DragonFireKai Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 If YOU were a killer, and you knew this was going to be your fate, wouldn't you try and go out with a bang (sorry the pun) like this? I certainly would, from a statistical standpoint, but I'm also not the person to kill a bunch of innocent students. No, and that's precisely why the cops and VT did what they did. If I had just killed two people, the first thing I'd do is put some distance between me and the crime scene, then go to ground for a little while until I can find a way to make it to Western Samoa. That's what most people would do. This is the first time that I can think of where a fugitive decided to come back and try to take more people with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire in the Hole Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Than you are no less a monster than he is. Clearly Kamoh has snapped as well, and is no longer operating on the basic guiding principles of rationality, morality and ethics. We can expect slaughter from him in a couple of hours. (Or Kamoh just fails to comprehend how far outside those principles people like this guy have to be to do what they do, and doesn't realize how completely ridiculous it is to try to judge them and justify or demonize their action based on those principles--almost as ridiculous as thinking "what I would have done," because as Kamoh himself said, he as a normally functioning person wouldn't have shot two people in the first place.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamoh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Than you are no less a monster than he is. How? We as a society do NOT condone mass murder in any circumstance. What can we do, in a community that doesn't see this that often, but consider him to be an abberation, a psychotically murderous individual. Maybe the word "demonize" is too tough, but I don't feel any remorse for the shooter. Not only did he bring this on himself and 32 people who are now dead, but also on the entire world and killed our sense of community and security. No, and that's precisely why the cops and VT did what they did. If I had just killed two people, the first thing I'd do is put some distance between me and the crime scene, then go to ground for a little while until I can find a way to make it to Western Samoa. That's what most people would do. This is the first time that I can think of where a fugitive decided to come back and try to take more people with him. Western Samoa is NOT leaving the country, btw. *quick tension-relieving LOL for geography - W. Samoa also doesn't exist anymore* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xelebes Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Than you are no less a monster than he is. Shall we cage the monster for the rest of his life or are we the beasts for doing that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broken Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Kamoh, while I do understand and appreciate your sentiments, none of us really will ever know what the shooter was thinking (or if he was thinking clearly). We can speculate all we want (even with the facts that we are given) and we can be angry at the shooter for what he has done but none of that is going to bring back any of those who were killed and it will not help heal any of those who were wounded. All it does is create more discord between us who are mourning. I understand that people are appalled at what the shooter did and I do not condone his actions or attempt to sympathize with him or try to understand what he's done, but I think it's best to not focus all our attention on being angry at a dead man, but instead that we try our best to pay our repects to those affected and hopefully be able to move foward from this tragedy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonFireKai Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Western Samoa is NOT leaving the country, btw. *quick tension-relieving LOL for geography - W. Samoa also doesn't exist anymore* eh, it's called Samoa now. NOT American Samoa, and we stil don't have an extradition treaty with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamoh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Shall we cage the monster for the rest of his life or are we the beasts for doing that? They tried that for two months, remember? How do you think I wasn't complaining about the taskbar? NOTE: I AM a Media Studies student (my major is Radio/TV/Film, but a lot of mass communications and journalism issues come into play here), so when I see EVERYONE in a conversation saying the same clichéd statements (like it is for the most part here), I want to shake things up a bit - I'm going to be towing the party line for most of my life, and I personally think that controversy sparks conversation and interest. In essence, I want you to grow a brain, because most of my career is going to be about making sheep out of the masses and I'd like a challenge once in a while. DFK, thanks for calling me out on that one cause I knew I was either right or wrong about American Samoa. Broken, I still have the jaw-drop effect going on (see my earlier posts too), but I think that I've just gone on to one step of tragedy while most everyone else is on a different one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkwing Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I was at work all day following this and i managed to get some inside info on the events of the day because one of the guys that came in has a buddy at VT. 7:15 - One girl and one guy shot in their dorm rooms. Gunman disappears. Cops show up to investigate, classes are not canceled at this point. 9:15 - Shooting academic side, 31 killed plus gunman commits suicide putting toll to 33. Classes are canceled at this point. 10:15 - S.W.A.T. is FINALLY called in 1 hour after the second incident. We came to the conclusion at work that the only reason the cops and school officials kept saying they did not believe to two incidents were connected is because they needed to cover up their inaction with not canceling classes and calling S.W.A.T. after the first shooting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz the Cat Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I simply don't care. This doesn't involve me or my family in any way, therefore it's simply 'an event'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atmuh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I simply don't care. This doesn't involve me or my family in any way, therefore it's simply 'an event'. do you go to college? do you go to school? are there other kids there? guess what it does this is a SCHOOL shooting so it should care anyone who goes to SCHOOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamoh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I was at work all day following this and i managed to get some inside info on the events of the day because one of the guys that came in has a buddy at VT.7:15 - One girl and one guy shot in their dorm rooms. Gunman disappears. Cops show up to investigate, classes are not canceled at this point. 9:15 - Shooting academic side, 31 killed plus gunman commits suicide putting toll to 33. Classes are canceled at this point. 