Columbine has been surpassed

[Myroria]

At least 31 people are dead and several others wounded after a gunman opened fire at a Virginia college on Monday in what is being described as the worst campus shooting in U.S. history, according to government officials.


^{An injured person is carried out of Norris Hall, where most of the fatalities occurred. 'At least 30 to 40 big shots' were fired in the engineering building, a student said.
(Alan Kim/Roanoke Times/Associated Press) The suspected gunman was among the dead at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, a town with a population of 39,573, campus police Chief W.R. Flinchum told a news conference at noon.}

Police said they weren't immediately sure whether the gunman was a student, or whether he killed himself or was shot by police.

By about 2 p.m. ET, some U.S. broadcasters were reporting that a number of wounded people had died of their injuries.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," university president Charles Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

32 people dead. The deadliest civilian shooting in US history, surpassing both the Luby's Massacre and Columbine. Thoughts? Comments?

[Embliri Trex]

Well, I really don't know what to say, the incredible thing is that these massacres continue to happen and every time there are big discussions and talks, and after a month is the same. I don't live in US, nor I ever travel there, but it's clear that there's a problem, I don't know if somebody is doing something, from what I see maybe not.
I've got the feeling that the guilt is always given to the shooter, not to the society. I mean, the shooter IS guilty, but you can examine his situation, his story, when a thing like this happens one time, but when it happens almost sistematically it's clear that the person is not the problem, he surely got some problems, but there is a situation in which his problems can grow and find a tragical epilogue.

[Marsos]

My heart goes out to the families of those who were killed. I feel so awful for them. What would be worse, though, is if people use this incident as a political weapon. It's hard to say what policies would prevent this, and it's darn near impossible to find the root cause. I think part of it has to do with America's culture of independence, so people never go for guidance or help or anything. They just brood, and it turns into this.

[Salty]

It really hits home, a crazy gunman can show up out of nowhere and shoot 30+ people... it's terrifying.

[Romanar]

It sure is! 

[Solnath]

Yay, more Americans dead! Go Gaia!
 

* Solnath runs off to smoke weed and hug trees.

[The Empire]

I'd say guns and ammo beeing so readily accessible in the US definitely has something to do with the reason why theese violent tragedies become so massive. A lack of effective, secular aid for mental problems to compliment medicine could als be a contributing factor.

Not to mention the blame-attitude that is showing through with many americans I have met over the web, It's always somebody elses fault and they themselves can never be part of a bigger problem...

[kor]

Wow 32 people dead! There are far too many crazy people with guns! I was on MSNBC.com checking up on this story and came across this link there.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18140540/ I didn't even know about some of these! America definitely needs better gun control!

[PoD Gunner]

Sad! What a massacre! How the hell did they react that sloppy? I understand that there were ~ 2h between the first shooting and the bloody end, could have limited it to only two victims...i heard a freshman speaking on abc news.
Seems that the teacher who held the door shut for his class to jump out the window and save themselves was Liviu Librescu, of Romanian origin. aged 77. Sad moment, but my respect for his sacrifice. I'm really happy that no Romanian politician has yet made any comment on this, his memory should be kept clean. Bleah, couldn't we import such a lunatic and let him go loose in the Romanian Parliament?
Have they disclosed his identity yet?

[kor]

They have just identified the shooter to be Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior from South Korea. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18148802/

[The Empire]

So what do you think could be done to efficiently prevent it from happening again?

And Garth, a personal question, why do you care about this at all? I thought you said in a neighboring topic by Solnath that you don't care about violence that doesn't happen to you personally, your family or your friends?

[Ryazania]

He had a school-visa, he didn't even plan to be a citizen. That means he obtained all ammo and weapons illegally. Plus, had more students had firearms, they would have been able to shoot him before he killed so many.

A lack of effective, secular aid for mental problems to compliment medicine could als be a contributing factor.

He was on anti-depressants.

[The Empire]

So, anti-depressants on their own is no solution...

And try this thought for a while, if there was a lot less total number of guns in the US it would have been much harder for him to get one or ammo for it/them and the same for all other guns used in your nation each day.
That in turn would result in several thousands of fewer murders annually. And though the number of lesser violent crimes would probably increase by roughly the same amount wouldn't that be a very advantageous trade off?

[Ryazania]

I am fairly sure that if all firearms present in the US were registered, there would be a lot less crime. Most shootings occur with illegal/unregistered guns . Plus, my Constitution allows me to arm myself against tryanny

But on to the subject at hand, this is really awful. I can't imagine why there were so many students killed when so many could have been saved. Dr. Libescru, as Gunner mentioned before, is a real hero. Had he not sacrificed himself, the number of students killed would have gone up dramatically.

[The Empire]

Still, those illegal/unregistered guns are produced in the same factories as legal guns or was stolen from a legal owner right, and if there had been less guns produced, the availiablitiy of illegal guns waould have suffered too and along with that their prices would have soared and had been less common as a result, all according to the nature of capitalism albeit capitalism restricted at the supply source.