Forums · The Virginia Tech Tragedy

My goodness what is the world coming to???? What are your thoughts on what happend at Virginia Tech...what a terrible thing...my heart goes out to all the families and victims during this terrible situation!
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Gremlin

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Apr 17 '07

I posted one thread allready in the other Hearbreak hotel
forum.Before I had a chance to scroll down and read this.Thanks for starting a thread here,§trawberrie§hortkake21.
I have been listening on TV, and on the radio, in the newspaper, to all the very sad and horrible news about the Murders at Virgina Tech college yesterday.My condolences and prayers and white light go out to all the dead victims, injured and their familys and everyone in the state of Vrginia.My prayers go out to all of them and everyone USA dealing this very sad news story.

[ May 02, 2007, 05:48 PM: Message edited by: Gremlin ]
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Carrie

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Apr 18 '07

I'm not a big gun control advocate, but I do favor some restrictions. I personally would like to see detection/security devices installed on EVERY public and private school building, elementary through college. Having worked as a public school teacher, I know there is a tremendous amount of wasted funds, money that goes for stupid junk, so no one can give me the argument, "but we don't have the money to do that." Oh, yes they do.

Would it be a pain in the neck to deal with? Absolutely. However, if it kept tragedies such as this from happening, it would be well worth it.
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_grimreaper@imx.bz

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Apr 19 '07

carrie please' we don't have the money! it's being wasted on homeland security.there given large expense accounts. for food & lodgeing computers etc. that most often will appear at there home. at the expense of the tax payer. our county want's to spend $750.000 per foot ball at the high schools for artificial turf. no reason to worry about the kid's way to go guy's. you better hope it does not happen here. yes I feel for the familys. and we best wise up. it's becomeing and ugly world & dangerous.
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nakis

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Apr 20 '07

It's a terrible thing. Nothing can be said to assuage the suffering of the survivors.

I feel sorry for Mr. Cho too though. He made his choice. And I would be happy if someone ended his life before he could harm anyone else but I do feel sorry for the guy. He was deeply disturbed and suffered greatly before he committed this horrible act.

There is just no way you can provide any kind of real security to protect against this. The logistics for doing this on college campuses are nearly impossible and if you did it we grind the school down to a crawl.
And if you could provide great security for every school, public building, etc... that just means someone sick like Mr. Cho would just choose another target. Can't do it at the school, then he would have done it in the parking lot. Can't in the parking lot then on a bus. Or a highway. As long as you have people who gather together anywhere you can targets for sick people.

It would be better to fix our healthcare system. So that people like Cho could get better recognition, diagnosis and treatment. It's a lot less costly overall than trying to make everywhere secure. People like Cho are only a small percent of a 1 percent of the population. Work the problem. Not band aid it with increased security.
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azspirit

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Apr 21 '07

Carrie, I can certainly understand your concern for the security in the schools, especially when you have a child who is just beginning the schooling cycle that she will need several years of, and by the time she finishes pursuing whatever interests her as a career or whatever she might choose as her life's work. We could do many things to make the schools more secure, but no matter what we do, the evil-minded and mentally imbalanced will find a way to circumvent the safety measures. If only we could pay more attention to the people who show obvious signs of being disturbed mentally. This may sound silly, but maybe even a CAT scan for gun owners/buyers would be a good way to rule out brain tumors, etc, that may impair their reasoning and judgement. At least it is a small step in the right direction... but very difficult to implement. I wish I had a better answer... I wish someone, anyone, could solve this terrible problem in society. [Cry]

We are gun owners at our house, and I believe in the rights to own a gun. Guns are fine, so long as they are in the hands of people with a functioning sense of right and wrong; those who will know that guns aren't meant to settle any kind of squabble or disagreement, either one-on-one, or within society as a whole. Guns don't kill people... people kill people, unfortunately. Our world is in a sad state of affairs when we can't seem to escape the violence involving guns in the hands of the wrong people. [Shock]

GrimReaper, you are right... dollars set aside for doing certain things that are needed are often spent on things that do no good for the tax paying public, but serve the needs of the selfish people in a position to get their hands on some bucks and spend them to their own best personal advantage.
It makes it an unsafe place for all of us, when money is spent on trivial non-necessities, while security, etc., is left wanting. Who suffers? All of us who are trying to be good people, and paying our taxes to help run a government that is selling us down the river. If I could remove just one human trait from the world, I would remove selfishness. Imagine how many problems this would solve. [Sigh]

Nakis, I agree that more has to be done to diagnose and help the mentally ill. So many of the street people are often untreated mental cases that have slipped through the cracks. That doesn't count the guy next door who may appear normal, and still be very much in need of mental help, and either doesn't realize it, or he goes undiagnosed until something sets him off. Then, it's too late to help him. Cho didn't slip through only one crack in the system, but many of them. It's too sad to even describe. =(

Arizona used to have a state hospital for the mentally ill who could not safely live within society, nor were they capable of taking care of themselves physically/medically. So, what did we do.... our government closed the hospital, and released all of the people onto the streets, where they weren't even able to make a living. There has never been any kind of a workable replacement program set up for these poor folks who need constant care and monitoring, for their own safety, and the safety of others. This is one thing that made me very angry when they closed it, and I am angrier still that they have never provided any replacement facilities in the years since. [Confused]

I send my loving thoughts, prayers, and healing white light to all who were touched by the VT tragedy, and all who were touched by the other tragedies in our schools and work places.

Blessings to all,

Mare
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Carrie

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Apr 23 '07

I agree with everyone. I guess my point on the tighter control at schools revolves around the point that as a parent, you send your child somewhere relying on others to protect him/her, when in reality, there really is no way they can and we end up with tragedies like Columbine and V-Tech. It's a horrible tragedy for any life to be lost, but especially the life of a young person who is full of promise.

We do desperately need better healthcare for the mentally ill. Even while I was teaching, I would occasionally come into contact with kids who were a walking time-bomb, way beyond ordinary teenage angst, who truly needed help. Even when the school was willing to do anything and everything to help, either families would fight it, or the social welfare system would fail them. Our society has got to make some reforms...quickly.

Mare, I've actually thought about the CAT scan thing and similar measures also. James has a concealed handgun permit and is a member of the NRA, he is a hobbiest shooter and collector. Yet, even he believes we need tighter controls on who is allowed to carry a weapon. To receive a permit, a person only has to pass a very minimal test. At one point, James encouraged me to get a license. I was pretty shocked to see just how minimal the requirements were. I'd like to see the bar on this raised. Keep the guns out of the hands of folks who have emotional/mental issues or a lack of proper training and make stringent screening and gun safety training mandatory for anyone who has one.
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ghostwatch

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Aug 17 '07

When this happened, I was so in shock of it all because my daughter had just signed on to go to Akron University! My first instinct was to pull her close and keep her with me but as she is an 18 year old, I couldn't do that. It's still in the back of my mind and I worry about her safety all the time. Thank God Akron has terrific security measures, helps some but not entirely.
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