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Reply With QuoteBan Air Steps!
Well i have not seen the papers or heard the news yesterday until this morning when i heard the tragic news of the University in America that was invaded by some man who then proceeded to kill 30 odd students for no reason what so ever.
Is there anything we can do as a society to prevent these things happening, or do we just sit back and accept that this is where we are heading. This is happening in America on a regular basis and i am a true believer that we will see it sooner rather than later here in the UK.
What can we do?
Ban Air Steps!
and on a more sensible note. . .
We don't know the reason but there will be one and it has happened here
Dunblaine
Hungerford
There was a machette attack in a kindergarten in Birmingham
Don't hold your breath we already have it.
Oh and just to show how sad the yanks are they call them Spree killings
I suppose that sounds a little more PC to them than Multiple Murders.
i know we have already had incidents but they are no where near as frequent as they are in America. We only hear about the big ones, there are many we do not hear about.
But my question still remains. What can we do to protect ourselves and our families.? Is there anything we can do. ?
Apparently this bloke was out to get his ex and her new lover. He snuffed them out first and then decided a few horus later, to kill another 30 or so, then himeslf.
Apart from that mad bitch that Bob Geldof sang about, its always men with the guns init?
There is only so much you can do to protect yourself. The thing is, if some mad bastard wants to kill a bunch of innocent people, they will always find a way.
easy availability of guns is to blame surely ? There are thousands of people in the US that, as soon as a tragedy like this happens, bring out the argument "if only everyone else had been armed too, he wouldnt have got so many" which seems rather illogical to me, if NO ONE has the guns then NO ONE dies from gunshot wounds. Seems logical ? no ?
on a less serious note - we are not even safe from anteaters anymore
ive got some great stuff to sort that little ant eater out!!! - permanently. .......Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe
But see what i mean, IS THERE ANYWHERE SAFE IN THIS WORLD .. even little ant eaters are turning.
And the Dolphins! Apparently it's because they are on the 'breadline' as the 'wealthy' counterparts are more friendly!
The mammals "lack the reputation of friendliness and love of humans enjoyed by dolphins in wealthy nations".
Is there anywhere safe in this world?
Yes, in heavens.
Deviant behaviour is the part of a society; it exists as long as a society exists. There are no safe places on the Earth. Anywhere and at any moment anything can happen with you. You can die under the wheels of a car, you can die from a snake bite, you can die whilst sleeping, you can be shot dead...
If a man is afraid of living, then the best advice one can give him is to stop living. If he is afraid of what can happen with his children, then the best advice one can give him is to stop giving birth to children, for he is not able to protect them from all the perils that, and will, surround them.
As for the accident in the US, I deem that the prohibition of selling guns is a partial solution of the problem. Although, in fact, it is not a solution at all. The guy could kill with a knife, he could set fire to the building, he could strangle people in dark alleys or rape kids...
It is important to find out why he did that. It is necessary to treat the cause of illness, not its symptoms. It is useless to strive against a headache by means of an aspirin tablet, if you have a brain tumor.
What can we do to prevent the incursion of a country into another country? There are problems it is impossible to solve. There are problems that demand to much time to be solved...
All we must do is what we can do.
None of those are examples of deviant society. Snakes ? when did they get the vote ? Deviant behaviour is only part of society because society defines what deviant behaviour is.
Best advice would be "to live" surely ? Is this the famous Russian pessimism ?If a man is afraid of living, then the best advice one can give him is to stop living.
The best advice would be "prepare them as best you can, they may not be afraid".If he is afraid of what can happen with his children, then the best advice one can give him is to stop giving birth to children, for he is not able to protect them from all the perils that, and will, surround them.
As for the accident in the US, I deem that the prohibition of selling guns is a partial solution of the problem. Although, in fact, it is not a solution at all. The guy could kill with a knife, he could set fire to the building, he could strangle people in dark alleys or rape kids...True there are other ways to kill but its unlikely that any of them would have claimed so many victims so easily.
Indeed, but they don't sell brain tumours to 18 year olds with just ID - they do with guns. Both are dangerousIt is important to find out why he did that. It is necessary to treat the cause of illness, not its symptoms. It is useless to strive against a headache by means of an aspirin tablet, if you have a brain tumor.
The gun laws take a lot of the blame on this one and I agree they should be a lot tighter. But Michael Moore makes a good point in Bowling For Columbine in that quite a few other countries have similar gun laws and access to guns but their rates of homicide by gun are much lower, so it is the mindset of the nation that needs to change. This is not something that can be easily changed so removing the guns would be the better option in the short term, though I can never see that happening - the right to bear arms is so deep-seated in the American way of life (and no doubt far too much money in the business) that it would be near impossible to change.
CR makes a good point though - if people like that really do want to kill they will find some way. Timothy McVey didn't use a gun yet he killed vastly more.
