Happened in Dekalb, IL

6 School shootings total, one week earlier today.

Notre Dame Elementary shooting
Louisiana Technical College shooting
Mitchell High School shooting
E.O. Green Junior High School
McNair High School shooting

It has been an intense week.

Yeesh, NIU. That's not far from me.

Solution: Ban valentines day!

I think banning guns would be more effective than this choice. (not encouraging a gun ban or a huge argument on it)

OMG 2ND AMENDMENT

Yeah, this is getting a bit crazy

yeah yeah

Hurr. It shouldn't count as a 'school shooting' unless it's students shooting students. That one incident linked, at Notre Dame Elementary, was a man shooting his wife; the school was just a backdrop to otherwise 'routine' domestic violence.

IIRC, most of those weren't exactly "school shootings" so much as a shooting that just happened to be at a school...the school itself is basically irrelevant to them other than sticking a person who wants to kill a specific someone right next to the person they want to kill.

I would describe a "school shooting" as someone trying to basically kill the school.

Still sucks of what happened at Dekalb and those other schools. They're even trying the 14 year old kid as an adult.

Good. We should charge the parents with gross neglect, while we're at it... oh, except, society won't accept paddling any more, and it's wrong to hold people responsible if you won't also give them the authority.

Well, the funny thing is that he would have been tried as a minor and would have been sent to a juvenile court if he did what he did 2 weeks ago.

You know, after banning guns in Australia, the amount of violent crimes with weapons increased..

and dont anyone go using bloody percentage increases, becuase the number of shootings in australia, not to mention the the population that has access to guns that is likely to commit a violent act with them, is small enough that percentages are EXTREMELY misleading.

also, http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp

If I wanted to shoot my wife I'd do it in a gun-free zone too.

I go to NIU. I was about to leave for work when my roomate told me there was a shooting, and he came back home. It is horrible and everyone is sad. An acquaintence of mine (only met him once) was shot in the leg. I live in a house on the other side of Neptune Hall (which is also next to Cole). There were flocks of people and cops all over the place almost instantly. There are six reported dead now. Now everyones gonna be in panic for the rest of the semester.

Oddly, I was in Cole hall today (i cut through there every day since I work in the computer lab next door), and noticed the back stage door of Jameson lecture hall was cracked open, while the other lecture hall was locked, as they normally are. So on my way back i took a peek inside out of curiousity. I heard someone inside so I left. (this was hours before the shooting). Maybe it was him getting ready? sheesh.

ive been feeling sick ever since 3. Why are there so many crazies out there?

So you're saying that the effect of guns on the murder rate is negligible anyway?

(Say, old bean, do you still believe that Americans have a tendency to shoot at schools no matter how strict gun laws they have?> o_q " <(Why else would they be Americans!?)
(Ach, a bloody good point! Don't you agree, mr. Hugh Laurie?)> o_q " <(America!)

i was saying that the whole gun violence increaseing dramaticly after the gun ban is a total misconception.

learn to read.

Wow. Weird how this wouldn't have piqued my attention if I hadn't almost attended NIU. Granted, I'd have graduated by now...

If people don't have access to guns, they're less likely to have a shootout. Just an observation.

If people don't have legal access to guns, they're more likely to obtain the illegaly and do what they were going to do with them anyways. Just an observation.

so guns are the only weapons? learn to read ********.

If someone's going to kill someone, the access to guns is definitely not an issue.

umm, if you read the snopes page, you would see that not only was there no increase in gun violence, but the RATE of violent crimes also pretty much stayed the same. remember, we only have a population of about 20 million, so the total number of crimes will increase by a larger PERCENT of the TOTAL NUMBER even if the RATE stays the same.

Why are you trying to say that I am wrong and that Australia got much more violent after the gun ban dispite the fact that I live in australia?

The rate stayed the same? that cinches it. pry my guns from my cold dead hands

Video games.

the rate as in violent crimes per unit of population. as the population of a nation increases, the number of people who are likely to commit a violent crimes also increases, if the rate stays the same or goes down, THIS IS A GOOD THING, because it means that the chances of a person becomeing a violent offender are either going down or staying the same.

I think some people need to stop kidding themselves, legal aquisition of guns is one of the biggest causes of shootings like these.

