Gun Man Shoots up N. Illinois Univ. classroom

[AtlLonghorn]

do you wax your eyebrows?

 

[zzzz]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[dognduckhorn]

Let me bring another perspective to this. I have a 19 year old stepson who is finally tired of working pissant jobs and has decided that he is serious about applying for college. We went on a campus visit as part of an introduction to campus day at Western Colorado State University (His chances of getting into UT Austin are iffy. For that matter my chances today of getting into UT with my high school record if I applied would be iffy. But I digress....)

After a while they split us up into parents and prospective students and I was in the parents' group. Now for those of you not familiar with the Mad Mountaineers this is a small public school, undergraduate only, of 2600 students located in a small town (Gunnison) maybe twice the size of the school. And one of the questions asked of the administrators/faculty representative/admissions director and dean of students was "If my son/daughter comes to school here, what processes are in place to prevent a Northern Illinois/Virginia Tech incident from happening here? What screening do you do of incoming students as far as background checks or psychological evaluation to prevent that from happening?"

And it really got me to thinking. Now, I'm older than most of you, but back in the day, noone asked me when I was applying for college about my criminal history. And their response was "we have no way of checking juvenile records, and most of our incoming freshmen are 17". And, as we all know, your psychological background and medical history is protected by confidentiality laws so that it is really difficult for anyone to find out if you have a history of mental illness. And you are not likely to volunteer on a college application that you are a loner with a pathological addiction to violent video games and a sizeable gun/pipe bomb collection that you keep stashed from your parents and are just waiting for that first failing grade/relationship breakup/peer rejection/ self crisis so you can pick up some extra clips you ordered on the Internet and go take out several people in a classroom while you yield to your inner demons.....

I remember going through my own self crisis at UT, and it was such that if I had access to firearms I would have ended myself (It didn't cross my mind to take people with me). I think it is very common for people in college to have that time of self crisis where things aren't clear, or you face failure or self doubt about what you are doing in school or who you are in life.

So some questions. For those of you in school now or recently graduated, how would you have felt if, in applying for college and at regular intervals you were asked to submit to a background check and to divulge any psychological problems you have had, or are having? And for those of you with kids, (most of whom, from being on this board, are years away from facing this issue) about how you would feel about putting your kids into a situation like this?

For you of tender years, please understand this. As parents we know that we can't protect our young adult offspring from the dangers and experiences of the world. We have spent most of our lives trying to protect and equip our kids with the resources to encounter and deal with the hazards of life, but there is a basic instinct to hope that something is in place to protect them when we are not there. You may see it as trying to continue to run your lives, but we see it as trying to save yours so that you can run the gamit and learn your own lessons safely.

Thoughts?

 

[ScoPro]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[dognduckhorn]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[zzzz]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[brandons87]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[Texas_Curl]

www.newsweek.com/id/112174

In reply to:

---

---

 

[stabone]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[Kyrie Eleison]

I'd like to hear the logic behind Curl's statement that CWP's would have a "deterrent effect" on campus shooters.

You think the VaTech and this piece of **** would have been deterred by a gun? Hell, they didn't give two shits whether they lived or died. Look no further than the fact that they off'd themselves, too.

Curl, you're going to have include a very detailed analysis on mental illnesses, psychiatric disorders, DSM IV, the types and interactions of the hundreds of psychotropic medications that people like this are often prescribed, and the underlying psychological diagnoses, direct and differential, before you can even begin to making such a statement.

"Deterrent" ... for God's sake that's a ridiculous thing to state. There may be a reason for allowing students to carry handguns....I don't know. But I can guarantee that deterrence will never provide the foundation for such a policy.

Only sane people would be deterred, and sane people are not going to be the ones committing fratricide and suicide in the academy.

 

[Napoleon]

In reply to:

---

---