bad news from the US

Hey, I never thought of that, but you are totally right. Even killing one person with knife would be difficult, specially if there was other peeps around.

 

Those who can't remember a school killing in the uk - Dunblane !!!!!!!!

 

That was a gunman who committed a massacre in a school. It wasn't school or university kids bringing guns to school and killing people. It was completely different. I don't remember it, but I read about it on Wikipedia.

 

And Dunblane is why we changed our law for greater handgun control.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_massacre

 

There are other means to kill or maim a lot of people, for example home made explosives. In the case of Columbine, the attackers attempted to use home made explosives which thankfully didn't work.

I don't know if it's completely different. In a school, be it high school or a university, people believe they're safe. The fact that someone (be it a school member, or someone from the public at large) can come in and attack is scary.

I know here in Canada we had a shooting at Dawson College in September (one killed) and another at ecole polytechnique in 1989 (14 killed) and in both cases the shooters weren't students, and as a Canadian college student I find that scary.

 

But even so that would be considerably more difficult to plan and construct alone in secrecy - especially in a campus or dorm room - than going into a shop and buying a gun.

 

I think in a case like this, what it really comes down to is the mental instability of the perp. Sadly the parents are currently pretty much in hiding due to fear of being made a scapegoat. Also, I'm sure that VT can expect a number of lawsuits from the families of the dead, since reports are coming out that the school had some warning, but didn't/weren't able to do anything past recommending psychiatric help for the student. So really, people can blame whoever they damn well please, but it's not going to solve any problems, and, in the end, you can really only blame the perpetrator.

That is not to say that I am not an advocate for stricter gun control. I think a lot of these shootings would be more easily preventable if firearms weren't so accessible. Here in Virginia, we have really asinine gun laws. Pretty much if you are a 17 yr old male, you can own a gun, and I believe you can conceal it at 18. But, if you're a female, nope. Can't own a gun at 17. But keep in mind that this is the populace who still keeps the "you can only have sex if you're married and doing it in the missionary position" clause as part of their state constitution, and voted last November for a constitutional ban on gay marriages.

Tomorrow, Governor Kaine has issued a statewide memorial day in honor of the victims, and there will be a moment of silence at noon, so if anyone else in the world could take some time out of their day, it would be great if you could participate in this too.

 

Do you know what time zone Virginia is in? if you can find out Ill be sure to stop talking

EDIT: Just lookde at your profile and you live in Virginia, so I hope you know your time zone!

 

You can find out pretty easy on the Internet. It's Eastern Daylight time which right now should be GMT -0400

At least I think that's right because we're Pacific (three hours behind) and we're GMT -0700

And yes: http://www.worldtimezone.com/wtz-names/wtz-edt.html

I am right...

 

Yes, and you'll note that explosives are either illegal for regular people to have or very, very strictly controlled. I wonder why?

But explosives aren't nearly as fetishised as guns in American culture, so it's okay to control/restrict explosives... but don't you dare touch guns, those most sacred of cows!

 

right so it'll be four in the afternoon, I'll probably be on public transport then so I'll do my best to honour it

 

Virginia is Eastern Standard Time, which is GMT -0500

 

Except right now it's Eastern Daylight Time, hence GMT -0400 (having sprung forward)

 

Heh, oops ^^``` sorry about that!