Northern Illinois University Shooting

swerve

So you all know there was a school shooting here in DeKalb this afternoon.

I am ok and so is my girlfriend. If you know anyone who goes to NIU here in DeKalb you may want to check on them this afternoon/evening.

LINKS:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html
http://www.niu.edu

daboyz

Damn,glad you both are allright. I'm just up the road and that's all anyone is talking about. Crazy,crazy.crazy.

BaggedLancer

From what I just heard on the news....no one died except for the shooter right? Thank god.

What is going on lately? This is becoming a once a week thing....

Airplay355

Being in college is expensive and dangerous. I don't get it either, i don't remember hearing about this stuff as much as when I was a kid. I think the media spreading his stuff gives all the nut cases an idea on how to get your name plastered everywhere.

I hope nothing like that ever happens here...

swerve

4 are reported dead for sure now.

****
i'm sick of **** like this

Serendipity

BaggedLancer wrote: »

From what I just heard on the news....no one died except for the shooter right? Thank god.

What is going on lately? This is becoming a once a week thing....

I don't get it too, why is this happening so much lately?

wizzy

That sucks.

dkg999

For some reason the going out in a blaze of glory phenomenom seems to be some sort of sick ritual in today's society. Not sure why. Very sad. Mixed reports on if anyone other than the shooter died.

Serendipity

This is very sad.

Mike Kozak

Young , or just some people cannot handle their problems and they see no way out but to do as much damage as possible. Very sad indeed.

swerve

5 dead.
not including the shooter.

bobman1235

People are crazy. Wish there were a better answer. There's 300 million of us in this country, >6 billion around the world... leaves a LOT of room for crazies.

Glad everyone here is OK and best to anyone from the area.

polksda

6 dead including the shooter. 16 others wounded, some seriously.

candyliquor35m

makes me wonder if some ppl just wanna find out if there really a place called hell.

Demiurge

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Fireman32

Unfreakin real! Glad you and your girlfriend are ok.

cubdog

This is just sick. I lived in Denver when Columbine happened so I know what it does to a community. I just hope the other victims live and eventually survive the trauma.

cubdog

Strong Bad

Glad you and the girl are ok. 7 people dead, very very sad! Nobody is going to feel safe going anywhere. As said above, WTF is going on lately? Shooting up schools, churches, malls, etc...

Any news about who the shooter was and where he got the guns?

polkatese

Glad you and your GF are a ok.

What happened to study hard, get laid, and experimenting with drugs, in colleges?

time change, I supposed. I can't imagine my kids (in a few years) having to go through metal detectors going inside lecture halls.

danger boy

sorry to derail your thread for a moment.. but in nearby Idaho, the Idaho legislature is trying to pass a bill that would allow college students to carry a side arm.. they would have to have a conceled weapons permit of course. but the thought is that if a student was armed when a armed gunmen entered the school campus and starting shooting at other students and staff, then he could be taken out right away, thereby lessening the amount of people getting shot.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong.. but it has both positive and negative factors associated with it.

please don't make this a big debate on gun control... just talk about it sensibly.

I feel for that college and the people that were impacted by this shooting.

PhantomOG

I dunno... I have no problem with concealed weapons permits, but I think the standard of no guns allowed on campuses is a good thing. Sure, in the one in a million chance something like this happens it might be good, but for the 99.999999% of the other time, I think its most likely that a bunch of sleep deprived, stressed out, possibly hung over, college students would do more harm than good with concealed weapons allowed on campus.

Strong Bad

Thanks for posting that Danger Boy. I was going to go into some of that (concealed carry permits and carrying in colleges) in my post, but left it out. I think it's a good thing, but unfortunately, a neccessary thing.

We might want to start another thread as to not derail Swerve's original post.

danger boy

PhantomOG, it's no longer one in a million odds of a shooting happening on a school campus anymore. we hardly go one school year without there being some kind of school shooting involved. sad, but true. think about it since Columbine.. there have been school shootings each and every year.

dkg999

One problem that needs looked at is the publication of "gun free zones" that just scream to cowardly criminals that no one will challenge them when they attempt some sick act like this. I have a person here at work that is just in dismay that someone would not realize that the college was a "gun free zone" and would break the law like this! This thing isn't about guns, it's about why someone would want to commit an act like this, what societal pressure or perverse-norms would drive this type of act, and how we prevent it in the future.

