The Energon Pub

I've been following the reports since I saw Ryan slapped the news up on the front page, only reason why I heard about it. So I thank you Ryan for that.

Now, the shooter is just that, a shooter. He is not a person, nor is he a human. He got rid of his humanity the minute he decided to take another life for a purely selfish reason.

Also, the whole argument "guns should be made illegal" and "this is what you get for allowing guns." For one, if someone is going to kill someone, they sure as hell don't need a gun. Anything is a weapon when someone is willing to take that step.

Secondly, it's the countries fault the shooter decided he was going to kill 32 people, all because we allow people to own guns. I think not. Thats like saying "because you allow people to drive, it's your fault the guy got drunk and hit that family"

Now, I'm very sorry to everyone who had to be associated with this tragedy, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who lost friends.

Also, one thing really has been bugging me. According to reports, the school was on lockdown for two hours, after it was lifted he started shooting again. Did cops or anything show up in those two hours, it's weird as hell.

I just wanted to say I was very sorry to hear of all this. My thoughts are with those affected.

Senor Hugo, I agree with you that a killer doesn't need a gun to accomplish the act. Anything can become a weapon.

However, I would just like to highlight the point that guns are designed as weapons with the intention of seriously injuring or killing an individual. Cars, to use your example, and other things like rope, kitchen knives, etc., are not. It would be harder to live in the society that we've grown accustomed to without cars and knives. Guns are not so vital.

That said, to assume that banning guns is going to minimise murders is rather presumptuous.

Of course, it is easy to offer solutions after the fact.

My thoughts.

My condolences to the friends and families of the victims. This kind of thing shouldn't happen, but in this godless world it's unfortunately the norm.

I'm tired of people in the media pointing fingers blaming music, movies, games etc. for mass murder. The only person at fault for this tragedy is the shooter himself. To hell with why he did it or how he did it. He did it. The media does that crap in order to spice things up, cause I guess a dude shooting 30+ kids and himself isn't newsworthy enough. Pricks.

I try not to get angry about these things, cause it doesn't do any good. All I can do is hope everyone connected can recover from this.

Also, one thing really has been bugging me. According to reports, the school was on lockdown for two hours, after it was lifted he started shooting again. Did cops or anything show up in those two hours, it's weird as hell.

Yeah this part doesn't make sense to me either. First that guy shoots people in one building, then everything is on lockdown and yet they somehow allowed that guy to walk free for an other 2 hours so that he could start killing again. what the heck is up with that?

Did they identify the shooter? Was it a student? Maybe they believed the shooter was an outsider and had fled the site?

On yahoo they announced the shooter was a student.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

This is a sad event in Virginia history and I applaud Gov. Tim Kaine's decision to cancel his trip to a trade conference to rush back to deal with this situation.

Senor Hugo wrote:Also, the whole argument "guns should be made illegal" and "this is what you get for allowing guns." For one, if someone is going to kill someone, they sure as hell don't need a gun. Anything is a weapon when someone is willing to take that step.

I'm not for a complete ban on firearms, but I do thing that we need to make it harder for people to get them, and to REQUIRE those who own such a weapon to register them. After all, we are required to register our cars, hell even our bodies to the state; owning something specifically designed to kill should be no different. That being said, I do realize that someone who is determined to go through with an act such as this will find any means to get their hands on what they want.

Senor Hugo wrote:Secondly, it's the countries fault the shooter decided he was going to kill 32 people, all because we allow people to own guns. I think not. Thats like saying "because you allow people to drive, it's your fault the guy got drunk and hit that family"

While I agree that it's not the government's fault this person did what they did, the United States does currently have an administration that could be considered very much an ally of the gun lobby. And the National Rifle Association, despite this tragedy, will fight very hard to stifle any gun control legislation either on the state or federal level.

what i don't get is why not close the school after the first shooting. seams like there are going to be a lot of pissed off parrents. and if i here them blame heavy metal music or violent video games, my head will f*cking explode. i listen to heavy metal and play violent video games and never wanted to shoot some one

Senor Hugo wrote:Now, the shooter is just that, a shooter. He is not a person, nor is he a human. He got rid of his humanity the minute he decided to take another life for a purely selfish reason.

This isn't Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, or Halo.

The bad guys aren't aliens, orks, robots, or demons.

They're humans too.

Refusing to believe that any human is capable of doing this by redefining the perpetrator as nonhuman everytime is not only a pathetic attempt to distance oneself from harsh reality, I'd say it's a major part of the reason humanity seems woefully unequipped to handle these things when they happen.

And no, like it or not, you don't have the authority to excommunicate individuals from your species in order to make yourself feel better.

Good to see Pres Bush addressing the nation on this tragedy more quickly than he addressed the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Well, good ol' Dr Phil was on CNN last night. He was talking about how this is what happens when you mix angry, disturbed people with violent movies and video games (Gimmee a break!). Betcha we're going to find out this shooter hardly ever played any GTA.

Yes, the killer was a student. One 23 year-old senior from South Korea named Cho Seung-Hui.


http://hamptonroads.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8OICT580&_action=validatearticle

An RA and a girl were the two people killed in the dorm shooting (It's just speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the girl was a romantic interest of his). The campus wasn't put in lockdown because officials thought that that would be it, there wouldn't be a follow-on massacre (methinks someone in high authority over there will be handed a pink slip in the near future).

One eyewitness said the guy fired into the room, then went outside for thirty seconds (to reload his weapons?) before reentering the room and reopening fire. How sick to you have to be to fire on a helpless crowd, then leave just so you can reload and fire on them again?

