33 dead in Va. Tech shooting rampage

[trinacriabob]

I read the posts above that talked about his being picked on for his foreign accent. Does that even happen any more? Seriously? I grew up in multi-ethnic L.A. and we had so many kinds of people in school that I NEVER saw that. If it would have started, the teachers would have shut that down in a heartbeat....especially in a Catholic school.

He apparently grew up in the DC-MD-VA metroplex. Heck, you would think every imaginable kind of foreign person is represented there and that he would not have been subjected to this.

In grade and high school, I was sort of a class clown that could get away with it because I was an "A" student and teachers liked me. However, my humor was never at the expense of someone else. I've been on the receiving end of some ridicule, though not much, because I always said what was on my mind and was never afraid to be myself, so I sure didn't want to dish it out to someone else.

However, looking back, there were definitely a fair share of mean f*cks out there.

[Oracle of Delphi]

I read the posts above that talked about his being picked on for his foreign accent. Does that even happen any more? Seriously? I grew up in multi-ethnic L.A. and we had so many kinds of people in school that I NEVER saw that. If it would have started, the teachers would have shut that down in a heartbeat....especially in a Catholic school.

He apparently grew up in the DC-MD-VA metroplex. Heck, you would think every imaginable kind of foreign person is represented there and that he would not have been subjected to this.

In grade and high school, I was sort of a class clown that could get away with it because I was an "A" student and teachers liked me. However, my humor was never at the expense of someone else. I've been on the receiving end of some ridicule, though not much, because I always said what was on my mind and was never afraid to be myself, so I sure didn't want to dish it out to someone else.

However, looking back, there were definitely a fair share of mean f*cks out there.

Yeah but now you're talking about a part of Virginia which isn't in the DC Metroplex! Y'all know what I mean?

Edited April 20, 2007 by Pontiac Custom-S

[CARBIZ]

Kids are mean. Young adults should know better, but judging by the pics this guy was no Brad Pitt, probably not very good socially either - so, he was an outcast. Let's not go blaming everyone else for being a LOSER!

I still blame the gun culture and the media. Mark my words: some loser is already planning to beat that record of 33!

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Yeah but now you're talking about a part of Virginia which isn't in the DC Metroplex! Y'all know what I mean?

I guess I could see that.

But I come from a very rural area in the Appalachains which was predominantly white and I don't remember kids being picked on for their ethnicities. It just seems like our generation grasps the concept of overt racism very well and tends to avoid it. Even here in college, which is much more diverse, yet MUCH larger as well, the race boundaries aren't that high and everyone seems to get along well. However, my high school was VERY small and everyone knew everyone, so I guess we might've been more 'close knit' than some places. People teased, but it wasn't as horrible as what this guy SUPPOSEDLY received. But nothing is an excuse for what he did and I hope hell is nice and hot while he's there.

I mean, we all go through $h!, it's part of life. I've certainly had my fair share of problems that I've had to seek treatment for but to even contemplate taking an innocent life because of it is so 'out there' to me.

Edited April 20, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[pow]

Look - most of us had $h!ty childhoods. Try growing up gay in the '70s, knowing you are different than everyone else? How about paying rent while your classmates are planning their prom plans? Oh, grow up!

Lots of people had sucky childhoods, but they don't go around killing people. I do think there is one difference in the past 25 years though: violence on TV, the violence on the internet and violence on computer games. The gun culture is whacked, and the products are everywhere.

It's his mental illness that "influenced" him more than gun culture or a $h!ty childhood. We now now that he stayed at a mental institution before and was evaluated as "an imminent threat to himself and others." His mental record never showed up when he applied for a gun.

[CARBIZ]

Mental illness? BULL$h!. Everyone has an excuse these days. BOO HOO, my daddy spanked me. I mean, really! I popped a bunch of pills and ended up in the hospital when I was 15 because my father told me he was kicking me out when I turned 16 (can't have a fag for a son!) and my "boyfriend" didn't want to talk to me in class any more (funny thing: I saw him in the gay ghetto a couple years ago.) So I moved to my mother's house after my stint in the hospital, then lost all my new friends a year later when I confided in a female friend that I was gay. Yeah. Oh, and my mother packed me off to some quack who wanted to talk about my relationship with my mother and sister's - even though I hadn't been living with them when I had popped the pills! Geez, could I have popped the pills because I was depressed, gay and 15 with no one to talk to? Most "psychiatrists" are witch doctors with a plaque on the wall.

