Another VA Thread

[varkam]

I was watching the news today when I heard about the tragedy, as I imagine most people were, and I started to think when the anchor asked a (in my mind) stupid question. The question was something to the effect of "Can we ever stop school shootings, or are we just going to have to resign ourselves to the fact that such events will happen?" Unfortunate as it may be, it's pretty clear that such events will happen regardless of what we do to prevent them.

I'm not trying to be flippant about what happened, please believe that. I'm just predicting that, over the coming weeks, the talking heads are going to be musing about what we can do to tighten things up around schools to keep guns out. More metal detectors. More police officers. Tougher gun laws. More pat downs. More scrutiny. I might even hear an argument for arming a teacher or two. I know what I won't hear anything about though - the problem.

As gruesomely horrific as today was, I think perhaps the even bigger tragedy is that while we know plenty about possible solutions, we know nothing about the actual problem. No matter how many security measures you put in place, no matter how many more police officers are put on the payroll, no matter how many more bills are passed to tighten gun control, it won't actually fix anything. It's all a pill, not a cure. If some deranged individual is determined to get a gun and go out and murder random strangers, then that is what they are going to do.

I don't know much about what the problem is myself, but I know it's not a lack of metal detectors.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. I don't either. But we just had on one campus...

>>>I don't know much about what the problem is myself, but I know it's not a lack of metal detectors.>>>

in one town on one day about one-half as many gun homicides as will occur in the UK in one *year*.

I'm not sure what that means but it means *something*.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. This happened at Cal State Fullerton in 1976. 7 people were

murdered in the library by a crazy janitor carrying a .22 rifle. This shit has been going on for a long time and will continue as long a people have access to guns.

[Bucky]

3. I'm having an even more horrible thought. What if it's not "a problem"?

What if it's just the way we are? I don't want to think about that, frankly. I want to keep on thinking about Baghdad as an aberration rather than an exaggeration.

I really hate this day.