Another School shooting

[Agent17]

AT least 18 people were shot when a gunman opened fire at Northern Illinois University outside Chicago today, according to media reports.

It was unclear how serious the injuries were and whether any of the people had died at the college in DeKalb, about 100km west of downtown Chicago.

CNN reported its local affiliate as saying 18 people had been hit.

Source

So what's going on? I loathe posting news stories, but another shooting has occurred. While I'm sure this will end up turning into a debate over gun law, I still pose the question: what the hell is making this happen? There's not too much info going around right now, but what are your thoughts?

[DarkPrayer]

I think it's terrible. This is happening because depressed and angry students find no more need to live their life and decide to take other's lives before killing themselves. It's really sad and I hope that someday school shootings can be prevented.

[Jidysi]

I guess I'm lucky, in a way, but cursed because of it. In South Africa, we don't have many instances of school shootings; instead we have stories of children as young as nine being ***** and murdered.

Here we have a classic example of "If I go down, then You go down with me". It's sad to think that whoever did the shooting had to endure something that could have been so horrible that he had to do something like that, and even worse, that he/she thought they had to face it alone.

[JCC]

Is it a sign of callousness influenced by humanity's barbaric ways that rather than being shocked and appalled at this news story, I instead rather nonchalantly reacted as "Oh, another one?"

[emeraldlonewoulf]

Yes, it is, and sad to say, I had the same reaction.

[Arashi]

Great, that's REALLY damned close to where I live. There was yet another shooting, not at a school but a shooting nonetheless, at some store near where I live recently, too. It's great to think about, you know, if you go to school or shopping or something that there's such a high chance that some psycho will shoot you.

[DarkPrayer]

Originally Posted by JCC

Is it a sign of callousness influenced by humanity's barbaric ways that rather than being shocked and appalled at this news story, I instead rather nonchalantly reacted as "Oh, another one?"

I think we all act like that. I was really sad with Columbine, but now I just think, "Wow, that's terrible. Those poor kids...what am I going to eat for dinner tonight?"

[Cyberbat]

Who knows? Maybe some just figure their names live on. Or they are over stressed and snap.

Personally, I don't find anything special about it. Never have. Instead of joining a gang and taking their rage out on another gang, they just skip to the end and take it out on anyone who gets in the way.

[AngelikDemonik]

I firmly believe that if all of these school shootings received very little press coverage, there wouldn't be so many of them happening. It's a damn shame.

I love how these cowards always off themselves afterwards, too. Just fucking kill yourself, leave others out of it.

Another Valentine's Day Massacre...

[Graveyard.Crow]

This is why trends are bad. A few people do it and now everyone wants to

[Renatus]

Bloody hell not again! and in my neck of the woods too, damn. Even worse he wore black. But what I'm curious about is they claim this is the fourth school shooting in the US this week, I haven't heard anything about three other shootings. What do these people have a forum of their own? www.shootschoolsinblack.com or what?

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/gunman-...00010000000001

[HumanePain]

A lack of teaching of morals to young people, plain and simple. You can chart the increase in school shootings against the removal of prayer in schools and the removal of the Ten Commandments from courts etc, and clearly see an inverse relationship.

As we have become more secular and less God fearing, people believe there is no hope for themselves, nobody cares about them, so they have nothing to lose by wasting themselves and everyone who they perceive as being against them.

[dark_dragon_of_ice]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

A lack of teaching of morals to young people, plain and simple. You can chart the increase in school shootings against the removal of prayer in schools and the removal of the Ten Commandments from courts etc, and clearly see an inverse relationship.

As we have become more secular and less God fearing, people believe there is no hope for themselves, nobody cares about them, so they have nothing to lose by wasting themselves and everyone who they perceive as being against them.

I very much disagree
Putting a certain religion in schools won't help at all..New Zealand's public primary school doesn't have all the prayers and religious stuff thats obviously supporting only one religion. Yet we don't have school shootings.
However we can teach morals without religion.
I find it also strange that you say that without the fear of some place like hell that we might as well screw around. My morals aren't becuase of some god or reward but because Im nice to people becuase im sincere about it.

[Zavulon]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

A lack of teaching of morals to young people, plain and simple. You can chart the increase in school shootings against the removal of prayer in schools and the removal of the Ten Commandments from courts etc, and clearly see an inverse relationship.

As we have become more secular and less God fearing, people believe there is no hope for themselves, nobody cares about them, so they have nothing to lose by wasting themselves and everyone who they perceive as being against them.