Moore also pointed out the almost glorification of violence in the US news - "body bags at 6 o'clock". The public are so immune to it that in his film "Roger and Me" he got a ridiculous number of complaints about a woman killing a rabbit for food and NONE AT ALL about the unarmed black man in the superhero costume gunned down in the street by police minutes later. Go figure
Originally posted by Dreadful Scathe:
I didn’t say that a snake bite, dying under the wheels of a car, etc. are examples of deviant behaviour. I just pointed out that there were a lot of perils in the world and that you could not feel safe anywhere. I guess I should have begun a new paragraph for such examples in order to avoid misunderstanding.None of those are examples of deviant society. Snakes ? when did they get the vote ? Deviant behaviour is only part of society because society defines what deviant behaviour is.
Exactly! This is what I wanted people to understand. You know, there is a Russian saying, ‘If you are afraid of wolves, don’t get into a forest.’Best advice would be "to live" surely ?
The best advice would be "prepare them as best you can, they may not be afraid".
Yes, of course. Incident. Sorry...I assume you mean incident
Originally posted by me:
By this, I wanted to say that it is necessary to change something in the society for such things not to happen or to happen as seldom as possible. The prohibition of guns is not the solution of the problem. Why do such things happen more often than in other countries? Do you know why? The maniacs, who shoot dead pupils and students in schools and universities, are just the effect of the problem. Do you know the causes?It is important to find out why he did that. It is necessary to treat the cause of illness, not its symptoms. It is useless to strive against a headache by means of an aspirin tablet, if you have a brain tumour.
can't argue with any of that. I do think your original post was possibly written in a slightly confusing way. I do understand what you are getting at now
The causes of such anti-social (and you cant get much more anti-social than killing people) behaviour is difficult to source. There must be more to it than simple availability of guns, I agree. I would suggest that the availability of guns has an affect on the attitude to violence in a society, but a bigger effect is the glorification of their use on TV and Film. That still cant be the answer on its own though, as TV and Film are universal now. Has America got such a long history of violence that other countries do not have? Or is American society based on a feeling of superiority over your fellow man ?
Yes. Keep things in perspective.
There are a million and one things no-one can protect themselves or their loved ones against - terrible illness, natural disasters, man made disasters, plain common or garden fatal accidents. We don't worry about these things because we have assigned a 'probability' rating and a 'fatalism' rating to them:
"there's a 0.01 probability of X happening and only a 0.05 possibility of my doing anything about it, so I'll spend 0.0005 percent of my time worrying about it."
When things like Virginia Tech happen, they seem more significant because they have more impact on our imagination; but they aren't really. A quick check shows that about 14,000,000 students graduated from University in the US in 2003. This idiot killed 32 people. Of course, they aren't the only students at University in the US this year who will be murdered, but on its own that's an incidence of 2.2 in every 100,000.
When you add to that the much greater difficulty there is in getting hold of guns in the UK, I think that worrying that your children are going to meet their end in a killing spree at an educational institution are r-e-a-l-l-y slim.
The strangest thing in this story is that the bloke was not the citizen of the United States. However, he could legally buy guns.
I wonder if the Americans will consider the tightening of the gun laws as the violation of their rights and liberties. I think they will. I also wonder what must happen in the US for such laws to be tightened. Assassination of Bush, Rice or some VIP else? I don’t think it will significantly change the situation concerning the easy availability of guns. And I seriously doubt that the incident with the Korean bloke will.
The National Rifle Association of the United States seems to be a very powerful organisation. It is the Second Amendment lobby; and despite such incidents, it has always lobbied for increasing gun sales.
I doubt that NRA will allow tightening the laws. In 1996, Clinton failed to override the gun lobby’s veto. In 2000, Al Gore lost about 1 million voters (especially in Tennessee and Arkansas) because of his anti-gun views, and that resulted in his losing the presidential election.
As for, say, Obama and H. Clinton, I doubt strongly that anti-gun issues will be in their election campaigns. Perhaps, such issues will be put on the agenda, but only after the presidential election. None of them will risk having such anti-gun views now.
I agree. Remember, for example, Ted Nugent (who was the honorary director of NRA, by the way) and his words at the NRA's 2005 National Convention: ‘Remember the Alamo! Shoot ‘em! To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em.’...the glorification of their use on TV and Film.
the 2nd amendment speaks of allowing guns to arm militias, presumably for the protection of the US itself. I dont think they would argue that militias are needed anymore but they still argue for guns.
The gun shop owner who sold the guns to the korean bloke (not being familiar with Korean names i cant remember it now) said it was terrible to think that a gun he sold someone was used in such a way. I imagine its the number of unjustified deaths in one go he disapproves of, as its quite likely that hundreds of guns he has sold over the years have maimed or killed people, most often unjustified.
The Daily Mail helpfully pointed out today that he took a picture of himself with his gun held to his own head, just like some Korean film. OMG I just realised that I once watched a film where someone shot someone else with a gun - does that mean I'm going to become a psycho as well?
OMG I just realised that I once watched a film where someone shot someone else with a gun - does that mean I'm going to become a psycho as well?
become a psycho.....??The Daily Mail helpfully pointed out today that he took a picture of himself with his gun held to his own head, just like some Korean film. OMG I just realised that I once watched a film where someone shot someone else with a gun - does that mean I'm going to become a psycho as well?
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