Culture QotD: School Shootings

A gunman killed 5 and wounded 20 at Northern Illinois University yesterday. What, if anything, can we do to prevent violent attacks such as this in the future?

Right now, I feel helpless. This changes things a lot. I'm scared to be here. I'm 22 years old and scared to be on a college campus," said student Rosie Moroni as she made her way to a memorial service for Thursday's victims.

Monsignor Glenn Nelson remembered during the service that this tragedy was only one of many that have shaken campuses across the United States.

"It's not just here. It happened at Virginia Tech. It happened other places. It will probably happen again. And that's terrifying," he said at the Mass inside the Newman Roman Catholic Student Center

"Whatever the answer is, it's not going to comfort you." .(NPR)

Though my son, in his typical low key way, dismissed the shootings as having "nothing to do with us," I think in his immaturity he fails to see the bigger picture and that has to do with easy the acquistion of handguns.

It appears that the gunman had according to his father, gone off his medication and had been acting "erratic." Depending on the depth of his instability he might have been denied the purchase of the handguns had his apparent mental illness come to light. Considering that handguns have one purpose--to shoot people--why do they continue to be so easy to obtain?

 

Northern Illinois Student At Shooting Scene

I'm beyond sick about the "right to bear arms" in this country. Hunting rifles and handguns are not the same.

Make handguns much harder to get--or here's a thought BAN them entirely and it will be a step in the right direction towards lessening the chance that you or your child can get murdered whilst sitting in a college classrooom.

 

Ryanne Mace's mother works with my spouse. There's a huge ripple effect of an incident like this but then people seem to "forget" and nothing changes. 

 

 

 

 

Ryanne Mace

RYANNE MACE

Just before Valentine's Day, Ryanne Mace posted a note for her friends on her MySpace page: "Happy Valentine's Day Everybody! ... Saying you love someone is not enough, it's how you treat them that shows your true feelings."

The 19-year-old sophomore from Carpentersville was studying psychology at the university.

Her mother, Mary Kay Mace, said she and her husband named their only child Ryanne, and pronounced it like the boy's name Ryan, because "we thought we were having a boy."

"She was beautiful and brilliant and caring," Mace said of her daughter. "She wanted to start a career helping people. She was in psychology to become a counselor. She was our only child, the light of our lives."