Question:
Blacksburg might be a quaint little town, but VT has been a "happening" place for the past couple of months.

3 weeks ago there were two bomb threats (Apparently it was the same korean gunman who was behind them).

Last August an armed escaped convict was loose on campus.

This tragic shooting event by a mentally disturbed student is quite disturbing. Ofcourse Virginia's lax gun laws have to change.

Answer:
Sure did hear about it... awful.
Lets all reach out to the "loners" in our lives and say a cherry "g'day" on occasion. Could make a world of difference.

Answer:
Quote: Originally Posted by LiveJazz I thought this topic was closed! I guess someone talked to Paul?
It was only closed for 10 minutes! I had a change of heart after a few minutes and chose to take out the hate site stuff.

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It's incredibly sad but you have to wonder why it's still legal for people to own guns in the US. I can remember only two incidents where people have gone postal in the UK during my lifetime (almost 40 years) and gun laws have been tightened incredibly after both of those.

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Quote: Originally Posted by Indiscreet It's incredibly sad but you have to wonder why it's still legal for people to own guns in the US. I think every man and woman should know how to properly use a firearm. Okay, i'll add "in a responsible fashion" to that because of the nature of this thread.

Answer:
Quote: Originally Posted by Indiscreet It's incredibly sad but you have to wonder why it's still legal for people to own guns in the US. I can remember only two incidents where people have gone postal in the UK during my lifetime (almost 40 years) and gun laws have been tightened incredibly after both of those. So can people hunt in England?
I don't think its people bent on murder that fight for gun rights over here. It's the defend-my-home, I-have-my-rights, hunting-is-a-tradition types. And there's not much you can say to that without pissing a looooottttt of people off.
Besides, doesn't Canada have relatively loose gun rights? And there aren't so many murders there. I think it's a cultural problem. How to address it? No idea.

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apparently this guy passed a 3 minute background check . . . maybe they should try to change these background checks so "disturbigly violent writings" and "accused of stalking" might show up on these sorts of things and become mitigating factors. . .

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The rules governing shotguns are slightly different and you can get a license for them under certain conditions (farmers etc). Things like handguns and rifles are basically illegal, though, for the majority of people. It used to be legal to own guns if you were a member of a gun club, didn't have a criminal record and used them for sport, but then we had the Hungerford Massacre in 1987 where a man named Michael Ryan went postal, killed 16 people, wounded 15 others and then shot himself. Hungerford being a somewhat sleepy English village, this was really shocking at the time, especially given that all Ryan's weapons were legally licensed. It lead to the Firearms amendment act a year later, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and restricted shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than two rounds.
In 1996, we had the Dunblane Massacre, where Thomas Hamilton walked into a school with some handguns, killed 16 children, a teacher, and then himself. After this, handgun ownership laws were tightened up because, like Ryan, Hamilton had a firearms license that meant his guns were legal at the time. Now only historic handguns are legal to own.
(Trivia - our tennis whizz kid, Andrew Murray, was a pupil at the school at the time of the shooting, though he was not in the class Hamilton walked into).
The problem the US has is that gun ownership is part of the constitution and with groups like the NRA, it's not going to go away that easily.
For the record, I admit I'd love to go let rip with a load of guns on a firing range.
However, if guns were a lot harder to get hold of, it would surely lower the probability of tragedies like this and Columbine.

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Well, now it's come to the news that the kid was barking mad and should never have been living in that environment anyhow. Nikki Giovanni threw him out of her class because she was afraid of him. Such a large campus - his craziness went largely unremarked. And he
came from my area - a very large suburban high school. Immigrant parents who were probably working in the dry cleaning shop almost 24/7, with limited English. And a sister who graduated from Princeton. Boy slipped through the cracks, getting crazier every day.

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In the interest of remaining consistent on these matters, if the second ammendment chat continue to arise, this has to be locked.

2.8 You are requested to avoid 'hot topics'
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I know nothing has happened yet but be forewarned that anything that continues along these lines has to go.