Why should I care about VT?

[ShakeZula06]

[ QUOTE ]
an average of 80 people die from gun homicides in the US everyday.

[/ QUOTE ]
Cite?

[iron81]

[ QUOTE ]
No single reason that I can think of since I'm already armed 24/7.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you have a concealed carry permit?

[bkholdem]

[ QUOTE ]
an average of 80 people die from gun homicides in the US everyday. Yesterday was not a tragedy if every other day is not a comparable tragedy.

It is just an opportunity for the media to fill some time with meaningless drivel, rather than discuss our corrupt government.

[/ QUOTE ]

This man is a genius.

[bkholdem]

[ QUOTE ]
you are being a prick because you are treating a situation which calls for a response of empathy and compassion as though it does not deserve this type of response, and you are doing this through sarcasm and arrogance rather than making any sort of reasonable point.



[/ QUOTE ]

Well then I suggest we agree to disgree because I believe my argument is quite reasonable. The media pimps/exploits tragedy and we would most likely never heard of this tragedy if it were not for them piping into all of our homes around the clock. Add up all the fear and worry from the millions of people pwned by the media over this and realize the media caused that suffering.

And how exactly are you going to deliver this empathy and compassion to the families of the slain? Are you planning on going to VA and doing some grief counseling because if you are I apologize. If, however, you are postulating and grandstanding I call you out as a hyppocrite.



[ QUOTE ]


if you still don't understand. He gave the definition of compassion, as an awareness of the suffering of another coupled by a desire to relieve that suffering. In this situation, it would be a desire to relieve the suffering of the living, not the dead, you dense moron. Thus, whether you understand it or not, your posts make you a prick.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, the living. The millions of living pwned by the media pimping their fear mongering. Does their suffering not count? Are you not compassionate????

Again, if you plan to do something personal to touch the lives of the families of the slain victims please tell me what your plans are. Otherwise it seems to me you are a postulating phony.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

The people demanding that people should care are completely redicilous, complete lack of perspective. There are probably people that would prefer to spend their day at VT-campus during the shooting than where they spent their day. Does all those people get your care and compassion? If you care, very good, shows you are a good person but it also likely because you relate to it in any way. To me it feels completely distant probably because I am not a student and don't live in America or know any American students). The tsunami felt very close, but probably because a colleague at work lost most of his family. None of us are able (or should for our own sanity) to be compassionate about all the tragedies happening in the world.

EDIT: To clarify, I think it is a good thing that you people feel compassion, just not expect it from others, will just make you bitter for no good reason.

[lehighguy]

What's going to come out of this is people saying is was this or that or the other thing that causes these incidents and then trying to change how people are able to run their lives. Whether is be blaming moral decay and wanting us to go to church, censoring media and videogames, restricting the right to carry arms. People are going to make the case that we need to make drastic changes to our society just because some lone nut went off the deep end.

[kniper]

I agree with OP on some level to be honest. While I feel very sorry for everyone involved, I have been trying to avoid the tragedy on the news like the plague. IMO, its discussion is really purposeless.

1) Most of this stuff is bread and butter for media sensationalism. This story is going to go on forever when there are actually much more important issues going on right now. Gonzales and the DA firings, Iraq, Iran, etc. IMO this is an interesting crossroads for the US.

2) Nothing is going to be really done about it. I mean, sure , VT will have some kind of security force put in place or something. But on a national lever nothing is going to be done. After Columbine, people were screaming everywhere to ban assault weapons. Well, this guy did more than twice as much damage with two pistols. So unless you want to practically prohibit access to all firearms (i.e., UK), what the hell are we going to talk about? And we all know that prohibiting firearms is just not going to happen. Other alternatives are likewise pointless to talk about. For example, ideas about a more comprehensive state or private mental health care system are so difficult to enact in a way that we would know it would stop this kind of violence.

3) I don't want to hear one more damn person say that it is the entertainment or video gaming industry's fault for this. Those people should be given a lobotomy. It is true that our culture (US that is) is apparently more prone to violence, but linking its causation to the media is just stupid. I would guess that there is something more deep-seeded that is responsible, but what do I know.

In brief, this is a tragedy, much in the same way that a bus load of children falling off the freeway bridge would be, only that the media can seize a greater audience with it. The killer here is not the direct result of some social or government policy. He is just some sick loser who took it out on everyone around him. It is incredibly saddening to hear about such innocent death, but its simply a result we may have to live with.

Pay all the respects you have breath for, but this story is just gonna be ground to pieces until it turns into a total circus.

[lehighguy]

Actually, violent crime and gun crime are up since the UK ban.