I've been thinking and praying about it all the last few days. Just letting it all sink in. It's seriously a lot to take in from a distance. I can't imagine how I would react if I was actually there. I think you just handle like everyone in Blacksburg, VA. I seriously feel for them. It's damn scary and not to freak anyone out, but it could happen anywhere.
Please allow me to first say that my thoughts and prayers go out to all who were effected by the massacre. The following words are just trying to help out with the situation in the smallest way that I can. They are not in any way to be disrespectful to the victims of the massacre in any way. Please read it in that light.
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So I've been reading all the articles about how to fix or prevent this for the next time. It a necessary conversation however I just can't help thinking that it's all knee jerk solutions and not really hitting the heart of the matter. What can we really do about this? Let's look at some of the current conversations.
Locking people up at first signs of distress: OK, so anytime somebody has an emotional outburst, is depressed, or is having a bad day we're going to lock them up. We all have emotional moments and many of us have a hard time growing up. Not all of us were jocks, prom queen, part of the popular crowd or the even the smart kid in class. Frankly, the majority of us weren't. And those of us who are picked on, well, it's not hard to see that it doesn't do a lot for your self esteem and people need to vent sometimes.
More guns: OK, stop right here. To me, this is the silliest arguement I have ever heard. More guns is not the answer. If anything, banning guns makes more sense. The arguement that "if we ban guns, then the only people who have guns will be criminals" is weak one. We can get guns now and I have to ask, if you were to be assaulted right now, where's your gun? How many of you would know what to do with it? Better yet, how many of you would have to ability to shoot to kill?
The gunman (I will not honor him by mentioning his name) walked into a store and bought not one but two guns. If guns were banned, the worst it could have been was a knife and in that case, people could have defended themselves with any number of things (pick up a stick, throw a desk, pretty much anything).
Increased School Security: How are you going to increase security for a university? I have no clue on how they are going to do something like this for something that huge. They talk about IM messaging the student population and pre-recorded messaging and I think it's great idea to prevent further loss like in this situation like this. But this is something from within, by surprise, and by self sacrifice. This is bigger than a defense issue, it's a cultural issue.
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OK, so it's easy to criticize and even to myself, I'm saying "OK man, if you're so smart, what would you do?"
Well, we need to stop putting this shit on the front page of the news papers and replaying everything a thousand times. We are making a celebrities out of tragedy. If anything, we should do what it takes to improve things but not to the point where we are encouraging things. And rather than talk about the gunman, the victims should be in the spotlight and we should be focusing on them.
The gunman was reported to have been constantly mocked and picked on. I've been on both sides. Frankly, I never felt that good about making fun of someone and I definitely never felt good about being dissed. We need to stop tearing other people down. Stop making fun of people. Stop trying to make yourself look better. You're really not. When you see someone you know who's bummed out. Smile. Say "Hi." Do something. And if that's not within you, then at the very least, don't put other people down.
I do know this doesn't solve everything. There are many aspects I'm not aware of but I do know it really helps stop this vicious cycle from both ends. Not publicizing it won't encourage this kind of act and reaching out to others (at the very least leaving people alone) will help prevent it.
What are your thoughts?
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1 comment:
that's what I think when i first time heard it
that people should be able to take the gunman
i mean
he shot total around 60 people
if i was there i'll poby throw my books(they're poby weight enough to smash someone's head off)
and i think there're poby many chairs in the classes room too
there're many things that could stop him for awhile when he's shooting.
o well
but i heard people said that he only miss 2 shot druing he's shooting, that's carzy
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