ANOTHER School Shooting - 5 Dead

[Mad4stevie]

Alright I think I have had enough of these school shootings. They are happening more and more frequently. As a professor at a college, these shootings make me on edge. We have little to no Emergency Plan, and it would be a massacre if something like this happened at my school. Is anyone else in school (either as a student or faculty/staff member) worried about these things? Does your school have a workable Emergency Plan?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23171567/

[David]

I want to carry my handgun everywhere I go so that I don't feel like a duck in some sociopath's sights.

[Mad4stevie]

Yeah - I feel like I wanna get a gun, too.

My fears are not unfounded because who do they usually shoot first???

The teacher . . .

There are plenty of unstable "kids" that I have seen at our college, in fact some of them have written essays that are concerning to me. We had a kid that for all intensive purposes was so similar to the shooter from VA Tech that I was kinda scared to have this kid in my class. He wrote an essay in my class that was full of violence and contained statements that he felt so angry sometimes that he "literally could kill someone."

Frankly, it was little surprise to me when he was kicked out of school for terroristic threats the week of the VA Tech tragedy. He got mad school and told everyone in the class that there was gonna be "another VA Tech". At least he wasn't in my class when this happened.

[JazmenFlowers]

awful. what is going the **** on?!

I just read, too, that Fred Phelps's clan plans to protest the vigils because of the country's godlessness and tolerance of gays.

[skcin]

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

Alright I think I have had enough of these school shootings. They are happening more and more frequently. As a professor at a college, these shootings make me on edge. We have little to no Emergency Plan, and it would be a massacre if something like this happened at my school. Is anyone else in school (either as a student or faculty/staff member) worried about these things? Does your school have a workable Emergency Plan?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23171567/

The college I work at is still in the process of formulating their emergency plan. They're taking steps in the right direction, but they have a way to go. We do have emergency notifications via text message on our cells and email. But so did this school - it will warn others of the danger & tell them to stay inside, keep alert, etc. But it doesn't do anything for the people who are in the midst of the attack.

Our office is working on a safety plan, ordering silent panic buttons, etc. But really, there's only so much you can do.

[strandinthewind]

I am unsure if carrying a handgun would protect a person in this instance. The victims likely had very little time (a few seconds) before they were shot. That is not enough to get out the gun, take aim, and fire. The would help though if you were barricaded in a classroom and the gunman was trying to get in.

The thought, however, of allowing all students and teachers to have guns on them on campus is more than a little jarring and, IMO, problematic. Students, the lot of them, are usually tempermental. It goes with the age and territory.

In the end, I say again -- if you are going to some innocents because the world is unfair, etc. -- do us all a favor and kill yourself first.

[Chrislit18]

It's really sad, and frieghtning [thats not spelt right...] to see this happen. And with what Heather said about the student being mentally unstable as it was before he got kicked out of school, its almost as if you do have to worry everywhere these days. You never know about kids and what is going on in their brains. thats why when i see kids at school being tormented constantly i feel sorry for them, because someday something may go of in thier heads thinking that bringing a gun [or any other kind of weapon] to school and 'getting rid of thier problems' would help.

its so sad. and the thing is, that some of these kids who do this stuff ARE tormented constantly and this is the way the feel they can escape the stuff that is being said and possibly done to them.

but there is also cases [ie VA tech] where the kid was just mentally insane and felt it was 'his destiny' to kill so many innocent people.

My school [high school] policy for intruders [im guessing that shootings comes under this as well, i dont read the handbook] is that we stay in our classes, get bunched up in the corner away from the door, and if were all ok put a sign in the window. -.- we have NO plan, plus the windows dont even open up enough to jump out of. so were basically all dead if something happens.

I personally think they should be making it harder for people to get guns. i know theres the gun licence thing, but are the people getting the licences being mentally evaluated before...? even so, kids im sure are stealing them from people they know who have them.
its all such a racket.
But is such a shame to see things happen to innocent people

[David]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I am unsure if carrying a handgun would protect a person in this instance. The victims likely had very little time (a few seconds) before they were shot. That is not enough to get out the gun, take aim, and fire. The would help though if you were barricaded in a classroom and the gunman was trying to get in.