Killing someone with a knife is considerably harder to do mentally and physically, and is not as simple as "Pull the trigger, they die". Guns make it easy to do. Legal guns make it a hell of a lot easier. In any cause, it's a shooting, not a stabbing. You don't often hear about kids going crazy in schools with a knife.

Rob, you assume you can illegally get guns, it's not as easy as walking down an alleyway and asking an obscure gangster who just "happens to be there". It doesn't work like that in real life, I couldn't tell anyone where to even start to try and get one. And by the time you did, you wouldn't be under the influence of your initial head rush of wanting to kill.

Put simply, I can't think of a single shooting in the UK within this year that has been mentioned on the news. I've no doubt that you will dig up some obscure murder case to defend yourself, fair enough, but you sure do have more shootings than in European countries. It's definately something to think about, don't just blindly defend your constitution.

</rant>

Glad I got that out.

That is all I have to say on that topic. I bet I'll get a witty flame in response to this post too, but in the end, it's your country. It'll be your kids that are more likely to get shot, not mine.

Maybe you can't, but I can, quite easily. A couple hundred bucks and an hour of my time and I'd be packing heat.

Apparently he was a gamer.

Because Free's mom.

This frees mom thing is going way to far.

Yes it is harder to kill with a knife than a gun. But that's ignoring that the person still wants to kill. If a killer is determined to kill, then I don't see how he would be turned off by not easily acquiring a firearm. Mass-killing don't happen every day in the US, murders often involve private parties (for lack of a better word). Someone who is focused on slaughtering random people is someone who is pushed far over the edge, petty "no-guns" laws won't stop him.



Marijuana is illegal in many states yet even teens are acquiring them. If there is a demand for them, the underground will supply it. It would be hell in the US when guns are banned and police will have to deal with countless dangerous illegal weapons-related busts on an astronomical scale. And the fact that the US is significantly higher in population and area doesn't help at all. One of the many reasons why the "war on drugs" is failing here is because there is no possible way to physically keep an eye out for illegal distribution and sales of contraband. I'm willing to bet drug-related crimes would go way, way down when marijuana ever gets legalized (but very regulated of course.)




Funny, this was on the front page of the BBC website: Shots fired at resturant.



If I took your mindset, I rather let my kids tour New York City than step foot in London.

You assume that there are firefights on almost every street of a city. And a firefight in every town. Fact of matter is, a high majority of policecops in the US go through their entire career without ever firing a bullet. People buy pistols legally and never use them in their lifetime.

Uhh...duh. Exactly. They removed guns, the rate didn't change, meaning it had basically no effect. So there's no reason to take my guns. So pry them from my cold dead hands.

but the thing is, that shows that removing guns isnt going to cause problems due to a lack of supposed guns for defence. Remember, people that would buy illegal guns if there were gun restrictions (which is what we have in australia, not an outright ban as there are many different things that can allow one to get a gun license) are probably the type of people who buy illegal guns off the street already, as they dont want the gun to be listed as being owned by them.

Also, what is the actual need for guns, and i mean NEED, not want as in the case of hunting or gun clubs or such, but an actual NEED. I can see someone living in a high crime area possibly having a need for a firearm, but sombody that lives in a medium sized town, with a low crime rate that is mostly comprised of petty non violent crime, I just cannot see how someone could NEED to own a gun in a peaceful small town.

also, echoman, buying a gun that one never uses just prooves my point, if one never needs to use it, it probably means that you live in a place in which "less than lethal" forms of self defence would be a much better option, as they would probably be cheaper, involve less red tape, not worrying about storing the consumable part of the weapon away from the weapon itself, not to mention the fact that guns require maintenance even if left unused.

Because there can be minutes of delay between the time you dial 911 and the time my peaceful small town's PD gets dispatched? Call goes to the central center, gets routed to county dispatch, then gets out from there..

I don't know about you, but I'd rather show up and find a living good guy and a dead bad guy than the other way around.



What maintenance-free less-than-lethal form of self defense would you recommend?

Civilian Tasers are expensive and only have one shot, which may or may not make contact. OC/pepper spray does not affect everyone, and if you're determined enough, you can fight through it.

I've never needed my seatbelt or airbag...but that doesn't mean we should remove them..