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31 Dead at Virginia Tech


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The easy access to guns in the US has to stop or this type of tragedy will keep happening.

Didn't something similar just happen in Canada? Gun restrictions are nice but it's pretty tough to stop one individual hell bent on terror.

I agree with AD.

True. Canada does have it's own homegrown gun tragedies and school rampages but with dramatically less frequency the US. Seems in Canada we get one incident every 5 yrs or so and in the US it's every few months. I think it is directly correlated to gun access.

USA also has 10 times the population, and much more density. Probably has something to do with it, but I'm no demographer / sociologist / statistician.

Let's not detract from the tragedy today.

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so sad that we're accepting these events as a part of society nowadays

So true.

The shootings are part of a systemic sickness in western society( i use western becaues that's what I understand and where I live)-people are so hellbent on individuality, individual rights etc, getting their own, dwelling on their own wants and needs without weighing them against the greater human context.

Spilt seconds of emotional distress-hatred, whatever coupled with this idea that your own needs are predominant over other peoples, that your own ego and will come first plus a real devaluation of human life in general= violent acts like the shooting.

Gun control always comes up right away-it's a muddy issue. I'm English -and there I believe that gun violence actually increased as gun laws tightened.

It's more about the societal attitude towards value of life then it is about the laws.

As popular opinion responds to a frequency of problem a law is created. The law created enacts a penalty that socially stigmatizes (to an extent) the problem.

Thats a long way from effectively changing the causal factors for the problem.

But in the moment, the importance is 29 lives, with family, friends, lovers.

29 drops of water in the sea with many circles spreading out.

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actions of an individual

The actions of any individual are often paradoxically both unique AND generic. We all act uniquely as ourselves but also as a funnel for all the broader influences at play.

From a distance, without knowing the individual, it's easiest to start poking at the broader issues.

Usually we just instinctiveley want to know "why"-which we never can.

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But in the moment, the importance is 29 lives, with family, friends, lovers.

29 drops of water in the sea with many circles spreading out.

Amen, Allison. I think in the age of "infotainment" that we live in, it's all too easy to look a the number of people killed as a gauge of shock value, or a "score" of where to place this event in a historical context.

31 people.

31 sets of parents/friends/roomates/siblings etc. who have had someone close to them murdered. 31 human lives which are done. Over.

It's far too easy to get sucked into the sensationalism which always surrounds an event like this, and not think about the real toll it takes on individual people.

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sorry allison, but thats just arrogant bullsh!t

No need to be sorry.In what way though? They are just my thoughts on it-and it wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of being arrogant-but I'm seldom accused of being closeminded.

What is the arrogant part?

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i have no idea why would they hold class with gunman/person on the loose. someone along the way either lost complete perspective or had some real irratinal thinking.

From what I can gather so far, the first incident was considered a domestic situation and that might have played a part in the decision on how to handle things. But it blows me away that in such a fear stricken country even one campus death wouldn't be the reddest flag possible.

Edit to add: Obviously though I need more information before drawing any substantive conclusions.

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According to Dr. Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech, the administration locked down Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory after the first shooting. But classes weren't cancelled because it was believed to be a domestic dispute and campus police thought that the shooter had left the campus.

ABCNews.com

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But in the moment' date=' the importance is 29 lives, with family, friends, lovers.

29 drops of water in the sea with many circles spreading out.[/quote']

Amen, Allison. I think in the age of "infotainment" that we live in, it's all too easy to look a the number of people killed as a gauge of shock value, or a "score" of where to place this event in a historical context.

31 people.

31 sets of parents/friends/roomates/siblings etc. who have had someone close to them murdered. 31 human lives which are done. Over.

thank you Allison and Hart. This is the focus. this only.

there's a hole in someone's heart

where a loved one's memory lives

~Bruce Cockburn

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Is it just me, or does this shit seem to happen every three months or so? Its getting ridiculous.

very sad indead but someone has to act on this tradgey and gun control

why are these so called people walking around so freely with guns??

someone is responsible to see this stops but sad to say america is america

terrible

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The whole country has been going apeshit over here once it was announced that the shooter was South Korean. They can't understand how a Korean person could do something like this, because, you know, all Korean people are perfect. American culture must have fucked the guy up.

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he grew up in the states though

Apparently he moved there when he was eight. It doesn't matter though, because Koreans will consider you to be Korean rather than American even if the last ten generations of your family have lived exclusively in America. Blood, not location, is of the highest importance.

You should see the way that people here react to Americans of Korean descent (as opposed to Korean-American immigrants) who come here to visit or work. They are shocked by their "non-Korean-ness" and their deficient Korean (or non-existent) Korean language skills. When you point out to a Korean that the reason that these visitors aren't acting "Korean enough" because they are American not Korean, they will look at you like you are from another planet.

I think somke mono-ethnic nations have a hard time distinguishing between ethnicity, culture and nationality. This is especially true here in Korea, where thinking, acting, speaking, dressing or behaving differently from the herd will earn you censure.

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