Va tech

[rep]

Sadly, there is nothing you can do about people like this. They are old enough to make decisions on their own. They are not under the legal care of anybody anymore. He would have had to agree to any counseling. Unless he had committed an act previously which deemed him a threat to himself or society.

But as for the shooting. You can not blame it on the shooter 100%.

Coming from a person who has had problems in his life. Mental illnesses affect you in ways most people will not ever understand. You don't really have control over what you are doing. It feels right at the time and you think it is right. It affects you severly, your thoughts and morals are warped during times like this. You can not blame one man saying he should rot in heck if he indeed did have a mental illness. No one will really understand what he was going through now. All we can do is pray this type of thing will not happen again.

Also, my condolences go out to everyone at Virginia Tech and all of their families. It truly is a devastating time.

there are thousands upon thousands of people (probably in north dakota alone, much less in the rest of the country) that deal with depression, suicide, anger, etc. every day without killing people. everything this guy 'stood' for, everything this guy 'was forced into' is b.s.

honestly, i don't think that people who have been wronged by someone else want to kill them with a gun. a gun is way too easy, way too impersonal, there is not a lot of release of the anger because essentially the anger doesn't play itself out...you just move your finger a little bit.

guns are weak. his message of 'i'm the victim in all of this' falls on my deaf ears. besides, if he was really angry, he wouldn't haven't killed himself, he would have chosen suicide by cop and gone out in a hail of bullets. he's a weak little person and that makes what he did all the more disgusting for me. so many people died at the hands of this slug and he doesn't deserve to have that kind of power over anyone...because what...he can pull a trigger?

i have complete sympathy for the families of those that died, those at the school that day, the family of the shooter, the list goes on and on. it's a horrible ordeal. but sympathy for the shooter...he's a child throwing a tantrum. i don't feel sympathy for children throwing tantrums.

[klg_11]

Sadly, there is nothing you can do about people like this. They are old enough to make decisions on their own. They are not under the legal care of anybody anymore. He would have had to agree to any counseling. Unless he had committed an act previously which deemed him a threat to himself or society.

But as for the shooting. You can not blame it on the shooter 100%.

Coming from a person who has had problems in his life. Mental illnesses affect you in ways most people will not ever understand. You don't really have control over what you are doing. It feels right at the time and you think it is right. It affects you severly, your thoughts and morals are warped during times like this. You can not blame one man saying he should rot in heck if he indeed did have a mental illness. No one will really understand what he was going through now. All we can do is pray this type of thing will not happen again.

Also, my condolences go out to everyone at Virginia Tech and all of their families. It truly is a devastating time.

there are thousands upon thousands of people (probably in north dakota alone, much less in the rest of the country) that deal with depression, suicide, anger, etc. every day without killing people. everything this guy 'stood' for, everything this guy 'was forced into' is b.s.

honestly, i don't think that people who have been wronged by someone else want to kill them with a gun. a gun is way too easy, way too impersonal, there is not a lot of release of the anger because essentially the anger doesn't play itself out...you just move your finger a little bit.

guns are weak. his message of 'i'm the victim in all of this' falls on my deaf ears. besides, if he was really angry, he wouldn't haven't killed himself, he would have chosen suicide by cop and gone out in a hail of bullets. he's a weak little person and that makes what he did all the more disgusting for me. so many people died at the hands of this slug and he doesn't deserve to have that kind of power over anyone...because what...he can pull a trigger?

i have complete sympathy for the families of those that died, those at the school that day, the family of the shooter, the list goes on and on. it's a horrible ordeal. but sympathy for the shooter...he's a child throwing a tantrum. i don't feel sympathy for children throwing tantrums.

excellent post, in these movies he sent to nbc! really what is he tryin to say that everyone led him to this, no it is his fault and no one sholuld feel the least bit guilty. i am angered that things like this happen. it pushes society that much closer to gun control. these nuts are hard to predict and if we locked up everyone that had a crazy thought once in a while our mental health units would be flooded with people.

I tuly wish that the shooter hadnt taken his own life and rather had some of the students get ahold of him, beat him till they consider stopping and if he is living sentence him to life in prison without parole (death sentence too easy) and let him meet bubba and he can go ahead and tell his problems to bubba.

[cheesewheel]

Rep, you didn't understand what I was trying to convey. After reading what I posted though, it sounded a little bit wrong. I also wrote this before I even knew that he sent videos to NBC. So I didn't properly write what I was thinking.

I still believe he is not 100% responsible. Yes, he indeed would have to be held accountable. And what he did is a disgusting act. I am just saying, with a mental illness, your mind works differently. He may not have known what he was doing. Although after the videos that he sent to NBC, I am starting to disagree with what I previously thought. You do not send videos to a major broadcasting channel if you do not know what you are doing. He chose the wrong choice.

So after everything that has went on, he did something disgusting. But it is not up to us to judge him and say he should burn or rot in heck. And I do agree with all of you, I hope this does not change gun control laws for the worse. Maybe they could think of changing the privacy laws so that during the background checks they can check for mental illness or things of that sort. I believe that would go a long way in controlling these horrible incidents.

[rep]

Rep, you didn't understand what I was trying to convey. After reading what I posted though, it sounded a little bit wrong. I also wrote this before I even knew that he sent videos to NBC. So I didn't properly write what I was thinking.

