[SmoothTalker]

Is it a huge wakeup call or a very rare tragedy? I think its a very rare tragedy. The last such massacre on an American college campus was in 1966. So once every 20 years at one of America’s 2500 schools we have a terrible massacre. That means a 1/50000 chance at a given school in a given year. Drinking, driving, and suicide are much greater dangers to college students in this country.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

I’m going to shut the computer down for many hours today after reading this wonderful article. Sadly, this won’t be heard in many households, governing body meetings, Congress or at dinner at the White House. It makes too much sense and would cause too many guilt feelings at the dinner tables tonight.

[Arrowhead1952]

Our adult Bible study group has various topics during our sessions and we were discussing this incident yesterday morning.

We looked at various ways this could have been avoided and I brought up the ban of guns at V Tech. Another gentleman agreed with the fact that the lone gunman knew he would be the only one with a weapon and had free reign of terror.

The violent video games, movies and other media were discussed, as well as the 24/7 coverage from the DBM. Also, one lady mentioned that this youth had a mental instability issue which no one addressed from early on and he had his “15 minutes of fame” on the national news.

At one point, the question was asked: “If everyone said no more violence, would there still be violence?” Of course, the islamofacist issue was mentioned by one lady. Another gentleman mentioned that they are promised their virgins if they kill infidels during their demise.

At this point, I said that those people will be very disappointed that the virgins would all look like Rosie O’donut or Helen Thomas. The entire group burst out laughing. The Church secretary was sitting next to me and said, “I can’t believe you said that.”

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Ping!

[SmoothTalker]

Folks love to blame video games but homicide rates really haven’t changed much in the last 40s and are about half what they were in the late 1980s, a time when video games and TV were less violent.

From a DOJ report.

“Following a sharp increase in the late 1980’s, the
homicide rate fell dramatically after 1991. Since 1999
the rate has stabilized. The Nation’s murder rate was
5.6 per 100,000 population in 2001 and 2002, similar
to the rates seen in the late 1960’s. “

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/htus02.pdf

[stainlessbanner]

Nearly one out of every five 9th through 12th grade students has carried a gun, knife or club in the past month.

Does this include golf clubs?

[Dante3]

The shootings at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia in 2002 by a Nigerian student left three dead and three wounded. The defense claimed not guilty by temporary insanity. The killer already exhibited violent behavior before being admitted to this country. There might have been as many casualties at Virginia Tech if not for a student, Todd Ross, 30, who tackled the killer while another student distracted him.