10:15 - S.W.A.T. is FINALLY called in 1 hour after the second incident. We came to the conclusion at work that the only reason the cops and school officials kept saying they did not believe to two incidents were connected is because they needed to cover up their inaction with not canceling classes and calling S.W.A.T. after the first shooting. I personally don't think that VT was inactive about the first shooting. Two people get shot in the room of one of them all the time - it's a domestic dispute, and for them to say so and to say that it was an isolated incident makes sense to me. The cops were called, an investigation had to be started, and that's that. Double homicide is bad, but the impending process by the police is, across the nation, fairly routine and set in stone. They could never have considered that he would come back to kill 30 more people, so they figured that, based on the situation, while tragic, it didn't merit cancelling classes in a school that we know now has a problem with alerting students to danger (my school would be in the same boat). I can even excuse SWAT for an hour. It probably took school officials 20 minutes to figure out what was going on, the police 20 minutes to get there in force, and 20 minutes for SWAT to arrive after the call to bring them in was made. I also believe that the two shootings were only loosely connected. Same shooter, same weapons, same general location, yes. Motive changed. The first two were in pain, for revenge. Then he realized what he had done, that he wasn't going to escape, he couldn't live on the run forever. The massacre was about numbers, IMO. 32-for-1, and that, I hate to admit, makes a lot of sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz the Cat Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Why do I have to automatically care any time something bad happens? To do so would be, at best, dishonest. As they are not family, friends, or known to me, to pretend to care is no better than lying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfoot Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Selfish is what it sounds like. Maybe a "Wow, that sucks for what happened to the students over there". Anyway, I can't believe Fox interviewed JT. So lame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz the Cat Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 When you're all you have, you go with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitsuta Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I'm really late, but I heard about this tonight just before dinner. At this point I'm too tired to say anything terribly profound, but I'm glad the two on OCR are okay. Arek, feel better, yah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 I simply don't care. This doesn't involve me or my family in any way, therefore it's simply 'an event'. So uh, don't bother posting in the thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMage Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Why do I have to automatically care any time something bad happens? To do so would be, at best, dishonest. As they are not family, friends, or known to me, to pretend to care is no better than lying. Oh? So those little white lies that everyone tells, that keep society otherwise functioning because you can't always tell your boss he looks like a dick with that hat on, these things shouldn't happen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamoh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 tell your boss he looks like a dick with that hat on Blue: "I heard that, Dugan! You're outta here!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBoss Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 How? We as a society do NOT condone mass murder in any circumstance. What can we do, in a community that doesn't see this that often, but consider him to be an abberation, a psychotically murderous individual.Maybe the word "demonize" is too tough, but I don't feel any remorse for the shooter. Not only did he bring this on himself and 32 people who are now dead, but also on the entire world and killed our sense of community and security. Kamoh, while I do understand and appreciate your sentiments, none of us really will ever know what the shooter was thinking (or if he was thinking clearly). We can speculate all we want (even with the facts that we are given) and we can be angry at the shooter for what he has done but none of that is going to bring back any of those who were killed and it will not help heal any of those who were wounded. All it does is create more discord between us who are mourning. I understand that people are appalled at what the shooter did and I do not condone his actions or attempt to sympathize with him or try to understand what he's done, but I think it's best to not focus all our attention on being angry at a dead man, but instead that we try our best to pay our repects to those affected and hopefully be able to move foward from this tragedy. Pretty much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirChadlyOC Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Why do I have to automatically care any time something bad happens? To do so would be, at best, dishonest. As they are not family, friends, or known to me, to pretend to care is no better than lying. You should care because you are a human being. Those who died were also human beings. Although it may not have directly affected you, it affected many people who may be just like you. As stated previously, this sort of thing could have happened anywhere, and just because it didn't happen to you or anyone you know doesn't mean that it never will or never could have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfoot Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 They're showing a website on Fox News now that may be the shooter. They found posts of him writing something about him being sorry for killing all of his girlfriends. There's also many photos of him with many, many fire arms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mutericator Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Why do I have to automatically care any time something bad happens? To do so would be, at best, dishonest. As they are not family, friends, or known to me, to pretend to care is no better than lying. Ah, the denial of emotion and empathy. To be young and vain again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBoss Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 As stated previously, this sort of thing could have happened anywhere, and just because it didn't happen to you or anyone you know doesn't mean that it never will or never could have. Just because it could doesn't mean everyone should feel awful about it. By that logic, everyone should feel terrible and afraid every second of every day simply because they may get cancer someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunnowhathuh Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Just saw the story on the news. Friggin terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirChadlyOC Posted April 17, 2007 Share Posted April 17, 2007 Just because it could doesn't mean everyone should feel awful about it. By that logic, everyone should feel terrible and afraid every second of every day simply because they may get cancer someday. True. I'm just saying that things like this can help put things into perspective. Mainly, the perspective of "shit happens." Shit happens to good people all the time, and there's really not much we can do about it, yet we still shouldn't freak out and live anxiously as BigBoss has mentioned. It also helps us realize things like, "I guess today could've been worse, and maybe my life isn't so bad afterall." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.