Campus Shooting

RIP. I couldn’t even believe this story when i first heard it after coming home from school. 🙁

Having two daughters and a son at university, I cannot imagine the horror of getting a dreaded phone call. University is one of the joyous experiences at the beginning of life not the end. I can only hope the politicos on both extremes will give the families and friends plenty of time to heal. Unfortunately, that isn’t likely to happen.

You know, I am starting scare myself about how obsessive I am about this story…but here goes.

Cho Seung Hui scribbled some words in red ink on his forearm: Ismail Ax

This is obviously an Anagram, but I can’t seem to make any of the combinations work:

Ismail Ax:

I Am Silax
I Am Axils
I Am Axlis
I Am A Six L
I Am LA Six

Come on guys help me out. What is this Anagram that murderer was trying to say?

Just a quick post from the back of beyond to say that my sympathies are with those who have died , those who are injured and their families ,friends and colleques .

What a horrendous day .

Really sad. I don’t live far off – i go to a university in virginia as well – we had a special notice about it, in fact. May the innocent rest in peace. I would also like to pray for all the Iraqis murdered by trigger happy american troops in Iraq. Literally murdering people on a whim. I wish forum members would not turn a blind eye to that, just because they are Iraqi or Muslim doesn’t mean they are less than human.

I think the stats are a bit misleading. I think a better comparison would be the number of crimes per the number of guns. The US has around 96 guns per 100 people for a total of 250 million firearms (roughly) in private hands in the US. There are about 8000 murders with guns each year. Not a very high number per gun (.0032%).

The EU as a whole has 67 million firearms in private hands which means about 17 per 100 persons has a gun.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0709-03.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/cri-crime

So with 5-6 times the fire arms per capita is the US 5-6 times more dangerous than the EU or is the EU 5-6 times safer?

Djcross makes some fair points, but it’s still surely much easier to buy a gun in the States than in almost any other civilised country. The US has a higher percentage of gun ownership than most countries and also a higher rate of gun crime. Coincidence?

Gun Deaths – International Comparisons
Gun deaths per 100,000 population (for the year indicated):

Homicide Suicide Unintentional

USA 4.08 (1999) 6.08 (1999) 0.42 (1999)

Canada 0.54 (1999) 2.65 (1997) 0.15 (1997)

Switzerland 0.50 (1999) 5.78 (1998) –

Scotland 0.12 (1999) 0.27 (1999) –

England/Wales 0.12 (1999/00) 0.22 (1999) 0.01 (1999)

Japan 0.04* (1998) 0.04 (1995) <0.01 (1997)

* Homicide & attempted homicide by handgun

Source-http://www.gun-control-network.org/GF01.htm

Here is a link to 2 of Cho Seung Hui’s plays. He was an English Major at VT.

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/

Please be warned that these plays are uncensored.

Note to mods: I am not linking to this site to endorse anything about Cho. This merely is to show people what it’s like inside the mind of a serial killer.

djcross I think you need to give a little more background information regarding your gun purchasing experience. You bought a gun in CA and California has one of, if not the most difficult states to buy a firearm in. I bought a 9mm XD last year and was out the door in 30 minutes here in Ohio. Yes, there were forms filled out and a quick background check was completed but it was a fairly quick process.

None the less I think the “ease” of purchasing a gun is a moot point as such psychos aren’t too impulsive. Sure someone might in a fit of rage kill 1 or 2 people but not killing some 30+ people in a 4 hour shooting spree.

Being that the killer was a South Korean if he should have been sold a gun in the first place.

My deepest condolences to family and friends of the victims!!!

VA Tech Convocation live at CNN:

http://www.live-online-tv.com/tv/cnn.html

All the blame here rest with Cho Seung-Hui. Guns, “A Culture of Violence”, Immigration, Inter-Racial dating…And whatever else excuse gets used. None of that can happen without choice.

Reality Check

Can I just remind some of you that more than 30 innocent and helpless young people lost their lives in this tragedy and that the death-toll apparently includes a survivor of the Holocaust?

Please show some respect for them and, indeed, for PhantomII’s wishes.

Keep the sloganeering, points-scoring and trans-Atlantic willy-waving for another day.

Thank you.

GA

I am amazed how media whores spout off about “easy to obtain” guns in the United States. Let me walk you through the process I recently went through when I purchased a Glock 21 from a local gunstore, then you can make up your mind if it was easy or not.

First, I had to fill out BATFE Form 4473, a 6 page affidavit, which is a comprehensive questionaire that asks for full name, full address, place of birth, height, weight, birth date, social security number, race, state of residence, citizenship, 12 questions about criminal status, drivers license number (photo verified to be me) and signature. The form has to be filled out for each firearm purchase.

