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A TIME TO REMEMBER......

We remember them all at this time of the year,
quietly missing them, while shedding a tear,
they lived, they loved, they fought & they died,
now, they're at rest with God at their side.

This(part of my) poem I wrote years ago...when I was a teenager in school...for my Grandfather who fought in WW1,,,,it reminds me...how this poem...relates...to both sides of this horrific & many other situations...

We must all learn how to help OURSELVES & reach out to OTHERS (think about the simple things in Life...Love,Life & Laughter.......REGROUP & GO BACK TO WHAT REALLY MATTERS (age,sex,beliefs--ARE NO BOUNDARIES)......LOVE IS THE ANSWER---...0x-9

To Peter from Waterloo:

You said that you don`t hear about bombs killing many people here. Well, an entire high school was blown up in the states in the 30`s. The federal building in Oklahoma was blown up killing many. People are dying every day from bombs in Iraq. Gunpowder is easy to make and the ingredients easily available. Mixed with diesel fuel and fertilizer it goes off like a small nuke.

There are millions of gun owners and yet only a handful of massacres. If we judge that the misuse of something means it must be banned, then let's start with motor vehicles. Motor vehicles have killed and maimed millions and are used in warfare to high efficiency.

We can use bicycles and trains and buses and eliminate much of this carnage. Drunk drivers, enraged drivers, stoned drivers, etc. are also a real large part of the problem. Are you willing to give up your car to stop these needless deaths?

Are you somehow responsible because you own a car? Are decent law-abiding Canadian gun owners somehow responsible for this latest massacre simply because they enjoy the shooting sports and own a firearm? Have you ever heard of steroetyping and prejudice against others simply for their beliefs or in this case, what they own?

I would like to say that although I do not know anyone personally from the university my sincere thoughts and prayers are with everyone today. I cannot begin to express the sadness and sickness I feel inside my heart for all the people, students and faculty there at the university and there families.

I would like everyone to know how proud I am of everyone there and the couuage you have to move forward during this difficult time.

God Bless you all and again Im so sorry.

Terrifying event! My sympathy goes out to all the victims and families.

I, as others, have trouble coming to grips with the fact that this tragedy is the direct result of the ‘lack of gun control’. Tragedies of this sort will continue to happen with or without guns. There were no guns involved in the largest, most recent loss of life in American history. It was planes for 911.

Let’s get past the mindset of blaming the weapon that’s used to commit the crimes. The ‘one common denominator’ in every crime is the “human”.

Again, already it’s starting to surface that the individual was troubled and it was known, but no concrete action was taken to address his state of mind. Yes, a feeble effort was made to bring attention to a troubling set of circumstances.

Because of Freedoms and Individual Rights, the rights of criminals and potential criminals take precedence over the rights of the general public. And, those who might prevent many of those incidents from happening are reluctant to step forward for fear retribution.

This individual demonstrated suspicious actions and therefore should have been monitored closely.

Anyone with the mindset to commit harm to others will do so and if the mindset is to use a gun, they will get the gun (with or without gun control).

It’s time to start thinking out-of the-box about ways and means to monitor actions of suspected potential ‘life treating criminals’.

Generally, following serious incidents of this nature ‘people’ come forward after the fact with all the evidence that should/could have prevented the incident.
A loner. Think about it, its one that avoids others, therefore, that in itself should raise a red flag depending on the circumstances.

Yes! Gun control can and will help but let’s get pass the gun.

So few of these shooters ever stay around long enough to witness the harm they have caused. Ending their lives shortly after taking away the beautiful stories of others that were just beginning. Can we ever understand why this happened now? And even if we could what light would it shed on this random act of violence?

I think it should be public policy NOT to publish or disclose the perpetrator's name(s).

All this does is immortalize the guilty, these empty vessels who are so distraught and full of hate, who are nobodys who wish to live on in infamy

What is with the deluge of people attributing this incident on societal apathy towards god? We as a society have turned our back on god and deviants such as killers are produced? Last time I checked religious wars have killed a whole lot more than 32 people. I find it annoying that people twist incidences such as these into religious issues. Pointing fingers at scapegoats helps no one.

I think it's important that people take on the responsibility of reporting individuals who have this potential. It is stated that complicated and deranged notes written by this indiviudual showing his obsession or interest in this kind of situation was handed to the chair/school last year, and nothing was done about it.

IMO, this information in conjuction with the fact that there was no warning posted for almost 3 hours after the initial murders would lead me to hope that there are criminal charges for negligence against the board for not acting appropriatly.

Back to my main point, I think that it is your responsibility as a member of society to ensure that if you see your son, daughter, friend, stranger, etc, displaying obsessions or behaviour that would lead you to believe these types of situations are possible, then it is your moral duty as a human being to report it.

You may argue this point, however you wouldn't be so rash if the subject's victims are your children, parents or loved ones.

It seems that gun control would have not stopped this loser from going on his rampage, because we have gun control in Canada a nd it it did not stop a previous loser from doing something similar at Dawson College.

I've been all over Central America, and what these Third World countries have in common is that they have armed guards for everything from gas stations to schools. These guards are armed with AK-47s and other machine guns to protect people and property in those countries.

Maybe we should adopt these methods of securing our people in North America. Had an event like this happened in Central America, the loser would have been shot on the spot by several guards, and the casualties would have been very low in comparison to yesterday's casualties.

Gun control or no gun control, these losers are determined, and the events are pre-meditated. If our governments cannot protect our students, then they are doing our nations a disservice. They really must look at armed security as a preventative method to deal with this MAJOR reccuring problem.

I doubt gun control is the answer here. These things happen because of some deeper problem, whether with the individual or with society. Gun control is not the answer, but then neither is religion.

In the face of those such as David Quinn who say that guns have a political use (to allow an armed populace fight off a dictatorship), I will point out that the three dictators he mentions - Hitler, Stalin and Mao - were all put in power by the strength of guns in private hands, as were Pol Pot, Castro, the Taliban, and many other horrific regimes.

Guns in private hands do not guarantee freedom. But they do facilitate tragedies like we see in Virginia.

The time to have the discussion about gun control in the US was over 200 years ago.

When you write that all we need is gun control to reduce these shooting massacres, you are probably correct, but you naively misunderstand a large portion of American society. To them it’s not really about gun ownership as much as the right to gun ownership.

They will never give that up. They would devote as many resources as were necessary to protect that right. It might not seem reasonable or rational to people who don’t live here, and I am sure that our gun liberties are not a positive contribution to our society. But that is the reality in America and it is not going to change.

We are just going to have to endure our freedoms and blessings with our tragedies and past misjudgments.

I am deeply saddened by the events that unfolded at Virginia Tech. How can a young man become so isolated that he is driven to commit such an act of violence against people that have done nothing to him? I do not claim to have any answers but I wanted to share what I've noticed in my every day.

As a high school teacher, I worry about the mental health of many of my students. Many of them spend much of their day playing video games (violent or not), surfing the internet, or watching TV. Most spend less than 30 minutes a day socializing with family members. We as a society are raising children like they are livestock, to be taken fed, clothed, provided with shelter and of course Ipods.

We no longer "have the time" to teach them how to cope with stress. We no longer spend the time to actually find out what young people are going through. As adults, we are working longer and longer hours. We forget what is important because of daily demands and pressures. We are becoming a society of people increasingly isolated from each other.

We have automated most of our services (ex. gas stations, internet shopping) and have found ways to avoid having to actually talk to anyone (ex. Ipods on the subway).

Some commenters have said that what we teach in school is "garbage" but I wonder sometimes what is being taught by the mass media we let into our homes. My students walk into my classroom with heads filled with stereotypes and prejudices. I spend a great deal of my time teaching basic social skills. I teach respect and dignity for everyone and that is more than they will ever get outside of school.

I am not blaming parents because we as a society are guilty of devaluing fellow human beings. There needs to be more compassion, less competition, and more social services: after school activities for youth to engage in and increased availability of mental health services.

It's funny, the third comment I read about this news item this morning was somebody talking about violence in popular media.

There is NO CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE proving that violent entertainment stimulates this behavior. People have been blaming violence on this baseless assertion.

People senselessly murder because they're mentally ill. Guns, politics and violent entertainment is all bunk. If this guy didn't have a gun, he would have used a knife, or his bare hands. Because he's ill.

I'm not saying this isn't a tragedy, but you are all blaming the wrong things for this tragedy.

Murderers, especially mass murderers (like this subject) kill for three different reasons: Personal gain, Revenge or Lust. Someone wants to kill for these three reasons is sick in the head.

I think that because people can't punish the guy who caused this horrible crime (because he's currently cooling off on a morgue slab with his 33 victims) people have this irrational and STUPID need to blame other things.

I'm all for gun control, I'm not a fan of violence, but I don't think the rest of the rational thinking people in this world need to be punished because of knee jerk reactions made by people when some psychopath like this decides 33 lives are the price of his personal problems.

Tragedy this is, but it could not have been prevented, no matter how hard we try.

The events are sad but why is the reaction not the same for others in the world who die at the hand of apparently mad individuals. No grief counsilors for those survivors.

Prevention is a word born out of disasters and mistakes. If Columbine wasn't enough to wake up that nation, I don't think this one is either.

Copycat murders happen when the media sensationalize these types of events- the news needs to be reported, but not this constant barrage. ALSO- we need to stop having annual memorials to revisit and remourn these horrific events, again because of the potential for copycat murders.

Thank you CBC for focusing your coverage on the students and faculty of Virginia Tech who were affected by this senseless act of violence. Other news media outlets are consistently focusing on the killer, detailing every second of his life, even going as far as reporting a speeding ticket he once received.

Was I the only one that thought the memorial service happened just a little too soon?

Re: GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE

This may be true but PEOPLE WITH GUNS really get the job done.

All this bunk about better security. Screen for people who may do this type of thing. I mean come on get real.

Oh they could kill you some other way pipe bombs poison.. (You really hear lot that happening)

Gun's are made for two reasons.. to make money and to kill people easily. They are being sold like hot cakes.

They are supposed to protect us from criminals - that’s crap. If you have a legal gun in the house and some kid comes to rip off your TV ( a common thing in every society). Now they have a TV and a gun.

Of course with your insurance you buy a new TV and a replacement gun.

And you wonder why there are so many illegal guns out there.

I believe that the gun control debate is very important especially in a violent society such as the United States of Amnerica.

To add another dimension to discussions, I propose that "privatization" of public services is worthy of consideration.

The campus has its own "police force" - were this to take place in Canada as in the case of Dawson College, our publicly funded police force has the capacity to respond fully (SWAT team etc) to a public threat. Our tax money is well spent on public services!

This is a terrible tragedy. My sympathy goes out to all the victims and families.

A society's attitude towards guns, like alcohol or anything else is telling. Culturally, we seem bi-polar in our attitude towards guns. We commonly exhibit paralyzing fear or fanatical obsession.

Fear of guns leaves an individual or a society vulnerable to abuse. If we allow ourselves to be disarmed, and put our trust in others to manage guns, we risk those we entrust becoming corrupt and no longer acting in our best interest.

History is replete with opportunistic individuals and groups who preferred a disarmed population to maintain their hold on power, taking advantage of tragic events like this to promote disarmament. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, tyrannical mass murderers all through history agree that gun control works.

Obsession with guns leaves an individual or a society similarly vulnerable to crazed individuals.

