Gunman opens fire on Ill. campus; up to 5 dead

[Michowski]

Fact is, if you can take a gun OR weapon away from EVERYONE then that would save lifes. Its impossible to disarm every person in america so the ones who are left with the weapons will rule over those who dont.

[J-Dub]

Thank you Michowski and Thank you the new guy this is the point I was trying to make.

[Rodzo]

It is impossible to tell which person is going to go mental and pull something like this. That is more difficult than trying to do something to eliminate guns in people hands...

Since guns don't kill people, people kill people, then your statement of guns save lives would not be correct, it would be, people save lives. Since the person is the operator, and the gun is simply a weapon...nice contradiction you al lagreed with.

I'm done. You people who fell the need to throw insults at my inteligence to get your point across are not worth arguing with. I am comfortable knowing we will never agree. Each to their own. Again, questioing me on what I know, what I watch, what I read, etc...that's not how I do things.

[rocco79]

This is the typical spin that the brainwashing Big Government is pushing on people. The "dumbest mother !#@$%@#$ ever!" were the founding fathers of this country, NOT the NRA, who believed it was the citizens right to be able to protect themselves from 2 different types of enemies.... 1. Foreign invaders, trying to take our liberties and freedoms. AND 2. A tyranical government, trying to take our liberties and freedoms away.

If guns really are the problem, why are these incidents happening in "Gun free zones"? In the City of Chicago, it is Illegal to own a handgun, but in the City of Chicago, we have the largest number of Handgun related crimes in the country. The Criminals, who obtain their guns Illegally, know that the legal citizens have no means of protection. Adding stricter gun laws will do absolutely nothing to stop the crimes, because criminals will not stop obtaining illegal weapons, just because it is "Against the Law". After all, they are Criminals, what is one more law broken to them?

You can try to throw the Virginia Tech Massacre into the mix, saying that Virginia is a Right to Carry state, and why weren't the students protected there. It all comes back to the simple fact that even though Virginia is a Right to Carry state, Schools are "Gun Free zones". A college campus was probably the ONLY place in that state that he could have gone on that severe of a rampage before being cornered to the point of suicide.

Think about it for a minute, If someone is going to go on a shooting rampage, where is he most likely to go? To a Police station, where there are numerous armed officers ready to take him down at the first sign of trouble, or to an area where there is no likelyhood of ANYONE being able to stop him?

I'm sorry the incident that happened today hit so close to home for you, and I hope that nobody you know was injured in the shootings.

Another thing to keep in mind, is more people die on a yearly basis from Car accidents than from a gun (with the exception of war), so shoud we seek to ban cars now too?

+1

[J-Dub]

How do you know you'll never go mental and kill someone?

I think we need to have you lead a research team to replicate, the telepaths in "Minority Report" so we can stop crime before it starts.

and also, the guns dont kill people, people kill people comment means. That, you're blaming the situation on firearms entirely. a Gun is a hunk of metal and plastic. Not deadly unless used by...a person..

[Mr. Tune]

My brother goes to NIU. When I heard on the news what happened while I was at work, I freaked out. I had never been so worried in my life. I was trying to call my brother and wasn't able to get through.

I called home and luckily found out that he had gotten to a landline (cell phones networks were overloaded and calls weren't going through) and called home. He let them know he was ok and nowhere near where the shooting happened. He called before it hit the news. Had my mom seen this on the news and not heard from him, she would have broke down crying instantly and in a constant state of worry until he called. He saved her that grief, for which I am proud of.

[Michowski]

Its gonna be on america's most wanted in about 5 minutes.

[thenewguy821]

Why the hell would they put this on America's Most Wanted, if the shooter killed himself? I though the purpose of AMW was to help fink people who were wanted for a crime and haven't been found...

I agree what happened was a tragedy, but I think it is the wrong show to highlight it.

Just my 2 cents.

[BJoe]

Probably ran the story just for the ratings.

[Michowski]

My bad, that was the tinley park shooting. I got the 2 mixed up. They said the illinois shooting and I was actually looking at this thread when they said that and posted it.

[BJoe]

Ah, that would make sense then. Did the NIU shooting still come up anyway?

[Michowski]

no it was the tinley park shooting only.

[BJoe]

OK, wondered if they'd try and do a ratings double whammy by featuring both.

[mikeh]

So there should be no gun free zones? We should pack heat to school to foil a crazy gunman?
Have you been in a school? it would be a freakin shoot out every day. And the weekends! Forget about it. The image of drunkin kids partying around and carrying guns!
I don't think gun free zones are the problem. The problem is that they are difficult to enforce. You can allways get them. In Chicago, they just go to the burbs, but I would never want gun contol measures rolled back. Better enforced, yes, no immunity or bebefits for dealers and manufacturers (thanks NRA and Congress) and better backgound checks - and Illinois does them back five years for inpatient hospitalizations. Also in the works after the VA shootings was a bill to make all mental health workers report to the state, but it was lost in the shuffle after the press died down.

I don't think this is really about guns though. Its about mental illness. How we treat it, steriotype it, under fund it, lack support for it, etc, etc.
We don't worry about SANE people carrying them so much, just insane people. How can we better monitor gun sales to insane people?

BTW the gun shop that sold to the NIU killer was the same as sold to the VA Tech killer. Coincidence? Or is it really just that easy?

I think its too easy. Its harder to get a drivers license that the purchase a gun. As a gun nation, we should do a lot better.

[mikeh]

Tune - I am so glad to hear you family is okay. I can't imagine the terror.

For the sake of simplicity, lets just call all gun opponents pansy assed liberals, and all gun advocates gun nuts.
Every time this happens, the gun nuts say that we need to arm everyone so that killers will think twice, and the pansy assed liberals say we need to ban guns.
This does not help. The killers kill themselves, so they are not worried about consequences. We are a gun nation, and banning them wont help ( if they passed a law banning guns in my home town I would be the first to turn mine in - NOT! )
But the gun nuts call foul any time the pansy asses start to whine about the lack of healthcare and welfare and support programs that get cut. But then we have crappy healthcare, no continuity of care, no network of support for disturbed people and so we are all supprised with high crime and high murder rates and gun killings.
Who are we defending ourselves against? The very people who have no resources to get help, get frustrated, loose hope, and go out and get themselves a gun.
After ten years working with the mentally ill, I sure don't want them having guns.
How about if the NRA spends some of their lobbying money on positive social reform? Maybe some of these tragedies could be avoided if we cared about people as much as our stuff - including guns.
Untill something important changes, this will only continue to escalate. What will it take for people to get as fed up as me? Someone you know getting killed?
As a nation, we are frustrated with the economy, our congress, often our lives. We are a depressed and heavily armed nation. What can we do to change that?