I know that this is off topic but it is very saddening to hear of yet
another mass killing in America.

I had thought of making a quip about yet another "Christian terrorist"
but the thought of the parents, siblings, grandparents and friends
unconsolable grief at this time would make it too flippant and in poor
taste.

Wilbur, and those others of you who support your "constitutional right
to bear arms" consider this as an example of why you should not make
owning hand guns so easy.

I could have bought any weapon during my 5 day sojourn in Florida
recently. A friendly policeman with whom I was having coffee - real
coffee - Cuban, not that brown dishwater that poses as coffee that
Americans seem to prefer, explained that after three days of making an
application I could walk out of a store with any type of weapon I
desired, even an M-16 which is standard issue to Malaysian Customs.
Why a citizen would want such a weapon is beyond me. They are not a
hunting rifle. They are an offensive, not defensive weapon for killing
people.

In New Zealand, it is illegal and virtually impossible for anyone to
possess a hand gun. The police do not even carry weapons. Most do not
even bother to carry their batons. They have access to them when
required as well as training in their use, but the armed offenders
squads seldom shoot to kill; they usually disable the offender by
shooting the legs. Don't think that we don't have violent crime and
robberies in God's Own, we do. It's just that the criminals generally
don't have access to handguns. If procuring one was as easy as in the
U.S., then no doubt the situation would be diferent. We also have a
law that makes it an imprisonable offence (at the worst) if a citizen
does not go to the aid of a policeman who requests it or who fails to
help if they see a policeman in trouble. Our police are also well
trained in unarmed defence.

At 16 I acquired a licence to own a rifle which I used to hunt deer,
pigs and goats in our forests. You cannot have an automatic weapon,
there is no need for this in hunting.

Handguns are made to kill human beings, not rabbits or other species.
The Virginia Tech. killer used two pistols, one a 9mm automatic. I
have one of these as part of my uniform. It usually is kept locked in
a desk drawer. My belt holster is a good place for cigarettes. After
the initial cocking, each pull of the trigger will fire a bullet and
with 15 bullets to a clip, you can shoot them all in about 15 seconds.
Why would a private citizen need a weapon like that?

In Malaysia it is a capital offence to possess an unlicenced firearm.
Robbers must therefore resort to knives.

I am a loss to understand how you can be so strident in defence of
your "constituational right" to carry a firearm when you didn't even
raise a murmur at the Patriot Act which removes more of your rights
and freedoms.

Frankly, I would be afraid to live in a country where any psycopath or
inadequate person could pull out a gun and "get even" with me over
some minor imagined slight, but then I have issues with those wanabe
Rambos who aim paintball guns at other humans.

I know that this is off-topic but I wanted to express my saddness.

cheers
Peter Hendra

It struck me hard enough to break my on topic rule because I lived there
until I was seven and my earliest memories are of that campus and walking up
the steps of a building that looks just like the ones on the news to visit
my father in his office. All those innocent early memories will now be
tinged with this.

It's interesting to contemplate what the government's reaction would have
been if a muslim fundementalist had done this. Another roll back in civil
liberties is necessary to protect Americans. The amount of shampoo
permitted in carry on airline luggage will need to be further reduced. Only
Republicans can protect Americans from this kind of carnage. Etc, etc.

Instead, there will just be purring agreement from the White House with
National Rifle Association statements due any moment now to the effect that,
if every student had been issued a gun upon admission, nothing like this
could have happened.

--
Roger Long

Huum,, you mention Muslim Fundementalist, the Republicans, and the NRA ..

Wait ,, didn't you leave someone out ?

The SHOOTER .. THE NUTCASE WHO KILLED THE KIDS .. THE GUY WITH THE GUN!

This happens every single day in Iraq. EVERY DAY!

Yet,, I have never seen one posting from you Roger or Peter concerning the
kids of Iraq. What? Guess their
parents don't care if they die?

This kind of thing could be stopped today.

Want gun? Must have license. If you are arrested with gun; 3 years in
jail at hard labor as in clean the streets.
If you sell gun, and gun kills someone, you go to jail. I am talking
illegal guns.

Rather than blame George Bush for this ask the questions: where did the
shooter get the gun? who was the shooter?
how did the shooter get into America? was there a background check on the
shooter before he was accepted to the
college?

When will the government stop illegal immigration? How many of the illegals
have guns?


But .. I guess it is much easier to blame George Bush for this.

Yup,, Bush's fault. He did it.

By the way, when Ted Kennedy left a woman to die in his car ... was it
Bush's fault?

================================================== ==========
"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
It struck me hard enough to break my on topic rule because I lived there
until I was seven and my earliest memories are of that campus and walking
up the steps of a building that looks just like the ones on the news to
visit my father in his office. All those innocent early memories will now
be tinged with this.

It's interesting to contemplate what the government's reaction would have
been if a muslim fundementalist had done this. Another roll back in civil
liberties is necessary to protect Americans. The amount of shampoo
permitted in carry on airline luggage will need to be further reduced.
Only Republicans can protect Americans from this kind of carnage. Etc,
etc.

Instead, there will just be purring agreement from the White House with
National Rifle Association statements due any moment now to the effect
that, if every student had been issued a gun upon admission, nothing like
this could have happened.

--
Roger Long

I just learned that the house behind a pond being shown in some of the
newscasts is the house where I lived from age 2 to 7. I'm glad I missed it.
I'd like to keep those memories as far from all this as possible.