Somewhere between a paralyzing fear of guns and a fanatical obsession with them is a healthy attitude towards them. The point of mastering the use of a weapon is so that you will be able when required (hopefully never). That is all.

This siege lasted for several hours with the shooter reportedly returning to his dorm to reload. If someone there had had a weapon and was trained to use it, perhaps many fewer individuals would have died.

I have multiple tours in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, where guns were commonly available and carried in full sight of the population. Shootings were very rare indeed. Why? Because people don't assualt (read shoot) at other armed people who have the means and ability to defend themselves and to defend the others around them. Food for thought...

Already the anti-American nuts are already blaming the gun culture in the States for this terrible event. This is NOT the point people.

Universities are a piece of broader society. They are places where dreams can be made and broken. For some, university life can be the best time of one's life, sometimes the worse. Relationships can happen on campus, hearts can be broken. Students can be under great pressure. Sometimes students can snap under it.

Campuses are open, public spaces. That's the way they have to be to function they do. We have no idea what this man was thinking, nor what the demons in his life were. Maybe, instead of focusing on the fact that this horrible thing happened on an American campus and guns were involved, maybe we Canadians should be more intelligent and look at the root causes of conflict in universities.

My heart and prayers go out to the Virginia Tech family tonight. May God comfort you.

I support gun control. However, even if guns were banned and even if such a ban somehow actually prevented a person intent on killing people from procuring them, we'd still be suffering from a universal malaise of alienation, anger, depression, fear, frustration and despair.

It's uncomfortable to look inward and it's scary to confront a challenge so great, but it must be done or tragedies such as that which occurred yesterday will not stop. Let's make it harder to get guns. And then let's make people actually not want to hurt themselves and others.

When we as a society reject God, God allows our youth to perform such massacres. Gun control or no gun control, we are bringing these types of things upon ourselves with our disregard for right and wrong. So when you see these things happen, ask yourself, what have I been doing to contribute to such things?

A number of media outlets have called this the worst massacre in American history. Actually, I can think of one in Virginia with a higher body count. Nat Turner's slave insurrection of 1831 resulted in 55 dead. I guess "2nd Worst" or "3rd Worst" doesn't capture the public imagination.

The media is doing a terrible thing with all the mass coverage. This gunman knew that the media would cover this the way they are and that because of this, he would live in infamy. Now he will go down in history for what he did, his named alongside all the other mass murderers.

Years ago the media stopped publishing the names of people who commit suicide because they discovered that it actually promoted it.The anti-gun people keep the mass murderers' names alive and even the message they were trying to give. The media will do anything to sell copy.

I realize that these events must be reported but it would be better to not make such a huge thing of it, going into the gunman's life history and all the talk shows will discuss it. So get ready for the next big massacre as it is now in the making.

To me, it seems there are some striking similarities between many people who have carried such violent acts. Virginia Tech, Dawson College in Montreal, Ecole Polytechnique many years back, the killings in that small Amish school, the Columbine killings...

All of these folks had deeply troubled minds, and were unable to, or did not have the social and psychological means to either be reached or to reach out to others for help.

I honestly don't think these things can ever be fully prevented, but i think in our individualistic society, the detachment many people feel from something more important than themselves, family, community and so forth, can lead to more and more extreme mind-sets.

I think having said that, looking at what a person who cannot control themselves, has access to in terms of tools to harm others is also really worth it.

Sure someone can take the time to build a bomb, but there's also a chance by the time they've learned how and tried, they might be stopped or someone might reach out to help them.

Getting a fire-arm, having it accessible at the point of rage, delusion and anger is something that should be considered - making weapons unavailable during those critical times, I believe, can reduce the chance of such tragic events taking place - or at least gives the possibility of some type of intervention.

Since the investigation is still on I think its a bit early for the conclusions that "Chris" has. And racist conclusions at that. This shooter was American at heart having lived there for 14 years.

I did want to add that the store owner where one of the pistols was bought legally said today that the shooter looked just like all the other young people who come in and buy handguns. What an observation.

YES THAT IS A HORRIFIC INCIDENT, WE ALL REALIZE THAT USA IS TOP HEAVY WITH ARMS. HERE IN CANADA WE HAVE A STRICT FIREARMS ACQUISITION CERTIFICATION AND A CORE SAFETY CERTIFICATION WITH A REGISTRATION FOR ALL FIREARMS FOR HUNTING.

INTERESTING ENOUGH FROM A HUNTER'S POINT OF VIEW THE USA BORDER IS TRANSPARENT WHEN IT COMES TO ILLEGAL HANDGUNS AND PARA-MILITARY WEAPONS BEING SMUGGLED ACROSS OUR BORDERS.

CRIMINALS HAVE NO INTENTION OF REGISTERING THEIR GUNS MAKING THE CANADIAN GUN BILL REDUNDANT AND USELESS , A WASTE OF TAX PAYERS DOLLARS NOT MAKING THE PUBLIC ANY SAFER.

SINCERELY

SAINT RIDES

I am confused why some Canadians persist on blaming 'American' society for this. I know similar tragedies have occurred in Canada, in Montreal most recently and I believe another in Manitoba and those are just ones that an average news reader (myself) remember. Let's be above the finger pointing, or better yet, let's all point it at ourselves. All human societies, somehow, create these people. I wish together, as a species, we could move forward to a solution.

When it's written into the Constitution that civilians have a right to bear arms - this is the direct result - simple as that.

The authorities and the politicians in the US continue to claim that this is an inherent risk in a 'free and open society'. Last I checked, a 'free and open society' also exists in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Japan.

This has everything to do with gun control.

So the gunman is a student from Virginia Tech, who was kind of a loner. This guy was advised seek counselling, but failed to follow the advice. I think he preferred to be alone, and did have severe psychological problems which were not obvious to anyone since he was a quiet person.

He must have felt isolated in the campus community. It's hard to predict the motives of quiet people who have dangerous thoughts. He was in his senior year, so he could have developed this hatred for "life", as he progressed in university.

He had probably undergone negative experiences or just not any positive experiences throughout his life. This is really sad that something like this leads to such a tragedy.

How easy is it to procure a firearm such as the Glock used in the slayings? Too easy, I would think; just as easy as getting the ultra concealment holster and matching concealment t-shirt that fits that high tech killing pistol.

A lot of innocent victims die each and every day because of lax firearm laws. I really think killing 32 unarmed civilians would be a little more difficult with a knife or a baseball bat.

Then again, who knows in today's society; it's all seems to heading into the abbyss. My thoughts are with all those that suffer from tragic events such as these.

I cannot stand the fact that people are saying this in not a Gun control issue. Of course it is. If the sale of hand guns were illegal it would have been much, much, much harder for him to have got access to the weapons he had.

Will it stop all guns violence? No. But it would prevent many of them from having taken place.
If the man had a knife not nearly as many people would have been killed.

People can argue all they want about how stricter laws wouldn't do anything. But the fact is that if semi-automatic weapons, assault riffles, and hand guns were made illegal, both in the United States and Canada we would see a drastic decrease in these sorts of incidents.

No one but the police should have access to these sorts of weapons, period. There is absolutely no need to have them.

The fact that the shooter killed himself makes the gun control issue moot. The intent was mass destruction, and if guns were unavailable, other options like bombs, fire, poison, or some other mass destructive method would be used.

Emotionally damaged people can be extremely creative or extremely destructive. The only thing that we as a society can do is help emotionally disturbed people.

Shunning these people provides more fodder for their anit-societal behaviour. If someone approaches you for help, please assist, or help them find assistance. It could be the difference between saving or destroying one or more lives.

It's funny how the media and the public has focused themselves on where this young man was born, Country of origin. It is not the country of origin that makes a man or women do horrible things to others.

Instead of focusing on where he came from lets think of what happened to this young boy, in his childhood, to get him to the point that he killed so many others without Empathy.

If the country of origin is the reason for creating such a man then we must look back at our past where millions of Native Americans were killed by European Settlers.
It is not where we are born but the environment where we are being raised...

this has nothing to do with gun control

its because of societies disregard for human life

the word of God teaches consideration and love for our fellow humans

the foundation has been eroded in our society

my wife and I taught our children respect for others, we taught our children home, because of the garbage taught in our schools

take the time to teach your children well, for they are the next generation and caretakers of this world

It's funny how they seem to focus on where this individual came from, Country of Origin.

It is not the country of origin that makes an individual do horrible things it is the environment where he grew up that instills in them hatred for the human race.

Instead of asking or stating that he is from here or there why not ask or say, What happen to this boy in his young life to make him hate other so much as to kill them with out a sense of empathy!!!

Chris from Korea should know that the perpetrator, lived majority of his life in the United States and living in Korea and having a Korean wife does not give you a right to blame all Korean men for being sexist and spoiled.

Not one person had made any comments on a desire for change and seeing the positive within the tragedy. Yes it happened, and we can't change that but it's forced us to once turn our heads to the television set and feel emotion for what happened.

This could have happened anywhere in this country, it could very well happen tomorrow. Was the shooter unhappy with how we as human beings in the USA and Canada were living our lives? Exploiting the planet, exploiting each other, consuming each other? There's a defeinite maybe.

We all need to drastically change our lifestyles. We are becoming an anti-social society, being brainwashed by advertising, cosumed with materialism, and there is no end in sight.

We're all geared towards the me me me perspective and losing site of what's important. We're all part of the same species. Could this be a motivation, or an act of agression against societies behaviour. It could have happened to anyone of us.

So so we be looking to gun control and the USA for answers? Or really inside ourselves?

I must start with sending my condolences and prayers to all the victims families (deceased and living). Nothing we can say can bring them back, but I hope that it will at least comfort them in knowing they are not alone at this torturous time.

I am new to Canada. Moved here from the UK in the hope of a life where my children can grow up (hopefully) freely and safely.

God created us (man) to have dominion over all beasts. But unfortunately man, is not always able to control the 'beast within'.

In the UK young children are being hunted in their homes, at social events and killed by guns and knives.

In other countries young children are murdered, raped, tortured or turned into the 'Beast' while becoming soldiers in wars, masacares and genocides.

(This may offend some) But, Man needs to turn back to God. Man needs to beg forgiveness for all the wrong we do and humble ourselves before God. Only when we do so, can we have peace within, to be able to 'tame the beast within'. Show respect and tolerance to others and be better examples for our young.

ONLY when we start respecting and realising the value of life, will gun control work.

I think that this was a tragic incident and that many lives were lost that was unnessecary. People will be in mourning for the weeks to come and people with family and friends at Virginia Tech will be directly effected by how the situation is handled in the next days and weeks to come.

I just hope that the victims family members will realize that this is not any persons fault except that one individual that took the gun to those classrooms and shot the 32 people that died and 17 people that were injured.

My heart goes out to all those that were affected and all those victims that lost their lives in this tragic incident.

Some people say that this is not a gun control issue. I say to you, if this "loner" did not talk to people, & kept to himself, where would have he gotten the connections to purchase an illegal firearm??

Instead he went to a store, & bought a handgun w/ some ammo, give me a break...they sell guns like candy in the USA, get with the program its 2007..this isn't the wild west

Unfortunately, one would have to look at the possiblity of hiring well trained armed guards to patrol university compuses. It could save many lives.

On one level it might discourage a potential attack. However if one occurs their duty would be to quickly "identify and neutalise".

This would involve additional expenses to the University and students but would certainly be worthwhile if it could save lives.

In reply to K. Trudeau of Ottawa who writes

> For instance - teaching our kids to respect life.

