Shootings
Bullets are funny things, aren't they? It only takes one to end a life. So if one person, untrained and mentally unstable goes out with one, how many lives can s/he end in one go? S/he's limited only by how many in the chamber and how many reloads carried on hand. What kind of mental distress does someone have to be in to make a decision like that? To go in and end the lives of everyone s/he can find?
Truth be told I don't care. Such a decision is unconscionable and there is no justification at all for it. While I'm sorry for the students dead, I can't help but point out the common thread in the victims. Not one of them had a gun or bullets.
In this situation the university had two hours in which to respond to the shootings, and yet that didn't happen with any effectiveness. The shootings continued. A loaded gun is a deadly item in anyone's hands. It gives a power over others that cannot be truly comprehended save by the shooter and the shot. And yet they can be learned, focused, harnessed.
Suppose someone else had a gun on hand? Suppose as the shooter's back was turned someone pulled out their own weapon and ended his life? Or at least knocked him off his feet? How many lives would have been saved had someone who was not in authority, someone who was one of the victims, had weilded the same power as the shooter? Not a wild fool but someone used to it, who knew and respected what s/he had in hir hands. Suppose after the first gun ran out the shooter hadn't even been given a chance to add more bullets? It took at least 33 bullets to end the lives of the students that day. How many would it have taken to save them?
Truth be told I don't care. Such a decision is unconscionable and there is no justification at all for it. While I'm sorry for the students dead, I can't help but point out the common thread in the victims. Not one of them had a gun or bullets.
In this situation the university had two hours in which to respond to the shootings, and yet that didn't happen with any effectiveness. The shootings continued. A loaded gun is a deadly item in anyone's hands. It gives a power over others that cannot be truly comprehended save by the shooter and the shot. And yet they can be learned, focused, harnessed.
Suppose someone else had a gun on hand? Suppose as the shooter's back was turned someone pulled out their own weapon and ended his life? Or at least knocked him off his feet? How many lives would have been saved had someone who was not in authority, someone who was one of the victims, had weilded the same power as the shooter? Not a wild fool but someone used to it, who knew and respected what s/he had in hir hands. Suppose after the first gun ran out the shooter hadn't even been given a chance to add more bullets? It took at least 33 bullets to end the lives of the students that day. How many would it have taken to save them?