I realize many people are looking for answers today.....

[Liberal Veteran]

Well, I don't have any for you.

I do have one piece of advice: Don't be so crass as to think that this is a good excuse to get up on a soapbox and expound upon your own prejudices.

It is opportunistic to leap on this tragedy today to push an agenda when NO ONE knows the whole story here.

So far, in perusing the board, I've seen:

1) Lack of gun control blamed

2) Too much gun control blamed

3) The pharmaceutical industry blamed

4) The Bush administration blamed

5) Violence in the media/movies blamed

6) Too much freedom blamed

7) Not enough freedom blamed

8) The police blamed

and so on and so on.

It's just too soon and not enough facts are in for anyone to linking this horrible event with their own personal agenda.

Right now our thoughts should be with the victims and their families, not how to twist this into a platform. There will be plenty of time for "I told you so" and recriminations when we have REAL facts.

[WindRavenX]

1. fucking word

:thumbsup:

[northofdenali]

2. Perfectly said, Liberal Vet

Thank you. :kick: and rec

[Straight Shooter]

3. I blame the shooter. n/t

[realisticphish]

6. Precisely

are there social causes? Probably. But we grew up in the same society, and none of us have slaughtered classmates.

[The Doctor.]

17. Well... there was this ONE time, at Math Camp...

Seriously though; that really is the heart of it. Society is not perfect and many are treated unjustly, but I've chosen to accept that and do what I can to get past such things. There are people that are treated less fairly than I have been, and it is difficult to imagine that I could 'let it go' if I were in their shoes. But I do know one thing...

I wouldn't take it out on innocent people, that would only create more despair and rage.

...but that Quantum Mechanics Counselor had it coming!

[GenDem]

4. K & R

:kick:

[gravity]

5. Shit happens

I don't think anything is really to blame other than the shooter. In this country, I think we just look for something to blame, so that we can 'fix' the problem and feel safe again, instead of realizing the fact that we can never be 100% secure.

[greyghost]

8. Exactly...

what got us mired in Iraq.

The soccer moms who voted for Chimpy wanted to feel safe.

Welcome to reality, no one is safe.

[Warpy]

7. There are only two logical points

Once in a while, crazy people act out.

Shit happens.

As much as we'd like to find other factors out there to blame so we could change them so it would never happen again, we really can't.

I did suggest making guns a little slower to reload so that their self defense capacity would be preserved while their capacity for mass murder would be diminished, but that's all I could think of that might have reduced the death toll. Those enormous magazines should be restricted to the military and the cops.

Other than that, I can't second guess anything that would have prevented the carnage today. The guy's fingerprints came up clean. There was apparently not much to distinguish from anyone else on campus until he flipped out.

[tblue]

9. I see your point. But some of us just want this never to happen again and are looking for a way

to make it stop. You're right. There are not enough facts yet. But a gun was used and many people died. This doesn't happen in countries that have truly strict gun laws.

[greyghost]

12. Wrong...

it happens EVERYWHERE.

The UK has the strictest hand gun laws on the planet, so they use rifles and shot guns and illegal hand guns.

[tblue]

14. They had a massacre like this?

[Jack_DeLeon]

25. If you died...

in a massacre or alone would you care?

A friend and I were talking over the weekend about the Olympic bombing in Atlanta. He said he didnt remember it much, another friend said yeah only one person died. To which I said, yeah it wasnt a big deal, unless ofcourse you were the one who died.

No one can truely be safe, in the end we all die somehow.

[Mojorabbit]

13. Pleeze

did you not read what the op said? I have a ton of guns and never have had the thought of going out and killing a bunch of people. It was a disturbed individual. He prob would have used any methods available.
I am sad for his mental state. I am sad for the victims and their families. I am appalled at those who would use this to advance any agenda. Any security we have as mammals with some form of consciousness is an illusion.

[tblue]

16. Deleting my comment. I'm just sorrowful today. Y'all be cool.

[The Doctor.]

18. The disturbed and dejected individual does not think "Hey,

I should kill the people I don't like because I can get a gun."

He thinks, "How can I get back at them?", first.

Then he finds the means.

It's very rare for someone to decide to kill because they have a gun.

[Midlodemocrat]

22. Yes, you are right. But some members of this board

are trying to make others here look like the loony left.

It's too early for tin foil hats. Let's let the dust settle.

[depakid]

10. The pharmaceutical industry blamed?

I hadn't seen that one yet!

[KittyWampus]

11. Very wise, K&R. Glad I stayed off the computer today.

[Miss Chybil]

15. You're right.

We are all so sad. And the realization we truly have no way to protect ourselves from someone who deviates so far from societal norms makes us angry. We want something, or someone to blame, when in essence the only person there is to blame is the guy who pulled the trigger, over and over and over again.

I was sitting here happy my son is home from Afghanistan. Home in the US where he will be safe. That illusion has been shattered, once again.

[bigwillq]

19. Great post!

:thumbsup:

[Morgana LaFey]

20. Oh, good.

A lecture.

Exactly what we need.

[HeeBGBz]

21. Has anyone blamed the relentless wind yet?

You can add that one.

[OneBlueSky]

23. "all of the above" . . . there's no single cause that can be isolated from the overall context . .

it's what we've allowed our society to become . . . it's what we value in life, and what we feel free to ignore . . . every one of the causes you enumerate is part of the problem . . .

we have a choice . . . we can continue what we've been doing, and watch both nature and civilization collapse around us . . . or we can fundamentally change everything about this sick society, from the concentration of wealth to the effects of the negative energy streamed at us from every source, 24/7, to recognizing the interconnectedness we share with each other and with every creature on the planet . . . we can affirm peace, justice, and compassion as the preferred foundations of our society, and work to advance them in all that we do . . .

under the very deliberate guidance of the corporate media and the power elite, we continue to ignore our common humanity to focus instead on that which divides us . . . if we don't change that pattern, and soon, it will soon be too late to save ourselves, our species, and the diversity of life forms that makes up this wondrous planet . . .

more simply, we MUST stop fouling our own nest and look to the needs of all rather than the wants of a few . . .

[Jack_DeLeon]

24. Any of us could die tomorrow...

in a car crash.

Incidents like this are no reason to live your life in fear.