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Don't know what to say anymore

BLACKSBURG -- They were: The apple of a parent's eye. A collector of friends. Brilliant. Warm. They dreamed. Volunteered. Had smiles that made others smile. They were 32 people who Virginia Tech paused yesterday to remember and to honor, on the second anniversary of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Under a cloudless sky, 3,000 gathered: families, friends, faculty -- the community of Virginia Tech -- to reflect on those who died.

HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported. AP story so you'll have to link to it for the rest.

There are two types of "gun nuts," those who will say, "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands," and those who insist on bringing their Mossberg 590 shotgun to heaven once the rapture comes. Gun enthusiasts are an interesting crowd. They are our fathers and uncles, our neighbors and friends and often times they are our elected officials. Though there are many things wrong in this country, gun nuts often hold the gun rights issue as the No. 1 concern when heading to the polls to vote. They often have a pettiness toward...

You can now take a gun from Charlton Heston's cold, dead hands. An advocate for both gun and civil rights, Heston died last week having spent his life fighting for the constitutional right to bear arms and working alongside the National Rifle Association as its president. He thought Americans should safeguard their Second Amendment rights and fought to protect them from attacks from the Brady Campaign and other gun control activists. If the right to bear arms was so essential to framers of the Constitution that it was placed right behind freedom of speech, press, religion and assembly, why are...

As Northern Illinois University restarts classes this week, one thing is clear: Six minutes proved too long. It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom that horrible Thursday, and in that short time five people were murdered, 16 wounded. Six minutes is actually record-breaking speed for the police arriving at such an attack, but it was simply not fast enough. Still, the police were much faster than at the Virginia Tech attack last year. The previous Thursday, five people were killed in the city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer...

Following a spate of campus attacks and threats, including the fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University and a chilling message scrawled in a boys' bathroom at a Levittown high school, federal lawmakers are renewing a push to beef up gun-control laws, fund safety procedures and study the link between college shootings and mental illness. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), at a news conference yesterday in Manhattan, said he and congressional colleagues plan to step up efforts to close loopholes in gun-control measures and create a federal task force to come up with national school safety guidelines. They also plan to push...

In this fair country of ours, it would seem that the majority of the people consider some of our constitutional rights as more important or more sacred than others. For example, no one, except for the die-hard enemies of democracy, would challenge the first amendment rights of citizens to freedom of speech, religion, and the press. On the other hand, a great multitude of individuals and politicians seem to dismiss the Second Amendment, the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms. Compared to the general public today, our founding fathers felt much differently about this important issue. They...

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Every shooter crazy 'bout a 'gun-free' zone I see where Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes has responded to the drive-by murder of a 15-year-old Palo Verde High School inmate by another one of his young charges by whining that it's difficult to prevent his wards from shooting each other given today's "easy access to guns" and television violence. I'm not sure about the TV part -- seems to me most of the drive-bys I've seen portrayed on the tube have concluded with the perpetrator going to prison. Just as it's true that there would be fewer...

Question 1: Why are murderers always counted in the victims tally? The day after the mass murder of students at Northern Illinois University (NIU), the headline in the closest major newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, was: "6 Dead in NIU Shooting." "6 dead" included the murderer. Why wasn't the headline "5 killed at NIU"? It is nothing less than moronic that the media routinely lump murderers and their victims in the same tally. This is something entirely new. Until the morally confused took over the universities and the news media, murderers were never counted along with their victims. To give a...

Or so it seems, now that our state Legislature considered the issue of allowing firearms on college campuses in South Dakota. Earlier this week, at least six people died at Northern Illinois University when a gunman opened fire in a classroom. Add that to a handful of other recent college shootings, plus the horrific loss of life at Virginia Tech last year, and the idea of letting students defend themselves against deranged gunmen by carrying weapons on campus seems to almost make sense. Almost, but not quite.