That's bs. The increase of guns, the decrease of medically insured people (it would be a shame to get these people mental treatment wouldn't it?), a world where alienation is spiraling further out of control, bastard kids who bully one another.... there's a lot of things... and that book of Laws created by some Jews to keep other Jews has not a damn thing to do with it. You can be atheist and moral. And who is to say this whack job didn't go to church?

[Invisigoth69]

Originally Posted by Agent17

Source

.... what the fuckin' fuck?!


(I know, it's swearing but that just says it all for me.)

[le_revenant]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

A lack of teaching of morals to young people, plain and simple.

You can try to teach "morality" but it does not mean that:
a) your student(s) will grasp YOUR version of morality, or
b) your student(s) will not decide to "upgrade" that morality to something that better fits / justifies their particular twisted view.

After all I could be well versed in biblical script and recite it on a whim as I chamber another round, or force a scared multitude to have some of that "special" Kool Aid.

Anyhoo, turns out this latest pathetic excuse for a human was an ex-grad school student who didn't know any of his victims. Before we pass judgment on anybody, let's let Chief Wiggum & the rest of the local cops figure out the shooter's motives before we start pointing fingers an any particular standby.

[HumanePain]

Well, the posts previous to mine were asking "What's going on?" and "Who knows? (why they did it), wondering why, and no one else offered a possible explanation yet, so I chimed in.

I agree that atheists can be moral too, and that it is possible for a secular environment to teach morals, but my statement is still true, that in the K-12 classrooms in America, there is currently no teaching of morals. That is not bullshit, it is fact. Yes, the community here on Gnet is an exception: a large percentage of thinking, moral people, who have managed to become moral, but the mainstream kids probably find it difficult to reason their way into a moral lifestyle. Instruction in morals can only help, especially if they are not being taught morals at home either.

This kind of debate is fun!

[JCC]

More than a separation of church and state, separation of church and school should be a given. I currently go to a Catholic school because it's the only decent Catholic school around here and I hate their ethos. They claim to be liberal but are quite noticably disturbed by gay people, and as a result there's a shocking amount of LGBT people in our school. I wanted to make a Gay Rights poster and was told that I couldn't because it's immoral. That's the kind of morals that we want to teach people?

I was told not to tell people that I am an Atheist because apparently my classmates are easily swayed and their parents are quick to jump on the God-wagon and complain my secular approach. That's the kind of morals that we want to teach people?

Religion is bad. It controls, you summed it up yourself with 'god-fearing'. FEARING. We also need to teach fear and being docile to children too, rather than being able to question things? No, I think that the less religiously-inclined any institution becomes, the better it is for everyone.

[Tha Duckman]

I'm afraid of dust mites .

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Tha Duckman

I'm afraid of dust mites .

So you should. If you don't do what them dust mites tell yaw, YOU'RE GOING TO HELL, BOY!

[Tha Duckman]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

[HumanePain]

I leave you with this fact:

Public school shootings: many.

Church school shootings: zero. None. Nada. Null.

Interesting observation huh? Don't take my word for it, look it up.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

I leave you with this fact:

Public school shootings: many.

Church school shootings: zero. None. Nada. Null.

Interesting observation huh? Don't take my word for it, look it up.

Atheist crusades: zero. None. Nada. Null.

Christian crusades: Many. Nine official ones, a few others that weren't official.

Atheist civil wars: zero. None. Nada. Null.

Christian civil wars: Many.

Atheist bombings: zero. None. Nada. Null.

Christian bombings: Northern Ireland, 'nuff said.

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

A lack of teaching of morals to young people, plain and simple. You can chart the increase in school shootings against the removal of prayer in schools and the removal of the Ten Commandments from courts etc, and clearly see an inverse relationship.

As we have become more secular and less God fearing, people believe there is no hope for themselves, nobody cares about them, so they have nothing to lose by wasting themselves and everyone who they perceive as being against them.

I would agree about the morality part, but atheism and morality aren't mutually exclusive.

Also add to that the victim complex Tam and I were discussing in another thread, the romanticizing of the "bad guy" in American culture and the belief that their own brand of suburban suffering is so grand and vast that the only way to convey it is through something as monumental as mass murder.

Where the fuck is the resilience nowadays? When did people stop getting on with things and figure "wah, wah [bangbang]" is a viable option? I don't get it, but it's hugely saddening.

[JCC]

People have never gotten on. Guns just make it easier to express that.