If I can pack my own blast, I have a fighting chance some of the time. Otherwise, I'm nothing more than a duck in some sociopath's sights. In fact, more of a wingless duck.

The thought, however, of allowing all students and teachers to have guns on them on campus is more than a little jarring and, IMO, problematic. Students, the lot of them, are usually tempermental. It goes with the age and territory.

So a temperamental student goes wacko & uses his gun to shoot up a classroom. In that case, we have ... err ... PRECISELY WHAT WE HAVE NOW!

(Except that in this case the victims would have a fighting chance.)

Besides, legally allowing guns on campus (or elsewhere) doesn't necessarily mean that literally everyone is going to pack. Aren't there many of you here who, even if you were legally allowed to do so, would not carry a gun around with you? It would make an interesting Ledge Poll: How many of you, if legally allowed to do so, would pack heat in your daily lives?

In the end, I say again -- if you are going to some innocents because the world is unfair, etc. -- do us all a favor and kill yourself first.

Well, gee, yeah. But I hope I'll win the Lotto someday too.

[David]

Originally Posted by Chrislit18

My school [high school] policy for intruders [im guessing that shootings comes under this as well, i dont read the handbook] is that we stay in our classes, get bunched up in the corner away from the door, and if were all ok put a sign in the window. -.- we have NO plan, plus the windows dont even open up enough to jump out of. so were basically all dead if something happens.

Quite probably.

I personally think they should be making it harder for people to get guns.

It's hard to get heroin too. But those who crave it manage somehow. Society is extremely porous.

But is such a shame to see things happen to innocent people

Yes, yes it is.

[shackin'up]

Aweful. Double aweful if people are going to carry guns to prevent it? Well, I'll keep my mouth shut further.

[Sarah]

There's not much of a solution to this... people are whack.

everyone just needs to smoke some weed and chill out.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by Sarah

There's not much of a solution to this... people are whack.

everyone just needs to smoke some weed and chill out.

Haha, if only it had that effect on everyone. I wig out!

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by David

. . . So a temperamental student goes wacko & uses his gun to shoot up a classroom. In that case, we have ... err ... PRECISELY WHAT WE HAVE NOW! . . . .

YEs, but I think it would happen more often. That, of course, is speculation. I knew people who lived on campus and had guns and they were lushes and crazies -- they never shot anyone. So, my theory likely is flawed.

In the end, if I thought banning al weapons would actually work, I'd be for it. But, there is no realistic way to get rid of all the handguns out there now and I do not want the police to be the only ones with guns

I do think that to own a handgun, you should have to do the following:

1. Present a photo ID and put that picture and your relevant information in some licensing government database somewhere - like you do for a driver's license - along with the background check stuff.

2. You ought to have to go down to some facility and fire the gun into a ballistic measurer and keep the bullett patterns on file. This will also ensure that you still have the gun.

3. You ought to have to go to jail for a year and pay a $10,000 fine if you give your gun away. And, if you give that gun away and it is used in a crime, you should be convicted as an accessory to that crime.

To me, whatever burden these conditions add for owning a handgun are slight and certainly do not overly burden whatever right The Supreme Court has said exists in the Constitution to bear arms in your militia.

But, like the crazy people who want a 12 year old to be able to have an abortion without her parents' knowledge, the gun crazies cannot fathom anything other than buying an automatic assault weapon on the street corner for cash. Insanity if you ask me. Ans, the price we all pay for it is what happened today.

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by JazmenFlowers

awful. what is going the **** on?!

I just read, too, that Fred Phelps's clan plans to protest the vigils because of the country's godlessness and tolerance of gays.

Thats it!! Its all our fault this is all happening! how could I be so stupid?

[SortaSavageLike]

Back in the 20s and 30s, anyone with enough money could walk into a general store and buy a Thompson submachine gun with a 50-round drum magazine, no questions asked. I don't remember any school massacres occurring back then, however.

I really don't know why I said that, but hopefully someone can make the connection for me.