“Fear no man of any size, call on me and I’ll equalize.” —Common engraving on Frontier firearms “Call me simple. Call me a redneck. Call me whatever the heck you wanna call me—but until we allow credible and licensed, proven and protective professors and students to carry a weapon (gun) on campus, we will see this murderous madness occur again and again and again.” That paragraph was lifted from my April 21st, 2007 column from Townhall.com right after Cho Seung-Hui (or Seung-Hui Cho, however the heck you arrange his name) killed 32 students on Virginia Tech’s campus. Remember that? As...

After Thursday's mass shooting, should Illinois change its gun laws? My answer is yes. In Illinois, it is illegal for law abiding citizens to carry a concealed handgun for self defense. Source: http://www.handgunlaw.us/ In Texas, a guy walked into a restaurant, and shot and killed 23 people. One of the people who survived, survived because she pretended to be dead. She was a trained shooter and took her legal gun everywhere. She saw the shooter and she could have stopped him. But Texas law prohibted her from taking her gun into the restaurant, so she had left it in her...

DEKALB, Ill. (CBS) ― Bloody students fleeing in terror. Bodies carried out on stretchers. Candlelight vigils and makeshift shrines. Another campus, another deadly attack with a sickening senselessness that now borders on routine. Despite a national push to secure schools after the Virginia Tech shootings, the rampage at Northern Illinois University this week proves a gut-wrenching reality: Unless colleges are willing to turn themselves into armed camps, they're helpless against these kinds of attacks. As word of the shootings rippled throughout the country, students and authorities alike reacted with frustration and - tellingly - resignation. "I don't think there's anything...

Tuusula, Finland — The YouTube killer who shot dead eight members of his school in Finland before turning his gun on himself had internet contacts with an American teenager who was planning a shooting spree in a high school in Philadelphia, it was claimed yesterday. The disclosure could turn upside down previous assumptions about the dynamics of school massacres. Until now, teenage killers were regarded as depressed loners whose imagination had been stoked by aggressive computer games. Now it seems that information may have been shared by potential killers over the Internet: a virtual community of young people who idolize...

Student gunman in Ohio warned of attack, By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 11, 7:42 AM ET CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students. Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack — but none took him seriously. "When he got suspended, he was like `I got something for you all,'" said student Frances Henderson, who said she often got into arguments with Coon....

October 11, 2007, 6:30 a.m. There’s A Reason They Choose SchoolsA familiar story. By Timothy Wheeler Wednesday’s shooting at yet another school has a better outcome than most in recent memory. No one died at Cleveland’s Success Tech Academy except the perpetrator. The two students and two teachers he shot are in stable condition at Cleveland hospitals. What is depressingly similar to the mass murders at Virginia Tech and Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and too many others was the killer’s choice of venue — that steadfastly gun-free zone, the school campus. Although murderer Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech and Asa...

On Jan. 24, 1989 serial killer Ted Bundy was executed. The day before his death he was interviewed by Dr. James Dobson. He repeatedly warned the public that they would see more killers if they did not do something about the spread of violence in the media. At one point in the interview, Bundy said: “I led a normal life, except for this one, small but very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and close to myself. Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind...

December 4th , 1986 I remember this day all too well. The first semester of my freshman year in college is just winding down, and my suitemates and I have the stereo turned up to 11 while waiting for the cafeteria to open at 5pm. In the corner of the room is a small black and white television with the sound turned down, tuned to the nightly news. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch some images that seem vaguely familiar…before suddenly realizing that my high school was being shown on the national news. As with most unfolding...

Title 18 United States Code, U.S. Criminal Code PART I, CHAPTER 13, SECTION 242 Deprivation of rights under color of law Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under...

The Independent School District of Burleson, Texas, just south of Ft. Worth is the first in the country to adopt a policy of training students to immediately fight back and use their advantage in numbers to take tactical control if a gunman enters their classroom. A group of Texas security experts with a company called "Response Options" has made instructional video tapes showing a gunman bursting into a classroom and being swarmed by students. The instructors tell students to throw their books, book bags, desk and chairs using everything and anything to disrupt and take down a gunman. Robin Browne,...