A very wise outlook

> but for some people it is not an obvious differentiation between blowing people away on a screen and doing it for real - believe it or not! And allowing our children to play such games while their brains are developing DOES influence the long term value sytem that each person develops individually.

This I have to disagree with you and I put the responsibility right on the parents shoulders. A generation ago one of the more violent cartunes on television was the now classic Road Runner toons. The Cyotee was always trying to have the Road Runner AS his dinner IE: kill him.

I grew up watching those cartunes and my parents alwyas made a point that one of them would watch the show with me and impress upon me that it was only "pretend" that real people didn't act that way. If more parents today remembered how they were raised and raised their kids in a similar fashion this crazy world may not be as screwed up as it is.

Just something to think about

I am saddened by another tragedy in the the lives of our youth. I am also shocked that Canadians (as well as Americans) just don't get it. GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE...PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!!!

As Canadians, we're proud to the point of almost being boastful that we have less crime "due to our gun control", as we point an accusing finger to our neighbors to the south.

Yet these type of events STILL happen in Canada! The low number of fatalities on Canadian soil is not necessarily the result of gun control, but possibly the availability, quantity and accessibility of victims to the killer at the moment.

Anyone, particularly criminals, can get almost any type of gun they want within half an hour. That's the angle we need to pursue, not the average citizen. So we take guns away from people. Are we going to take away and outlaw ALL knives too when that gets out of control? Then what? Archery equipment, bats, tools or anything else that's used to kill? The root issue is that our laws no longer protect the innocent and no longer punish the corrupt. It's about money, who you are, who you know and how good your behavior was if you do get sentenced.

It's totally insane to expect things to change when criminals have as much or more rights as victims. Unless the laws of Canada and America are changed, these events will continue. Is anyone listening who can make a difference?

This is NOT about revenge...it's about justice!!! The height of insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over again...and expect different results!

Although I am for gun control (with severe mandatory sentencing for using a gun), it is not a gun control issue. We cannot protect ourselves from each other. There are many mentally ill people capable of horrendous acts. This could happen anytime and anywhere.

The tradegy within this tradegy is the response of the university leaders and law enforcement officials. Having going thru a tragic situation earlier in the year should have provided school officials with a strategy, not to prevent but contain incidences like this.

All avenues of communication with students should have been implemented, including being able to text message each and every student. Students were not notified till after the second killing took place. That is a disgrace. If they had been notified at 7:15 AM I believe this tradegy would have been contained and we wouldnt have 32 students dead.

The discussion which seems to follow school shootings most frequently is gun control. Although this is an important avenue for discussion, I truly don't believe it's the heart of the problem.

The internet can show you how to build homemade explosives, pipebombs, weaponry of any kind. Individuals without the proper health care resources are going to resort to something.

If guns are sufficiently controlled, we'll just see a shift in the style of weaponry. I highly suggest both the US government and our own give much more thought to increasing screening practices in mental health clinics, educational information, family services, and similar areas of care.

As an academic I am particularly touched by this tragedy and my deepest sympathies to the families of victims, to the VT community and to the academic community as a whole. Being killed in performing one of the most innocent activities that is taking a book and going to school is profoundly disturbing.

Among other factors, witnessing senseless violence acts, toady around world, against innocent people going to work, to school, or to the market, over and over naturally has impact on the process making someone to act so violently.

Having weapons at ones disposal will naturally facilitate the realisation of violent acts.

But, I would like to bring your attention to fact that we should allow stereotyping to take over the issue and make negatives propaganda against one group or the other.

One the experts, from university a university in the Maritimes I believe, on today show placed the blame both on being international student and living in university residences.

This will only will confuse the issue and redirect our attention from the real fact that in an anonymous and impersonal world that we live in, no one is capturing and reacting to clues that one express under such dangerously built up pressure.

I came to Canada as an international student and lived in university residences. They were my best university years in terms of learning, adaptation and integration. I recommend that to all international students.

Further more he suggested making students to sign a contract which again in my opinion is running away from their real responsibility of being available and listening.
The author of this tragedy was English major and language was no issue as your expert suggested to one the sources of frustration.

We have to become more observant of our environment, listen more carefully and be in touch with each other. EM is the solution to everything!!

I am at a loss trying to find the words to ease your pain.How do we make a parent,sibling or friend feel that we can truly empathise with their feelings at the moment.

The truth is we can't,all each of us can do is to try to understand that this massacre was a massacre of bright and beautiful idividuals and should not be remembered simply because of the devestating number who were murdered,but should be remembered as each of them were. God bless all..

As a university instructor and former student at an American university (where, like one of the victims, I served as a resident assistant), I was appalled by the administration's delayed response.

VT seems to have forgotten about its most important link to the student body, which is not mass email or voicemail, but its corpus of resident assistants. With one on every floor, able to notify all present residents, many students could have been reached. Others could have been notified by friends and classmates.

Also, classifying the dorm incident as an "isolated" one sounds like criminal negligence to me. My information may be outdated, but as recently as 2003, campus police was still struggling for the right to carry firearms.

They are not equipped to handle such incidents. Where was the State Police and why weren't more deployed within those two hours, combing the campus for the shooter and keeping students and faculty away from classrooms?

While avoiding panic is a priority in such cases, keeping potential victims in the dark, unwarned, was a fatal mistake.

Lastly, my prayers go to the victims and their families. And our culture views dying young as the ultimate tragedy of unfulfillment, let us not forget those who died trying to prevent or limit such tragedy - faculty members. A special prayer for Prof. Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, who died trying to save his students.

I would have to agree with those who feel that this is not a gun control issue. Although idealistically in a utopian world it would be convenient to say that the removal of the right to bear arms could prevent the likeliness of something as tragic as this from happening, it is generally an unrealistic notion.

The fact of the matter is that whether or not firearms require registration, those who should not have possession of them will find a way to gain possession of them. The issue in this matter is a cultural and societal issue, wherein the media supports and even sometimes glorifies this type of behavior.

Although some are able to differentiate what is right from wrong in television, movies, and video games, there are others who are more vulnerable to believing that such behaviour is encouraged and respected.

While that is also a mental health issue, it is not one that is always detectable, and allowing those individuals to be subject to programming and so called entertainment that encourages violence as a means of expression is in a sense pouring fuel into a fire.

My heart goes out to all the families of the victims of this terrible event.

Does anyone not feel revulsed with the media images of the victims being carried out of the school buildings? These people have already suffered the indignity of being seriously injured. They do not need to suffer any more added indignity by the media showcasing their weakest moments to the world.

I live and work in Korea, and have a Korean wife.

Crimes similar to this one happen somewhat regularly here. Husband loses job, comes home, kills family and then commits suicide. Girl breaks up with boyfriend, boyfriend shoots girlfriend and her family. Both of these examples were recent news stories here.

In Canada we'd love to pass this off as a gun control issue, unfortunately this is also a culture issue. I won't sugarcoat it for you. I'm sure this young Korean man had no mental tools for dealing with his girlfriend dumping him. I really hope this is a wakeup call for some of the parents over here.

Perhaps if someone had been armed???

Get the facts straigt??? There were armed police on campus for two hours. Did they jump out like dirty harry and save the day?

Who cares if the shooter had to pull the trigger once or a hundred times.

Imagine this.. say every student had a gun! They could all pull them out and start shooting. That should cut down on the number of causalties.

At this time of deep grief, let us all unite and pray for the victims, their families and friends and for all of us, that GOD may show us, inner peace and understanding and equilibrium with oneself, and with each other.

When are Americans going to put their damn guns away?

For those of you who think this is not a gun control issue, I wonder how you would feel if it were one of your children or loved ones that you were getting ready to bury?

It is true that guns don't kill people, it is people who kill people. However, if this lunatic had not had access to weapons of this kind, he would not have been able to kill so many. If he'd had a knife, he would have easily been overpowered by those around him before he could do too much harm.

If this does turn out to be a crime of passion gone horribly overboard, it is clear that had he not had these weapons his rage would have been much less destructive.

There are obviously social issues and mental issues here as well, but take the weapons out of the hands of these people and you limit the pain that they can cause.

Stop listening to senile old morons like Charton Heston - you don't need your guns anymore!

I am a mom and a student - I was writing an exam during the massacre and I'm scared to go back to write more.

I have never felt more like a sitting duck in my entire life

Please get your facts straight.

There were no 'automatic' weapons involved. Automatic weapons are effectively impossible for a civillian to acquire. The shooter had to pull the trigger for each shot. He simply carried a LOT of ammunition.

Firearms were banned on campus, to include security personel. Since those who break the law can and will acquire weapons regardless of any current or future laws, only law abiding citizens will be disarmed. Perhaps if someone had been armed, they could have stopped this madman. Underreported as it may be, people defend their lives every single day with firearms.

You could ban all firearms sales in the United States tomorrow. You could break down the doors of the vast, vast majority with legal weapons and confiscate them by force, but you'll never get them out of the hands of those intent on breaking the law.

Lisa from Newfoundland has what I believe to be great insight on this unfortunate topic. Many people including myself wiped away a tear during the news conference in Virginia yesterday.

Everyone tries to understand what could possibly make a human being so hateful to carry out such a horrifying act. Why have people become so desensitised to the needs of others?

Regardless if it was a firearm, an automobile, a club or a slingshot the result is equally disturbing. What was the motive behind this senseless slaughter? Could it possibly be the way we are raising our children that imparts this 'me' mentality on them? Whatever the reason, perhaps it is time for our government to start looking very seriously at protecting our schools.

If it takes putting metal detectors and armed military guards at the school entrances then so be it. Our children are the future and I believe they deserve to be protected. God bless the families and friends of those lost in yesterdays tragedy.

I think Audrey in Korea missed my point, which leads me to believe others may have also. What I think we all need to understand is that people are both biological entities with genetic influences, and are a product of their environment.

Humans are somewhat violent by their very nature and nobody is trying to say that the "perfect nuclear family" is some kind of panacea. My point is that there are some things we can all influence - here in Canada, in the U.S., in Korea, and anywhere else in the world.

For instance - teaching our kids to respect life. As for video games I will not try to say they cause anything, but for some people it is not an obvious differentiation between blowing people away on a screen and doing it for real - believe it or not! And allowing our children to play such games while their brains are developing DOES influence the long term value sytem that each person develops individually.

Now let's look at someone who looses controll and acts in an extremely violent manner. Are they more dangerous if they are able to go to a flea market and for a couple hundred bucks pick up 2 or 3 firearms and several boxes of ammunition? You decide. I'd rather be faced with that person weilding a butter knife as someone else here suggested.

My point is simply that as our species evolves it seems more and more that everyone wants to build, but nobody wants to spend the time or effort in making sure the foundations upon which we build are solid, value based fundamentals.

We as a species are orchestrating our own demise and these kinds of tragic events are nothing but a symptom of that.

My thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies are sent forward to the families, students and faculty at Virginia Polytechnic.

While the security measures of the school are still being questioned, it is evident something needs to be done.

There is always a thin line between safety precautions for the school's population and invading one's privacy. The question of gun control needs to also be questioned... It is an act of senseless violence such as this that needs society to clearly question what is happening at our hands.

I would like to offer my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the victims of this very unfortunate tragedy. I would also like to offer those same sympathies to the families of the victims of the suicide bombers in Bagdad, the victims of ongoing Darfur conflict and so many other examples of the tragic violence perpetrated by mankind upon mankind.

