At Least 14 Killed in Colo. Movie Shooting

[Corwin]

Agreed, although I would extend that to include a complete collapse of discipline and respect. We've done our level best to eliminate bad consequences from any and all actions, so when people get frustrated, it's far more likely to be turned outward because it certainly can't be their fault.
.

Totally correct. NOW, why has this happened? The 3 main sources for learning about discipline and respect were the home, the school and the 'church'. In our so called modern and enlightened society, parents have been told old fashioned discipline will damage their children; schools can no longer administer ANY discipline and there is little respect for teachers, or education; more and more people are leaving churches and saying 'religion' isn't relevant, or they don't want things like 'The 10 Commandments' taught to their kids. You're now seeing the consequences of all this!!

 

[DArtagnan]

Here in Europe, our (current) culture and mentality is that of living in a society without access to firearms and to us it does come across as "madness" and "gun crazyness" when we hear some of the most vocal defenders of guns in the U.S.

I assume that gun ownership is deeply imbedded in the culture of certain parts of the U.S. so I cannot blame them for wanting to defend their way of life. And let's be honest, being told by some foreigners how to live and being accused of ignorance and stupidity, or worse supporters of murder, isn't exactly making someone receptive but instead more defensive.

Personally, my feeling is that the violence in U.S. isn't the result of the laws regarding firearms but more related to the problems in society. It is the richest country in the world yet it has, compared to other Western countries, a lot of poverty and social insecurity.

My understanding is that Canada is the "social" version of the U.S. and isn't Canada supposed to have a lot of gun ownership as well among the populace but without the same level of violence as its Southern neighbour?

I'm not trying to manipulate people to change their ways - and I gave up reasoning with people many, many years ago. Well, I didn't give it up - but I only ever bother when people are being reasonable to begin with. That means having a logical and sane position - not an ignorant one.

I'm not bothered by being impolite - and people are welcome to despise me all they want.

All I care about is minimising damage - and for that, you can't bother with individuals that have a closed mind. You simply have to focus on getting at the truth - if it's there. To my mind - easy access to weaponry as lethal and convenient as a gun being a direct cause for needless death is as close to a truth as we're likely to get in our lives. So, if people don't understand that or underestimate that because they want to have their own gun and "feel safe" - I have to speak my mind about it.

I have absolutely no tolerance or patience for people who're supporting the deaths of innocent people - ignorant or not. It just needs to be made clear.

But, again, I don't blame people for being stupid - and indeed, if you support lax gun laws in America YOU ARE STUPID in any meaningful sense of the word (we can call it ignorant if you prefer) - but I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

 

[Couchpotato]

An update on the story.

According to a new report by Fox News, James mailed a notebook “full of details about how he was going to kill people” to a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, but it sat unopened in the mail room for as long as a week before it was discovered on Monday, July 23.

The police were called to the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus on July 23 after the psychiatrist, who is also a professor at the school, reported having received a package he believed was from James. Oddly, that package turned out to be harmless and from somebody else, but a sweep of the Campus Services’ mailroom found another package sent to the psychiatrist with James’ name in the return address.

After a judge allowed the package to be opened, the disturbing notebook was found. “Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people,” a source told Fox News. “There were drawings of what he was going to do in it — drawings and illustrations of the massacre.” Reportedly among the images in the notebook are gun-toting stick figures shooting other stick figures.

Fox News’ source says the package had been in the mailroom since July 12. It was not clear why the package had never been delivered to the psychiatrist.

 

[dteowner]

I'm not trying to manipulate people to change their ways - and I gave up reasoning with people many, many years ago. Well, I didn't give it up - but I only ever bother when people are being reasonable to begin with. That means having a logical and sane position - not an ignorant one.

I'm not bothered by being impolite - and people are welcome to despise me all they want.

All I care about is minimising damage - and for that, you can't bother with individuals that have a closed mind. You simply have to focus on getting at the truth - if it's there. To my mind - easy access to weaponry as lethal and convenient as a gun being a direct cause for needless death is as close to a truth as we're likely to get in our lives. So, if people don't understand that or underestimate that because they want to have their own gun and "feel safe" - I have to speak my mind about it.

I have absolutely no tolerance or patience for people who're supporting the deaths of innocent people - ignorant or not. It just needs to be made clear.

But, again, I don't blame people for being stupid - and indeed, if you support lax gun laws in America YOU ARE STUPID in any meaningful sense of the word (we can call it ignorant if you prefer) - but I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

When your solution has been shown, over and over, to be faulty but you continue to cling to it, I would question which of us is being STUPID. You're treating symptoms rather than root causes and you're proposing demonstrably counterproductive techniques at that. This has been shown with real world case studies. It's to this topic what leeching is to medicine. I would question which of us is being STUPID.

 

[DArtagnan]

When your solution has been shown, over and over, to be faulty but you continue to cling to it, I would question which of us is being STUPID. You're treating symptoms rather than root causes and you're proposing demonstrably counterproductive techniques at that. This has been shown with real world case studies. It's to this topic what leeching is to medicine. I would question which of us is being STUPID.

My solution has been shown to work - but that's beside the point. I'm being pragmatic and realistic about what can be done in the short-term to save lives. Not in the long-term, because there's no reason we can't do both.

But by being smart we can reduce the amount of people dying for no reason quite significantly - and the only thing holding us back is a bunch of morons holding on to some rights that end up hurting themselves as well as everyone else.

If I'm stupid for that reason - than I count myself fortunate to claim it.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The fourth wall. He was trying to break through the fourth wall.

I came to this conclusion after reading the last chapters of this : http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-14-the-medal-of-honor-tomahawk