US shoppers killed in gun rampage

[Tale]

I wouldn't be surprised if it could be linked to the media exposure more than anything else. Take a look at this guy, he wanted to be famous. I've heard that after the reports of Marilyn Munroe's suicide, suicide rates went up. People hear about it on TV and it becomes a romantic notion, they want to do it too.

 

What is relatedly sad is that after saying that I feel the need to qualify what I'm saying. I'm not saying to ban television, media, or the spread of information on horrifying or culturally unpleasant activity. Though many will take it as though I am. People are amazingly defensive. I'm also not blaming media for violence. Nor am I blaming Marilyn Munroe for suicide.

Edited December 6, 2007 by Tale

[Nick_i_am]

In a mall you say?

 

Here's hoping they don't find a copy of Dead Rising on him.

[Sand]

In the way today's society is I am surprise that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. People snap and when they do, they go on a killing spree or curl up in catatonic state. Just how things go.

[thepixiesrock]

In the way today's society is I am surprise that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. People snap and when they do, they go on a killing spree or curl up in catatonic state. Just how things go.

 

I think the worst thing we could do is to just over simplify things by saying "Just how things go." and accepting it as an inevitability.

[astr0creep]

Did he drop l00t?

[Lyric Suite]

OK. But as rare as this kind of thing is in the US today, it was just unheard of fifteen years ago. In the US at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman

41 years ago (definitely more than 15), this man shot and killed 14 and wounded 31 others at the University of Texas at Austin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_related_attacks 1st entry

116 years ago (also definitely more than 15), a man fired a shotgun into students at a playground

 

I love how the number of shooting keeps multiplying as time goes on. There's almost 30 years of gab between each of the early shootings but how many did we have in the past 10 years alone?

[Tale]

I love how the number of shooting keeps multiplying as time goes on. There's almost 30 years of gab between each of the early shootings but how many did we have in the past 10 years alone?

 

The further you go back, the less likely they are to have it listed. Not to say that there hasn't been an increase, but the list is not to be considered comprehensive.

 

Edited to avoid trying to make claims that I'll actually have to back up at some point.

Edited December 6, 2007 by Tale

[Gorgon]

^Maybe its just straight statistical probability? The more people there are, the more likely X event happens?

Or that everyone has a cell phone camera which makes headlines out of bylines, especially if theres gore and sorrow.

[Humodour]

In the way today's society is I am surprise that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. People snap and when they do, they go on a killing spree or curl up in catatonic state. Just how things go.

 

I think the worst thing we could do is to just over simplify things by saying "Just how things go." and accepting it as an inevitability.

 

Yeah, but don't worry. Sand says that about everything - that's also how he responded to the human rights abuse of women in some countries.

[Dark_Raven]

It is the nature of being human. s*** happens.

[samm]

True, **** happens all the time. That's why I try to prevent as much of it from happening as possible

[mkreku]

It is the nature of being human. s*** happens.

Actually, guns are not part of the human anatomy.

 

[/End Free Lesson]

[Dark_Raven]

It is the nature of being human. s*** happens.

Actually, guns are not part of the human anatomy.

 

[/End Free Lesson]

People kill people, a gun is nothing more than a tool like a hammer or a knife.

[Tale]

It is the nature of being human. s*** happens.

Actually, guns are not part of the human anatomy.

 

[/End Free Lesson]

People kill people, a gun is nothing more than a tool like a hammer or a knife.

Yes, but we can't ignore the fact that it's far more efficient. Otherwise the standard weapon issued to soldiers would be hammers and knives. They're a lot cheaper than M16s and M4s.

[Dark_Raven]

Our current society and the trash media create scum like this.

 

One of his suicide letters said something along the lines, "I want to be famous". Why is that, because of the trash media that reports this stuff. They prefer to report something like than something positive.

 

Broken families, most of the time, produce broken offspring.

 

If the world was so ****ed up, this bastard should have just offed himself instead of taking down people he didn't know who were going about their own business. Christ you can't even go down to the ****ing store any more without worrying about some dumb ass snapping.

[Tale]

You strike me less as a person to worry about someone else snapping and more as someone who I would be worried is about to snap.

[thepixiesrock]

You're playing into her hand, Tale.

[Meshugger]

We're not that far from the 'Natural Born Killers'-scenario people, just you wait....

[Walsingham]

I saw this on the day in history.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/s...000/2536661.stm

 

You want to be famous, and get killed? Save a life, don't take it.

[Dark_Raven]

We're not that far from the 'Natural Born Killers'-scenario people, just you wait....

We're already there.

[thepixiesrock]

No we're not.

[Dark_Raven]

That we are little one, that we are.

[thepixiesrock]

Yeah, that we're not!

 

Eat that burnsauce.

[Dark_Raven]

I'll not you!

[Azarkon]

I blame the forces that made the Columbine shooters famous, and so inspired a legion of wannabes.