What tell you masacres like Virginia Tech and Columbine about the American Society?

It could happen anywhere there are psychotic people.





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Wait- are you suggesting there are not psychotic people in other countries? You never asked me to cite examples from other countries... you asked what these massacres tell me about American Society. I am of the opinion that anywhere there are mentally unstable people- there is a potential for this kind of violence.

What tell you masacres like Virginia Tech and Columbine about the American Society?
learn english if u wnat to bash america.
Reply:Foreigners should not be allowed to own guns, and teenagers should be better controlled by their parents.
Reply:No worse than what is going on in the rest of the world too.





Nigeria: 25 militants killed in fighting


POSTED: 12:44 p.m. EDT, April 18, 2007





20 die in Rio as drug gangs battle police


POSTED: 8:47 p.m. EDT, April 17, 2007





Web claim: 20 Iraq security forces executed


POSTED: 1:54 p.m. EDT, April 17, 2007





Iraq orders arrest of top Army officer after deadly attacks


POSTED: 10:05 p.m. EDT, April 18, 2007


An Iraqi army brigade commander was arrested Wednesday night after a string of bombings that killed nearly 200 people around Baghdad, most of them in a single attack at a central marketplace, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office announced.





Monsters are going to kill.... they dont care where or who.





Yes I know they are.. I am just saying things are not Just about American Society. Its the world too.





I know that one of the first things I heard was the worst in US history. I was not thinking of History but of people. I am just pointing out that its not just America that has mass murder. One person or many. Its all wrong.
Reply:Not much, honestly. We are a country of 300 million people. You are citing two spectacular incidents that happened nearly eight years apart. I know there have been other, smaller incidents, but considering everything--I really don't think these incidents tell you much about "American Society."





Here is something that I think tells you a LOT about American society. Approximately 400,000 American die each year as a result of using tobacco products. This represents 20% of all deaths in the U.S. per year. (And think about it. This kind of death is slow. Although "only" 400,000 die in a given year, hundreds of thousands more are also in the process of dying.) We know this. We know what to do about it, as a nation and as individuals. But we don't. Instead we spend time and money worrying about and dying over things that kill far fewer people. Do the math: tobacco kills as many Americans every 3 days as died in 9-11. We worry about the spectacular and ignore the mundanely horrible.





Edited addition: Be wary of people talking about how much worse things are now than in the "good old days." I wonder how many people alive in the U.S. today had ever heard of Charles Whitman before this week? (He held the previous "record" for killings on a college campus: 15--while injuring another 31. He did this 40 years ago, in 1966.)





One writer in particular talks about "thirty years ago" as if it were a significantly safer time. I was going to college and graduate school then, and let me assure you: there was plenty of horror to keep you awake at night. Ted Bundy (1974-78), David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") late 70's, John Wayne Gacy (1972-1978), Wayne Williams (1979-1981), "the Hillside Strangler" (actually two men, 1979-79), and Henry Lee Lucas (1976-1983) were just some of the serial killers active all at the same time. I actually think there was more fear at that time than there is now. The killing was done on a one-by-one basis, usually, but that just made it all the more frightening. What does that tell you about life "thirty years ago"?





And forty years ago? If you didn't have Whitman, or Charles Manson and his "family," you had the Boston Strangler and Richard Speck. Not to mention the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, all within a five year time span. There have been bad things for a long time.
Reply:that its sick and medicated.
Reply:The conventional wisdom is that something is wrong with America because of us having the Second Amendment guaranteeing Americans the right to gun ownership. The conventional wisdom is wrong.





In Switzerland, one is actually required to own a gun. I am not sure if it is a household that is required or each adult, but at the very least, it is each household. To not own a gun is against the law. Yet, we don't hear about shootings in Switzerland, do we?





A 100 years ago, people probably had more guns than they do now, but we didn't see shooting sprees, did we?





So why do we now?





There is a problem with the culture, but it is more of a breakdown of values like personal responsibility than it is of individual gun ownership.





For example, which group is more likely to be a victim of gun violence, blacks or whites? The answer is blacks. Who is more likely to be the perpetrator in gun violence, blacks or whites. The answer is blacks, once again.





This wasn't the case, here. But, the contrast between a homogenous nation like Switzerland and a nation of disparate groups and individuals like the United States, spanning different ethnicities, socioeconomic stata, cultural attitudes, and so on, there will inevitably be clashes between groups and individuals and alienation on a level different than a nation like Switzerland.





What makes our nation great is what also contributes to gun violence, to a certain extent. This was the point that Charlton Heston probably was trying to make in Michael Moore's film "Bowling for Columbine," even though Moore tried to make Heston look like a racist. Heston was out there marching for civil rights in the 50's and 60's when it wasn't a trendy thing to do, so Michael Moore's insinuations are ludicrous, if not libelous.