Frank Lasee, a state representative in Wisconsin's 2nd Assembly District, commented about the recent string of school violence, including the killing of a Wisconsin principal and an aborted Columbine-style attack in Green Bay, and an incident involving a Madison, Wisconsin, boy who used a knife from a home economics class to threaten another student. Lasee notes: “Many on the left will most likely use this tragedy to push for a total ban on guns.... Several countries have tried this tactic. It has failed every time.” For proof, he looks to Great Britain and Australia, where strict gun control measures virtually...

More than a dozen teachers and public school employees will spend part of their UEA weekend in a classroom — learning how to use a gun. Clark Aposhian is offering a free class today to public school employees seeking to get their concealed- weapons permit. "It is self-defense," he told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday. "But because teachers and school administrators and custodians are typically surrounded by students all day, any threat to any individual with a firearm would also be a threat to those students." The concealed-weapons instructor's offer was met with opposition from some teachers and union...

ANOTHER shooter on campus?

President Bush held a panel on school safety, in the wake of recent school shootings (murders) in US public schools. He met with Peru's president, Alan Garcia, in the Oval, and flew to Macon, GA, for a fundraiser.

This week the mouthpiece of the modern feminist movement - Ms. Magazine - demonstrated for the world why the heartbeat of modern feminists is as corrupt, jaded, and evil as that of Charles Carl Roberts - the person who wished to sexually assault and kill ten Amish school girls in Pennsylvania. And before you begin to hyperventilate, turn purple face, and spray spittle across the room, let me assure you - it's a more than fair comparison. This coming Tuesday, Ms. Magazine will release its new issue with the cover story, "We Had Abortions (and we're glad we did)." The...

5. Both assume one solution for every individual. US justice policy incorrectly assumes that incarceration will solve many social problems, such as drugs, prostitution, gambling, etc. The US Department of Education assumes that federal and/or state government standards should apply to every student. Both are incorrect assumptions. Nonviolent and white-collar offenders should be rehabilitated; parents and kids should have choice and options in education. One size does not fit all.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued a school district on behalf of a 14-year-old rap music fan who was expelled after he posted lyrics on the Internet in which, according to police, he threatened to shoot up his school and named a potential victim. The ACLU said the songs by Anthony Latour, of Ellwood City, are protected speech, among other reasons, because they were composed at home and not brought to school. The suit says Latour's expulsion in May from the Riverside Beaver County School District violated his parents' right to control his upbringing. "The school may not like...

Student says he hit other teen first He tells judge that other student threatened to kill him; suspension is upheld BY MARK BOWES TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 20, 2005 RELATED Clover Hill Student says he hit other teen first Officials uphold boy's suspension Clover Hill student facing gun charge accused of threats Fight prompts lockdown A Clover Hill High School student testified yesterday that he initiated physical contact with another student -- who police later said had a loaded gun -- because the teen had twice threatened his life that morning and was acting very aggressively. "I knew he had...

Build a memorial for Columbine now Costly monument might be out of reach since donations have stagnated. Why not go ahead and create an affordable tribute to victims now? With donations for a permanent Columbine memorial stalled at just over $700,000, it's time to scale back the original plans so a monument can be built, sooner rather than later, for the victims and survivors of America's worst school shooting.

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR London ADOLESCENTS don't conceive the notion of strafing their classmates in a vacuum; they get the idea from cable TV. Bad news in itself, the 10-fatality reprise of the American school shooting last week at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota bolsters the archetype. It makes a trend that had seemed to subside since Columbine in 1999 seem current again, and prospectively gives more boys big ideas. The lessons we've been meant to learn from school shootings have been legion. We need better gun control. We need to be more understanding of misfits. We need to stop...

