Japanese student narrowly avoids Virginia Tech shooting spree; Virginia governor heads home from Tokyo

we had the exact same thing here in NZ, a NZ student was nearby and his family and him interviews on TV. Truly sad, while a short phone interview might be interesting probably the same with this girl they dont really know anything and dont really have much to say apart from the usual, people are scared and sad and there was alot of confusion etc etc. Maybe its something to do with being an Island nation, we need to identify ourselves with major stories to make them more personal.

 

Local news in Canada focused on the woman from Nova Scotia who died. Not a pure island phenomenon. People want to hear about their own.

Sad sad,story. Tragedy. That's about all that should be said. Can't believe how people can turn something like this into a rant about Japan, or America, or the media.

A rant about guns? sure. Obviously guns kill people, sure people kill people, but you can kill a lot more with guns.

 

i think the point that people are missing here is that no one has a problem with
personalizing the story for the new reading public of each individual country.

the problem is the title of the article is JAPANESE STUDENT NARROWLY AVOIDS VT SHOOTING SPREE. it implies, there was a shooting spree and thank goodness one japanese student didnt get shot because we dont care about the people that did.
intelligent journalism would touch on the story and personalise it with the j students account. not have a title focused on the one j student that didnt get shot.

 

Had this been the only story available in the press I would maybe agree with you but it's one of many, one that focuses on the experience of a Japanese national who was there. Rather than key on the one of 50 articles about the tragedy just because it involves a Japanese, look at the big picture.

 

so a Japanese student made it out. who cares?

 

The guy alarmed a lot of people with his strange and inappropriate behavior. Yet no one took enough notice as to where all this was possibly leading. It should be harder for guys like this to get guns and other potential weapons. There were a lot of things that were factors that contibuted here to the tragedy. In hindsight it is always easy to point fingers.

I feel the guy who sold him the gun acted as a catalyst to all this though. This idea about everyone having the right to bear arms, is so outdated. The original intent of the law is so far from what the NRA would have people believe today. Everyone shouldn't have the right to have a gun. People who are depressed or mentally ill shouldn't be around guns, should they? There is something socially wrong here and for that reason the laws have to be tightened. People like this shouldn't have the same rights when it comes to bearing arms. Let someone else bear the arms and "protect" them, like the military and the police.

Sure, without a gun he could have used other means to kill. It is too easy to kill and it all happens too fast for the victims when guns are involved.

It is also really sad that the govenor of Virginia spoke out so strongly against people lobbying for gun control. Now is the time to talk. Make some changes so that it is less likely to happen again.

 

Definately, something to tell the grandkids.

 

His creative writing instructor noticed. He had been recommended to see a counselor. One school offical wanted to do more, but under the law. He didn't present enough behavior to warrant anything more than a watchful eye. He was just strange and it was hard to predict his behavior going to this extreme, unfortunately. I am curious as to why his parents didn't get him help, but then again, he was his own man. Maybe they did try and it didn't work.

This situation is the exact reason why guns should not be illegal. Had someone carried a gun, they could of stopped his rampage, don't you all think? Instead, the school ruled out guns, even legally concealed to carry gun holders. This is what happens in a society where guns are outlawed by the common citizen. They are at mercy of the insane. They can't protect themselves. And, the ones determined to do evil will get whatever means they need to carry out their deed. This is a socialist ideology to keep the citizens from bearing arms to protect themselves, thank you, liberal socialists and communist minds. That's why America's founders were inspired for the people to bear arms. To protect themselves, their property and lives. Like I said, guns are not the problem. It's evil that is the problem. Maybe if someone would of taken inititive after he started a room on fire to detain him then, they would of had ample reason to put him in a psychiatrist's care. And, the school could of released them from their campus for being a threat to others.

 

Remember the situation in a SLC shopping mall with some guy on a rampage with guns? Well, it was an undercover officer, who had a gun on him who finished the guy off. Unfortunately, the guy had killed a lot of people. But, he could of killed more.
The undercover officer who was on his private time was able to stop the killer with his gun. It could of happened here at VT. But, because of gun control ideology with the faculty and school, students requests to carry guns for protection were denied. Just think what could of been stopped had someone had a gun?

 

her, her parents, her friends, the reporter who wrote the article, the editor who felt it important enough to print. but most of all the many who read the article, like yourself and responded to it.

other than that, you are right, who cares?

glad she made it out alive, glad the aussie dude featured in the aussie news made it. very very sad for those who didn't make it.

katsuramen, sure, there are instances where if everyone was packing a weapon maybe after a brief firefight, casualties would be limited. however, the odds that things go horribly wrong, would also be higher. every bar fight, traffic altercation, etc. would be an opportunity for some to show their marksmanship.

