Gorgon

No, he was South Korean. And if you want to ban guns, why not ban fertilizer and bleach so IED's can't be made in car bombs? It's worse than any gun. Ever considered maybe finding some more healthy hobbies in light of whats happened ?

I can't quote any studies on the subject but it seems to me that most of the individuals engaged in these acts in teh past have given many years notice that they were as barmy as a box of balm. If your objective is to stop gun-armed loons then irrespective of the general laws on firearms would it not be sensible to have some cross-checking against a well-prepared database of crackpots? Woud it not also be a wise plan to go further and to ensure better provision of better quality _borderline_ nut-care? Indeed, but what are you going to do practically ?. The only thing that would stop a potential nut case is incarceration. Psychology teaches us that certain people are a greater risk factor than others, but we can't jail people for what we think they might do, correct me if i'm wrong, gun laws in the US already prohibit you from owning a gun if you have a diagnosed serious mental disorder. If society is completely saturated with firearms it makes it that much easier for anyone to get one. If I wanted a pistol I would know who to ask, but it's doubtful that he would be able to come through, and even then the cost would be astronomical. He didn't bring the gun with him on the plane from China though.

All other things being equal, if a violent psychopat lacks lethal weaponry he isen't going to kill 30 people. Premeditaition and planning doesen't make any difference to the issue at hand, like I said, they don't sell dynamite or ammonium nitrate to just anyone for a reason. You can't be the thought police and try to get into the head of every budding psychopath, it's a ludicrous proposition, and merely turning the issue aside with the age old clishe 'guns don't kill people', it just seems so incredibly inadequate.

I think there was a proposal for legislation like that in Germany, don't think anything came of it though.

I can't believe you would group video games and movie censurship with gun control, the first is patently stupid and doomed to fail, the second is a real world countermeasure against exactly this kind of violent crazy.

Would he now.... You can't buy dynamite or even amonium nitrate fertilizer in a store unless you have a valid use for them.

Maybe the memory of those killed deserve that we ask hard questions rather than tiptoe around. Anyway, i'm not running for office, it seems like common sense to me that not just anyone with a clean record is psychologically equipped to be allowed to own guns.

Care to enligthen us as to why your personal palate is against discussing whether it's smart to allow Joe Public access to guns. It looks deceptively like thats exactly what you are doing. The facts are, a man went on a rampage, with a gun, and killed a bunch of people. whatever follows isen't going to change that. If a psycho decides to go on a killing spree I would be mightily impressed if he managed to kill 23 people with a fork.

Language is full of nonsensical creations, and things that used to mean one thing but have alternate meanings, although I see your point. I never really considered what the 'propper' meaning was, just the sense that a one off doesen't mean that whatever, happens regularly.

Like I said, a figute of speech, those aren't always rational.

If something happens once it proves the rule that it doesen't happen. It's a figure of speech, or maybe it isen't in English, it is in Danish anyway.

Funny how universities always have bomb threats in the examination season, and never at the beginning of term. The bomb threat to actual bomb ratio also seems to be arounnd 100% to 0%

Yes. The exception proves the rule.

It's truely astonishing that these incidents never cause anyone to pause and consider whether a universal rigth to bear arms has any place in the 21st century. They circle every which way trying to come up with answers, but the truth is, these students are expendable if the choice is between the second amendment and lives.

Could be irony rather than racism, a type of social commentary, but this is Fox, the ad dollars are squarely aimed at the true red white and blue.

84, pretty good run.

I much prefer getting pancaked or carwrecked to clambering down for the night with water in my lungs surrounded by 200 icicled mid life crisis'

What on earth posesses people to climb Everest , the mountanside and the dead zone, the last stretch before the summit, are littered with over 200 dead, some clearly visible to the climbing paths. You stand a good chance of losing at least a couple of toes, worse case your feet. There have been many reports of people leaving other climbers to their deaths so they could reach the summit. There a queues of people all cluttering around the dead zone creating traffic jams, and there is no guarantee that you can get off before frosbite sets in. Buy a ****ing porshe instead morons.

Ohh I also hate ingrown toenails and board royalty when you register at a new forum. Nothing quite so anoying as a guy with 10.000 post telling you how it is.

The quislings are back in force to do the bidding of the powers that be.

However it fails because of weakness of humanity I would say it fails because a ruling elite has to decide, with complete authority, what is best for everyone else. The fact that such supposedly benevolent systems of government have proven themselves to be unteable is a testament to the strength of human nature, not it's failings.

Isen't China more a look at the past of Capitalism, the kind of unregulated marketplace with many human victims. Babies who die of malnutrition because baby milk subsitutite is an unlicenced copy of a name brand.

It's the 'american syndrome'. Over here you can actually get a good hour or more of quality tv with no commercial breaks from a TV show, think inspector Morse. Thats just not possible for the american market. everything moves too fast and takes shortcuts, including the story. If the show had time to breathe ,episodism, if there is such a word, would not be a bad thing. I much prefer two parters and one offs to plowing straight ahead 200 episodes in a row. If you don't take time to close chapters you wind up with LOST, with a huge ball and chain of a plotline and no one having any clear idea of what the show is about.

Please, can I have my Aliens over here and my Predators over there, and no more 'new and impoved' versions of the Alien queen.

No it's not the same as the Mohammed cartoons, with those several countries imposed trade sanctions and there were riots and embassies burned, all because of what one newspaper had decided to print. You know how they say that freedom of speech is not a licence to insult and provoke, well thats baloney, if you cut through all the rethoric and have to define freedom of speech, thats exactly what it is, and thank god there are still artists who still use it and haven't been entirely cowered by fear of lawsuits. As for the victims of the provocations, well, they just need to grow thicker skin and stop taking themselves so seriously.