30 years ago, there weren't school shootings on any substantive level. So what changed? Breakdown in family structure, a glorification of violence in the media, whether film or video games or what not, a notion that persons are entitled to happiness in this world, and other reasons may in part or in whole be reasons for things like this. Or they may not be.





But, something has changed in the past 30 years or so that has helped to spur this on. Absent changing those factors involved, these will continue.





But, it isn't the Second Amendment that is the problem since it has been with us for over 200 years.





And it must be said, that this kid gave warning after warning and nothing was done. Certainly, there are laws which are there to protect individuals. A person can have mental problems and clear those up and to tar them with their problems for the rest of their lives would be an inhibiting factor from their seeking help. Still, further review of the school's policy, laws respecting individual privacy, and so on, should be examined.





I read somewhere that in the past, schools were considered the parent in absentia. That is, schools were there to provide authority and structure and not merely be a place for kids to go and be mere individuals getting away from their parents. Instead of treating school as a place to become adults, almost all at once, and instead of the school acting as some disinterested party, and just being some indifferent place, allowing the students to do almost anything, the schools set limits and rules, much like the students parents did before they attended college.





I think there is some merit to that. But, almost all college students don't do these things, so perhaps it is also a canard. Then again, thirty years ago, there were far less of these incidents, and chances are students were happier, as well.





Clearly this student wasn't. The school knew, but either because it was forbidden to do so or they simply did not care enough, they did very little.





It also may very well be that nothing could have been done to prevent this.





The one commonality of all these incidents is something wrong with an individual, that should involve the family itself reflecting upon their failings. Even with Columbine, there were individuals who should have been recognized as very disturbed, but their families saw nothing. And with this kid here, it seems the families saw nothing.





Maybe there was nothing to see, but I truly doubt that.





And maybe that is why there weren't shootings all the time 30, 50, or a 100 years ago. Families were more stable, even if they didn't practice the lovey-dovey new age psychobabble stuff spouted on Oprah. It seemed that families for millenia did pretty much OK. It seems also that the shootings took off when the new age psychobabble took over.





It may also be that families in the past took a responsible attitude towards gun ownership, whereas families now often never even own a gun. In the past, people had a connection to the gun, recognizing it as a tool to hunt, to protect, to engage in sport. People now often look upon it as something that must be kept out of sight.





Since they don't deal with guns, they don't teach any responsibility either.





And so, this happens.
Reply:That we love guns more than people. Also, that we're crazy! Canada has just as many guns and gun owners per capita and hardly shooting deaths! I believe in guns wholeheartedly; for sane, law-abiding, U.S citizens!!!
Reply:clearly evil and weak minded violent hateful mixed up societies headed for hell.
Reply:It tells me the people are going to school to shoot up people not the learn how to write sentences.





"what tell you"





What the hell?
Reply:It tells you that young people live in at times a hostile enviornment at school. I mean Cho was talking how "you forced me to do this, im not going to run anymore" it sounds like he was bullied a lot in maybe high school? which also explains him in college not talking to anyone, not even aknowledging when they say hi to him. and i saw the interview with a suitemate of Cho's, and he said that he never talked to them, not even a Hi when they would say hi to him. I cant stand not talking even if its for 5 minutes. Imagine a year or so of him not talking to anyone. Things build up. The kid is completly physcotic, but definitely had some problems that no one helped him on which is sad....but shame on those who have provoked him, but he clearly was mentally unstable to face the bullying.
Reply:That you enjoyed hearing about the tragedy.
Reply:it tells me your grammer is off,as for the American society,there is always going to be a sicko out there wanting to be famous,watch and see if the gun laws get changed here real soon,there's always one bad apple who spoils the bunch and the more that sick video is shown on tv the higher the chances are of it happening again.GOD BLESS THE USA and the FAMILIES OF THE 33 who lost their LIVES to a mentally unstable person.HEAVEN HELP HIS PARENTS FIND PEACE.
Reply:What tell you? What would you like to say? Go ahead, let's hear the propoganda that you have been fed. There is no other country I would rather live in, with the freedoms, the pride we have, the democracy, and the safety that we feel and experience in our normal day to day lives. The reason that this is a tragedy, is because it DOES NOT happen all the time. We live in a very populated society, and much larger populations have their crazies. We learn and we change from tragedies like this and we move forward. Your question infers a lot and it is highly inappropriate when this nation is suffering in unity at this huge loss of wonderful souls and great minds. The prayers and the compassion this whole country has felt and expressed, pulling together in unity, shows you a lot more about our American Society than the killings ever could. It's only a shame that you do not know this or have never experienced this kind of American thread of belonging to one big family. We become stronger and we become better.
Reply:Crazy people + easier access to guns than anywhere else + reference point(previous shootings blasted everywhere on the news).

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