German School Shooting

[Cassie]

Police in Germany are investigating why a teenage gunman went on a shooting spree that began at his former school and ended with the loss of 16 lives.

Nine students, including eight girls, three teachers and three members of the public, were shot during 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer's rampage on Wednesday.

The teenager eventually shot himself after a shoot-out with police.

Flags are flying at half-mast across Germany for those killed in the south-west towns of Winnenden and Wendlingen.
(From BBC News) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7938876.stm)
German politicians are now re-evaluating their gun laws which are already quite strict. (The gunman took guns from his father who had a licence to collect guns.)
It was also reported that a large collection of violent video games were found in the gunman's room.

[Morred]

I don't know why this kind of things keeps happening...horrible. I feel very sad for the families of the victims.
But I can already see how the "computer games make teenagers run amok" people will make use of that....

[Kraheera]

Pffft... if they blame this on video games (and someone will, have no doubt) I will laugh and point. Violent video games DO NOT cause violent behavior. They can't even decide if there is a link between those prone to violence buying violent video games.

That kid had problems, and I can almost guarantee he was one of those kids that got picked on, or was invisible. I can almost guarantee that he finally snapped, and decided to go after all those that made his life "hell".

Teenagers are impulsive. Enough said.

[Nicholas]

I'm in disagreement with the gun violence video games creating these tragedies. In fact I once read a study which my psych prof showed us last year about the evidence which showed that in 95% of all cases it was the thrill of victory which made these games popular. Most people didn't even register that they were violent. It was the equivalent of winning a game of paint ball or laser tag.

This incident is unfortunate and a puzzling phenomena in my opinion.

[memnoch]

Whats this, school shootings happen in countries that have strict gun laws...but I thought that was why America had these problems, our gun laws aren't strict enough.

[ignescentphoenix]

Whats this, school shootings happen in countries that have strict gun laws...but I thought that was why America had these problems, our gun laws aren't strict enough.


Darn it. You beat me to it.

[memnoch]

Darn it. You beat me to it.

What can I say, whenever there is a thread about guns, I will be there.

[ignescentphoenix]

What can I say, whenever there is a thread about guns, I will be there.


Just think of how different it could have been, had a good civilian been there with a gun.

[memnoch]

Just think of how different it could have been, had a good civilian been there with a gun.

Or, imagine this, a teacher with a gun

[ignescentphoenix]

Or, imagine this, a teacher with a gun


Memnoch, you need to lay of the sauce, thats crazy thinking. An armed person protecting our country's future?! :hairred:

Im sure they are safe, I mean, it is a "gun free" zone.


(Btw, My heart goes out to the victim's families.) :(

I wanted to get that out of the way before we sarcasm the shiznit out of this thread.

[memnoch]

Memnoch, you need to lay of the sauce, thats crazy thinking. An armed person protecting our country's future?! :hairred:

Im sure they are safe, I mean, it is a "gun free" zone.


(Btw, My heart goes out to the victim's families.) :(

I wanted to get that out of the way before we sarcasm the shiznit out of this thread.

Well, we do know that teachers are violent criminals that would resort to violence every time a kid acts up, but the kids are innocent, if only it weren't for the music/videogames/movies/tv.

[Cassie]

Just think of how different it could have been, had a good civilian been there with a gun.
Or if a bad civilian hadn't had access to his father's gun collection...


Or, imagine this, a teacher with a gun
Believe me, we'd be tempted too often!