 

I don't agree. Ordinary people are not trained the same way as police officers, there will be countless mistakes if you allow for ordinary people to be vigilantes. Shoot first and ask questions later. Maybe you misjudged the situation and the guy you shot was an undercover cop or someone in costume with toy guns on their way to a play. Police officers are trained and held accountable for their actions whether they are on duty or off. Ordinary citizens are not. You are suggesting that giving guns to a bunch of drunken frat boys would have prevented this situation. Maybe, but we'd be here commenting on countless other gun related tragedies, like I shot the guy because he keyed my car at the bar. Or I shot him because I was scared when he pulled out his gun.

People who are not trained and not held accountable should not be allowed to have a gun. The checks have to be strict, ongoing, and thorough. This guy didn't need a gun (most people don't) and he should never have passed the checks to buy one. The general public has the right to safety and to know that guys like this can not easily get weapons.

How often do you need a gun for your own protection if you are not in a "war zone"? Maybe you are characterizing the US as a war zone (maybe you are right). In that case the first steps to be taken are to establish peace and disarm the combatants. Then you need to set up a security force to protect everyone and destroy the weapons.

Sorry, the idea of the right to bear arms needs to be revised. The British are no longer a threat of attacking and re-establishing the US as a colony. The threat of attacks from the natives (native americans) is no longer a reality. Who do you need to bear arms against? Your fellow countrymen? I don't think that was the intention of the original draft. Things have been changing for a long time now. After 9/11 countless rights were violated in an effort to get things under control and to protect the masses. The American people accepted these as sacrifices needed to ensure public safety. Now things have to become stricter with guns.

 

Some of the comments here are quite interesting. It seems that the tragedy at VT prompted me to make a rare post on the board. I don’t think it is possible to stop someone bent on self-murder and murdering others no matter what the gun control laws in the US are and I do support stricter gun control and arming some professors and students that qualify.

Seems people always want to blame some inanimate thing for evil behavior, poverty, economy, equality, gun control, culture, conditioning, mental problems, parents, childhood, etc. As Katusramen inferred, many Americans don’t want to be like Europe, which is a dying man, or Asia where there still is a little common sense. Take out a coin and you’ll see three things, “Liberty, E Plurbus Unum, and In G-D we trust”. Not like the French revolution which was class warfare under the spin of “equality”. More people have been murdered for a belief in race (Nazis) and equality (Communism) than all the religious wars combined. But our Universities love the European socialist model and think that all violence is wrong. They believe in pacifism, which is in my opinion naïve, dangerous, and utter moral nonsense. Fighting is evil, don’t fight evil you’re taught. Sit down and talk.

In the office today I heard again today the comment before a team meeting that “Americans don’t need guns to kill English anymore.” Again European thinking; take care of me from birth to death, protect me, give me my rights without the any responsibilities. Only people who went to graduate school would say that. All one can say is to suggest they don’t suffocate on their own hate.

On the whole, America is still the country that has offered more opportunity to more people than any other place. That includes the opportunity for evil as well as philanthropy. In a nutshell, I think the individual is responsible and not things like poverty, gun control, etc. This might cause a stir on the board, but I truly do not think that poverty causes crime nor do guns. People do. Korean, Mexican, Afro-American, Japanese, yellow, green, pinko, purple, doesn’t matter. As Victor Frankel said “There are only two races, the decent, and the indecent.”

 

"There are only two races, the decent, and the indecent.”

Problem being in the Land of the Free, the indecent can buy guns.

Why is nobody focusing on the fact that this guy was a diagnosed as a psychiatric basket case last year??? A simple background check before selling him the automatic pistol and ammo would have saved about 32 peoples lives. Unfortunately, and correct me if I am wrong, this is not a requirement to buy a gun in Virginia.

 

I don't see any thing but luck in this story. Sometime thats all thats between you and something very bad. I'am so glad this young lady had some luck this day.

 

Make tools available and people will use them. In the US guns are readily available. This is the simple fact in this and other cases like it. If only people would not get distracted by
social issues etc etc, then maybe some progress would be made in the US on this matter. The gun lobby must be laughing all the way to their arsenals when they see the general public being distracted by such issues when they could really act in solidarity and denounce this cowboy gun culture.