Virginia Tech

[Red-Handed Jill]

I'm with you on the personal responsibility issue, Phil. So many people abdicate the responsibility for their own lives (case in point, the over-abundance of frivolous lawsuits) and believe it is someone else's responsibility to look after them or rescue them or inform them. A quote from Spider Robinson, one of my favorite authors, is, "There are no passengers on Starship Earth." I think that too many people think they are passengers.

[Matusalem]

I don't know the exact gun laws in Virginia, but would only ask how someone could slip through the system if 1.being a registered alien and not a US citizen, and 2. having had a few run-ins (been investigated by the police and being referred to a mental hospital, etc). Did he just manage to fly under the radar? How does the second amendment apply to non-US citizens?

My state requires a pretty legnthy dossier and compulsory training, and I would guess is stricter than most states. In fact, I am prohibited by law (NJ, NY) to purchase a blackpowder unassembled 'kit' of any kind, such as the one that Captain Jim did, off the internet. I guess NJ is scared of pirate reenactors going on a shooting rampage with a one-shot pistol. I am also required to register (you laugh) my only two airguns, which I never did.

[Rumba Rue]

hey as far as gun control discussions this is pretty mild.

And you did open that can of worms by bringing it up in the initial post.

I was stating a personal thought, nothing more.

I do understand it takes a person to kill another regardless of weapon. But lets face it, from the early dawn of man whose skill with a spear, to the bow and arrow, to the swords/knives and other pointy things, to the guns, cannons, and to the nuclear bomb....all were and are designed for one reason and one reason only, to kill. Period.

My own partner Boats, has got a gun collection here in my apartment. Personally I don't approve of it, and he knows it, but at the same time I understand his collecting of them.

Years ago, I didn't care about any kind of gun control, but we aren't living in a 'years ago'. Things have changed, people have changed.

I do believe in a waiting period and a background check on anyone wanting to purchase guns nowadays. I have never once stated that people shouldn't be allowed to have them, only that they be responsible for their actions and use of them.

[PyratePhil]

AIRGUN registration, Matusalem?

*shakes head* Wow...what are things coming to? The black powder ban is silly enough...

Well, that's like nunchakus - banned in a whole slew of states. Right, like I'm Bruce Lee on steroids.

[Duchess]

nunchakus- I did always think that was pretty expemplary of a silly ban. People who know how to use them probably wouldn't and those that dont do more damage to themselves. I thought that was a self correcting problem.

[michaelsbagley]

nunchakus- I did always think that was pretty expemplary of a silly ban. People who know how to use them probably wouldn't and those that dont do more damage to themselves. I thought that was a self correcting problem.

Yeppers, I got some sense cracked into my skull with my home made pair of Nunchaku as a stupid kid. (luckily no damage was done outside of a nasty bruise and a damaged pride from my friends laughing at me) Haven't picked up or tried to make another pair since.

I'll stick to swords, they are safer because there are not as many moving parts.

[PyratePhil]

LMAO@'chucks - yep, been there, done that. When I was learning them, I was constantly coming home looking like I had just met a rabid puma - bruises on the head, shoulders, back and groin (don't ask - it was a required movement); abrasions on the wrists; bleeding knuckles...

Whoever invented those things had a truly warped sense of humor! Best thing to do - if you're ever being mugged, just hand a pair to the mugger...

[Salty]

not too turn this tragdy into a debate on gun control would be asking too much of politics and media.........my thoughts on gun control is to use both hands. Only when the gun is picked up does it become dangarous.

Instead of debating how to control random acts of violence or whom was to blame , or what could have been done ; perhaps as a country just for once maybe we should take and ask what can be done to support those who need it so these events have less chance of occuring.

One way to start would be to harness the media to reporting the facts and not jumping to supposistions and hear say however shall leave that for another debate and another time.

my thoughts and prayers do go out to the victims and the survivors as they have for the last few nights.

[callenish gunner]

DISTEMPERED PSYCHOPATHS are the kind that seem to fly into a rage or frenzy more easily and more often than other subtypes. Their frenzy will resemble an epileptic fit. They are also usually men with incredibly strong sex drives, capable of astonishing feats of sexual energy, and seemingly obsessed by sexual urges during a large part of their waking lives. Powerful cravings also seem to characterize them, as in drug addiction, kleptomania, pedophilia, any illicit or illegal indulgence. They like the endorphin "high" or "rush" off of excitement and risk-taking. The serial-rapist-murderer known as the Boston Strangler was such a psychopath.

How Psychopaths View The World

Not only do they covet possessions and power, but they gain special pleasure in usurping and taking from others (a symbolic sibling, for example); what they can plagiarize, swindle, and extort are fruits far sweeter than those they can earn through honest labor.

