Granted you could use that to kill someone, but why plunk at least a grand for the gun, not to mention the expensive 50 cal ammo, when a 9mm could be had for a few hundred dollars at most?

But this caliber (as well as lower sizes, such as 7.65mm, 9mm or 44 cal) is ideal for people out in the wilderness (say Alaska or Canada) who don’t want to lug around a rifle, but want to have protection against grizzlies, polar bears and moose.

Guns do not kill people, no matter what you may think. They’re inanimate objects, and require a catalyst: ta human (or monkey or dog) finger/paw to pull the trigger. Period. Arguments can be made about that guns kill people. So in the same thread, we can say that knifes kill people. So we should ban knifes as well.

That said, banning hand guns won’t work. Why? Because there are thousands of small arms that are not registered with the police, because they were obtained before the requirements of registering when buying small arms weapons. Or maybe it was inherited or given as a gift. And what about those war souvenirs that soldiers brought back, particularily WWII. In the end, those unregistered small arms owners may not turn in their weapons if a new law were to be passed…

This young shooter was found mentally ill by a special judge down near Blacksburg. Why no one even bothered to assess him in high school is beyond me because a lot of people saw that he had no friends, was anti-social, and so forth. I wonder if he ever wrote violent stories while in high school and if so, why didn’t anyone come forward to deal with it back then?

Oh, so many questions and so few answers for which we all will never probably get.

Like Seung-hui Cho, I’m what’s often called the “1.5 generation”. That is, I was born in another country (in this case, Taiwan), but emigrated to this country when I was young and started second grade here.

Asian families are notorious for not wanting to disclose conditions (like hearing loss or mental illness) that would invite social stigma and bring shame to the family. The American way of revealing family issues to an outside counselor or seeking counseling for emotional problems is very alien to the first generation Asian immigrant.

Then add in the pressure the children face to the mix. Over and over again, I’d hear from Mom and Dad that they came to America so I’d have a better chance of going to a good college and eventually, a well paying job. Two years arriving here we found that I was profoundly deaf in the right ear and moderately deaf in the left ear. Nevertheless, I was expected make my parents’ journey to this country worthwhile (despite whatever emotional toll I would undergo as a
solitaire) and achieve the American dream for them. I would bring honor to the family by going to a good high school, a prestigious university and find a well-paying job.

By the time I started adolescence, I led a solitaire’s life. I struggled with identity issues…..trying to determine whether I was Chinese or American, Hearing or Deaf….
and well, my father didn’t think I needed to see a counselor about these thoughts. Being the practical guy he was, he felt seeing counselors were a waste of time.

So, I think about the killer’s family a lot. I worry American society in general will not look too kindly on the possibility of the family’s reluctance to seek outside intervention in a more aggressive way without understanding the cultural issues underneath this line of thinking.

Well, I’ve rambled on long enogh. Hopefully what I wrote makes sense! :-)

Your argument is fuzzily illogical and completely irrelevant. What does Erin’s oral background have to do with her subject? Please be more civil and respectful.

I’m not sure if I have the answer to your questions. And judging from the response from the rest of the nation, I think everyone is searching for answers as well.

Pray tell, but if Cho’s professor says “The kid couldn’t speak…”, then how come, in his own submitted self-videoed diatribe, he ranted and railed against the wealthy kids in english? He spoke, didn’t he? I sincerely doubt the professor’s assessment that he couldn’t speak.

I wonder how well he spoke as I couldn’t hear the sounds on his video. Anyone hearing here that can tell us how well he spoke on the video?

By the way, what happened at Va Tech was just horrible and I’m sick over it as I attended Va Tech myself as well. What the kid did was totally uncalled for and unnecessary regardless of the fact that he was “bullied” at Westfield High School (not too far from where I live).

The whole thing is just sad, sad, sad….

Question I have is: Could this all have been prevented? I know this is really open for a lot of discussion.

And for what reasons won’t DeafRead ban Ridor? Freedom of speech or what?