Griffin
Well-known member
From what I have gathered, a disgruntled boyfriend managed to shoot two kids at Virginia Tech, then proceeded to go on a suicide slaughter a couple hours later resulting in 31 more deaths and an additional 15 wounded. According to the articles I have read, this was accomplished with a couple of handguns.
The human casulty is enormous and I don't want to be callous by discussing the politics of this event, my prayers go out those families. I'm curious as to what you all think about the fact that this was done with handguns.
My personal feeling is that these incidents are extrememly rare and don't justify a society armed to the teeth, but in light of the terrorist threat and the growing gang violence in this country, this presents a real quandry. We have seen that a person who wants to kill lots of people does not really need the time and skills necessary to make a crude bomb. One man (and it's always a young man, DC snipers, Amish school houses etc. in the London bombings, they are young terrorists but the motivation is the same - it's angry young men) with a couple of small weapons can do as much damage as a suicide bomber. I live in a part of the country where gun violence has reached an epic proportions and even in the suburbs, most robberies are committed at gun point. The problem being that once a person commits one murder, they become more inclined "to go out in blaze of glory".
Do we react to this? and how?
The human casulty is enormous and I don't want to be callous by discussing the politics of this event, my prayers go out those families. I'm curious as to what you all think about the fact that this was done with handguns.
My personal feeling is that these incidents are extrememly rare and don't justify a society armed to the teeth, but in light of the terrorist threat and the growing gang violence in this country, this presents a real quandry. We have seen that a person who wants to kill lots of people does not really need the time and skills necessary to make a crude bomb. One man (and it's always a young man, DC snipers, Amish school houses etc. in the London bombings, they are young terrorists but the motivation is the same - it's angry young men) with a couple of small weapons can do as much damage as a suicide bomber. I live in a part of the country where gun violence has reached an epic proportions and even in the suburbs, most robberies are committed at gun point. The problem being that once a person commits one murder, they become more inclined "to go out in blaze of glory".
Do we react to this? and how?