Text 138, 61 rader
Skriven 2007-04-22 10:01:14 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
     Kommentar till en text av Roy Witt
Ärende: Re: Shootings
=====================
RW> "Germany has some of the most strict firearms laws in the world. But a
RW> school shooting this week raises the question of whether the Internet
RW> presents a loophole for illegally acquiring weapons."
 
RW> http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2245918,00.html
 
RW> November, 2006 wasn't that long ago.
 
A friend of mine was a teacher. He caught a student of his with a live
hand-grenade with the safety out but the (I don't know the English word, but in
Dutch it is called the "spoon") spoon still in place [taped down]. The school
was evacuated. Some 10 years ago. Kid bought it from an other kid who had
emigrated from Kosovo with his parents and found it there. Seems he made an
extra buck with selling weaponry which he had brought along.
 
That friend of mine also has been threatened in class by a kid with a gun. A
real gun, and loaded. He has also been assaulted by a kid with a knife.
 
I call that "street violence" though because all of them wanted to be tough,
never got it into their heads of "this morning I'll go to school and kill a
bunch of people because life sucks".
 
In the process of such occasional "street violence" or "petty criminality"
people sometimes get hurt, it is not a daily factor of life though. Kids don't
have to go through a metal detector here and agree to body-searches in order to
go to school.
 
RW> Not really. A copycat shooter put a bullet into a co-worker and then
RW> himself at the NASA space center in Houston, just two days after the VT
RW> incident. It has been reported nation wide. Front page stuff too!
 
Because of VT ... without VT it would have been local news or at best a minor
item as NASA was involved.
 
RW> Not many...you just think there is. BTW, the last major school shooting
RW> on
RW> the same level as VT, was in 1999 at Columbine High School in Colorado.
 
So the 5 girls killed at the West Nickel Mines School in PA is not "major"?
Oct.2 2006?
 
RW>WD> And the one constant is ... "USA".
 
RW> Sure it is, if you're looking to make a case against freedom to possess
RW> firearms in the USA...
 
Not at all. I'm troubled about the "why" but also "why in the US and not here".
 
Youngsters (and people) are basically the same everywhere, at least in the
western hemisphere I would like to believe. So what is different for it to
happen in the US and not so much here? Is it access to fire-arms after all?
Mind you, I don't have the answer.
 
As a parent, so are you, I always have a sick feeling in the stomach when such
things happen. It could happen to your own child which, after all, is your most
prized "possession" ... they're all unique and irreplaceable.
 
 \%/@rd

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 * Origin: Many Glacier -o=O=o- Preserve - Protect - Conserve (2:292/854)