At least 20+ dead students in Virginia Tech; shooter dead

I feel for the parents, who I surmise may not have had any handle on all this. It must be beyond excruciating for them. Talk about islands in the world.

This tragedy would not have happened had Cho Seung-hui (who was clearly mentally disturbed) NOT HAD READY ACCESS TO HAND GUNS.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in American attitudes towards guns and gun ownership.

Until that happens, and vested interests are doing all they can to prevent it, expect more massacres of innocents.

In my opinion the problem is a cultural one and therefore quite hard to tackle. The only practical solution is banning gun ownership for the majority of the population (so as to make the likelihood of a deranged person obtaining a gun smaller), but in the US there are so many guns already in circulation that it will take very long (like Setanta already pointed out) to sieve out the pieces. A change in mentality will take equally long, so there seems to be no easy, short term solution for the problem.

Paaskynen wrote:

In my opinion the problem is a cultural one and therefore quite hard to tackle. The only practical solution is banning gun ownership for the majority of the population (so as to make the likelihood of a deranged person obtaining a gun smaller), but in the US there are so many guns already in circulation that it will take very long (like Setanta already pointed out) to sieve out the pieces. A change in mentality will take equally long, so there seems to be no easy, short term solution for the problem.

Yes, it is cultural and it won't be easy to resoolve. I disagree that the only practical solution is banning guns however.

The "cultural" problem, IMO, is more one of a fear of "labeling" people. We have people that are mentally ill all over the place and everyone is afraid to speak up and say something because of an ingrained notion that 1.) people have a right to exist as they chose to exist 2.) "It's not my problem" and 3.) The person will be "labeled" and that label will harm their self-esteem.

As a result, mentally unstable people wander the streets and hallways and no one says a word to them. Fe get any sort of medical help. No one ensures that the menatlly unstable don't become a danger to themselves or others.

Instead we brag about the number of kids on Ritilan in our schools. Bi-polar disoarder in seen as a badge of honor by some. People sit around and discuss their menatl diorders in terms of "Who can top this?". And for some reason, even though mental disability is an automatic disqualifier for buying firearms in every state in this country, very few mental health professionals ever report any of their patients even though the laws require them to.

Yeas, there are some laws that need to be tightened up with regards to firearms. But there are a lot of other cultural issues that would address the problem just as well - and they'd also address a host of other problems that additional gun controls won't address.

That's just nonsense, fishin.

The reason many mentally ill people "wander the streets and hallways" is that mental health budgets have been pared to the bone and there is no money for institutionalizing people who, at first blush, don't appear to be a clear and present danger.

And I seriously doubt that anyone is "bragging" either about their own psychopathologies or about the number of children who need treatment.

One of the signs was an obsession with guns and violence.

Does that mean we can or should intervene with those that are obsessed with guns?

One of the signs was an obsession with guns and violence.

Does that mean we can or should intervene with those that are obsessed with guns?

Not bragging, but I just read that in the US there are more registered arms merchants than petrol stations. Can that be true? If so it indicates the scope of the issue.