media is slow on the uptake, and a lot of lists (with websites, and myspaces for some people) are on foreign media. Then again, I think the American media outlets are holding back on purpose.

Gunman Victims are named
EXECUTED AT UNI

Also, imo they need to downplay the HOMGZ!ASIAN issue (telling when South Korea actually includes the hope it won't get racial in their condolences). The HOMGZ NOT AN AMERICAN-BORN CITIZEN! as well. This isn't a terrorism issue, even though the news would like us all to believe otherwise. It doesn't matter what ethnicity or nationality this guy is, except for the fact that he was really really disturbed.

EDIT: Moved all the posts over to a topic for Symposium. I know a lot of people are passionate about this issue, so it seemed like a better place. Link is here: http://www.rmxp.org/forums/showthread.php?p=192981

 

[holloway]

Wait...American news is actually playing the race thing? Holy shit. Over here it was mentioned off hand when discussing his past.

 

[Lene]

Wait...American news is actually playing the race thing? Holy shit. Over here it was mentioned off hand when discussing his past.

Well to be fair, I'm seeing a lot more of the terrorism angle than the racial one (South Korean hope that the shooting wouldn't "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation." aside). Which is stupid. Even though the guy isn't a citizen, apparently he came to the US when he was in elementary school and had been living here for 14 years.

ETA: I also wish that the media would get off the case that someone was able to have access to a college campus. Most college campuses are very open and lax on security during the day. You can walk into any classroom you want in a lot of them. There is absolutely no way a campus would turn into a police state...and I wouldn't go to a school that would decide to do so, safety be damned. Maybe I'm the only one?

Dorms are different, but if the shooter was a student (and he was), there was absolutely no way they could have been able to stop him. I wonder if V Tech has desk attendants. I used to do that and you know...a lot of people will hold the door open for stragglers to get inside. Unless the guy looked like he was obviously packing something...I don't think he could have been stopped.

The two hour thing is another story, but I'm also willing to give the campus some slack. You don't stop a 26,000 student body already in transit, especially if you think that it was domestic.

 

[SPN]

Potential shining stars of tomorrow, snuffed out just like that. It's sad.

 

[FoxDemonSoavi]

It is, indeed, sad. Hapens all over the world all the time. WE only care when ti happens in our own back yard.

 

[Celes_the_Great]

This is very saddening. It couldve been stopped if someone wouldve talked to him. I read his stories and they are twisted.

 

[ama55]

Has anyone heard about the over 100 people killed in Iraq because of the car bomb? It's amazing watching the news in America though, because ours is obviously more important. Why do we have to kill one another?

 

[Dopples]

Because humans are stupid and we're apparently better then the other humans cause we have currency.

 

[Lene]

Does anyone find it really ridiculous that they're showing the vidoes and the pictures the killer sent to NBC non-stop. HELLO? That's exactly what the damn bastard wanted. He wanted the attention. He wouldn't have sent this shit to a television studio otherwise.

Ugh, it makes me sick.

 

[Rye]

Lene, it gets them ratings. It gets them money for people who are curious on what he said. It is just really horrible and sick that they're just doing what he wanted them to do.

 

[Volrath]

It is getting seriously out of control. Even newscasters I respect are showing all that stuff almost on loop. I even heard Keith Olbermann complain about the fact that it was being shown.....as it was being shown! The orders to focus on it probably come from the higher-up owners of the networks, but it's a terribly irresponsible thing to do. And I have this terrible feeling that before long the entire, unedited footage (beyond what can be shown on public airwaves) will find itself on YouTube....if it isn't already.

 

[RMXPirate]

i heard there was a number you can call to hear a conversation on a phone during the shooting. A girl locked herself in a closet and called her mom yelling which is y she got caught and shot such sad things. If you want to hear the number i dont have it but i can get it.

 

[holloway]

Why the fuck would they broadcast it over a phone number?

Anyway, I'm starting to get slightly peeved that this is being milked for all it's worth by most media stations for nearly a week now. The Sun's headline today was "CHO DESERVED TO DIE SAYS GRANDFATHER", and now there's that kid who got shot who's sold his story in the US. This reeks similar to the Iran captives story.

 

[Lene]

On another note:

http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/ourhumanity.htm

Margaret Cho's spot on comments about this. Spot on, imo.

 

[EmuMaster2002]

135 blown up in Iraq the same day, but nobody seems to care about that one...

 

[Volrath]

That's probably because we expect that kind of violence in a warzone, and not at a peaceful college campus in a peaceful American town.

As sad as it is, people dying in Iraq (even on that scale) is just not as big news as something like this. Schools are supposed to be a safe place, and when they're violated by this kind of horrific bloodshed, it shakes people to the core. But don't worry...the chaos in Iraq will surely outlast the media's coverage of VA Tech.