I still believe he is not 100% responsible. Yes, he indeed would have to be held accountable. And what he did is a disgusting act. I am just saying, with a mental illness, your mind works differently. He may not have known what he was doing. Although after the videos that he sent to NBC, I am starting to disagree with what I previously thought. You do not send videos to a major broadcasting channel if you do not know what you are doing. He chose the wrong choice.

So after everything that has went on, he did something disgusting. But it is not up to us to judge him and say he should burn or rot in heck. And I do agree with all of you, I hope this does not change gun control laws for the worse. Maybe they could think of changing the privacy laws so that during the background checks they can check for mental illness or things of that sort. I believe that would go a long way in controlling these horrible incidents.

which gets into the larger debate of religion and forgiveness and is where we definitely get on a slippery slope.

a brief explanation, for me, i guess, i'm one of those fence-sitters. i don't know if there is a god or not, and that leads me down a slightly different path than those that have found faith in religion. for me, i'm not a big 'god will be the ultimate judge' kind of people, getting back into because i don't know if there is a god. for me, i'm a decent person not because of a reward of heaven...i'm a decent person because to me it feels right to be good to people (or at least treat them as well as they treat me). and not that i'm angry with people that have found their faith or anything...if anything i'm probably a little jealous. they believe and that is a fairly big step to make. if there is a heaven, maybe i'll get in, i don't have a whole lot of personal flaws except for my foul language, i'm fun at parties and have helped out my fair share of people, though because i haven't accepted god i suppose i'm probably on the outside looking in. and if there isn't a heaven, i had a pretty fun ride while i was alive and kicking.

when it comes to people with depression issues like that, i don't have a whole lot of time for those that aren't willing to help themselves. in order to get past a lot of that crap, you need to want to get better...if not, no amount of convincing from anyone/anything is going to make much of a difference. from everything i've heard about the shooter, he voluntarily checked into a clinic and then voluntarily checked out, so i guess all in all that is where i am condeming him and that is where i find him responsible (though whoever decided someone who is crazy can check themselves out at any point is also to blame).

i would love to have a couple of minutes alone with him just to get a read on him. to be able to find out who the person is behind the facade (though i doubt that would be possible...he seemed to be pretty intent on not being willing to give 'people' in general a change). sadly, i'd love to hit him and see his reaction...i'd love to see how big of a person he is without a gun. my vengeful side wants to drag him by his hair up a really large flight of stairs just so i can kick him down them. maybe i'm wrong about him...guess i'll never know.

i get where you are coming from. to a point i agree with you. and to, probably the biggest problem with all of this is that with the 24/7 news coverage, the 'facts' on the case are fairly fluid and can change pretty quickly.

 

[feeshattack]

man rep, you should get 3 posts for writing that book, haha...... but i couldnt agree with you more

[cheesewheel]

Rep, I definately respect you and I do agree that the whole judging someone part gets into a religious debate. So I'm not going to bring that up. I'm just saying that when a person has a mental illness, it is hard.

That being said, I finally read and heard about the videos that he sent in and what all went on during it. It sounded like he had a good enough grasp on what he was doing to take full responsibility for it. He was wrong, horribly wrong. No matter how mentally ill he was, he knew what he was doing. I'm going to say condemn him if you will. It's not my spot to say you can't. I definately agree with you saying it was a cowardly act and that he probably wouldn't feel so big without that gun.

All in all, the shooter is dead. There isn't much use arguing about him now. All we can do is give our condolences to the people who were victims in this disturbing act of unwarrented violence.

[feeshattack]

amen

[NDSportsFan]

 I understand what cheesewheel is trying to say (try saying that in a serious tone).  I have had my share of jobs in the past in dealing with people with mental illnesses and the problem is that they simply are not able to control their thoughts, and consequently their behavior.  What this guy had was a serious mental illness and was in a system that did not force him to receive treatment.  Some people wash their hands a hundred times a day because they are afraid of germs, this guy obsessed about killing, others and himself, and was not stopped before something serious happened.

My question is this, and I thought about it a little today.  I had to take a safety course in order to buy a hunting license and I also took a bowhunting safety course, because I wanted too.  I've even taken a handgun training course because I wanted to learn more about the gun that I had just bought.  Almost everyone has taken a drivers ed. course before they got behind the wheel of a car.  But this guy walked into a gun shop and bought a couple handguns and a bunch of ammo without probably even being asked if he knew which end of the gun the bullets came out.  Why don't we have a mandatory course for firearms buyers, like 5 or 10 hours, where they can demonstrate proper ability to use them, before they are allowed to do like this guy did?  I would bet most people who are not enthusiasts would opt not to take the course and not be able to buy guns legally.  In the case of this guy, it may have saved a lot of lives.  It's just something to think about, just a 4 hour course followed by some live-fire practice, how hard is that?  If it would keep a few nut jobs like this guy from making a trip to the pawn shop for some full metal jackets, I think its worth it.

[always a sports season]

Not a bad idea there about the course before you buy the gun.  Granted those who shouldn't have them may be able to pull it off but if the instructor notices red flags then the person should not be able to pass the course and get the gun. 

Laws are made to protect society.  And we do need stronger laws to protect us from those people who can not think  rationally and are wanting to hurt others.  So while NRA and those against gun control fight for the individual right to bear arms, they have to start understanding gun access has to be restricted for the safety of innocent people.  Notice I said restricted - not outlawed.  I do believe in keeping our constitutional right for the right to bear arms.  Although, we have to remember that that was written after fighting a war with England on our own land and guns were a necessity for hunting food.