I think that Mark O'Halloran's comments were an accurate assessment of why this is not merely a gun control issue.

To the question of 'How many students would have died had the perpetrator not had access to a gun?'. Less if he were to have assaulted those students with a pocket knife but significantly more if he had chosen to use an explosive device (ala Timothy McVeigh).

The gun registry in Canada was intended to prevent (through identification and subsequent banning/confiscation) firearms from being present in households. This would simply have had the effect of reducing the use of firearms in domestic disputes and other non-premeditated acts of violence by otherwise law abiding citizens.

If an individual is determined to murder an individual or a group of people in a premeditated way, there are almost countless ways of obtaining this objective (regardless of gun control).

The motivation of the individual who committed this not yet known but it is certain that he was mentally ill. I sincerely hope that the media refuses to publish his name, pictures of him or any other details of his life. Disgusting acts of cowardice like this should not be rewarded with celebrity or notoriety.

I think that all school systems should stop it where it starts.

So many of these shooters are people who have been bullied their entire lives. Whether it be by peers, family or even perfect strangers.

I believe that the school systems need to be implementing some sort of programming for these people to let them know the impact bullying has on a person.

Also most of these people lack basic social skills, and often have nobody to talk to about their feelings.

I feel for the parents of the deceased students, as well as for students themselves whose dreams will never be realized...I also have tremendous admiration for those who gave their lives to save others during the shooting - I believe a Professor who was a holocaust survivor was one of them. It is these people who give me hope.

I, like many others in this forum must say first and formost that my heart goes out to the victims, their families, the College and the rest of ours neighbors in the United States.

This is senseless violence that unfortuneatly will probably never stop. I would just simply ask CBC to "not" be like CNN and many other stations that will take this story and run with it for weeks and weeks until maybe the next person who has the same idea on their mind (and there is many out there), does not get so excited about what he or she is watching and hearing that they cannot help themselves and go for it.

People blame this on guns , education systems , TV , the individual , etc. , etc. when the real problem lies at home.

Raising children with morales , spending more time listening to and teaching them about what's right and wrong. But in today's world , more and more people worry too much about the almighty dollar , their golf game and lord knows what else to actually spend enough time with their children showing them love and respect.

Maybe it's time to start looking at the people raising these individuals.
Putting the clubs away and missing a couple of those after work cocktails a few times may seem like nothing much , but a few extra hours with your children is never a bad thing.

Being a student at the University of Toronto, it is very hard to cope with the scope of the tragedy that took place at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The victims of this selfish act were students who were productive and worked very hard to get where they were. It is unbelievable to think that a person knowing how difficult it is to get to where they were would commit such a horrible act.

My deepest, heartfelt sympathy goes out to the victims and their friends and family.

Picture two scenario’s

Scenario I - Automatic weapons from corner Store + plenty of cheap Ammo. Courtesy of NRA and gutless politicians:

Distraught student mows down 32 innocents and then kills him self.

Scenario II - No Gun:

Distraught student jumps off bridge.

Figure it out?

Perhaps the best head line would be distraught weapons manufacture who can no longer make money selling automatic weapons to general public shoots him self in despair at share holders meeting.

This incident cannot be blamed on any one factor. Gun control isn't the issue - anything can be used as a weapon.

Better campus security isn't the issue. Religion isn't the issue - whether you believe in god is besides the point. What matters is that many people were murdered. The shooter ended his own life after taking the lives of others but I believe even he can be viewed as a victim.

It may be difficult for people to set aside their rage at this young man but we must realize that we will never know what his state of mind was at the time to be able to commit such an act.

While you think of the families of the students and faculty who died, try to think also of the shooter's family, who may also be grieving in their own way. It doesn't easily boil down to whether his childhood was troubled or whether his family was a typical "nuclear" family (children from those seemingly perfect nuclear families are capable of committing such crimes as well).

What it boils down to is a mentally unstable young man who lost control and ended up killing numerous people. Let the families grieve and let's stop encouraging the media to milk this cow.

To here about this saddens me ,but what can we expect will happen when it is easier to get guns and amunition than it is to get medicial help,it and cost less to.You cant blame the tv shows or the video games,if that was the case we would see alot more of this sensless killing.

Some say that gun control wouldnt help ,maybe not but one thing is for sure it wouldnt hurt.I see no reason for the average person to need hand guns or assult rifles.And this right to bare arms,I think that they ment that it was everyones right to ware short sleave shirts.

Canadians,

Please do not disregard some element of gun control. Why does anyone need a weapon beyond a pistol at home for protection or a hunting rifle? Why does anyone NEED an automatic weapon. This will not completely solve the problem but it would be easier for police to handle a maniac with only a pistol or a hunting rifle.

There are some things Canadians and the government can begin to discuss? 1) no further production and/or sale of heavy weapons but for police uses. 2) regulation of the ammunition clips for all weapons. Why should any personal use weapon hold more than 3 to 4 bullets? 3) To start, focus on new weapons being purchased and produced. Later, we need to consider banning some of the older weapons.

Please Canada wake up to this issue. What will happen if the wrong person gets their hands on a large, heavy weapon in Canada. I realize that it may come out that the Virginia shooting was with a hangun but surely the amount of ammunition and the clip sizes for the weapons (possibly automatic) were a factor.

We need to look at gun control ALONG WITH a myriad of other factors to prevent, in some way, these tragedies.

Small guns for hunting, target practice, and home protection are alright, but large weapons and large ammunition clips must be eliminated. Yes, mentally ill individuals will get their hands on guns and do terrible things, we need to limit what is available as a start.

E.Fraser, ONTARIO

My thoughts and prayers go to the families and victims. I am very sadden about this horrific violence! I especially feel the pain for the (victims) students who have devoted their time to better their education and it is now "all gone"...

Again my sympathy to family and friends. God Bless us...

If the first shooting at Virginia Tech was not dismissed as `domestic' it could probably have saved some lives. Although it claimed 2 lives (which are two too many!) it was only seen as `domestic' by the authorities. Behind this monumental tragedy, hides the other great tragedy of our society - our perception of women victims of abuse and violence. Along with gun control, we need to consider this as part of the larger debate.

CBC, please do your best to avoid publishing pictures of the killer, talking about his life, his relationships or even saying his name. Making him infamous only encourages other people to follow his path.

If gun control actually worked then I'd support it. Ask yourself, is a rampage like this any less likely in Canada? If yes then is it because of our gun laws?

I agree that it is a cop out to blame such incidents as this on gun control laws, for it is still the individual who decides to go on these killing sprees.

Saying this however I know that stiffer and longer sentences are not the key. Crime is not out of control as Mr. Harper would have you believe and it has actually been steadily declining since the early 1990's. It is also true that Canada has the second highest incarceration rate in the western world, after the US.

As such it has become clear that North American Society must do more to prevent crime and deviance, rather than simply reacting by locking criminals up and throwing away the key.

But unfortunately the crime prevention through social development model will not sell politically.

I hope that this time, in the reporting and comments by media and in our own thoughts about this event, we remember that there were other victims that we, too often, forget. That is the "shooter' and his parents.

I lost a daughter, suddenly, two weeks ago. All the parents involved here will have their lives shattered into bits by this. The loss is unthinkable for parents.

Let's not forget all the victums and the parents.
My deepest, heartfelt sympathy goes out to them.
Let's all push for peace and amnesty for victims everywhere.

My condolences to the families of these defenceless victims.
I can only say that it was a travesty and a tragedy that all of the law-abiding victims were comletely defenceless, at the mercy of an angry young man who decided not to obey the 'gun-free' policy of the University.

In these trying times, it would seem to me that we must each be responsible for our OWN safety, as police, through no fault of their own, can not prevent these horrific incidents.

How would this have turned out differently if some of the students or profs had been carrying a hand gun, in accordance with State law?

Why do these incidents always seem to happen in 'gun-free' zones rather than at the local police station where evryone is armed?

The most important thing to do today and in the coming days is to show respect for the families of those who were killed.

After that, there should be a comprehensive review of the security arrangements on all schools and campuses. Clearly, the existing measures are inadequate.

As for gun laws, I fail to see how having more of the same laws that were already in place (and which are even more onerous and strict in Canada but also didn't prevent the tragedies that happened here) will change anything.

Indeed, there are examples in other countries that show the same thing, or worse results.

I think what we are seeing is, if you'll pardon the expression, a "perfect storm". We can't say gun controll alone will fix this.

We can't say that banning the extreme violence our children see daily in video games and television will fix this. We can't say that rapid advances in techknowledgy contributing to transient relationships and a breakdown of family values is the cause.

We can't say that our society has lost its moral fiber entirely and that's the reason for these tragedies. We can't say that the emergence of the "me" generation which completely lacks respect for our fellow humans while focusing on what "I" deserve is to blame.

We can't say that any one of these things alone is the cause or the remedy. But taken together they all contribute to the fact that we are now living in a powder keg and are giving off sparks.

Maybe it's too late to look back, I don't know. But for starters lets stop letting kids sue their parents for disciplining them. Lets stop this ridiculous game of "political correctness" - true respect isn't just the words we use, but the feelings, beliefs and values we espouse.

Let's get rid of the notion that automatic weapons should be available to anyone. Let's stop exposing our young impressionable youth to violence on TV and in video games. Let's focus more on preserving the nuclear family unit instead of making it normal and acceptable for people to divorce, or for "non-traditional" families to raise children in ways that nature never intended.

Let's realize that we are emotional beings that can't always rationalize everything we do or see. Let's be sure that agents of socialization in our society have a positive impact, not a negative one.

In short, let's take a hard and honest look at ourselves - each and every one of us - and ask ourselves what is truly important in our short lives.

Obviously lots of emotion outpouring in this forum. I could understand that anyone knowing any of these people must be suffering greatly.

As I do not, I'd like to put the event into perspective: On an average day, 42 Americans kill themselves with guns. On an average day, 33 Americans are murdered by others using guns. It seems to me that this 'average day' happening in a single location all of a sudden acquires international attention.

Not that anything is wrong with that, but why are the other 12000 or so gun murders per year in the US not garnering proportional attention? Furthermore, under US occupation, this would be considered a fairly routine occurrence in Baghdad, and given little more than a 20s spot on the CBC.

These are also people with families and friends, and hopes and dreams and contributions to make to the world. Why do massacres there not elicit the same type of response as this forum provides?

Is it true that Americans are inherently superior to all others, or is it just that it's close to home, or perhaps that if this did occur every day, that we'd no longer be surprised or horrified by it?

I don't believe gun control has anything to do with the issue. Yes, guns make it easy to kill, but the proliferation of illegal guns on the continent make gun control as fruitless as drug control.

If the only thing we find to discuss on this topic is Gun Control,then I think we are missing the point.
Gun control had nothing to do with it and would NOT have prevented it.

It is long past the time when when we can figure out just what did cause it.Probably we will never know for sure and we can only speculate.And no,it was NOT video games.

It is about what goes on in peoples heads and what is happening to society and the world in general.If we scream in favour of gun control everytime someone dies from a bullet,nothing will change.

Because that's not the reason.People are the reason.Crazy people who should have gotten help long ago and didn't.If there were no guns,they would use a stick or a butter knife.

Blaming gun control is a cop out.We need to get over that.
We do however still need to put people who commit offences of any kind away for a long,long time.We still are not doing that yet and we need to send the message that violent offences of any kind,for any reason,will NOT be tolerated.