--
Roger Long

In article ,
Roger Long wrote:
It struck me hard enough to break my on topic rule because I lived there
until I was seven and my earliest memories are of that campus and walking up
the steps of a building that looks just like the ones on the news to visit
my father in his office. All those innocent early memories will now be
tinged with this.

It's interesting to contemplate what the government's reaction would have
been if a muslim fundementalist had done this. Another roll back in civil
liberties is necessary to protect Americans. The amount of shampoo
permitted in carry on airline luggage will need to be further reduced. Only
Republicans can protect Americans from this kind of carnage. Etc, etc.

Instead, there will just be purring agreement from the White House with
National Rifle Association statements due any moment now to the effect that,
if every student had been issued a gun upon admission, nothing like this
could have happened.

Here, here. Thank you.

--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
It struck me hard enough to break my on topic rule because I lived there
until I was seven and my earliest memories are of that campus and walking
up the steps of a building that looks just like the ones on the news to
visit my father in his office. All those innocent early memories will now
be tinged with this.

--
Roger Long
I feel for you Roger. It's a lot harder when you have personal involvement.
I have friends and acquaintances who were involved with a mass shooting here
in Tasmania when a nut case killed 35 people at a historic tourist site.
Every time I go past that part of the state I think of those people and how
they're coping.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:57:46 -0400, Peter Hendra wrote:

I know that this is off topic but it is very saddening to hear of yet
another mass killing in America.

snip

Approx. 30,000 people die from being shot with handguns in the US every
year. Evidently this is not any sort of pressing public health issue in
the former land of the free. They love their guns and are propagandized
from childhood into thinking they _need_ them to be safe. Handguns are
strictly regulated in Canada. Not surprisingly, the per capita rate of
handgun murders in Canada is infinitessimal compared with that of the US.
However we had a similar event here in Montreal where a disturbed
individual used a long rifle to kill a number of students. Long rifles
aren't so strictly controlled here. As a result, they're used more often
in murders. But overall, the murder rate in Canada does not correlate
at all on a per capita basis with the US. Gun advocates will say that it
was the disturbed person who did the killing and not the weapon. This of
course is intellectually bankrupt but despite that, has great currency in
the US. If the person can't get the weapon, how then do they commit the
murder? Of course Timothy McVeigh didn't need a gun did he? Goes around
in circles eh? Personally I want handguns banned but for police use.
This shooting is an obscene tragedy. We need to admit that
something in our society is producing disturbed individuals who will use
too easily available lethal weapons to kill the innocent.

We need to admit that something in our society is producing disturbed
individuals who will use
too easily available lethal weapons to kill the innocent.
=====================================
The "gunman" is from China. Could it be that the soy sauce is bad?
Or, too much rice? Or .. just maybe ??? He was NUTS.

===========================================

I forgot .. there are no nuts in Canada..

=====================================








"mr.b" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:57:46 -0400, Peter Hendra wrote:

I know that this is off topic but it is very saddening to hear of yet
another mass killing in America.

snip

Approx. 30,000 people die from being shot with handguns in the US every
year. Evidently this is not any sort of pressing public health issue in
the former land of the free. They love their guns and are propagandized
from childhood into thinking they _need_ them to be safe. Handguns are
strictly regulated in Canada. Not surprisingly, the per capita rate of
handgun murders in Canada is infinitessimal compared with that of the US.
However we had a similar event here in Montreal where a disturbed
individual used a long rifle to kill a number of students. Long rifles
aren't so strictly controlled here. As a result, they're used more often
in murders. But overall, the murder rate in Canada does not correlate
at all on a per capita basis with the US. Gun advocates will say that it
was the disturbed person who did the killing and not the weapon. This of
course is intellectually bankrupt but despite that, has great currency in
the US. If the person can't get the weapon, how then do they commit the
murder? Of course Timothy McVeigh didn't need a gun did he? Goes around
in circles eh? Personally I want handguns banned but for police use.
This shooting is an obscene tragedy. We need to admit that
something in our society is producing disturbed individuals who will use
too easily available lethal weapons to kill the innocent.

NE Sailboat wrote:
We need to admit that something in our society is producing disturbed
individuals who will use
too easily available lethal weapons to kill the innocent.
=====================================
The "gunman" is from China. Could it be that the soy sauce is bad?
Or, too much rice? Or .. just maybe ??? He was NUTS.

===========================================

I forgot .. there are no nuts in Canada..

=====================================

Did you read what the other guy posted? We've had shootings here. The École Polytechnique here in
Montréal. 14 female engineering students shot dead in their seats. Why do you turn this into some
retarded rant about foreigners? If the nuts in either country can't get the guns, it makes it harder
for them to commit mass murder.

On Apr 17, 8:50 am, "mr.b" wrote:
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:57:46 -0400, Peter Hendra wrote:
I know that this is off topic but it is very saddening to hear of yet
another mass killing in America.

snip

Approx. 30,000 people die from being shot with handguns in the US every
year. Evidently this is not any sort of pressing public health issue in
the former land of the free.

Twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens, according
to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. If those numbers
are correct, it translates to 4,380 Americans murdered annually by
illegal aliens. That's 21,900 since Sept. 11, 2001.

Total U.S. troop deaths in Iraq as of last week were reported at
2,863. Total U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan
during the five years of the Afghan campaign are currently at 289,
according to the Department of Defense.

big Macs hate & blame america rant snipped

Joe