So, forgive me if I am not crying a river for some loser who can't "integrate" and who blames his parents, depression, etc. The Brady Bunch was a ficitonal show! It never happened.

But I grew up on Spiderman cartoons and Adam Ward as Batman. No Freddie Kruger or Platoon or Hamburger Hill or Boys'n the Hood. I hated video games. Well, truth be known, Pong came out when I was 16!

[trinacriabob]

The family of the gunman has issued a statement (through their attorney, I believe) which elaborates on their apologies and their grief. Poor people: their lives have also been ruined, along with the damage done to those of the loved ones and friends of the victims.

[regfootball]

Look - most of us had $h!ty childhoods. Try growing up gay in the '70s, knowing you are different than everyone else? How about paying rent while your classmates are planning their prom plans? Oh, grow up!

Lots of people had sucky childhoods, but they don't go around killing people. I do think there is one difference in the past 25 years though: violence on TV, the violence on the internet and violence on computer games. The gun culture is whacked, and the products are everywhere.

The family of the gunman has issued a statement (through their attorney, I believe) which elaborates on their apologies and their grief. Poor people: their lives have also been ruined, along with the damage done to those of the loved ones and friends of the victims.

why did they even bother? to avoid a civil lawsuit probably.

Edited April 21, 2007 by regfootball

[thegriffon]

If there's a civil suit it should be against the state, which had a legal obligation to flag him as someone not allowed to purchase firearms under federal law.

[pow]

The family of the gunman has issued a statement (through their attorney, I believe) which elaborates on their apologies and their grief. Poor people: their lives have also been ruined, along with the damage done to those of the loved ones and friends of the victims.

No, the statement was issued through the gunman's sister (on behalf of the family). She's a Princeton graduate who works with the state department as an Iraq reconstruction contractor. Amazing how different their lives turned out..

[thegriffon]

Yeah but now you're talking about a part of Virginia which isn't in the DC Metroplex! Y'all know what I mean?

There's a part of virginia that's not in the metroplex?

[aaaantoine]

Lots of people had sucky childhoods, but they don't go around killing people. I do think there is one difference in the past 25 years though: violence on TV, the violence on the internet and violence on computer games. The gun culture is whacked, and the products are everywhere.

Ever consider that during your childhood, there was an equal number of chemically imbalanced individuals that would have done the same thing as Cho?

Ever consider that 25 years ago, someone would have said:

I do think there is one difference in the past 25 years though: violence on TV, the violence in films and violence in comic books.

And finally, did you know that no video games whatsoever were found in the kid's room?

Some people are just screwed up, is all. I don't care how "perfect" society ever becomes. This will always be the case.

[CARBIZ]

I understand your point, but 35 years ago, people didn't walk into schools and shoot their classmates. Nobody carried guns in class - at least not up here in Toronto. I hear about young black kids with their guns now in class and, yes, I squarely do blame violence in music, video games and television. Ever listen to the crap that is most rap music? The mysogyny, homophobia, glorifiicaiton of guns, settle your score with knives - its scary. The video games my 13 year old nephew plays? I wasn't allowed to watch Lost in Space (Danger, Danger Will Robinson) because it gave my 3 year old sister nightmares!

There were probably more depressed losers walking around in the '60s and '70s, but they just offed themselves. Now, they want to take the entire class with them! When I had fantasies of suicide at 15, it was about making those who had wronged me feel sorry for what they had done - not wanting to end their lives! I wouldn't have known where to get a gun, nor would I have considered it.

What truly pisses me off today, is that these punks today have more resources available to them than I did 35 years ago. I mean, it was a big deal to tell your guidance counsellor in 1977 that you were gay; these days, the guidance counselor is probably a tranny!

Although I firmly believe in the Freedom of Speach and all that, this violent crap simply has to be taken out of the hands of children. A 10 year old simply can't process the difference between his/her soft, cushy suburban life and the violence on TV/games, etc. The dichotomy is too severe! We aren't equippped to handle this any more. ONe hundred years ago, 22 year old farm kids would have been cutting the heads off chickens, hunting bears or working 18 hours in a coal mine - no time for crying over their woes and plenty of "normal" outlets for their aggressions. Modern society forbids those normal impulses and suppresses them.

In two or three generations we have gone from home steaders in the plains to living in an apartment block where the only distraction is the internet/TV. That is not normal. You cannot defy 100 million years of evolution in 100 years.