NationStates Jolt Archive

Think back to the Virginia Tech shooting this past spring. this was a terrible time for everyone! i'm pretty confident that nothing good came out of the event. but this question has been wandering around for awhile and i would like your guys's opinions:

was the kid who had the gun shooting just a messed up suicidal kid?
was he after someone in particular?
who's fault is it?
is it humane to fault anyone?
and my biggest question:

because of the student should college campuses and other schools have to have armed security guards stationed everywhere at all times?

i personally think that there had to have been more to this kid's story then was being released to press. you do not just wake up and decide to kill everyone in sight. it has to be past suicidal too. hatred has to have a cause.

i don't think anybody should held at fault. we all have our opinions and i'm sure the kid was thinking of someone, some act, or something...but that HAS TO STOP being our place to decide. because it not.

the whole security guard thing makes me all the more apprehensive. who knows what happened to this kid to bring such violence and because of this i would not want to trust anyone with a gun at my school or anywhere else. although these may upstanding people, i don't see it as a good way to proceed about anything. not to mention that by doing this, you never give people a chance to get over what happened. everytime an armed official walks by you just remember the loved one or all the reports on t.v. and you can never forget. and it'd just be a terrible thing to do. it's like punishing someone for nothing wrong.

what do you all think?

ITT another gun control argument

Obviously, if there were no girls on campus, he wouldn't have gone on a shooting spree.

No more co-eds!!1!

was the kid who had the gun shooting just a messed up suicidal kid?


IMO, yes he was.


was he after someone in particular?


I don't think so


who's fault is it?


The messed-up shooter.


is it humane to fault anyone?


Only the guy who shot everyone


and my biggest question:

because of the student should college campuses and other schools have to have armed security guards stationed everywhere at all times?

It should be a decision left up to the universities.

and my biggest question:

because of the student should college campuses and other schools have to have armed security guards stationed everywhere at all times?
At this point in time, the Virginia Tech Police are pretty much patrolling everywhere on campus, using anything from patrol cars to bicycles to those new fangled Segways. In addition, we have the help of the police from the town of Blacksburg, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, and the Virginia State Police on occasion. Personally, I think its a great idea, if not for the fact that it is safer with them patrolling, but instead, it helps to put everyone's mind at ease.

As for guns being allowed, firearms have always been banned...the same with airsoft guns, pellet guns, and knives with blades longer than 6 inches (I believe).

Clearly, if we get rid of schools, there can be no more campus shootings.
I am using logic, no?

There is no solution, I don't see why its up for discussion. Psychos don't go on shooting sprees too often, and when they do, its usually unexpected and unstoppable.

Excepting people more and making them feel like they're wanted might help, although for a lot of the people it might not. Improved mental health care would also be good. It won't stop all shootings though, but it is the best that can be done.

Obviously, if there were no girls on campus, he wouldn't have gone on a shooting spree.

No more co-eds!!1!


i don't understand this arguement. when did sexism become a part in this? a person can't be angry at a guy? or a person of the same sex? when you blame things on genders you open a whole new discussion that few people want to hear. especially the females.

I say we wait until the Japanese invent a futuristic security robot.

Until then, no guns on campus other than the police/security guards. Maybe an incredibly high-tech security system that has metal detectors tucked away in door frames and an alarm system that alerts not only the entire campus, but surrounding police agencies as well.

Thoughts?

i don't understand this arguement. when did sexism become a part in this? a person can't be angry at a guy? or a person of the same sex? when you blame things on genders you open a whole new discussion that few people want to hear. especially the females.

2 things:

A. Sarcasm.
B. Supposedly, the thing that "set off" this psychotic waste of skin was an imaginary girlfriend dumping him.

I say we wait until the Japanese invent a futuristic security robot.

Until then, no guns on campus other than the police/security guards. Maybe an incredibly high-tech security system that has metal detectors tucked away in door frames and an alarm system that alerts not only the entire campus, but surrounding police agencies as well.