Crime is out of control.
If it takes more cops,more prisons,more mental institutions,so be it.Build them.
Mr.Harper,Mr Dion,and Mr Layton...it's your call!

I wish peace and comfort to those closest to this senslessness - the surviving victims, the families of those killed, and the student community at V Tech. Their lives have been forever changed.

I also hope that the media will respect the privacy of those directly affected - they deserve this more than you deserve "getting your story".

Why is it that something bad like this has to happen to bring people closer together??

If humanity was 'close together' to begin with, things like this would not happen.

But no, we have war, poverty, wrath, greed, sickness, selfishness... these are just some of the things that divide humanity...

Our leaders better wake up and start working together before they continue to run our world into the ground.

Oh but let's not forget, whenever a good leader does come around, he/she gets killed eventually...

Can anyone imagine this world filled with things like only love, respect, trust, honesty, forgiveness.... again, in a world like that things like this would not happen.

"...let it be on earth as it is in Heaven..."

Curtailing guns won't eliminate armed violence, but guns do make killing very easy.

They may be inanimate objects, but they have only one purpose: to kill. Even though gun collectors and owners may only use them and keep them for purposes that remain within the law, firearms have--historically and generally--caused a lot more grief than happiness.

I think the most important question to be answered is "will we ever learn?" Of course we could never answer this until another massacre occurs in a similar fashion, or so this seems to be the case. We in Canada have had our own devestating school shootings, but the gun control laws in the U.S. must be considered.

A startling distinguishing factor between this shooting and others however, is the two hour period between the shootings. I rely only on my outsiders perspective on the matter through CBC News, but I believe the actions taken and not taken in this period and as well when the second shooting began, was not good enough.

Regardless of the circumstances, school shootings are the same - innocent people are being struck down by one or even a few shooters. There will always be a number of people injured if not killed. Why is it then, with this common sense considered, that several police officers and SWAT members stood around?

In reference to the footage shown with the 27 rounds fired, I was astonished at the lack of reaction. The first mission of the authorities in any school shooting should be to secure or if necessary take down the threat.

I know this, I'm sure fellow students of mine know this, and even the officers who were on the scene at Virginia Tech knew this. But it didn't happen. So again I ask, "will we ever learn?"

I work in a school that has maximum security. Since the Columbine tragedy,and lets not forget the Amish School, we all should take a better look at our lockdown system and communications systems for better security!!

This was a senseless act. I would have thought that a code red, green or whatever would have been called immediately to gaurd and save the 33 who lost their life to this unfortunate event. Our Prayers do go out to the families.

There will blame for this tragedy...from violent games, music, to poor handling by administration.

We need to take a good look at how men handle stress. And certainly how different cultures communicate stress and frustration. As a former high school teacher, students will need to take courses on relationships builders and how to "break" a relationship gone sour.

I believe as a parent of two adolescent males this topic has and does come up often. What is the root of this problem? I recently read, " Evil has no roof over his head." My thoughts and prayers go to the victims and their families...and also the gunman's family. "All we are saying is give peace a chance."

This is such a senseless tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims and their friends and family.

I am glad that so many of us are deeply affected by this...

But funny thing is... people are killed everyday by guns. Civil War. Gang wars. Domestic disputes. And on. I am not saying that we should not be disgusted by this event- I simply want to bring awareness to the deeper issue.

I personally believe that change starts at home, wherever you are. Whenever you hear something that doesn't "jive" with you, say it. Make a comment. Tell someone. Don't sit back and take it.

Everyone is a citizen of this world- is it so hard, or so bad to say to your neighbour, friend, coworker "Hey, do you really think it necessary to joke about violence that way?" or "Sorry, I can longer take part in this conversation because I don't support gratuitous violence". And so on.

And so what if someone looks at you funny? Or calls you "uptight"? It is your life, and you can draw boundaries the way you see fit for you.

Ok, it might not be the answer to all gun related deaths... but it seems like something simple that we can ALL do.

What does anyone else think?
Thanks for reading.

I would take this first quotation as an prove for the “gun culture” but rather for the incompetence of his person and a dull attempt to hide this personal short coming in this tragedy.

The second point is for sure a prove for the latent racists biasness of western society we also witnessed a lot after the massacre in Montreal.

“1. The president of the university said the he didn't close/evacuate the campus because the first shooting was an isolated incident. Since when is someone opening fire in a university "isolated"? It's a tragedy and an emergency.

Brushing off violence in the classroom as isolated speaks volumes about the gun culture in the US.

2. All reports of the shooter are that he was an Asian man. Does it matter if he was Asian? Was he really Asian, or did he just have Asian features? Why does every news report about this begin with "an Asian man?" Would it be the same if he were Black or Hispanic?”

This is sad and tragic, but what is more tragic is the media play on this - what I have to say next will sound really awful, but it was a gift from God for all the news channels who can now play this out for the next week and do in-depth analysis of every angle and have every counsellor (and other 'experts') on the face of the earth interviewed to understand the dynamics of the situation.

It just reaffirms my belief that there are way, way too many under-employed news reporters/journalists out there. Again this situation tragic, but what is more tragic is the play it will get in the media.

The media promotes violence at almost every turn, be it in movies, TV shows, or the evening news, and then are so surprised and shocked when violence happens.

As a semi-retired educator, I am extremely saddened by the massacure at Virginia Tech. For years many of my colleagues and myself have had debates about bullying and violence in our society. We are constantly talking to the students about the impact of their words and actions towards others yet we know the strong influence of what they hear and see, both around them and through the various forms of technological communication.

I am infuriated at the use of sarcasm and putdowns that now is accepted as humour in sitcoms and even on our commercials. Dishonesty is an accepted quality, just look at the recent MacLeans issue and one of the home renovation stores tv ads.

It has been quoted many times that it takes a village to raise a child. Now,especially now, is the time for big business ( advertising, film, music,etc. ) to work together with educators, parents, the general population, and all facets of society to put an end to the prevailing social atmosphere of "money counts more than people" and "we need to get them first before they get us" to make ourselves look good, strong, etc.

Columbine, Pearl Mississippi, Minnesota, Amish School in Pennsylvania, Virginia Tech...all within the last 10 years.

People will express outrage, shock, anger. Some will call for more religion in the class, others a ban on guns. Then the grief will wear off and become forgotten by so many until it happens again. And it will happen again.

Until the "shoot first, ask questions later" theory of American culture changes, you can bank on massacres like this happening about once every 18 months or so.

By the way, two questions to ponder:

1. The president of the university said the he didn't close/evacuate the campus because the first shooting was an isolated incident. Since when is someone opening fire in a university "isolated"? It's a tragedy and an emergency. Brushing off violence in the classroom as isolated speaks volumes about the gun culture in the US.

2. All reports of the shooter are that he was an Asian man. Does it matter if he was Asian? Was he really Asian, or did he just have Asian features? Why does every news report about this begin with "an Asian man?" Would it be the same if he were Black or Hispanic?

I probably sound a bit insensitive here, but they're just questions on my mind.

God bless those families today.

The most troubling fact about this tragedy is that the authorities of the university as well as the police let more then 2 hours getting wasted which could have been used to warn and secure the students and teachers at the campus.

I can’t believe that it took them more then 2 hours to get the word to the students and staff and then only by email despite the fact that it should be done by loudspeaker. To leave this to the odd student checking his email during the bullets zip by his head is plainly irresponsible by all measures.

This whole matter even looks worth if seen from the fact that modern police training states that such an act in the environment of a near by school or campus can quickly lead into a further incident at the near by facility if the perpetrator is not arrested directly.

The plain idea of that the perpetrator has left the vicinity of his crime completely can never be the taken as reason to not conduct a search and tighten security in the surrounding perimeter as well as at the crime scene itself till the suspect is under arrest and even then security has to be upheld till all conclusions point out that no further risk to public or officers may occur. That is police 101 which makes it even harder to get why they act this way after the first shots at 7:15am. Such errors should simply happen since they so preventable in modern police work with all knowledge and training police has today.

This is rediculous, i can't imagine how the families of the dead students and those wounded are suffering right now.

What is wrong with this world? Who gives anyone the right to just kill 32 people (almost more)? And the coward then turns the gun on himself.

These are the times where the world needs more love and compassion, not wrath and revenge and murder. This is an act of a psychotic killer, someone who has no respect for life (his or anyone else's), and the world needs less of that no doubt.

We can blame violence in movies, video games or music. We can blame the social hierarchy of schools and bullying. But the fact is, we live in a society where an individual can quite easily acquire semi automatic and automatic weapons and kill more than 30 people
before he's either stopped by police or deicdes to take his own life.

While gun control -serious gun control - is not the ultimate answer, it is a step that must be taken. Addressing the deeper problems of society takes a lot of time.

For now, new gun laws must be passed. Why are companies even manufacturing automatic weapons for civillian use? It's ridiculous.

I see the anti-gun hand-wringers are out in full force!

A situation where the only people who have guns are the police and criminals will always result in the criminals having a free reign to carry out their criminal behavior.

Why? Two reasons:

1) The police cannot be everywhere at once.

2) They can only react to crime once it has commenced. Sometimes reacting takes time.
In most instances, the police can only solve crimes, they cannot prevent them.

You want to prevent things like this from happening? There are ONLY two options:

1) Destroy ALL guns, including those held by huntsmen, the military and law enforcement (and we know that isn't going to happen), or

2) Allow the citizenry to defend themselves, in real time, and the only way to defend against a gun crime is with another gun. No it isn't a perfect solution, but it is a lot better than being slaughtered like cattle!

BTW one of the first acts of a totalitarian regime is to take weapons away from the populace, for obvious reasons.

The absolute right to defend onesself shouldn't even be a topic for discussion.

First of all, cassandra from qc, you make absolutely no sense. This tragedy should not be an avenue for you to spew some nonsensical diatribe about conservatives, religion, or whatever else ails you.

Thankfully, a number of people have added constructive input as to the reasons why these tragedies occur. There are some things that need to be addressed though to put things into perspective. We seem to have a collective notion that this type of occurrence is an American problem with the occasional Canadian incident.

A review of the incidents throughout North America since 1975 (provided by the CBC) shows that there are about three times as many incidents in the United States as there is in Canada and about twice the fatalities. Considering the American population is about tens times that of Canada, I would suggest that it may be us that require a review of how we deal with mental health, gun control, security, etc.

Predictably, and rightfully so in this forum, people suggest that the Americans pursue gun control. It isn’t going to happen, but even if is does, there are over 250,000,000 firearms in the United States. They’re here to stay. A different, more radical, suggestion may actually be widespread firearm education, but that would be more politically and socially divisive as a gun registration or ban.

This question came to my mind as well as my wife's as we were watching the news last night. Why didn't the guy just take his own life if he was so upset with life and living and the cards he was dealt?

Why do they always have to hurt/kill the innocent and then take their own life? I see this as a weak way out and I hope that he burns for his actions in a place where we all wish he goes.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the injured and killed. What a terrible day in history this will become.

To the families and friends of the victims I send my sincere condolences. My heart breaks for your loss.

To those people who think this sort of action can be stopped with gun control; guns don't kill people - people kill people!

People who feel so alone and disenfranchised with the world that they have lost their sense of empathy and reason. I'm not condoning these actions at all, but I know that the root causes of these types of actions are very complex and have little to do with gun availability. Take a good look at the way our society is advancing. Me first...I'll step on you to get ahead...I could care less about the world...my rights trump everyone else's.

