(no subject)

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

I will be the first to admit that I'm desensitized to the VA shootings as I am to everything else.

Comments

[elbowmedic.livejournal.com]

its sad to say that i am too. people get upset when it but don't take the steps to prevent things like this, how many school shootings have there been in the last decade. and all of them seem to say the same about the shooters quiet kids who get pick on alot that no one really knows to much about. i haven't heard anything on the manifesto he sent to nbc this morning,i'm just going by what i had heard on wcbs these past few days.

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I don't think there's anything that could have been done to prevent this either, short of him getting counseling or people just being nice to each other.

It's one of the costs to living in a free society.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

it's been said often in this case that people tried to get him to talk and were friendly to him and he was unresponsive. being nice isn't going to change the fact that he believed he was the next jesus christ. /:

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

Maybe it wouldn't have helped in this case, but it may have in other school shootings.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

possibly, but i tend to think most people who do these acts have much deeper issues than people not being friendly. i don't think we can't change society in order to tiptoe around offending people who may already be mentally unstable.

[lyndz.livejournal.com]

I don't think not being a dick qualifies as tiptoing.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

haha, well, i definitely agree. but who knows what might be viewed as insulting to someone unstable. i mean, in this case, the guy seemed personally offended by other people choosing to drink or having money.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

judging by the tape, this kid wasn't picked on 'til this happened, he was mentally ill. he claims to be the next jesus christ. people like to blame the situation but lots of people get teased or harrassed or picked on and turn out reasonably fine, it's not the reason for their actions. it seems here the people who were weirded out by the guy had a legitimate reason. i can't decide in a lot of cases whether it's backwards and the reason the kid was picked on was because something was wrong with him . . . not an excuse for teasing, but possible.

sorry for the babbling.

[hazardous-filth.livejournal.com]

people like to blame the situation but lots of people get teased or harrassed or picked on and turn out reasonably fine, it's not the reason for their actions.

Yes but lot's of those people who have been severely teased and harassed, have made plans to do such things, just haven't had the chance to do so or didn't want to die/spend life in jail as they optomistically looked to life after secondary school as being better. A whole bunch of people just below the threshold of doing such things.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

i understand that, i've seen the results of severe harassment in my sister and i wouldn't wish it on anyone. but i don't think it's helpful to blame the victims/harassers for a choice made by their target. the fact that people make plans and don't follow them isn't the same as going through with it. thinking about an act doesn't equal the act or even the capability of committing it. plus, in this case, it doesn't seem like he actually was teased.

[hazardous-filth.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying this case is a case of harassment, I was talking in general. I wouldn't blame victims, however in cases with harassers well yeah I would put the blame on the harassers and say they deserved it. You make someones life so bad they don't want to live anymore well you don't deserve to live either actually I'd advocate they be tortured to death however that isn't practical from a gunmans point.

Thinking about an act and completely seriously thinking about/planning an act are two different things, the difference between the second one and commiting it, is pretty minor. A significant percentage of guys severely harassed will have put time and effort in calculating how they would do it or even making some of the explosives. I don't really know about what girls do as haven't known many who have been so severely harassed, but suicide/self-harm seems to be more the goer in the cases I've come across.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

Agreed on pretty much all points. And I wasn't seeing the distinction between thinking and planning in your comment. My sister definitely got to the point of PTSD and thoughts of self-harm/suicide. It's a terrible world sometimes. Her harassment occurred when she was in third grade by eighth graders (including her teacher's son) who threatened both her and our cat (something she loved more than most people she knew). The school called it "teasing" and wound up kicking her out for her resulting behavioral issues. /:

[hazardous-filth.livejournal.com]

Wow, I can't believe they consider teasing something unimportant and to be swept aside. Over here even the lower end of the spectrum, of teasing, would have been treated quite seriously. I remember in Form One (about 11yrs old) our class had a talking to as one girl had been left out by the majority of the class/teased due to her being quite fancy/proper/upper-class-like and having the ease target of the last name Mole. I remember she asked out a couple of boys, including myself, that were the smartest from our class but got turned down by all as though she was quite pretty everyone was scared of being teased more, especially since no one really had b/f or g/fs yet.

Anyways, generally no one ever went to teachers due to fear it would be made worse by angering the harasser/make you look like more of a loser/wimp/wuss.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my sister even went to the teacher whose son it was and she yelled at my sister for it. /:

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

That's awful :( I always worry about that when I have children in the future.

[datajana.livejournal.com]

Me too, and I was teased A LOT growing up.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I would bet you $5 that fewer than 100 people die a year from school shootings in this country. Certainly less than 200.

But then an entire WTC attack dies each month in automobile "accidents" and nobody says a thing. Alcohol, 85,000 deaths a year. Tobacco, 435,000. Where's the outrage? Where are the vigils? Why isn't anyone trying to prevent these things?

Oh, right. They're not good headlines. I forgot.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

But people do try to stop these things. Schools have warned and talked to students about alcohol, smoking and cars so many times. Half the schools I know have SADD chapters. TV is filled with ads against drinking and smoking.

There tends to be more sympathy, though, for victims of others' decisions rather than smokers and such who choose their cause of death (hence the vigils and memorials for those killed by drunk drivers and the like).