News-Record.com

The Episcopal Bishop of Washington says: “it (V Tech) is a call to challenge gun laws in this country that make it possible for anyone to collect an arsenal of automatic weapons and hand guns.”

Sorry sir, but guns do NOT kill people; any more than knives, bombs or poison gas. People with virulent sin-natures kill other people. I thought it was such a predictably liberal thing to say. The fact is that sin brings bondage – the loss of freedoms, privileges and prerogatives; whether on an individual or societal level. Jails and prisons are living icons of this truth. Liberal, Gospel-less ecclesiastical and governmental figures will always jump to quick-fix humanistic causes to grandstand at times like this. England has very strict gun laws and crime is up, but neighborhoods with gun owners have fewer burglaries. And if someone at the Norris Building had had a legal firearm, there may have been much less carnage. It is such a non-issue. I am NOT opposed to some degree of access limitations. Our current laws are quite sufficient, if properly implemented.

The blame is far more to be laid at the feet of our horribly degraded music and entertainment industry – as far as secondary causes are concerned. The first cause is sin in the heart, and in the culture. There’s nothing that’s fostering violence and depravity more than our media system, fueled by big money and organized crime. We are a pimped culture, spiritually blind and whirling around the toilet of death and depravity. Of course, that sounds extreme until another Columbine or VT occurs. Then we lament the sad state of affairs for a while and then go back to our depraved movies, Internet garbage, dumps, roaches (not the bug type) and anti-Christian bias.

Sin is the primary and contingent source and cause of ALL hate and violence. All else is mere jousting at imaginary humanistic piñatas. Every now and then you may hit one, but all that’s inside is pitiful temporary fixes – at best!

I've been wondering about the problem of mental health attitudes in this country. Specifically, whether the Korean culture is as repressive about psychiatry as the general population of America is.

From what I've heard, this student has been long known to be mentally unstable and should have been hospitalized. If he was on anti-depressants as I read, it was very likely very similar to treating cancer with a Band Aid.

When are we going to learn that you can't ignore things like psychosis and just "hope he'll grow out of it"?

We do agree on one thing here Nikos. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. The weapon of choice doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, the laws of Virginia do not allow for anyone outside of law enforcement to carry a gun on college campusses, concealed or otherwise. No one could have had a "legal" firearm that day to stop the carnage.

Gosh, agreeing with Eric twice in one day...a new record! I read that the shooter was hospitalized in 2005 as "a danger to himself and others." How then was he able to legally purchase two automatic handguns? That's as insane as he was. How many more innocents will have to die before we recognize that people like Cho need help? Several of his teachers tried to warn the university authorities that Cho was dangerous and were ignored or told there was nothing they could legally do. On the other hand, we should also be aware of the human tendency to overreact, especially when scared. We can't arrest people because they're violence-prone loners with a martyr complex.
I'm equally conflicted about gun laws. It's true that guns don't kill people, but people with guns can kill more people more efficiently than people without them. And I don't buy the argument that the only way we can ensure our freedom is if we have guns with which to oppose the government. I don't know about you all, but as for me, even if my opposition to the govt. got to the desperate level of armed resistance, there are easier ways for me to commit suicide than to pop away at a tank or F-16 with a 9 millimeter handgun in my untrained, unpracticed hands.
On the other hand, if someone (or a lot of people) had had guns that day they could have stopped Cho, as two students with military experience stopped a gunman at another campus (forget which one) by running out to their cars and fetching their guns. When the shooter, who had killed three people, found himself faced with armed resistance, he surrendered, saving who knows how many other lives.
Nikos is, of course, right that sin is the root cause of all evil, and that the only lasting solution is the grace of God changing our hearts through the blood of Jesus Christ, whose martyrdom was in dying for other people, not with them.

So, if we allowed concealed (or open) guns on all campuses, who would doubt that a big, big block of male students, particularly, would carry them? I, for one, would not want to be a teacher at such a school. The risks of emotionally-triggered incidents would skyrocket. More people would die needlessly. A chilling effect would creep into the system, affecting attendance, grades, and a false connection based on mistrust and fear.

Lacking a faith tradition, I can't explain senseless acts of violence except the same way sociologists, psychologists ad others have attempted. Even if materialist explanations sound logical, though, the human heart, so to speak, cries out for meaning to make sense of such acts. Perhaps it is their very senselessness we cannot accept. I would rather believ it was simple horror and mayhem than that it's part of some giant plan. Those who survived and claim it strengthene dtheir faith and they felt spared by God seem callous to me, considering those who were killed probably prayed just as hard, lived just as nobly, etc.