The fact that the shooter was off his meds and had been acting irrationally for several weeks (according to the news media) is something I'm curious to know more about.

danger boy

Strong Bad wrote: »

Thanks for posting that Danger Boy. I was going to go into some of that (concealed carry permits and carrying in colleges) in my post, but left it out. I think it's a good thing, but unfortunately, a neccessary thing.

We might want to start another thread as to not derail Swerve's original post.

you're right.. i moved this thread

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=803027#post803027

Demiurge

moved

dkg999

Demi - I agree. We need to get to the cause of the act, not the tool which was the guns. My good friend who was one of the first on the scene at Columbine told me the reason they stood outside while the shooting continued is that they had good info that they had 20lb propane cylinders made into bombs, and while they can defend against a gun, there's no defense against a bomb. Point is, once a person crosses the line and decides to commit an act like this, the tool they use is just a symptom and focusing on it doesn't try to solve the problem.

Lowell_M

Swerve, Glad you and your G-friend are ok. I work in Sycamore and this is the topic of the office. My intern is in his final semester at NIU and I was freaking out yesterday wondering if he was ok. I can't imagine what everyone and their families more closely related to the campus are going through right now.

Demiurge

PhantomOG wrote: »

My thoughts on the current ban on campuses is that its not trying to prevent these kinds of shootouts, its to prevent other kinds of accidents. Suicide rates in colleges are higher than everywhere else. College students in general are a sleep deprived, hyper stressed, emotional and spontaneous portion of the population. Even if they are great candidates for a permit one year, the next year when their fiance dumps them, they fail to get into law school, and one of their parents die all at the same time as they are sleep deprived from taking finals, they are probably the last person on earth you want having easy access to a gun.

Yes, this is about the government protecting people from themselves which I am generally against. However, to me, it just makes sense in this situation. I honestly believe more people would die from gunshots on campuses if there were not a ban in place. Would there be less deaths like this? Possibly, but still more deaths overall.

What did the ban do to stop Virginia Tech and this NIU shooting from happening? Nothing. What did the ban do to limit the destruction at Virginia Tech and NIU? Nothing.

The fact is that most people don't go through the training to get a CCW. Those that do don't always carry. Most do not find it necessary to have a gun in class like they would walking through their city at night. Some would, and that's enough uncertainty for the types who plan these kinds of senseless killings.

We send people the same age and younger into combat to defend this country, but we can't trust these same adults with training to be responsible in defending others here at home?

There seems to be a misconception that all people from 18-30 are a bunch of irresponsible drunks. Many are, and those aren't the ones who will be going through CCW training. I can guarantee you that. I'm nearly 28 myself and I have been an NRA certified pistol instructor for 7 years.

Strong Bad

danger boy wrote: »

you're right.. i moved this thread

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?p=803027#post803027

And it got locked.

PhantomOG

Demiurge wrote: »

What did the ban do to stop Virginia Tech and this NIU shooting from happening? Nothing. What did the ban do to limit the destruction at Virginia Tech and NIU? Nothing.

The fact is that most people don't go through the training to get a CCW. Those that do don't always carry. Most do not find it necessary to have a gun in class like they would walking through their city at night. Some would, and that's enough uncertainty for the types who plan these kinds of senseless killings.

We send people the same age and younger into combat to defend this country, but we can't trust these same adults with training to be responsible in defending others here at home?

There seems to be a misconception that all people from 18-30 are a bunch of irresponsible drunks. Many are, and those aren't the ones who will be going through CCW training. I can guarantee you that. I'm nearly 28 myself and I have been an NRA certified pistol instructor for 7 years.

Did you not see that I said I feel the good from the bans is not the prevention of this type of attack?

Uncertainty? I feel you give the type of person who would do this far too much credit for rational thought. What are they afraid of dying? Obviously not. When someone goes off the deep end, they go off the deep end.

You just said yourself that the number of students with a permit would be low. On top of that, an even smaller chance that one would happen to be in a class where this happens, and then an even smaller chance they took the extra time to bring the gun to class.

All I'm saying it I imagine if we allowed guns on campus the total number of deaths by gunshot on campuses would go up. Not how or why. Not that people would or wouldn't feel safer.