US Uni shooting

What to say about the terrible shooting that took place on Virginia Tech Uni campus this week. I've had several thoughts.

Initially there were interviewees on the TV and radio with regard to the gun situation in the US, including an NRA spokesman who truly believed that having more arms on campus would have helped. I disagree. Here in the UK if someone isn't of sound mind and feel like taking drastic action generally the means are not easily available for them to do so. Licensing and background checks should prevent easy available of firearms to those who shouldn't have them, and out of many ways to take out your grievances the use of guns could well be said to be the easiest. There's minimal confrontation of your actual problems, just pull the trigger and all your troubles are removed. Thus this option is best being kept well out of reach from those susceptible to irrational actions. In the US this isn't the case and firearms are essentially regarded as a right and are available accordingly. As a result we see such events taking place in the US much more frequently than we do in other countries.

The American mentality shouldn't be overlooked either. One speaker on the radio said that the American tendency to act on impulse, as well as being the source of much of the country's success can also form the source of some of these actions.

Generally speaking though the student seemed to be of a very troubled mind. The source of problems and motivations could be many fold and can only be speculated at at this stage. Korea I know is, in a similar way to Japan, home to what we would regard as quite extreme lifestyles. There can be immense pressure from parents for success and some young people do turn to obsessive behaviour. There's also the factor to consider that the student was overseas, in unfamiliar surrounds and culture with all that entails.

The recent airings of the killer's videos were initially lapped up by a content hungry media and later the source of controversy as to whether these should have been aired at all. I'm currently against the airing of such videos. We've seen it with suicide bombers and we've seen it in this instance and in all cases I find it in bad taste and not the sort of thing the media should be giving any airtime into promoting. The perpetrators are sick, foul of mind and with evil intent. There sort are the very last sort of people who should be given any airtime as for one thing in doing so it legimates and gives coverage to their twisted cause and in turn copycats or supporters (in the case of terrorists) may be encouraged. Show stills perhaps, but do so in a context of condemning the perpetrator.