Thread: Massacre at Virginia Tech

32 people were murdered today... Any thoughts? Gun control? Campus security, etc.?

Originally Posted by charlestonian

32 people were murdered today... Any thoughts? Gun control? Campus security, etc.?

Gun control.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by charlestonian

32 people were murdered today... Any thoughts? Gun control? Campus security, etc.?

Gun control.

This may not be a solution: criminals will get guns, one way or another but law-abiding citizens will not have protection!

Since I happen to a person sitting here in a Wi-fi coffee shop with a semi-auto under my coat you can be assured that I don't think that "gun control" would be a very good or effective answer this this dilemma.

Israel has the same sort of problem as we saw today and her answer to random shootings and suicide bombers has been more security, usually provided by the private sector. I would say that the USA will have to do the same thing.

There was no need for 32 people to have gotten killed. For example: If someone were to come in to my coffee shop here, randomly shooting, unless I was one of the first to be shot, I can guarantee that there would be an abrupt ending to that guys' shooting spree. I take care of my own safety and inadvertently of those around me. Why don't others?

I think that solution is good enough when the gun control is in full force. I feel pretty safe without any gun and don't need one, since I'm sure on 99,5% that any minor thug I may encounter doesn't have it either. And I know that in my ordinary citizen life I'll probably never get into the situation when the big thugs who DO have guns would be interested in killing me.

When every asshole has a gun a number of unintentional or stupid murders happens like a teenager killing the kid from the next door for being "cheeky". Cause it's so damn easy to kill a person without other thought when all you need to do is to pull the trigger. With gun control the worst thing a depressed looney clerk can do is to punch the boss, when these crasies have guns they cause massacre. Whats good in that "protection from criminals" when you can catch a bullet at your offfice?
People often say that it's a matter of freedom, but I don't see what's owing guns has to do with freedom, if you're not talking about freedom to kill easily.

Gun Control???? We already have "gun control" in America. No matter what laws you pass; or "control" of guns, people will still kill each other. If I remember correctly, none of the terrorists on Sept 11, 2001 had any guns with them. The people killing each other with road side bombs in Iraq or Afganastan are not using guns. Timmothy McVay didn't shoot anybody in Oklahoma. The events that happened today are terrible. Very very sad; but don't even begin to think that "gun control" will stop anyone the next time....

I have several guns at home, and ADT security service. I feel safe at home but I feel less safe in public places. I carry a gun in my car but it is difficult to get to it when you are not in the car.

Originally Posted by Haksaw

Gun Control???? We already have "gun control" in America. No matter what laws you pass; or "control" of guns, people will still kill each other. If I remember correctly, none of the terrorists on Sept 11, 2001 had any guns with them. The people killing each other with road side bombs in Iraq or Afganastan are not using guns. Timmothy McVay didn't shoot anybody in Oklahoma. The events that happened today are terrible. Very very sad; but don't even begin to think that "gun control" will stop anyone the next time....

It's not gun control when almost anyone can buy a military gun flashing their drive license. And nobody says gun control will stops crimes and killings for good. But it will definetely stop the wave of crasy shootings like the one in Virginia Tech.

At least it works perfectly for me. I've never seen a real gun in my life (exept those that police and soldiers have), or been threatened with one, or heard a gunshot for that matter. What's wrong with that? You may say I can be threatened with knife. Right, by I run pretty fast, he-he, and for sure I have better chances to outrun the knife, than a bullet.

Originally Posted by charlestonian

I have several guns at home, and ADT security service. I feel safe at home but I feel less safe in public places. I carry a gun in my car but it is difficult to get to it when you are not in the car.

OMG, probably I'll never go to USA after hearing that. It looks like you, guys, obsessed. What if some redneck mistake me for the threat to his life or just doesn't like my face and shoot me on the spot? It's scary.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by charlestonian

I have several guns at home, and ADT security service. I feel safe at home but I feel less safe in public places. I carry a gun in my car but it is difficult to get to it when you are not in the car.

OMG, probably I'll never go to USA after hearing that. It looks like you, guys, obsessed. What if some redneck mistake me for the threat to his life or just doesn't like my face and shoot me on the spot? It's scary.

We have right to bear arms, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. For self defense. But, it is not OK to go on a shooting spree, like that guy at Virginia Tech did!

How stupid.

Guns are to ban, people are to brainwash (that guns are bad). I can't see other way to stop these m-f-ing slaughterers.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

What if some redneck mistake me for the threat to his life or just doesn't like my face and shoot me on the spot? It's scary.

You have nothing to fear from rednecks. They are the least of the problems.

