That's awful. I'm glad you're okay though.

Surely there are better ways of going out in style than taking innocent people with you.

Selfish little brat, no sympathy here. People laugh when I say every rent-a-cop, be it small town casino security or massive metropolis mall patrolman, should be armed and trained.

Hell some of these guys barely know more than I do about firing a damn handgun. And their place of employee doesn't care nor will it help them GET trained.

~Tobe

As much as i'd like to care, (being american and totally ignorant to my surroundings) it's still horrifying. And yeah, wtf? I've never heard of anything like this happening in Nebraska... it just doesn't seem like the place for it to happen. I just can't see the meaning in killing innocent people for your own problems. I mean, not to sound harsh, but that kid/guy should have taken it out on the people who were the real problem and left the innocent alone. But, in any case, nobody ever deserves to die, however some people (that kid namely) need to die to spare others from the agony of losing a loved one over nothing.

And i don't blame video games, i mean those help release stress in a controlled way. I honestly believe it's all in the parents. How they raise their kids is the greatest impact on these sort of things.

I agree, seeing as his parents kicked him out of the house. He was in a foster home for a year, broke up with his girlfriend, a friend and his family gave him a second chance. The guy was a coward, why else would he do this? He said he admired Cho (VirgTech shooter) and wanted to beat his record. The guy was angry at life, which sucked for him. But at 19, come on a lot of teenagers and adults have it bad. That doesn't mean we'll go out on a random shooting rampage. IMO, it's just stupid.

I got bullied nearly every year of my school career until I hit ninth grade, but not once did I ever consider killing anyone.

^ That's exactly what I would have said if someone else didn't already say it.

I'm sick of hearing about schoolyard bullying or violent video games or "gun culture" or Republicans being behind every shooting that happens in the world (On another forum I infrequently browse, that school shooting in Poland went three entire pages of the usual "America's screwed up BAN ALL AMERICAN GUNS NOW" crap before someone pointed out that the shooting was, in fact, in Poland, by a Polish student).

I think angry people is the link.

Yeah, I've had loads of fun the last two days. Nothing is more joy-inducing than working in a local TV news outlet and having the s*** meet the fan like this in your city. Ho boy, 13-hour days, endless feeds, live newsbreaks, faces of the dead to make graphics for and interview after interview of people who knew victims/were victims that didn't die and all of that with no breaks. SIGN ME THE HELL UP FOR THE NEXT ONE.

.... I'm going to go collapse now so I can make it through the day tomorrow.

PS: One of the kid's friends got arrested for threatening to kill a girl who talked bad about the killer. His home had several shotguns and rifles from the search. This means I might get called into work early tomorrow too. WONDERFUL.

Edit: Assault Rifle ban advocation deleted because it's more of a Marble Garden thing.

I'm reminded of an interview I saw with some Atlanta teens some time ago, who blamed attitudes to violence and guns rather than gun control itself.

There's a desensitised, cavalier attitude to violence, with a glamorised emphasis on rewards.

Look at the guy's suicide note: "Now I'll be famous".

I'm not saying that he isn't a deeply disturbed individual to see something like this as a fast track to fame or that this is anything new (witness Linette Fromme's attempt to get more media exposure for Charles Manson), but in the era of prime time car chases (and court TV for the US), does anyone else feel as though Natural Born Killers may've had a point in terms of making the criminal life a bit too attractive, and just another form of "celebrity"?

I really do wish that they'd stop publishing the names, photos and testaments of the people who're responsible for these shootings - report the story, but don't give then the glory and maybe put a few similarly disturbed people off seeing any merit in copycat crime.

But then that's not attitude towards guns at all, it's attitude towards how people view criminals.

Not to you in particular, but overall, I find the inevitable blaming of "gun culture" to be about as annoying as the inevitable blaming of lax gun control, violent video games, Republicans, bad parenting, America in general, and all the other stuff that always gets blamed.

I do agree with you on the media's role in it...they give far more exposure to these types of people than the types that should be given media attention. But they're just doing their job - It's notthe media's fault that as a species, humans find bad news more interesting than good news. "Things are going GREAT here!" just doesn't sell like "Look at this, gasp, shock, horror!" does, and media are corporations - They report what people will tune in for. But you've heard all of this before, probably the last time there was a sudden shooting like this. 😛

I was in a bit of a hurry when I typed that. The gun is seen as more part of that iconography than necessarily a weapon in its own right at times, which is why I bundled it in with the general idea of attitudes to violence and celebrity.

Whilst desensitisation through living in an environment that's more accepting of guns might be a factor, there're still plenty of people in the US who don't want to shoot people, so I'm not trying to blame "gun culture" here, so much as the attitude to it.