Second, I had to show my Handgun Safety Certificate, that proves I passed a comprehensive 30 question test covering firearms operation, safe handling, safe storage, safe transport, and knowledge of other laws concerning firearm ownership. The 30 question test is based on a 56 page handbook of obscure law, rules and facts. The certificate costs $30 and must be renewed every 5 years.

Third, I had to fill out a second form, Dealer Record of Sale (an abbreviated one page version of 4473) to be used for a police background check for criminal status, wants and warrants. This form also included the make, model and serial of the handgun, right thumbprint and 2 forms of government-issued ID that show my current address. This DROS is filled out for each purchase

Fourth, I had to prove that I had an Underwriter Laboratory approved gun safe. (Or purchase a State approved gun lock). This one page affidavit is filled out for each purchase.

Fifth, I had to pass a safe handling demonstration that included inspection to assure the handgun was unloaded, load one dummy round in the magazine, chamber the dummy round, press check to show chambered round, activate/deactivate the handgun’s safeties, eject the dummy round and verify the handgun is safe. This form is also filled out for each purchase and must be administered by a State-trained person.

Sixth, the dealer had to complete his checklist to document compliance with BATFE dealer requirements.This form is filled out for each purchase. The rules for form completion are silly to the point where Federally licensed dealers have lost their license because they used government-recognized postal address abbreviations such as “St” for street, or “VA” for Virginia.

Seventh, I had to pony up $574 for the handgun. This was the fastest part of the transaction process.

Eighth came the manditory 10 day wait before taking possession of the handgun. Upon, return to the dealer’s shop, he had to re-check my IDs. I had to go through the questionaires a second time and verify nothing had changed in the past 10 days. Then the time and date of pickup was noted on the forms.

Finally, I had to have a locking case to transport the unloaded handgun home.

Failure to complete any of those steps is a felony at the Federal or State level with 10 year prison sentance and $10,000 fine.

As you can surmise, the media are “talking out their @ss” when they speak of “free”, “easy to get” and “children can get them”. Anyone who believes their stuff is gullible or a fool.

BTW, the shooter wasn’t an American, but a South Korean. So much for the “American gun culture” stereotype and demonization of Charlton Heston.

Guns do not kill people

Pardon? :confused: More guns= more guns falling into the wrong hands= more massacres. How much longer can certain sections of the US public go on denying the logic of that? To compare guns with commercial aircraft (as used on 9/11) seems a bit fatuous; one is made solely to kill or wound, the other isn’t. As for the argument that it’s the individuals responsibilty, yes of course ultimately it is, but it’s hopelessy naieve to leave it at that. Would you extend that argument to, say, poisons & explosives, and argue that they should be made freely available too as it would only become a problem if someone decided to use them against other people? As for being an “anti-American rant” that is precisely what I said my post was not Learn to take a bit of honest criticism about one issue without seeing it as some wholesale attack on US values; after all, open debate and a plurality of viewpoints is what made your country and mine great.

May God bless the souls of the victims and give their families strength to deal with this horrible tragedy.

The perpetrator was a 23 year old South Korean student, and the weapon was a 9mm handgun.
Times

R.I.P all who were killed.

It is a very sad event which just highlights how better of the world would be without guns, war and other weapons.

Truly sad event indeed

Nor your well known habbit to rant in any opportunity?:diablo:

well jokes aside, I only stated the idea of criminology and what everyone should know and understand…
it is the proud stinch in US gun-owners heart that feels hurt when ever someone mentions that guns are bad, that turns these (always, so no need to be hippocrite PhantomII 😉 ) topics to flame figths….not the ones who blame guns after these disasters happens.

If there isent morale rigth to condemn one of the biggest single reason for these events, what point there is to show any morale upproar then? Lets all just accept that there are guns and most notably there are RIGHTs to have them and yippiee we all can go and shoot ourselves, becouse it is our…well yours:confused: …rigth?

At least we try to do something to stop it to happen again…:(
.
..but If that is something you just dont want to hear and saying guns are bad offences you, I can be quiet and end posting completely over this matter. Im not in feel of getting into anyway deeper with you guys, we all know from past that it would only lead into trouple…

Guys don’t get this thread into some gun control debate. I simply started it as a place to say a quick prayer about the victims and their families.

Please respect my wishes and discontinue the gun control debate….

With pleasure, however I doubt the willingness of some of the previous posters to surrender their anti-American ranting opportunity.

Guys don’t get this thread into some gun control debate. I simply started it as a place to say a quick prayer about the victims and their families.

Please respect my wishes and discontinue the gun control debate….

It amuses me that you think somebody who intends to break the law by killing someone will not break it by aquiring an illegal firearm.:rolleyes:

In the 21st century you dont need your car, your phone, your computer etc etc. Lets ban them as well.:rolleyes:

So in your opinion the 9/11 high-jackers are not to blame for their actions, it was the fault of the planes for being in existence.:rolleyes: