Text 92, 110 rader
Skriven 2007-04-21 16:11:45 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
     Kommentar till en text av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Shootings
=================
20 Apr 07 08:36, Ward Dossche wrote to Jeff Smith:


 JS>> Again, people having guns is not the problem.

 WD> What so far has never been explained is why this type of shootings
 WD> seems to be a near US-monopoly.

It isn't. But it's reported as a phenominum because of the differences in
mental attitude. i.e. easy access to guns vs no access to guns. There are
still shootings in the EU for instance, a place where guns have a very
restricted access.

 WD> In Europe there have been Dunblane 1996 and the Gutenberg School in
 WD> Erfurt 2002. I really cannot recall any other such incident here and
 WD> the press these days have not mentioned any other.

"Germany Reevaluates Gun Laws After School Shooting"

"Germany has some of the most strict firearms laws in the world. But a
school shooting this week raises the question of whether the Internet
presents a loophole for illegally acquiring weapons."

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2245918,00.html

November, 2006 wasn't that long ago. The interesting part is that the
shooter bought his weapon of choice off of the internet. They say that the
VT shooter did too, but I know he didn't get it shipped directly to his
home/dorm room. US Federal law requires that any firearm purchase goes
through a Federally licensed firearms dealer.

With the strictest gun laws in the world, how did the German student buy a
firearm on the internet and have it shipped to his home?

 WD> But in the US there are handfulls of such shooting-incidents and it's
 WD> only the major-ones which are reported about. Some rule perhaps if
 WD> there are 5 victims or less then it is "local" news.

Not really. A copycat shooter put a bullet into a co-worker and then
himself at the NASA space center in Houston, just two days after the VT
incident. It has been reported nation wide. Front page stuff too!

 WD> Only one death each time, but these are school shootings anyway. So,
 WD> how many do actually happen that are less dramatic than Virginia Tech
 WD> or that Amish school or Columbine or ..., but which happen anyway?

Not many...you just think there is. BTW, the last major school shooting on
the same level as VT, was in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado.

 WD> And the one constant is ... "USA".

Sure it is, if you're looking to make a case against freedom to possess
firearms in the USA...

 WD> So which sociological phenomenum (sp?) is it which makes people tick
 WD> that it happens so frequently overthere and not here? Why do people
 WD> so easily grab a gun?

That's a good question. When I was a kid of 12, I owned firearms. I had a
.22 rifle, a 12 gage shotgun and several pistols. I wasn't alone, as many
of my friends also owned firearms. One of my friends owned so many, I
could keep track. He did have one small revolver that I always wished I
had.

The point is, we had free access to firearms as pre-adolescents and we
never had a school shooting. Not even a backwoods shooting. The reason we
see it more these days is the mental attitude of our youngsters. When I
was a kid, people got shot in movies, but you didn't see any blood. Even
in war movies, there was no blood, they just fell or layed down and looked
dead. Today, there is more reality portrayed in everything kids do,
movies, video games, etc.. That's where they get the attitude we never had
as kids.

 WD> This is not a US-accusation, merely a "why" question.

There's the why...now, where's the solution? As a firearms owner, I cringe
every time there is a shooting like this, because in the aftermath, there
is always the repercussions that legislatures take to try and prevent the
next one.

They should be working on how to rid the media of the bloody looking
victims and the glory given the shooters.

 WD> If the question can be answered, then probably the problem can be
 WD> cured up to a certain extent because none of these people are settled
 WD> criminals.

Almost to a person, they are mentally ill or influenced by the movies and
games they play.

 WD> I'm leaving it to someone else to come-up with the obvious
 WD> conclusion.

 WD> On their 1997 album "Quintessentials", English punk band "UK Subs"
 WD> feature a song titled "Dunblane". The chorus goes as follows: "After
 WD> Dunblane, how can you hold a gun and say you're innocent?"

I'm holding my Colt .45 Government Model 1911A and, repeat after me:
I'm innocent.

 WD> Hmmmm ... I probably just gave-away the answer.

Actually, you probably gave us the cause...(c)rap music lyrics are
notoriously suggestive of violent reactions to every day problems.


                R\%/itt

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