I'm with the Navy, stationed not too far away at NAS Oceana. A lot of us military people were talking about how maddening it is to have something like this happen when we're so close. This makes me look back to 911 which hit my college town of Long Island pretty hard. More than twenty of my fellow allumni were killed on that day.

Here's another problem with gun control; even if you ban guns, people are still going to get their hands on them. Plenty of weapons are illegal as it is and anyone who wants them can still get hold of them.

Its a real shame that something like this has happened again. I feel for the family and friends of those killed or injured.

That campus will be forever tainted by the actions of somebody who felt the need to take out his frustrations on those around him.

Its all very well saying that guns arnt the problem and that anything can be used to kill but the fact remains that guns in the US are readily available and until they are taken out of general circulation they will continue to be used in such events.

stupid murderer just stupid. RIP victims

As depressing and sad it is, I am glad that our moderators on this site are up to date on things. Thanx Guys, good job.32 dead, death toll is getting higher, whats wrong with people?.Securities needs to be tighter in schools though.... All schools, besides I think there should be a security of some sort in schools to stop people with bad intentions before they could start shooting.....

My heart goes out to the victims.

It is just inhumanly vile.

To all of you who have people there or who are there in the case of Ultra_Jetstorm and The Fighting Gobbler I pray that you and yours ae well and...for those of you who lost people you have my condolences, which already are on the 32 victims of the gunman.

My thoughts on this are just...gahhhh!!!

I am pissed at the bastard for doing what he did. Don't fool yourselves guys, he was human. Never forget that humans can be the most dumbest animals on the face of this Earth. I can't be a person who forgives him, some thing just cross a line with me. I just can't. May God have mercy on his soul because I won't.

As for the people looking to blame Videogames and stuff... they should better spend their time chasing after the sources of illegal weapons and shutting them down instead of blaming entertainment. Human history has had alot to it, we've been violent since the dawn of time. Why do we need inspiration from a book or a film? Go after the real problem I say and fight the illegal arms markets. That is the only real way to bring justice to these tragic events. Look at what can be done with legally obtained weapons and get the rest off of the damned streets.

I just get worried when I hear about shooting as I have family down there...soon to be family if you want to get technical. I wouldn't want anything happening to them. If people in power fought the real battle how many people could live? It's a damned shame people in these positions don't get their priorities straight.

It's easy to blame everyone but the actual person responsible for such a horrific crime. I don't blame the gun, I blame the maniac welding the gun. I don't blame the alchohol, I blame the driver who ran down the innocent bystander. It's all pretty simple, but people like to make things more complex than they need to be.

But it's the victims who are the most important here, our thoughts go with them.

Loki120 wrote:It's all pretty simple, but people like to make things more complex than they need to be.

Actually, I think the reverse is true.

Part of the problem is that people like to simplify these things by saying "the guns did it", "the video games did it", "the music did it", or "the guy just wasn't human".

Most people don't want to deal with the fact that events like these are the result of complex interactions between the person and the environment; the prefer to pick a simple, easy to understand, scapegoat/rationalization.

"The German economy sucks, ergo, the Jews did it."

That sort of logic.

Caelus wrote:

Loki120 wrote:It's all pretty simple, but people like to make things more complex than they need to be.

Actually, I think the reverse is true.

Part of the problem is that people like to simplify these things by saying "the guns did it", "the video games did it", "the music did it", or "the guy just wasn't human".

Most people don't want to deal with the fact that events like these are the result of complex interactions between the person and the environment; the prefer to pick a simple, easy to understand, scapegoat/rationalization.

"The German economy sucks, ergo, the Jews did it."

That sort of logic.

Well, that's essentially what I was getting at. I just think people like to make things more complex by playing the blame game.

this makes me worry even more about my little sis (at Florida State University) and my g/f (at college in PA) being i'm in southwest florida

According to the UK papers this morning, the gunman was apparently a jilted boyfriend who decided to take some much needed revenge on the girlfiend and iother people.

What also pissed me off was the fact Jack(ass) Thompson was on the scene only a few hours after the incident and began his traditional rant at the media. How in the hell can he prove the gunman watched violent media before he did it? the answers have gone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Seung-hui



It says nothing about no video games,tv ,or music so obviously there not to blame.The killer just was..... idk how you put it.

Cyclonus_3009 wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Seung-hui



It says nothing about no video games,tv ,or music so obviously there not to blame.The killer just was..... idk how you put it.

..... "they snapped"..... there you go

Leave it to Fred Phelps , the "Axis Sally" of organized religion, to take advantage of this to preach his hate. To Phelps and his gang, I'd simply like to quote Jethro Tull , "you'll be praying till next Thursday to all the gods that you can count". People like Phelps prove that John Lennon was right when he sang "Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too."

Cyclonus_3009 wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Seung-hui



It says nothing about no video games,tv ,or music so obviously there not to blame.The killer just was..... idk how you put it.

I see wikipedia doesn't waste any time. They say the guy liked to play basketball. Maybe basketball causes people to be violent. Sorry, hope it doesn't look like I'm making light of a terrible tragedy.

What I'd give to know is how the perpetrator's own parents are going through this. I mean, how would you feel if someone you gave birth to became such a monster?

He was referred to a psychologist by a professor. They let him stay in school even after he committed arson on campus. There were all of these opportunities to catch him before he did this and they weren't taken. There's gonna be jobs lost over this. 32 families will be demanding answers, and they're not going to take "**** happens" as an excuse. I wouldn't

ScorpoMax wrote:

Cyclonus_3009 wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Seung-hui



It says nothing about no video games,tv ,or music so obviously there not to blame.The killer just was..... idk how you put it.

I see wikipedia doesn't waste any time.

My thoughts exactly.

EDIT: I just found out that one of the victims attended high school in the same county that I live. My prayers go out to his family.