Polaris Jeff Weise, whose rampage killed 10 people, took antidepressants. RED LAKE, Minn., March 25 - In their sleepless search for answers, the family of Jeff Weise, the teenager who killed nine people and then himself, says it is left wondering about the drugs he was prescribed for his waves of depression. On Friday, as Tammy Lussier prepared to bury Mr. Weise, who was her nephew, and her father, who was among those he killed, she found herself looking back over the last year, she said, when Mr. Weise began taking the antidepressant Prozac after a suicide attempt that...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com School shooter took mood-altering drugBy Joyce Howard PriceTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished March 25, 2005 The teen who went on a deadly shooting rampage at a Minnesota high school Monday was on Prozac, adding to the list of youths involved in similar crimes who were taking antidepressants or other mood-altering medications.     But medical experts say the role the drugs played in the school shootings is debatable.     "When you look at the school shooters, some were on Luvox, Prozac, Ritalin, and Paxil. These are mood elevators, but they can push up the psyche and can cause agitation," said Robert...

"He was taking the antidepressant Prozac and at least once was hospitalized for suicidal tendencies, said Gayle Downwind, a cultural coordinator at Red Lake Middle School, who taught Weise. It was not uncommon for Weise to spend at least one night a week at her home. "He considered my house a safe place to be," she said."

Derrick Brun was an unarmed security guard at Red Lake High School, the Minnesota school where the massacre occurred. LeeAnn Grant was his partner. When the shooting began Mr. Brun went after the shooter. However, school regulations require that security guards must be unarmed. Unable to defend himself or the students under his protection, Brun had little to utilize but his courage. But as he stood face to face with a murderer armed with a shotgun, his courage offered him no defense, and Bruns was shortly gunned down. Here's the help he got from his partner, Miss Grant: "I screamed...

BEMIDJI, Minn., March 23 - Looking back at all the pieces, some who knew Jeff Weise say they wonder why someone did not see his eruption coming months, or even years, ago. There was the threat Mr. Weise, 16, once made on his own life, sending him away from his home on the Red Lake Indian Reservation for psychiatric treatment. There were the pictures of bloodied bodies and guns he drew and shared freely with classmates. There was the story he apparently wrote about a shooting spree at a school in a small town. "The clues were all there," said...

THE KILLER AT THURSTON HIGH Thursday, May 13, 60 minutes FRONTLINE [Repeat] 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings) In May 1998, a year before the massacre at Columbine High, fifteen-year-old Kip Kinkel shot his father in the head and waited in the garage for his mother to come home. He told her he loved her before shooting her six times. He then went into his bedroom, listened to his favorite music, and strapped ammunition to his body. The next morning, Kip drove the family car to Thurston High and opened fire in the school cafeteria. In the end, two...

Check your local listings for airtimes. (Current show is updated every weekday at 5pm EST.) HEALTH Health Experts Warn of Antidepressant Dangers for Children, Teens By Darla SittonCBN News Producer In America, Prozac is the only drug the FDA has "approved" for pediatric depression. CBN.com – (CBN News) - As many as one in eight adolescents suffers from clinical depression. And these kids are often treated with anti-depressant drugs that have been tested and approved for adult use. But the drugs may not be safe for children. Corey Baadsgaard doesn't remember storming into his honors English class with a...

Couple's tie bound tighter by tragedy  The Register-Guard   SPRINGFIELD - The first time Jake Ryker and Jen Alldredge met, they were 11-year-olds. It was a squirt gun fight, and she ended it, dousing him with a pitcher of murky-green Kool-Aid. They reconnected at Thurston High School several years later and when they started dating in 1998, they were a hot item: He was the towering athlete, a wrestler, the guy you'd want on your side in a fight; she was the one you'd be fighting over - slender, with blond hair and blue-green eyesJen Alldredge and Jake Ryker, both...

Four Years LaterShockwaves from the shooting at Thurston High still ripple across America.By Joseph A. LiebermanIt's not an anniversary anyone is looking forward to. Four years ago on May 21, 1998, Kipland Kinkel carried an arsenal of weapons into the cafeteria of Thurston High in Springfield and began shooting. He swept his semiautomatic rifle in an arc firing a 50-round clip into a crowd of over 250 students, hitting more than two dozen in less than a minute. Two died from their injuries. When Kip stopped to reload he was tackled by seven studentsIt could have been worse. When his...