Everyday we see people being thrown aside in someone else's quest for power, even our elders from whom we could learn so much but choose not to. We're loosing our sense of community and we humans are pack animals, when we percieve we are not needed or wanted in our pack, we get angry, antisocial, and eventually perhaps psychotic in some cases.

If we could just get back to some of the basics of humanity, I believe it would go a long way to prevent these sort of incidents.

I first want to condemn the actions of this perpetrator, this person commit a horrible act on his fellow students and teachers in such bloodthirstiness I only condemn it as totally inhuman act.

I really would wish that there would be a way to undo his deeds but time to do so have past long ago as in all previous cases of school massacres. And the short-sighted call for tougher gun laws won’t prevent further as the case of Germany proves. They tightening their gun laws after the 2002 school shooting in East Germany and still had several incidences after that including a shooting few month ago in west Germany, close to the Dutch boarder.

As the case of Germany proves, a country with the almost toughest gun laws and regulations found world wide, that alone will not prevent tragedies.

Even with the lack of excess to legal or illegal guns perpetrators have proved that they were capable to commit similar incidents with weapons commonly found in every household such as kitchen knifes axes or even cars.

We really stop the blame game on this, the first such incident was in 1927 the “Bath School disaster”.
We should start again to watch your fellow beings, your hall and class mates more and be more sensitive to signs of them being troubled.

We can not longer cancel those out or we will see much more such tragedies, we as society are forced to help those endangered to may turn against us before they can do so. All showed signs before and everybody turned blind for them, that’s the problem.

In my mind the only way really to stop the next one is to finally following the way Jesus showed us more then 2000 years ago, to take care of your next and not to turn blind for his/her problems nor turn away on them. It is not the easiest way to go but the only which can securely decrease the risk of another such horrible incident to strike up on us.

I instantly hope that we as society finally follow this way and pray for those innocent souls for which we haven’t brightened up in time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Why aren't hand guns illegal? There is absolutely no need to have them. I can understand hunting rifles - have nothing against people who need them for hunting purposes, however you don't shoot deer with a hand gun - hand guns are designed and meant for the shooting of people.

People need to understand that, I'll say it one more time. Hand guns are designed to kill people. That is their use and purpose. How people can justify owning these and carrying them around is quite beyond me.

It's a shame what happened at Virginia Tech and my heart goes out to all of the victim and their friends and families. Of course it wasn't solely the fault of the guns, nor is it the fault of media (be it TV, movies, video games, etc). The person obviously had severe psychological problems, and it's just too bad that wasn't discovered before this happened.

I know that there have been many school shootings over the last few decades, and it seems like there are more and more, closer together too. In September there were 4 in a row.

But, has anyone noticed that most of these people that murder/intend to murder are young men?! What's going on here? Don't we have records/files of people (in school/work...etc)that could possibly let people of authority know whether or not they are admitting a potentially dangerous person into their Public Institution?

Can't we do something in order to avoid these reckless acts of violence which seem to be committed by young men? Maybe put a "red flag" on their files so that some type of College/University authority can seek them out and conclude whether or not they could do harm at their public institution?!

Some of this tuition money that we pay and taxes should go to security measures for schools, not only on the school grounds policing, but also to do some sort of special in depth background check on each admittant.

Students need an elementary, then high school education first before getting into College/Univeristy. Each student has a unique thorough file on them; I think Universities/Colleges should consider a "red flag" system of double checking a potential danger to their Institution by looking over these files before admitting a student.

I think it is partly their responsibility to protect students and the public at their Institution.

I was sad to hear the news, and repulsed by the Bush administrations quick reaction in saying that 'there is a right to bare arms'. The parents of 33 people, just lost their children and one the U.S.governments first reactions is to make a statement that protects the gunmans right to bare arms.

There is something very wrong about this.
Our governments and institutions help mold our societies. They helped create this incident. I hope the Bush administration will be critisized, and put on trial in the media and in peoples minds.

I feel for the families and friends of the victims, and am very saddened.

Until we are finally willing to deal with the problem of WHY and how we produce such a vioent society, we will continually have to find remedial solutions. The school has to be evacuated, and the student body notified.

On Metro Morning the U of T representative mentioned that they believe if they email students, then the students will text one another. Well, as a student, I know the university has MY cell number. Why should it be the responsibility of the students to spread the word? If there are crisis management committees, they should compile our cell numbers and send out a mass text.

Send out a message on Facebook. They have security cameras, why ot have loud speakers around campus?
It'sa university, and this has happened repeatedly in history. They should have this stuff in place.

My understanding is the authorities have not identified the killer yet, nor his motive for carrying out the massacre. Good. Stop trying. Cremate him and bury him. The media must stop providing the notoriety and "glory" for these individuals.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are well recognized names. The extensive publicity surrounding their background, their motives, their panning, and their private correspondense all lead to the status of infammy, that may be a partial motivation for others of like mind.

Stop publishing the names of the killers, their pictures, their backgrounds, and their motivations. These are cowardly, evil acts, and they do not deserve to leave a legacy.

That there is so much in the way of editorialising and Monday Morning Quarterbacking regarding an incident which is essentially still ongoing in its immediate aftermath is nearly as shocking to me as the tragedy itself.

Rather than commenting on "American society" or who or what brought this on or who is responsible, the only comments here should be ones expressing sadness and condolensces.

We don't even know who the suspect is, let alone his motives if in deed he was alone who could have assisted him and the police investigation may have only just begun in earnest. What this means is that there is no evidence to support any of what I've read on this message board.

Anything to suggest fault or reason on the part of people not directly involved in this tragedy at this point is sheer speculative stupidity.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. If I hear that one more time, I will lose my mind.

Yes, inanimate objects like guns cannot of their own volition rise up and kill a person -- thanks for that insight, NRA. Guns merely make the killing process a mindless, efficient one that anyone with one eye and a trigger finger can clearly master in a few minutes' practice. And in the U.S., you can practically buy one at corner stores.

The proof: How many people would have died at Virginia Tech if yesterday's rampage was a knife attack? Or a sticks and stones attack?

There's a reason the majority of these incidents happen in the States, where the concept of six-shooter justice and from-the-hip bravado permeates every crevice of the national psyche.

Shame on yesterday's killer. And shame on the manufacturers, marketers, media and policy makers who facilitated it one way or another.

At this time of great sorrow, I extend my deep sympathies to the grief stricken families. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Another senseless tradgedy. So much needless suffering. I can't help but feel that I'm somewhat sensitized to this sort thing and that is sad. Never mind the tragedies that have occured in North America, look at all the suffering occuring worldwide that is preventable.

I was really turned off by initial coverage of the event. It seemed like the media was more interested in pointing fingers and placing blame. Give me a break. Hindsight is 20-20. There is no defense against this type of barbaric act. The only defense lies in a much deeper look at the spiritual and moral fabric of society and making strides to build a more selfless society.

My condolences to the families and friends of those affected by this tradegy. Gun control? Leave law abiding gun owners alone. Hunters and fisherman make up some of the most selfless and giving members of society with a strong moral compass. I feel sorry for urbanites who have not spent time with nature.

Oh, come on Cassandra -- this is a terrible tragedy that deeply saddens all people, and certainly not an occasion for taking shots at people of a particular political persuasion, or people of faith who are in prayer for the victims, the families, and all who suffer because of an act of immense cruelty.

There are no answers....there are no solutions...we just continue on...staying the course, teaching our children the value of life and the importance of acceptance and love for all individuals...and we hold those who grieve..and hope our comfort gets them through this nightmare....

My heart goes out to the parents and family of the victims but one question remains how does one get pushed to the point of killing innocent people in an ambush style? A lover's quarrel is not reason enough and mental illness is a poor excuse.

People who do things like us to believe this must be impulsive but they planned it carefully or how did they chain the doors and how did they have enough ammo....someone on an impulsive rampage would have one gun one round so when the media comes out and tells us the woes of the suspect I will just turn and say anyone who can kill 33 people was not mentally ill possibly disturbed with no conscience and not able to manage his anger and thoughts but was able to manage a plan and a shooting spree.

Since Columbine schools have been assisting students with troubled minds and trying to stop bullying etc. But when one can not handle rejection then that happens from the formative years....so we have a spoiled rotten child who could not handle rejection and now due to that we have 33 dead innocent people.

I have to go along with those who say that these incidences do not surprise me either- so sad! It sounds to me like a fellow who obviously had psychological problems, but this could be another incident that resulted from a fellow who was a victim of bullying.

Not to downplay what the shooter did, but questions surface as to what people have done to this individual's mind to have made him decide to take action like this. When people have an ability to understand who the shooter was and what his motives were and why he did what he did that is the first step to finding a solution to school shootings. There must be zero tolerance to bullying of any kind and resources available to help people.

This kind of apocalytic "blaze of glory" behaviour is completely compatible with the rise of Conservative pressure in our society. The creepy fundamentalist religious association is obvious. This tragedy also reflects the way the Conservative view of masculinity forces men into an emotional corner until they believe they have no healthy way to express their emotional pain. The Conservative love affair with firearms is yet another contributing factor to this event. I hope we turn Canada around so that we don't end up hearing more stories like this north of the border. We need to bring back the gun registry and improve security in schools.

As sad as this sounds, these types of incidents do not surprise me anymore.

There is absolutely no reason why people should be allowed to own automatic or semi-automatic weapons. The US should wake up and put stricter gun laws in place.
It isn't the US that needs a tighter border to keep hypothetical terrorists out, it's Canada that needs a tighter border to keep US guns out.

While the causes of such incidents are too complex to be attributed to a single factor but, the the issue of why this happened definitely has a cultural component.

While in any specific instance it could be argued that access to guns would not be hindered by gun control, society makes a statement about its culture through gun control legislation.

We need to address the glorification of violence in our media and in video games. When society moves normal people in the direction of unacceptable behavior, it pushes more of its less stable members over the line. Society has a right, even a duty, to protect itself by restricting this violence.

It is a disheartening situation when young people are killed or maimed at the hands of a mass murderer however the interview with the individual from Newfoundland was timely. He elaborated on the reasons that an individual would kill people and also stated that he predicted that more homicides would take place when the country was at war.

I think that we can expect the same results that the US is experiencing because we are at war in much the same way as they are with all its brutality. Can we expect anything different than our neighbour? The propaganda machine is in full motion utilizing film, gaming, and political rhetoric to reinforce why Canada should be in this military conflict.My prayers are with the family members of those who lost loved ones and those who are injured.

Sincerely,
Richard M.Tatomir RRP,CLSC

Well, I heard the news this afternoon and was shocked. I had a busy day and so I didn't really digest it. Now, at 1 in the morning, studying for finals, I realise that these are people my age. They were ready to graduate! They were daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, best friends, teachers, mentors...the list goes on.

How do we protect the youth? How do we protect ANYONE from these sort of absolutel tragedies? I will be bold and say that gun control is definitely at the heart of this issue. I don't know much about the shooter but it is possible that mental health issues are at the root of that too. Are the necessary social programs available for people that need therapy or help but can't afford private psychological counselling.

That being said, I'm not excusing the shooter in ANY regard. There is NO reason for what he did...NONE. It is a most heinous crime.

My prayers, thoughts, and tears are with the students in Virginia. I feel so horribly for them all.

I remember being 'stood still' for a day, and in tears and utter dis-belief when first hearing about the Marc Lepine shooting at Ecole Polytechnique.

