I know I’m going to get slammed by UberLefties and Wingnuts alike for this but here it is from the middle of the road.

On the subject of firearms purchasing. Hui was 23, legal age to purchase and own a handgun. There is no requirement for mental evaluation in the firearms background check, form 4473. Does anyone here want the Feds to know their medical history let alone some guy in a strip mall? Want to give up even more of your right to privacy to the Feds?

Prohibitions of firearms on campus is neither a good nor a bad idea. It is primarily to limit the possibility of firearms on campus purely as a loss prevention issue as settling a civil suit is EXPENSIVE.

GT, in post 284 presents three scenarios. He misses a few, but then GT’s point is pretty obvious in that “guns are bad”. GT missed the Fourth scenario; Armed students wait in the classroom and when an unarmed student enters, they do not fire and allow the unarmed student to enter and hide with them.

Fifth scenario; the armed student enters the classroom and the armed students open fire, hitting the original shooter. Expended rounds penetrate other classrooms or potentially occupied spaces possibly endangering other persons hidden therein.

Sixth scenario; The original shooter enters the room and is shot by the hidden armed students ending the shooting.

Seventh scenario; The police enter the classroom to find the armed students and a very tense standoff ensues until the armed students hiding in the room are all disarmed, handcuffed and separated for questioning until the police can sort out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

Armed people scare the cops. They are in favor of firearms bans as it makes them safer they feel. If someone has a weapon (gun, knife, club, anything) they are a bad guy to be dealt with accordingly.

10-12% of the population has adverse reactions to SSRI drugs. Induced psychosis, rage, paranoia among the symptoms. The pharmaceutical companies reaped $250,000.00 a day on SSRI medications alone in 2005. Are we as a Nation over medicating?

Hui also had bomb making materials in his room. If he couldn’t have bought a gun, would it have been better if he had used bombs to kill other students?

Hui’s english instructor referred him to counselling after reading some of his graphic writing. Did the instructor alert the university health center staff? Did Hui ever go see them? Was that referral ever followed up? Did the other students who thought he was weird ever wonder if he could use a “welfare check” by university police, just to talk to him and see if he was feeling okay?

It isn’t the gun, it’s the people. People stink because we would rather do the easy thing and not the hard thing and take care of each other and be there for each other, even if that person who needs us is the “weird” one. We are too wrapped up and selfish to see when and where we could help. We volunteer because it looks good on a resume or college application. We don’t help because it’s the right thing to do, but because it helps us get a leg up. We’ve fallen so far into the Reichwing economic trap that we believe in their consumptive world view and lost our souls.

Like I said, I feel bad for those lost and for those who have lost and are going to lose. Everyone from Hui to his victims to the poor guy who ownes the shop who legally sold him the pistol. Not one of them will ever be the same.

Scenario Two:
Students in classroom hear gunshots in the hall. Armed students in classroom deploy their weapons pointed at the door, ready to “deal with” any armed gunman who might enter the classroom. Armed students in classroom shoot an innocent student who enters while trying to flee the gunman (who is still out in the hall).

Scenario Three:
Students in classroom hear gunshots in the hall. Armed students in classroom deploy their weapons pointed at the door, ready to “deal with” any armed gunman who might enter the classroom. Armed students in classroom shoot another armed student — not the attacking gunman — who enters while trying to flee the gunman (who is still out in the hall).

None of these are good outcomes.

This culture of commodification has produced ill-formed individuals in spades, and will continue to do so as long as it continues unchecked. As C. Wright Mills noted long ago, the primary value system in the U.S.A. is “pecuniary,” not human.

All this talk about guns and gun safety, etc. and this morning’s news has an article about a gun going off behind the W.H. gates. That gun was being carried by a Secret Service agent.

Yeah, I found that curious too. I’m thinking accidents happen a lot more than is generally known by the -SS-.

Your comment about providing housing is supported by the latest research on the homeless, and I hope that gets implemented ASAP: Provide a safe living space and the rest falls into place.

That and we should make it mandatory that people go to therapists. ;) (joking)

Unfortunately, that runs smack up against one’s constitutional rights. On the flip side, Reagan closing a mess of State mental institutions and turning mentally ill patients out on the street did no one any favors either. Doing so essentially created the homeless problem. Once they are on the street, you can’t get them back where they can get the help they need. And many do need help.

This is a problem I’ve dealt with first hand because here in Palm Beach County the homeless appear to be serving as a reservior for Malaria when it is brought in by migrant workers.

When they are ill, homeless are screened at the feeding sites and are brought in for treatment but the Public Health Unit is unable to hold them due to civil rights laws, so they wander off, without being properly treated. And this applies not just to Malaria, but to any illness.

However, he DOES have a point, a single guy with 2 small caliber arms does not a firing squad make. A chair thrown at his head might have derailed the madness. Not that I, nor any of the keyboard commandos could have done anything but pissed our pants when the bullets are flying. I do know that calling attention to yourself in this type of situation can very well mean death.

I wasnt’ there, nor have I ever been there so I haven’t a clue what it’s like. The closest I’ve been to this type of disaster is a few (real) emergency landings in a helicopter. But it’s taken me decades of maturity to even come to grips with my thoughts on mortality.

It’s easy for us to sit here, armchair warriors, and say it could have been stopped. But the fact is, it could have been, by any number of means. One of them is the seemingly endless toll that the game of love takes on all of us.

We should not overlook the 400lb gorilla I have YET to see discussed, the origin of his madness, LOVE. By reports I’ve seen, he was apparently distraught over his lost love. We are SO afraid to broach the issue that we all must admit we have sunk to despair over. Man or woman, we have all been subject to the abuse of the Other in the course of pursuing a mate.

It is who we are, how we procreate, and could be the end of us if we are not willing to put aside taboos preventing honest debate about it.