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Two Questions About Guns&Minds
Mon Apr 16 2007

Following sad news from VT University…I have two questions. 
Q1
I wonder what is the concept of death in the mind of a modern young person…
I think we made death look like no big deal to them. I wonder how do young people imagine what death is? Do they know that it hurts? Are they aware that there is no life after? Or do they perceive death as in the illusive world of television and computer games? Do they understand that there is no second or third life given after you lost your first? That killing as many as possible won’t get you on the next level – there is no next level in this life. And that human being will not stand back on their feet after you shoot them…
Q2
Why it surprises ppl that in a place where literally anybody can get hold of a gun as easy as groceries in the shop, the guns occasionally get in the hands of somebody insane enough to use it… 
"The level of gun ownership world-wide is directly related to murder and suicide rates and specifically to the level of death by gunfire." [International Correlation between gun ownership and rates of homicide and suicide] . In 48 states citizens can legally buy an assault weapon. In 43 states the purchase requires no license or registration. What are the Gun Laws in Virginia? 

Rifles and Shotguns
Permit to purchase rifles and shotguns? No.
Registration of rifles and shotguns? No.
Licensing of owners of rifles and shotguns? No.
Permit to carry rifles and shotguns? No.
Handguns
Permit to purchase handgun? No.
Registration of handguns? No.
Licensing of owners of handguns? No.
Permit to carry handguns? Yes. A permit is required if concealed.
Other Requirements
Is there a State waiting period? No.
Is there a FBI *NICS check for firearm transactions? No. State system.
Permit to carry a concealed weapon required? Yes.
Record of sale: No.

If you give too much freedom, there always will be somebody who will use it wrong.
My personal opinion: if the shooting in VT would've been a single incident of school-shootings in US, we could just grieve for victims. When there is already a history of such events, surely we should be doing something about it?
3 Comments
  • From:
    Ichandra (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Apr 17 2007
    beautiful lana
    I agree with you and yet it wasnt mentionned on cnn as I watched anyway
    violence is just a game and cyber and reality mixed
    according to cnn there is not enough discipline in the schools
    trash
    society is undisciplined
  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Apr 17 2007
    Speak to the National Rifle Association about your concerns. Then you might check the states where the NRA is strong. Then you might check the states where deaths by firearm are highest.

    Shalom
  • From:
    Dreamerbooks2003 (Legacy)
    On:
    Tue Apr 17 2007
    YOU KNOW what strikes me as odd..?? Well ..
    THE HYPOCRISY of paying special attention to a mass shooting in the United States is that for the most part, we ignore the same thing that happens many times a day in Iraq. Planet Waves participates. We have never once cast a chart for a suicide bombing in Baghdad. But when a student loses his mind and kills 32 of his university classmates and teachers, then himself, it is news.

    Suffice it to say, the war came home yesterday. The violence we take for granted has special meaning when it arrives on one of our college campuses, places that (at least in our era of history) are always described as peaceful. This echoes the big turning point in the Vietnam war when the war came home in the form of supposedly unexplainable violence on our campuses, such as the Kent State massacre.

    We are typically shocked and surprised when something like this happens. But are we really shocked or surprised, given what we see on TV every night? That is, every day, we witness news of suicide bombings that amount to little more than a Truthout email or mention on the 6 o'clock news. What we need to imagine is that for this one event on American soil there have been perhaps three or four thousand -- or more -- on Iraqi soil, each with its grieving families, its ripped apart communities and its sense of life never being the same again.

    If we can remember that, then we're saved from the self-centered tribalism that makes such an event in the United States supposedly more meaningful to us, or more emotionally poignant. It would in that case be meaningful only because it points to something larger than itself.

    Okay.. now let me get down from my soap box
    love to ya mystic miss tick