What is it about going postal and taking innocent lives?

Is it happening more and more or am I getting it out of perspective? It's depressing.

And look at this.

And yet crime in general, violent crime and murders appear to be going down in the UK.

In a country as big as the USA  You will always get more than your fair share of nutters. Sadly they get to arm themselves and they always shoot people weaker than themselves.

I firmly believe that there are some truely evil people on this earth and whilst we will now doubt the get the sob stories and how he wasn't loved or understood bollox. Anyone who can shoot a babe in arms deserves nothing but as much pain as possible 

Im with Chris Rock the comedian on this.

Each bullet should cost $5000 dollars

No more innocent by standers;

" He must have deserved it. They put  $50,000 in his ass!"

Revenge seeks to be cheap;

" I would blow your f***ing head off if I could afford it!"

He also said something telling about modern societal expectations and the Columbine shooting. How easily people feel alienated and therefore angry at everyone else.

"They said they had no friends, no one would play with us. I saw the school yearbook.There was six of them, I didnt have six friends at high school. I aint got six friends now, and im rich!"

I was saying as much today. People used to protest. Now they kill, just set off bombs or go shooting with guns.

When did peaceful protest go out of fashion?

There have always been nutcases around only today they have access to serious weapons.

My biggest issue is the whole 'blame the film' culture. That the UK is now on red alert as 'The Dark Knight Rises' comes to our shores. Sorry, but what a load of crap!!!

The Dark Knight when it came out never attratced that sort of attention, no one went crazy. It could have been any film, and that nutcase, would have gone gun crazy. Jeffrey Dahmer, who ate all those people back in the 90's used to love watching Return of the Jedi, since he liked the scenes of the Emperor, when he was being all scary.

People just use films as an excuse to account for people's immoral behaviour. Forgetting that, a very good way to prevent people from becoming nutjobs, is by being responsible parents. There again, some people are just born evil. Ted Bundy, didnt have much of an eventful beginning, but still he became a serial killer. By the same token, you get people like David Peltzer, who wrote those books starting with 'A child called It', and he turned out okay, despite being abused beyond belief.

I think society has always had this evil streak in itself, but as humans we are also capable of great beauty. It is unfortunately the minority, that attracts the attention, and we forget about all the people that turned out okay, and are living amongst us. Films just get the blame when they dont.

When I was at college in the states, I got to go up the main university tower (a case of not what you know, but who you know). You wouldn't believe the view, but barely a handfull of people get to go up to the observation deck at all because someone went up in the mid 60s (when it was open to all) & sat there taking potshots at passers by with a rifle.

This in Texas, where there were 3 guns for every person. That 20 years ago. And you think gun ownership has at all gone down since? no, of course it hasn't.

They were discussing this on Radio 2 this afternoon. A woman phoned in (I missed where she was from, but seemed to representing some Outraged Parent group) and brought up the old violence in the media causes violence argument. An expert (again, I missed the start so didn't hear where he was from) refuted the argument, citing that there is no strong evidence that violence in the media causes violent behaviour. But it does seem to be the case that if people already have those behaviours, then media violence may re-enforce them.

Personally, I don't think the film had anything to do with the violent atrocity that happened in Aurora. I find it quite interesting that the studio have refused to print box-office takings, and have cancelled the premieres in various countries. They say as a mark of respect, but it seems to me like it's offering another victory to the perpetrator.

You wonder where Batman was during all of this.

And God, of course. That old chestnut.

I hate to break this to you, but he's not real.

I dont' think it's got anymore prevalent I think there's just more exposure to when it does happen (through media outlets/instant news).

sarah the bookworm wrote (see)

I hate to break this to you, but he's not real.

Batman isn't real?!    

The 'right to bear arms' pish has a lot to answer for.

There was an American guy (no idea who/what he represented - I seem to have a habit of joining discussions part way through) on the BBC news the other day. His viewpoint was that if someone in the cinema had also had a gun, they would have been able to protect themselves and everyone else in the cinema. More guns would have helped. The mind boggles.

What happened in Aurora has very little to do with gun control, and more to do with some crackpot who went off the deepend and decided to kill people.

I sort of agree. People kill people, but they (often) use weapons to do it. If the weapons are easily available, then it just makes it that much simpler for a crackpot to kill people on a larger scale.

This chap managed to booby-trap his apartment, so he could have done far more damage if he hadn't had access to guns and had to opt for explosives.

I saw a clip of the aftermath of Brevik's car bomb for the first time yesterday.  Feckanory - that made a hell of a mess.