Oregon shooting: Initial reports of 10 dead at Umpqua Community College

[Syt]

Terrible. I assume no clue as to motive yet.

Just another emo, narcissistic wanker I expect..............with easy access to lethal hardware.

In Europe he would have had to make do with running about campus with a small penknife.

Depends on the country, doesn't it? E.g. in Switzerland he would likely have had an assault rifle at home. Though the mountain gnomes are a bit of an outlier on the continent in that regard.

[jimmy olsen]

Mass shootings like this were extremely rare before Columbine and there were plenty of semiautomatic weapons in circulation then. Not sure what change in the nation's psche brought the current state of affairs about.

[Ideologue]

Terrible. I assume no clue as to motive yet.

Just another emo, narcissistic wanker I expect..............with easy access to lethal hardware.

In Europe he would have had to make do with running about campus with a small penknife.

I recall a certain tragedy in Norway.

[Valmy]

Fuck. This just happens too often in the US, guys. It's not even unusual any more.

You don't say?

[Valmy]

Mass shootings like this were extremely rare before Columbine and there were plenty of semiautomatic weapons in circulation then. Not sure what change in the nation's psche brought the current state of affairs about.

We had a couple in Texas in the 90s before Columbine. They were not in schools though.

[Eddie Teach]

Mass shootings like this were extremely rare before Columbine and there were plenty of semiautomatic weapons in circulation then. Not sure what change in the nation's psche brought the current state of affairs about.

24 hour news cycle and reality television. Now people are primed to grab their fifteen minutes.

[Razgovory]

13 dead

Gunman was killed in a shootout with police, not sure if he's included in that count.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/oregon-college-shooting/multiple-casualties-after-shooting-umpqua-community-college-n437051

This is odd:

The shooter told people to get on the ground and started asking them people to stand up and state their religion, Moore told the newspaper.

I wonder what was the "right answer".

This was reported to have happened at Columbine.  Probably a fucking copycat.

[Malthus]

Malthus would have been the perfect person to ask.  By the time he had fully explained how his religious views should probably be characterized the police would have arrived on the scene and arrested the shooter.

[viper37]

Mass shootings like this were extremely rare before Columbine and there were plenty of semiautomatic weapons in circulation then. Not sure what change in the nation's psche brought the current state of affairs about.

I wouldn't say extremely rare:
http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/mass-shootings-investigation

But guns aren't the only cause.

Accessibility to guns is the big matter.  That just about anyone can get just about any type of weapon without any kind of justification/investigation is beyond silly.  You give lots of people with mental health problems access to deadly weapons.

Then, there's the matter of American culture where many people still think they live in a far west movie and they have to solve their problems themselves.  With guns.

And lastly, we attack the mental health problem.  This goes to health care accessibility and the fact that you can't seem to commit depressive people against their will.  This is the biggest issue, imho.  Societal taboo that push some to keep schizophrenic family member at home without decent care and other problems related to lack of decent healthcare for low to average family income.

[Valmy]

http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/

Yep there is the Killeen massacre and the Fort Worth church shooting. Both pre-Columbine.

And lastly, we attack the mental health problem.  This goes to health care accessibility and the fact that you can't seem to commit depressive people against their will.  This is the biggest issue, imho.  Societal taboo that push some to keep schizophrenic family member at home without decent care and other problems related to lack of decent healthcare for low to average family income.

And even better the more fanatic 2nd Amendment types think any mental health check before selling a gun is a form of gun control.

[Monoriu]

And even better the more fanatic 2nd Amendment types think any mental health check before selling a gun is a form of gun control.

It does sound like gun control to me, but very reasonable and essential gun control. 

[DontSayBanana]

And even better the more fanatic 2nd Amendment types think any mental health check before selling a gun is a form of gun control.

It does sound like gun control to me, but very reasonable and essential gun control.

The 2A fanatics think any form of "control" on guns is unreasonable, even though 2A puts a precondition on the right to bear arms.  Nutty is as nutty does.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

And lastly, we attack the mental health problem.  This goes to health care accessibility and the fact that you can't seem to commit depressive people against their will.  This is the biggest issue, imho.  Societal taboo that push some to keep schizophrenic family member at home without decent care and other problems related to lack of decent healthcare for low to average family income.

This is a legacy of our terrible experience with institutionalization in the 40s through the 70s.  When people saw what was going on, particularly after One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the backlash created a situation where people who needed help had a really hard time getting it because the resources weren't there anymore.  It was still an "out of sight, out of mind" issue, but "out of sight" became people's homes or the streets instead of what were effectively minimum security prisons.

[Martinus]

And even better the more fanatic 2nd Amendment types think any mental health check before selling a gun is a form of gun control.

Ok, there are probably fanatic 2nd Amendment types and fanatic anti-gun types - but wouldn't the moderates wishing to introduce some form of gun control (such as background checks and waiting periods, for example) whilst keeping the right to bear arms in principle, be the majority? It seems like this is one of these issues where politicians on both sides are more interested in keeping it as a wedge issue rather than a problem to be solved by compromise.

[Martinus]

And even better the more fanatic 2nd Amendment types think any mental health check before selling a gun is a form of gun control.

It does sound like gun control to me, but very reasonable and essential gun control.

The 2A fanatics think any form of "control" on guns is unreasonable, even though 2A puts a precondition on the right to bear arms.  Nutty is as nutty does.

Ok but clearly they are not the majority, right? Can't reasonable people on both sides of the aisle reach a compromise and simply outvote the fanatics?