VA Tech

[PrincessFiona]

Two words:

Gun Control.


kris

I've only switched on this news now and immediatly thought of you stella, hope you've been able to get intouch with friends and family and all are ok. What a sick and terrible tragedy.

[Stella]

33 dead. Unidentified Asian American shooter w/ no criminal history. (His fingerprints didn't come up. ) No one knows who he is yet.

My friends are okay. Still no word from my brother's friends. I'll keep you all updated.

[Laker]

Two words:

Gun Control.


kris

The guns didn't kill anyone, the shooter did. If no gun, he could have used other means.

[Ravenclaw]

I am too shocked for words.
Stella, I hope all of your brother's friends are okay!!

[alison]

Two words:

Gun Control.


kris

The guns didn't kill anyone, the shooter did. If no gun, he could have used other means.

I agree, Kris.
Without a gun it's much more difficult for one person to kill 30+ people. Doesn't matter. It's simply awful.

[migirl]

Absolutely horrifying. I can't even imagine.

This story was too horrible for words. I can't bring myself to read any of the details, although I heard a little on the news tonight.

The most amazing thing to us here, and the angle taken by our media, is that even in the face of a tragedy like this, many US citizens apparently still don't want to tighten gun laws. It must be a cultural gap, because I completely fail to understand it. It's a sad world when it becomes unsafe even to attend school.

Regardless, my thoughts are very much with anyone affected by these awful events. I only hope that there are no copycat incidents.

[Vanquisher]

Some of us in the United States DO want tighter gun control (A LOT tighter), but we can't seem to get that message across to the many others who think they need one. :huh:

My heart goes out to the people affected by this horrible crime.

Personally I agree with gun control (suprise with me being Canadian and all) but I feel obligated to point out that we have fairly strict gun control here and have also had school shootings.....I guess if you are in such a bad place that you would shoot people you would get a weapon wherever???

very very sad

I also want to send my thoughts to anyone who knows of people involved. How very very sad.

[DCJenn]

Gun Control is one issue (and I'm all for it- get rid of them all I say- which will surprise no one)

Mental Illness is something else, as Annie said. I just participated in a walk to benefit NAMI on Saturday since the company that I work for ( a quasi-government agency) does Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment.

There is such a huge stigma and there are compelling reasons- crazy people are scary sometimes. or at least when it comes to the homeless crazy person, they're stinky, hairy and scary. We have a bunch of really creative programs to get people back into treatment. Finding the treatment that someone with no income can afford is a whole different story. You can't work FT and get benefits if you're in the middle of active psychosis... The problem stems all the way back to the Kennedy Administration when there was the big push for deinstitutionalization but oooops, not enough community mental health clinics (that's when this place opened).

Of course, there's also the problem with the perception that mental illness only occurs in certain socio-economic groups. (like drug addiction)

and there's the problem with denial and ignoring the problems too.

So, today my answer is to go to work and hope that in my piddly way, someone is benefited.

Jenn

[rainbabies]

guess who has managed to come out of the woodwork during this tragedy? his group has managed to find some way to get into the "limelight". asshats. fred phelps and his "christain" gang. POS.

ETA, you know they will find a way to blame this on gay people, right?

"WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror -- yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is 'horrified' by it all. You know nothing of horror -- yet. Your true horror is coming. 'They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads' (Eze. 7:18).
Why did this happen, you ask? It's simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants."

[DCJenn]

speaking of mental illness...

J.

Horrible day...we just found out that one of the people killed is from here.....she was a French teacher and a really good friend of our cousin. Sad sad story! Have to go answer one of a million phone calls.