Why is it that when we have a school shooting, people automatically call the shooter a 'nut' and...?

demand more stricter gun laws--than the ones that are already on the books?

I find it a bit disturbing how we can brazenly *assume* that people who have killed these students--are such a danger to society--that we either have to have a blanket call for newer, tougher, gun laws, or we have to start labeling everyone who is mentally unstable, mentally challenged, mentally disturbed--as a threat to the fabric of our own troubled nation.

Anyone can *kill* people--we see it on the news every day. But it seems as though people who *kill* students get extra criticism and scrutiny because of their crimes--and yet those whom murder people on the street in botched robberies, or something along those lines--get nary a passing glance--or a biased comment.

Don't people know that there is little we can do to change the way we handle such grievous situations? For the most part, we are a nation of ignorant fools.

And until something happens...? We continue to be ignorant.
Additional Details
Calling for stricter laws after the fact, is a bit late--don't you think?

Especially when we had PLENTY of time to deal with and intercept such troubled youths or adults. But we choose *not* to.

Then--when the crime occurs--we blame not ourselves, but the gunman in question.

Or liberals and Democrats for this, or some politically charged accusation that doesn't fit the bill.

*Anything* or anyone to escape accountability for our own inactions.

As I said when the VT massacre happened: "We only have ourselves to blame."

bretedge

I think anyone who walks into a school and murders innocents is in fact a "nut". However, I don't think it means we need stricter gun control. Imagine if a few people at that school were carrying legally concealed firearms and had been trained in how to use them. It is likely that just one person carrying a firearm could minimize the carnage in a situation like this.

"That One"

Someone who's so unhappy with their own life that they kill five innocent people is, in fact, a nut.

Copgirl

Because any normal person would not walk into a school and start shooting innocent people.

staymay

Normal people dont walk around a gun down innocent victims. This guy reached his boiling point but a normal person would have sought after help instead of finding comfort in the blast of a 9mm. He is a nut. If he was not a nut before he is one now.

El Scott

America does not have a monopoly on school violence:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1952869.stm
http://www.violencestudy.org/europe-ca/fieldstory_violence_school_CoE.html
http://www.gold.ac.uk/connect/countryreports.html

Gun laws will only make outlaws out of the law abiding gun owners. What nut job, bent on killing kids on a playground, is really going to care if there is a law against him walking around with a gun?

vantz

You wouldn't call a person who arbitrarily murders innocent people while they are attending a geology class a nut? Is he known as a Saint? Our gun laws promoted by the National Rifle Association is a crime against humanity. Laws can be changed to give idiots who want to own a gun the right to do so, but for a specific reason. The person must register his gun and wait for approval. The person cannot buy an automatic or semi-automatic weapon. No more gun shows where guns are on display and people can buy one without papers or any documentation. I want to establish a new law giving the animals the right to buy guns. When a human shoots at the animal then the animal should have the right to shoot back. I am on the side of the animals. Man is a sick underhanded beast and I am certain that the power that created him does not love him.

mommanuke

These people are nuts, that's why they're called that. In a way, it's to protect us from the idea that someone could do that rationally. It's much more comfortable to think that the person was out of control when they did it.

Unfortunately, in situations like this, there is rarely time for anyone to prevent anything. This person killed himself as soon as he felt he had hit enough people, so he wouldn't have been influenced by the idea that someone else might have been armed. Might a return shooter have saved some lives? Possibly, but it's really impossible to tell. How can you guarantee that that person would have had correct aim or not have been a whole auditorium away from the shooter? And in those situations, it's often difficult to identify first what is actually happening and second who the exact shooter is.

Prevention - I agree that they do this for notoriety before dying. I think each one of these assassins should be labeled John Doe 2, or 3, or 4, etc. Their photographs should never be shown. But it sells newspapers, so that's not likely to happen, even if it would be the most effective thing to do. Look at how much of the onfield insanity at ball games has been shut down by refusing to show the person on TV.

Gun control - you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Imagine putting a table at the end of every block and telling everyone to bring their guns down for surrender. Who would and who would not? Law-abiding people would and criminals would not. What would the effects of that be? I think we would be much better off to do as Switzerland does and require every household to own a gun.

oykarumba7

i agree with everything you said..keep up the good fight

The laws tie the law-abiding citizens hands. Then freaks like this can have their way. If just one of those 23 students had a handgun on them, and knew how to shoot it - there would have been a lot less blood on the floor.
Cops can't be everywhere at once, and it's time that citizens start being allowed to carry handguns everywhere.

kristus412

Wow you would know ignorant wouldn't you. People who commit crimes like these are not stable. They are obviously suicidal since the murders of the people they have targeted end up with the death of the shooter at their own hand. He must have had some mental issues going on if that was the way they felt they needed to deal with a situation.
It's not just people who kill students who get the attention the guy who did the mall shooting got the same reaction. They get it because they seem to be random acts of violence that affect people where they thought they were safe and usually start with no warning or at least no one saw the warning signs for what they were.
The truth is we do need stricter gun laws and people out there trying to find the answers for this type of thing not to happen anymore or at least way less frequently. Until a solution is found it will be talked to death every time it happens.

TURANDOT

The point is, we're the only country in the world where these and lower grade, school shootings are notable.

With more restrictions on gun laws they only have foodstuffs to fight with, and there will be no school shootings. Sounds rational enough to me...

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