Upon learning of the shooting in Virginia, I found myself speechless; I felt as if both my feet were sunk in concrete. I felt my face lose all expression. I am lost as to how to explain this to my 12-year old daughter.

Not a happy day. This event and the emotions may serve americans/us to have empathy with those in Iraq who lose kin at the hands of mad individuals. When they/we see numbers like 40 - 70 they/we will know what that number truly means.
A sad day.

Seems many are quick to blame this incident our Country's lack of gun control. I seem to remember a similar incident fairly recently in Montreal. Was that also the fault of lax U.S. gun control? Let's stop the blaming and concentrate our efforts on solutions that work.

I am a third year pharmacy student at the University of British Columbia and it frustrates me when people over look the root of the problem. Yes ... Yes this is a gun control problem. Do you honestly think this would happen as frequently as it does if it was nearly impossible to get a semi/automatic pistol because I know it wound not.

Today is a most tragic day when all that needs to happen is a single bill be passed on gun control.
My deepest sympathy goes to all the families today.

This kind of violence cannot be expected to go away, it is a product of how our society is. Some people are pushed and pushed until they snap, and do something like this as part of their own suicide. Why? Why this person and not that one, why these victims and not those ones? Very hard to say - the motives are usually particular to their own situation. It's hard to imagine being in that state of mind if you've never felt it.

A theory: maybe it's because their sense of being surrounded by enemies drives them to it, or because they've lost all hope that there is any life left for them, and feel they have nothing left to lose. So they go out kamikaze-style, figuring to take as many of their enemies with them as they can. Needless to say, it makes you consider what it is that ruins life for people to such a degree where they'll do this. The only real thing you could do law-wise, is restrict the access to guns, because while that may not stop anyone from snapping, without a gun the amount of damage done is far less.

its a damn shame why someone would consider doing something like that to innocent people i am with the families that lost loved ones but,
how come we don't see the same media exposure when a man walks into an Iraq market kill 200 women and children?

Something is going on at these schools that is breeding murderous rampages. The school system is flawed.As a former victim of bullying both in elementary and high school I am familiar with this.Schools have a similar heirachy to prisons and we all know what happens in prisons.

Schools are also too large, allowing people to become alienated and to be marginilized. There should be more numerous smaller schools so that authourities can keep a handle on things.While these tragedies are horrible and sickening, many more people are killed on our highways in so called "accidents". Motor vehicles are used to deliberately kill people and to commit suicide but because most people own cars and "love" their cars, it is not popular to criticize them.Motor vehicles are also used in warfare to facilitate the killing of millions of people. Our society promotes and glamourizes violence in the movies, on television, in music( like rap) and in video games. And the injustice and wars in the world make life seem cheap.

Gun control is an emotional and irrational response. Otherwise we would have motor vehicle control with federal licensing, registration. Unfortunately for gun owners, a lynch mob mentality and a witch hunt by those who hate guns will escalate because of this. The gun control red-herring will ensure that these tragedies will continue because the real root causes of these incidents will not be addressed.

Resources and energy will be spent persecuting innocent gun owners and demonizing guns which are in reality in-animate objects that can harm nobody. And even if guns were taken away, people would resort to bombs or poison or whatever else the human mind can imagine.If the gun control advocates think that by banning guns they can stop mans inhumanity to man, they are delusional.

My heartfelt sympathies and condolences are with the families of these student victims.Let us all hope that we can all work to change our society so that all human life can once again have value.

As the philosopher Ayn Rand made clear, their are two basic philosophies: the philosophy of life and the philosophy of death. Things are black and white, good or evil. The "good" things, deeds, actions, and so forth promote life; evil promotes death. Good and evil are determined objectively through morals. She also claimed that the only proper use of violence was self defense; that instigating violence was evil - what does it lead to?

Given what has been reported it seems clear that the shooter chose the philosophy of death, ignoring all of the wonderful things that a philosophy of life could provide or make possible. Creativity, productive work, mutually-beneficial trade with others (in tune with a philosophy of life)...all ignored or little-valued. He instead chose death, destruction, murder.

It is a horrible tragedy and terribly evil. How do you defend against what ultimately comes down to a person's evil philosophy? Education, awareness of the need for a rational philosphic system, and strong criticism at the first signs of someone leaning towards a philosophy of death. The problem seems fundamental. As others have basically said, gun control is not going to address the root problem. Ideas are more powerful than guns.

It is awful that so many had to lose the ability to enjoy all of the wonderful (and not so wonderful) things life has to offer, and make possible. Life is far from perfect, but often the struggles make one appreciate the successes that much more. Evil is refusing to try, and punishing those who refuse to agree with you.

My condolences to the families of the victims.

This event and those like it are about more than the availability of guns, romanticizng of violence in cultural mediums, mental health, justice systems, and the human condition. Rather it is the product of a confluence of at the very least all of the above mentioned factors.

I understand the logic that both pro and anti gun control advocates use in promoting and defending their positions, but to boil down this tragedy to a single issue at a time is naive. Typing piously about the decisions of foreign governments does not look deep enough in to the problem. A factor that propogates violent behaviour on this scale is another cultural phenomenon not directly related to violence: Its called fame. (I don't suggest it is the 'only' factor, just one of many that like the others above, in itself doesn't necessarily propogate violence, but in an environment with other factors can be deadly.)

As cultrual consumers we are enamoured with fame, wether we aspire to it or not. Look at the fame and notoriety afforded Holmolka (sp?), Pickton, or even Conrad Black. Can anyone name the victims so easily? Even with those citizens which have broken the social trust to the greatest degree they are on a pedestal that for all intents and purposes is not very different than any other non-violent famous person.

These tragedies are the products of more than any one single issue and we cannot just point to any one law, movie, video game, judicial decision, social condition or mential illness as the source. Its bigger than that.

This is a very tragic events. Many usefull soles have been lost. May God forgive them and ease up the pain on their parents, freinds and relatives.

I Really wish that the USA would enfource firearm laws that are similar to that in Canada. Atleast the USA should try it and see how it works, especially when such situations are extremely rare in Canada.

In addition, this extreme violence is linked the video games and action movies. But the biggest reason by far is the amount of wars the USA is involved in. Within the past 35 years, the USA has been involved in 4 or 5 MAJOR wars, where as Canada has been involved in zero.

I am not saying that Canada is better, but on issues that involve safety, I think Canada surpasses the USA.

Hopefully no more poor soles are lost any more any where. Civillians, not only in the USA, but everywhere in the world must not be killed.

These problems must be tackled from their roots, and I think the main root is establishing equality and non of these corrupt pro-X governments.

We have gun control here in Canada yet we too have had our share of school shootings. So stop the American bashing and stop this rediculous talk of gun control fixing all of our problems. We're not better than they are. We're just a different flavor from our American cousins. The world is a pretty messed up place these days. Live each day as if it's your last ... since it very well might be.

People like to seize these opportunities to Ban the things they don't like, and promote the things they do. Well there are millions of us out there that Play violent video games, own guns, watch violence on TV, and Don't believe in God, and the overwhelming majority of us don't commit murder.

In fact, more people have been killed in the name of God throughout history (think crusades and inquistion, among many others)than have been killed by athiests weilding firearms, so perhaps we should ban God and Religion? And by the way, guns are rather simple mechanical devices. Anybody could build a very crude one, that would still be adequate enough to kill. And those who don't know how would be astonished at just how simple explosive's are to produce.

Obviously, to commit this type of carnage, the shooter was mentally ill. And undeniably, he had lost all hope. Why do we see this reocurring pattern with school massacres. Male, young, shoots up a school, than turns the gun on himself. Think about that. These boys are so hopeless, that with the rest of their lives ahead of them, they decide instead to inflict horrible suffering en mass, and then throw their own lives away. It's a gross failing of our society that we have people who turn out so hopeless, that they somehow find it easier to kill others and themselves, than to seek the help they need, the help that is readily available.

Such a tragedy. Just how many "isolated incidents" do there have to be before we review the cultures of guns and violence in our society.

So many dismiss the idea that violence from video games and action flicks play an influencing role. Yet, well over 40 years ago, behavioural scientists demonstrated a correlation between exposure to violence and the tendency to act violently. Please let's review what is suitable as "entertainment".

There will always be sick individuals in society. Glamourizing shoot-outs in movies and allowing murder practice via video games create more.

Re John's comment:

"Not enough of the word of God"

Read the Bible lately, John?

"glorifying death and destruction...rewards for hunting and killing humans...too much hate and disregard for others..."

Sound familiar? It should. I for one am willing to bet that the shooter was (at least at one time) a "deeply religious man". Let's wait and see, shall we?

Tony

Dare I say that I see parallels with the horrific invasion and killing of humans in Iraq, Afghanistan and in many other colonized countries and lands by the right-wing USA and the invasion and killing of students at this USA school? America may just symbolize guns, violence, greed, and unjust terror to many peoples throughout the world, both nationally and internationally.

Could it be that it is not lame "pimpin" rap music to blame, but news shows (eg. CNN, Fox News) that glorify via making a noble Hollywood living off of documenting wars/killing in the Middle East, albeit under the guise of "helping people/nations" by killing people/nations? When you carry out unjust killing sprees overseas and applaud this effort (ie. "support our troops...doing whatever we tell them to do") you create a parasitic culture that lives off of handing out medals of "honor" for killing humans and taking a few bullets yourself.

If you think that kids, teenagers, and young adults do not pick up and act on this pent up culturally instilled ideal of heroism, machoism, patriarchy, and violence, you are mistaken and it may well continue. Killing in any form creates toxic cultures and citizens. Many people are responsible for the death of students and faculty at Virgina Tech. and I am deeply sorrowed that this occurred. Unfortunately, the death of people occurs all too frequently via the "the war on terror" that is so well shot/documented.

Peace and comfort to all the families,friends, students, and school personnel.

I don't believe this. Not even 5 minutes into "The National" and the first two stories are insinuating that the body count was the police's fault and that the US Congress should have been screaming for more gun control instead of offering up their > prayers to the families of the dead and wounded.

First of all, most other police officers both in Canada and the USA would have written the first shooting off as domestic homicide. It did not show the signs of a traditional school shooting and a full two hours passed before the second shooting started. Why do news reporters always presume to know more about emergency procedures than the police /EMTs/firefighters themselves in these types of stories? Answer: because it makes a "story" more shocking.

Second, gun control doesn't work. If people want to kill other people, they will. Simply look at the Rwandan genocide where the weapons of choice were machetes and knives. Or look at the fact most murder victims are killed with common household items. Or the United Kingdom where gun control has worked so well to bring down the crime rate.

As for campus security, I find it ironic that it was not even a year ago when students were complaining on Youtube about the "police state" that existed in the wake of the UCLA taser incident. Now I hope students will try and work with (and develop trust for) their campus police and security departments instead of making them out to be some big brother henchman.

One can only hope we can learn lessons from this terrible ordeal instead of using the dead to sensationalize a story and fuel a dis-proven political ideal.

Simply horrific...
I beg of you at the CBC NOT to publish in depth,unecessary bios on the perpetrator including pictures, etc.

I find it very saddening that most of the comments here are about blame and politics. 33 people are dead and while the issue of gun control is important, now is not the time for the debate. I visited Virginia Tech last year. Blacksburg, Virginia is a very close, well-educated, and low-crime community. This massacre happened at one of the higheste-rated schools in the world.

