Help me with these idiots!!!!

[pidaster]

Here's a current article from my local newspaper. I had no idea there were so many people without a clue from this area.:wall: At the bottom of the article click "view all comments". Sign up and help me out if you want to. Please.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/OPINION01/704250303

[MID]

Here's a current article from my local newspaper. I had no idea there were so many people without a clue from this area.:wall: At the bottom of the article click "view all comments". Sign up and help me out if you want to. Please.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070425/OPINION01/704250303


Banning guns not the answer
By David Rankin

What more can be said about the horrific events that took place on Monday April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech? Indeed, the shooting rampage should be characterized as nothing less than psychotic. This dreadful day will be permanently tattooed on the memory of the entire Hokie family and everyone who mourns with them.

Of course, with any tragedy comes the finger pointing, expert advice from Monday morning quarterbacks and political/religious debates. Perhaps this is a natural human response in an effort to comprehend senseless acts that occur repeatedly in America - Oklahoma City, Columbine, World Trade Center, etc. At times, listening to the various opinions can be overwhelming and often in the midst of heated debates the victims and their families are forgotten about.

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In fact, I questioned whether some news media are paying more attention to the perpetrator than those who were impacted by his horrendous act. If the former is the case, then Seung-Hui Cho has eternally etched his name in American history, albeit in infamy.

Consequently, opportunists/propagandists are now surfacing and, thus, pushing their agendas in the form of gun bans and mental evaluations to better predict human behavior. I even had the displeasure of listening to a news commentator try to make a correlation between Cho and Islam. Perhaps this was some attempt to take a cheap shoot at Muslims or put a religious spin on the ordeal.

Personally, I take issue with individuals who use such events for political gain. I spent a good part of my childhood in my grandfather's household, who was a National Rifle Association member and a marksman with an arsenal of guns in the home. Bullies and kids who were less than kind were just as abundant as they are today; however, taking a gun to school and shooting people never crossed my mind.

This idea of banning guns to prevent tragic events like the Virginia Tech massacre is not, in my opinion, the magic cure-all. Besides, individuals with malicious intent will only find other creative avenues to wreak havoc on our society. There are a number of law-abiding citizens who own guns to protect their families and themselves from others who may have guns for criminal intentions, e.g. robbery, home invasions, and murder.

Additionally, the idea of acting on the warning signs may prove to be difficult if not a bit overzealous. I know of people who may be considered loners or who don't talk much, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are about commit the next murder-suicide. After all, predicting human behavior is not an exact science.

That is not to say that the signs weren't there in Cho's case, but who would have known he would wake up Monday morning and commence his deadly carnage?

Removing him from Virginia Tech might have only meant him carrying out his murder-suicide elsewhere.

# David Rankin is a resident of Hattiesburg.



I copied it for future reference

[wandering_ronin]

You shouldn't be too surprised at some folks reactions down there, Pidaster...Hattiesburg is a college town after all. The leftists are steadily gaining in the higher education arena down here as well as in the rest of the country.