Thoughts?


that actually sounds like a REALLY good system. very nice thoughts!

Armed guards are necessary, just one student bringing a gun on campus endangers everyone, and when the guards aren't armed, they are bringing fists to a gun fight.

I'm very confident that allowing students to carry guns on campus would lead to more deaths per year than we currently have from school shootings.

I think the real question is, would putting up a few metal detectors really stop the Virginia Tech Shootings? To some degree I am almost certain that the kid would have been able to get those guns in regardless of school regulation. I remember back in high school we got multiple layers of metal detectors, x rays for all book bags, security guards. But that never stop people who intended to commit crimes from getting their weapons inside the school building. How then would you be able to regulate it in a spread out area like a campus?

I would be for gun banning, if we actually have a way to keep all guns out of the school. If banning guns in school can do nothing more than take away legal guns, while unable to keep the criminals and psychopaths from having one, banning will then become counterproductive.

Therefore I propose that guns should be made more widely available so people can protect themselves when another tragedy strikes. Legal guns should be allow with a valid gun license and registration from the school office. We also need to offer classes in college in handling firearms for self defense. It seems far fetch, but not knowing how to use a gun really does not prevent people from spraying it when they snap. You much rather people learn how to use a gun properly so they shoot the person they want to shoot rather than spraying 50 people down along the way.

The only thing that "HAS TO STOP" is the never-ending stream of poorly thought out verbal diarrhea in threads like this.

The only thing that "HAS TO STOP" is the never-ending stream of poorly thought out verbal diarrhea in threads like this.



but it's okay, b/c, don't worry: he's not bitter.

Armed guards should be up to the discretion of individual universities i think. Sure some people may see them as a constant reminder of what happened, but personally when someone is standing guard with superior force, such as a gun, it makes the mellow innocent people like me feel safer.

The most worrying part i find about this case is the history of the shooter. He was a mental case. Every teacher he's ever had saw that he was mentally disturbed. He's been in and out of psychiatric care for years. Yet he can still go out and buy a gun?

Now i don't think firearms should be banned, but i certainly feel their possession, use and sale should be restricted (such as, i dunno, withheld from the mentally ill or toddlers or something). Banning firearms altogether however would only fuel the black market for them, and remember the criminals that have guns before a ban will still have them after a ban, and the psychos will always be able to find their way to one somehow. Someone should, for instance, be able to have a rifle to protect their home, or for hobby shooting at the range, or even as a collector's piece. But anything automatic or concealable should be strictly controlled, and only given to those deemed mentally sound, suitably responsible and with the facilities to lock it up safely.

I say we wait until the Japanese invent a futuristic security robot.

Until then, no guns on campus other than the police/security guards. Maybe an incredibly high-tech security system that has metal detectors tucked away in door frames and an alarm system that alerts not only the entire campus, but surrounding police agencies as well.

Thoughts?

Ummm... no? How many times in an airport have metal detectors gone off on you for no apparent reason? Of course they wouldn't be quite that sensitive, but you'd still be looking at flase alarms on a daily bases. Personally, I don't want to go to a school where I'm freaked out that I'm gonna set off the alarm and interupt the whole school by setting of the detector 2 or 4 times a day. Also In order for them to actually detect guns and knives they would also be set of by someone walking through who has a CD player, metal belt, cell phone and some jewellery.... not that uncommon. Or a metal plate.

I say we wait until the Japanese invent a futuristic security robot.


That's all fine and dandy until Skynet takes over.

- snip -

No additional security guards necessary. They should allow guns on campus. And the minute they do, you can be Goddamned sure I'll be packing.

I say we wait until the Japanese invent a futuristic security robot.

Until then, no guns on campus other than the police/security guards. Maybe an incredibly high-tech security system that has metal detectors tucked away in door frames and an alarm system that alerts not only the entire campus, but surrounding police agencies as well.

Thoughts?

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