And once having drained what they can from one source, they turn to another to exploit, bleed, and then cast aside; their pleasure in the misfortune of others is unquenchable. People are used as a means to an end; they are to be subordinated and demeaned so that the antisocial can vindicate themselves...

The psychopath is filled with greed inside, relating to the world through power, even though, as I said, on the outside he can claim to be on the side of the disenfranchised or the downtrodden. I knew one who liked to repeat phrases such as "they have to stop keeping my brothers down" but he didn't mean a word of it. He was actually a racist. The psychopath can also often identify himself as a revolutionary.

Regardless of race, social class, or occupation, however, the psychopath is dangerous to society, for "the nature of ASP (psychopathy) implies that it wreaks more havoc on society than most other mental illnesses do, since the disorder primarily involves reactions against the social environment that drag other people into its destructive web...The despair and anxiety wrought by antisocials (psychopaths) tragically affects families and communities, leaving deep physical and emotional scars..."

[Rats]

I wish I could have been there... might have been able to stop the little bastard before he got too far into it...

Yet the little coward didn't walk into a PD... Did he???

Not a chance... he wouldn't have lasted beyond 1st presentation!!

Even if I could have saved just one of those kids.....

[Patrick Hand]

Hey... he got his 15 minutes of time/fame.....

Just we will all remember him as that stupid piece of sh**.............

Too bad he just didn't just kill himself... pile of sh**... he had to take other good people with him.....f***ing losser..... ( and that is the way we should remember thaat chunka sh**... as a looser........his life.... that was the best that chunka sh** could do....)

heven or hell should get interesting for that piece of sh**......

What is Life...?

Dumb stuff happens....

But we don"t hope so.....

And I don't think the victome thought so also..........

Photoshoping a picture of Di** head... (for his rememberence) into the di** head he was.......

33 People dead... and we remember this half wit........

NO...

I will spam the internet with pictures (photoshoped) of of this di**head....He will go down in History as the most... the largest pile of sh** in US history,,,,, (Hey... just doing my part...)

Andy Whorholl...?... everyone gets thier 15 munitedts of fame.........

Infamoy is a heck of a lot worse....

to stop future ,,,,,"mass" violence... is to "trash them right now....

so thier 15 minutes of fame..... should.........well sux.......

[Patrick Hand]

I don't know how many Pyrates beleave in ghost....

But damning his "spirit".............

I don't thinks he is going somewhere...... "nice"...............

[The Chapman]

I read in the Wisconsin State Journal today that the Walther .22 pistol the shooter had was sold to him by a dealer in Green Bay, WI, who then got deluged by the media. He stated this was his absolute worst nightmare. I bet.

So; I'll go to the trouble of explaining simply, how this kid ordered up this particular pistol (I've purchased a lot of guns in the past, (don't ask), and grew up as close friends with a family that owned the local firearms store).

Per Federal law, this kid went to the firearms dealers' website, supplied a credit card number and, importantly, the address and Federal Firearms' License number of a receiving dealer in Virginia. ONLY FFL HOLDERS CAN SHIP FIREARMS INTERSTATE FOR PURCHASE. THIS WAS NOT A 'MAIL ORDER' GUN.

The dealer in Green Bay shipped the pistol to the dealer (in this case a pawn shop FFL) in Virginia. The kid filled out a purchase form in which he probably lied about ever having been in a mental institution, thereby committing a Federal felony.

The kid's name and SSN was run through either a state background check system (For instance, the Illinois State Police run their own background checks; WI uses the Federal National Instant Check System, or NICS), or NICS. The kid's record came up clean and the pistol was transferred to him, after a statute-mandated waiting (or 'cooling-off') period. In this case the kid obviously didn't 'cool off'.

NOW; and this is important; once that check came back clean, that dealer had no right to NOT hand the kid that gun. Some of you may remember the Luarie Dann school shootings in Winnetka, IL. I was for some reason standing in Mike's gun store when Fox News came in and asked to interview him (he didn't sell anything to Dann, the news crew just wanted an interview with a 'gun dealer'), and listened to Mike painfully attempt to explain to a totally uncomprehending reporter that if the checks come back clean, refusing a transfer because someone 'looks funny' or 'seems weird' is a basis for a discrimination lawsuit, and that he may as well refuse to sell a gun because the prospective purchaser is Black. Or Asian.

The Glock came from a walk-in purchase in Virginia, from another store.

Just in case anyone is wondering where the pieces came from and how they were purchased. They weren't really clean buys because the kid had to lie about his mental history on the form. Or maybe not. But the kid's official record was clean.

What a mess.