Originally Posted by charlestonian

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Originally Posted by charlestonian

I have several guns at home, and ADT security service. I feel safe at home but I feel less safe in public places. I carry a gun in my car but it is difficult to get to it when you are not in the car.

OMG, probably I'll never go to USA after hearing that. It looks like you, guys, obsessed. What if some redneck mistake me for the threat to his life or just doesn't like my face and shoot me on the spot? It's scary.

We have right to bear arms, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. For self defense. But, it is not OK to go on a shooting spree, like that guy at Virginia Tech did!

That is the whole problem. The right to bear arms is written in the Constitution, therefore it's almost impossible to provide any guns control policy in the USA. Really, I don't know which is better - to feel as unprotected as we are in Russia where it is almost impossible for ordinary citizen to obtain the gun licence, oh yeah, you can purchase some smooth-bore guns for hunt, but you'll have to wait 5 years to purchase a rifle after that. Pistols are practically unavailable for people, but a wide choice of non-lethal self-defence devices (electroshockers, pepper gas sprays, etc) is available. You can buy guns for keeping in at home for self defence, but you can't take them with you outside.
In such a situation, only criminals have guns. There's so much police in cities that you feel relatively safe but I think that it's hard to live without any arms in rural areas. There's a proverb "Тяжело в деревне без нагана" (It's hard to live in a village without a revolver)

But I don't think that such a freedom of bearing arms like in USA provides safety people need. Many simply don't know how to handle firearms properly. And there's always a chance for accidents like in Virginia.

You are missing the point on firearms and the US Constitution. The constitutional protection of the "right endowed by our Creator" is also to protect the citizens duty to keep our government from overstepping their place in case they become "tyrannical".
We are authorised to overthrow our own government. This is the way that America was set up by the first government here. They formed their country through revolution and recognised that future generations may have to do the same thing again. So, they wrote the 2nd Amendment into the Constitution to ensure that the citizens would still have guns in order to accomplish the task, just as they did.

There is no other country who has recongnised this right of the people. The US Constitution is remarkable in this.

You can not compare our gun problems with anywhere else.

Apparently the killer was here on a Student Visa issued in Shanghai, China. Police think that he planned the operation well before and that he called in two bomb threats several days ago in order to see how the cops would respond. He chained the doors closed in the building from the inside so that students could not escape and cops could not get in.

Originally Posted by DDT

They formed their country through revolution and recognised that future generations may have to do the same thing again. So, they wrote the 2nd Amendment into the Constitution to ensure that the citizens would still have guns in order to accomplish the task, just as they did.

There is no other country who has recongnised this right of the people. The US Constitution is remarkable in this.

Well, I don't think that even armed people really can overthrow the government anymore. In military terms it's an impossibility. So is there really any need for 2nd Amendment nowadays? The Americans simply can't overthrow the government by military force any more (moreover, CIA, NSA, FBI and other good guys will do anything they can to prevent it right at the beginning), so maybe it would be better for all if the Americans waived the rights for having guns?

It's hard for me believe that gun control would be effective in a situation like this. First of all, what do you mean by gun control? Is it some sort of regulation that forbids persons under a particular age to buy guns or what? I personally think that campus security is potentially more useful than gun control (meaning rules regulating the circulation of weapons). Would that bloodbath have happened if there had been a proper security system with metal detectors and everything? I understand that it is barely possible to provide for any sort of emergency whatever security system is exercised but it's not that hard to attempt to forewarn at least some portion of possible accidents.

I reckon there is no society in today's world which can guarantee that each member of it will not go on a shooting spree if he doesn't like something. I mean that however developed a country (in terms of prosperity, social consciousness, and social development), there's still a chance that someone might decide to solve their problem though use of guns.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

...there's still a chance that someone might decide to solve their problem though use of guns.

It will be hard if that somebody doesn't have a gun.
By gun control I mean that private posession of the guns (exept hunting ones and thorughly regulated) should be banned.
And the so called higher security is a way to paranoid state, I think I'd fill extremely depressed if I had to be "metal-detected" every time I went to campus.

There's an alternative - let EVERYONE bear firearms. This way there would have been several hundred guns within the campus so the criminal would be dead within a minute after he had opened fire. There should be a law which would oblige people to take a gun when leaving home as a MUST. And children at schools should be taught how to use firearms and how to shoot them and the responsibility involved also when to shoot and when to hold fire.
Many terrorists attacks might have been prevented this way.

Just a thought.

хм, вроде это не так просто, пристрелить человека (даже если он угрожает тееб пистолетом)... по крайней мере так показывают в фильмах
Всысле, трудно с морально\этической точки зрения, а не с физической.