So I just survived a school shooting...

[Sven und EIN HUND]

There'll definitely be some kind of scapegoat... I'm not sure if the media is still on gaming's ass but if so, we all know how this is going to pan out.

 

[Still Life]

Sounds like people in Texas really do have fruit loops in the morning.

 

[Giest4life]

I go to the University of Texas, where a student shot himself with an AK47 this morning. Not really that hard to survive, but there was obviously a huge commotion, I was in lock down in a lecture hall for three hours, and it was overall one of the weirdest days of my life, and I'm still a little frazzled. All I can think to do is my laundry. So I want to know, Escapist, have you ever experienced anything like this? What do you think possesses people to shoot places up or shoot themselves in public? Are you worried that this will get blamed on video games? There's just so much to talk about when this stuff happens I don't even know a good question to ask.

Edit: Extra clarification: No one knows why he did it or how he got a frickin AK47. I don't know how he even angled it to shoot himself anyway. Also, apparently he was running around smiling at people and yelling "woohoo!" So yeah...

Edit 2: Most important and probably should've been clearer in the initial post, he shot no one but himself.

Shit dude. I just heard the news on npr.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

There'll definitely be some kind of scapegoat... I'm not sure if the media is still on gaming's ass but if so, we all know how this is going to pan out.

Actually, a student group was planning on holding a meeting dealing with allowing students to carry concealed weapons on campus. This got "tactfully" moved off campus, by which I mean across Guadalupe. Whatever scapegoat they'll find will more than likely morph into "hey, these guys DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH GUNS ON CAMPUS!11!?1!?1"

 

[Requx]

Cool story, but umm you survived somebody elses suicide...

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Sounds like people in Texas really do have fruit loops in the morning.

For the record, I had just eaten a bagel and an orange.

 

[XzarTheMad]

Wow, talk about a bad day.

Personally, I live in a country where firearms for civilians are banned. As such, I've only ever "experienced" one incident, namely a guy who got stabbed to death over a small bag of pot at a party. He was a friend of some of my classmates, so I didn't know him, but it felt weird nonetheless, since it happened not too far from where I lived.

'part from that, the worst that happened was a kid who tried to attack a girl with a compass during a math test. Good times.

 

[JWAN]

The second time a guy broke in through our other side door and my dad and I both grabbed our guns and told him in the most forceful manner possible to put his forehead on the ground and if he did so much as twitch we would both shoot him, take whatever money he had to fix the holes in the floor from the 3 inch slugs. and we again waited for the cops to haul him away.

You are my fucking hero. I salute you and your BAMF[footnote]BAMF=Badass ************[/footnote]ery.

My dad has a lot of practice in the BAMF category, a tour in Vietnam with 2nd battalion 5th Marines and 30 years as a prison guard. I hope his snappy one liners will one day be passed down to me like the flames upon the apostles shoulders, only with more cussing.

 

[jacx]

id liek to clear something up for you... AK-47s are perfectly legal in the U.S as long as its not fully automatic. you can go to any licensed gun salse person in your town and ask for one assuming your 18 and a citizen...you will have to wait 72 hours though, so you dont go out and murder soem one the day you get it. in addition, teenage males are the most likley to kill themselves for various reasons... as to why he did it on campus, it was probably one last cry for attention. thanks for reading

 

[Lord Monocle Von Banworthy]

Everybody knows that thumbs can pull triggers too, right? I don't want to get into the whole gun control clusterbang, but you must really lack imagination if you can't figure out how you kill yourself with an AK.

News seems to be saying the weapon is automatic, but plenty of people, especially in the gun-control crowd, don't particularly know the difference between types of guns.

...you will have to wait 72 hours though, so you dont go out and murder soem one the day you get it.

No you don't. You walk in with money and walk out with your gun.
http://www.texasgunstore.com/education.html#FAQ1

 

[asinann]

If this is blamed on video games and not the availability of firearms (amongst other things) I will be both unsurprised and hugely pissed off.

Anyway, that must have been shit a day.

The only thing to blame this on is the kid that did the shooting, if he didn't have a gun he would have used pills, or a knife to kill himself.

This "it's the availability of guns that makes people into killers" crap is just that: crap. People have been killing each other ever since we learned that rocks can be used to crush skulls.

If the rocks aren't so easily available there's less of a chance of it happening.

The point is less that he "only" killed himself, and more that he could get hold of an automatic weapon and the potential damage. Why, pray tell, would anyone in America require an AK47 to begin with?

I think you're gliding over the fact that gun equals insta-death, whereas knife, pills and hanging are far slower, more painful affairs.

If the gun's not there for people to get, there's less chance of stuff like this (and the regular school shootings in the States). There may be school stabbings but there's never gonna be a school stabbing on the scale of a school shooting.

Except that it wasn't an automatic weapon and someone with a knife will kill a lot more people before they're found out than the guy with the gun. Guns make this really loud noise when they are used while a knife doesn't, unless you put a squeaky clown nose in the handle.

 

[thom_cat_]

In Australia we have strict gun laws, so there are no school shootings, much much less gun crime and less killings in general.
Most of us think your gun freedom is stupid.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Someone wrote on our school mirrors in red paint that a package would go boom at 1:00. It was noon when someone discovered this so the whole school was evacuated and I went home. No package went boom.

 

[superbatranger]

Well, thank goodness no else was hurt. This happened at my high school once, but the cops found out before the kid was able to use the gun.

 

[there is no spoon]

Damn. Worst thing that ever happened at my school was a three-alarm fire. I can't say that's ever happened around me, but I do deal with plenty of death; decapitations, mutilations, disembowelment-- you get the idea.

Regardless, here's hoping the grief counselor doesn't bore you to tears. Or, if you genuinely need it, here's hoping (s)he's god at their job.

Out of morbid curiosity what exactly do you do that exposes you to such things?

 

[Im Nightmare]

No no you did not survive a school shooting. The kid killed himself.

 

[Mcupobob]

Yes, my school was went on lock down during SAT testing my freshman year. It all was a just a stupid senior prank, but the police and state police were there armed to the teeth. Eventully they had to escort people to the bathroom which we didn't know about intill our teacher had set up a bathroom composed of a sink and a bunch of amps for a stall. One kid was taking a piss when the cops came in saying they can take people to the bathroom. It all was very funny.


Anywho the kid who made the call threating to shoot the school was thrown in jail for awhile and couldn't attend graduation.

 

[spartan231490]

If this is blamed on video games and not the availability of firearms (amongst other things) I will be both unsurprised and hugely pissed off.

Anyway, that must have been shit a day.

Availability of firearms has nothing to do with it. It's a lot easier to kill yourself with over the counter medication or a kitchen knife than with a rifle. This has everything to do with one kid haveing so many emotional issues that he thought his only escape was the afterlife. completely seperate issues, why don't we blame it on poor parenting, or a mental condition called depression, and maybe some other things, not "the availability of firearms." Maybe let's blame bullying, or a culture which isolates people who are "different," thereby depriving them of emotional outlets.