This could have happened anywhere. Blacksburg might as well be a city in Canada. It doesn't matter the politics or government. The gunman got the weapon and killed people. That's all that matters. He would have gotten the gun regardless of gun control laws. The guy in the Montreal shooting certainly did. And why is stabbings so high in the UK? Why is that in European countries, it is adults carrying out the school killings as oppossed to kids in the US?

Point is, a killer will kill regardless of the situation. Could you make a community safer? Sure and gun control laws may help. But regardless of the laws, a killer will kill. I am deeply sorry for what happened to Virginia Tech and the families who have suffered. I will be attending VTech next year and a murderer isn't going to stop me from attending one of the best colleges around.

This world needs to have a complete paradigm shift away from the high-tech weaponry. What happened to a good old fashioned punch in the nose....It has gone by the wayside so that we can just shoot each other.

Europeans moved swiftly across this land with their "fire-sticks" taking rule of the Americas and in the process diminished everything in their paths, including the Aboriginal peoples. This entire continent has been founded with weaponry-based western expansion. Old habits die-hard.

Maybe one day guns will be regarded in the same way that we regard dinosaurs; that is in the sense that they are extinct.....forever.

My condolences to all those individuals associated with the tragedy at Blacksburg. Let us teach each other about the virtues of wisdom and thought rather than the false-merits of violence and revenge.

This is absolutely appalling. As a university student at York, campus security is a major issue and administration always seems to have thier hands tied when it comes to addressing serious threats on campus. I sympathize deeply with all the students at Virginia Tech as ANY gunshot incident in an insulated area should trigger the highest sense of containment for the rest of campus grounds.

I CANNOT believe that the gunman was able to leave the scene of the crime and the second shootings were able to take place. This should be completely unacceptable from a security perspective and in society. I feel no remorse for the gunman and only wish these killers would take their own lives first instead of robbing the lives of innocent people and terrorizing thier families, friends and community and then escaping justice. What a waste.

It is about time the United States amends their grossly outdated Constitution allowing for the "right" to bear arms. Why do the people need that right? It is definitely a possibility that if the States had different gun control laws, that this horrid act of violence could have been prevented.

That being said, the university had a part to play in this too, by not warning students in a timely fashion.

Continued:
Here's a cliché line "Guns don't kill, people kill" The mind leads the body. If a particular kind of personality picks up an unregistered gun and uses it on another human, THEY are making the gun dangerous. Guns don't kill by themselves. There is a premeditated decision to acquire it, point it in a particular direction for a particular reason and then it is purposefully activated.

If I thought that banning guns would help, I would be one of the first to concede and comply with any new law. It's not THAT important to me. I think I could get through life without shooting as a hobby.

Luckily, in Canada, the process of ending up with a legal gun is far more difficult. It's a carefully draw out process. To buy a gun one must belong to a club and to join a club one must have a licence and to get a licence there are thorough police and security checks. And before one can move the weapon from home to the club and back, one must have authorization to transport. We have no right to 'Carry'

A lot of folks regurgitate the same thing "Take away the guns and the killing will stop!" . .Unfortunately . . No! Wont work. There are less crimes committed with registered guns. Locating the registered guns in society, that's easy! Pointless, but easy. We did it in England but folks still get shot.

Now locating all the ILLEGAL guns in society . . that would be like surgically removing terminal brain cancer. When you walk through your neighborhood, can you tell which house has an illegal gun and which one doesn't? No? Well how are the police supposed to know without breaking down every single door and searching every house in the country from top to bottom. In fact every possible hiding place one might hide a gun, indoors and out. Impossible!

Banning registered guns is a gut reaction because people have a need for blame to find a resting place. I have my gun licence and I intend to buy a gun. I am a sensible member of a club. I shoot because it's an exciting and skillful sport. Even though these guns are designed to kill, they are also quite useful when shooting at paper targets.

As a high school student, I don't feel safe anymore at my school because of today's school shooting. School shootings can happen at any school. The police even failed to prevent the death toll from surging after two hours of the first gun shots being fired. I thought people would be able to prevent mass shooting sprees after the Columbine massacre. I was wrong.

This IS about gun control. Too many people have died - we do not have a "right" to arms. We have a right to feel safe in our schools. If people who are mentally fractured have access to guns this kind of thing will continue to happen & there is just no way to accurately filter out the disenfranchised.

Our society does not need to ahve access to semi automatic weapons & the bottom line is, if the shooter today had walked into Virginia Tech with a knife or just his fists as weapons, how many people would have died?

My heart breaks for all of those who lost loved ones today & all of those affected by today's senseless shootings. Guns DO kill people....over & over again....when will we wake up & do something about it?

I'm beginning to think we've reached a stage in society when institutions where e.g. large numbers of students gather should be gradually dismantled. Classes can be run on the internet. This whole situation keeps happening and the solutions are too complex. My thoughts are with those who have lost their children today.

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to each individual affected by this horrible tragedy. I wish you all the strength and courage that you need at this very sensitive time. My thoughts are with you...

This situation simply shows how corrupt and misleaded some people are in our society today. These acts are so disgusting and terrible. It is so unfortunate that so many innocent people's lives were taken at the expense of someone elses problem. I hope that schools, police, and people in general, learn valuable lessons from this very tragic event so that in the future preventative measures can be taken and hopefully it will help our world become just a little bit safer.

My deepest regrets at the wanton loss of irreplacable and loved ,family and friends' my warmest symphaties to all who have been hurt and wounded,this touches all our lifes this was not an act of god .this was the act of a man possesed .many may wish to deny this reality but it is none the less true,the bible verse mens heats failing them for fear applies here.please study gods word especilly the book of john to find comfort and peace,pray to christ jesus he will hear you.may god grant all effected his comfort and peace.

America is now a country at war with itself. The Philosophy of "Might Makes Right" and the War In Iraq has created a more acceptable view that violence is an effective method of solving problems in Society.

Unless America decides to re-examine its value system and make drastic changes in the way the media and Government promotes intolerance and paranoia and parents speak out against the excessive amount of readily available firearms, things will only get worse.

Psychologically, America needs to start all over again or more lives will continue to be senselesly lost to violence. Speak out against violence and firearms.

MS from Vancouver said it all : "I would be quite concerned if I lived in the United States, it appears that the right to carry weapons is more important than the right to safety and security."

While there is so much more that could be said, I think this is what it ultimately boils down to. It saddens me deeply though, to know that excuses will be made to place blame elsewhere. Let it go... nobody needs a gun if no one else has one.

deepest condolences to those who lost everything today...

kRb, NS, Canada

Truely tragic.
Not about gun control you say??? Perhaps you could tell us why someone would need the right to purchase,a 9mm semi-automatic pistol with quick load 10-15 round multiple clips, simply by presenting a drivers license.How far would this progessed with a single shot or even a revolver that would have required manually reloading 6 bullets.

Why would anyone need the right to purchase an assault rifle,made for one thing and one thing only.If someones wants to own a gun, and I don't mean one of the assault weapons metioned, then take the course, go through the police criminal records check,purchase the gun, go to the police station and have it registered and then lock it in a proper gun cabinet.

If you are a nutcase, you are probably going to crack under that kind of scrutiny. Compare this to going down to the local pawn shop and showing your drivers license to a guy that just wants to make a buck. Trust me, I have traveled extensively in the states and I love the people and the place, but guns are way to easy to get.

Too many times I have seen them for sale in road side flea markets, pawn shops and even a garage sales. Many drivers have handguns in their glove boxes. Do you want to p..ss them off? You better not. Here, you might get a punch in the nose if you are very unlucky.

Now I know you are going to say that criminals don't register their guns. That is precisely why when they get caught with their illegal weapons, they go to jail for having them. They don't need to commit another crime, they already have. Have you seen Dallas SWAT, Kansas Swat, etc. Those guys are heavily amoured and armed. You know why, because they are facing going into houses everyday that are full of guns, assault rifles and semi-auto hand guns. Trust me, you do not want this.

In Canada, owning a gun is NOT a right, it is a privilege. Let's keep it this way for the sake of responsible gun owners.
Thanks for listening

This is an extremely tragic story. My condolences to the families and friends affected. It is said "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" I believe this saying to hold very true but before the fingerpointing we need to take the time to gather all of the facts.

We live in an ever hostile and fragmented world. The core nucleus that used to comprise a family has since gone by the wayside. We are, I believe victims of our own circumstance.

With the growing push for global economy and the profit at all costs mentality by a few on the backs of many has led to the breakdown of family structure as it once was. Parents are compelled to both work long hours thus leaving children to be entertained by ever more graphic and violent video games, music lyrics promoting violence, etc etc. What can we possibly expect the results to be? Why is it that the American Constitution is a static document? Void of improvement and amendments to reflect the current era?

I do not believe the inherit "right to bear arms" was meant to be applied in today's society. The British King is not coming to conquer the American colonies anymore. Ultimately though the answer must come from the voting constitutients, The must take the time to become better educated, more informed, and more demanding of not only their elected representatives but also of the media else they are doomed to have repeat episodes of this tragedy.

My question is about the first shooting incident. It has been finalized that the gunman was not a student at the University. How does the gunman have access to the residence? From what I know, residence buildings are only accessible to the students who live there.

If this guy had a girlfriend who lived in the particular residence, she could have been the source for his access. With regards to the second shooting, how was the gunman able to barricade the main entrance of the building/hall, something that probably took some time? Both incidents could have been prevented with better security measures, which would have enabled a quicker response from the campus police.

... yet the people in the United States have it written into their constitution that they are all able to keep and bear arms.

People using guns to kill people.

Common sense dictates that guns are dangerous, and that they should be highly regulated.

I'm absolutely GUTTED for the people who lost sons and daughters today. These children, who were at school to learn. I'm angry that these children were killed by someone wielding a gun.

I'm very sorry for the loss of these lives, in a time when human beings ought to be able to use their brains and figure out ways to live in a manner which befits our intelligence.

We do drills to prevent being hurt in schools once or twice a year, but I don't think they help much. The government has to think of a new way to prevent shootings in both the U.S. and Canada. Every time a shooting happens I'm more and more scared to go to school. What can we do?

This shooting is such a sensless act of violence.

Why is it that in places like Switzerland, an act not even close to this, would be heard of?
Are the people better paid there? Have better family structure? Or is it more of a cultural issue. U.S promotes guns through various means of media, which causes the public to get so immuned to it. It becomes a Norm.

Strict gun control is what caused this massacre. If students were allowed to have firearms on campus, they would have been able to defend themselves and the outcome would most likely be different, many lives could have been saved. Criminals will always be armed, and by having strict gun laws or bans, law abiding citizens are left defenseless against armed and dangerous criminals.

If anything needs to be done, this world needs LESS gun control laws and people should have the means to protect themselves.

> How can we protect our youth from such violence.?

Be engaged, involved and CARE about them.

And that does not mean to buy them the latest gadget or piece of clothes but have a meaningful relationship with them.

Frankly, I am sickened that people are making an attempt at "placing the blame" here. Discussing video games and television and other unrelated topics is insulting. Can we please focus on the real issue?

This is a sad and horrific event. We need to find a real solution to end these school shootings, but the problem is, how can we find a solution when these situations are so personal and so individual?

1) I am so upset that previous postings and American politicians have suggested that the answer to these situations is to properly arm students to protect themselves. Lawlessness breeds lawlessness.

2) Thankfully, our OPP forces here in Ontario have learned lessons and unlike the police forces in Virginia, do not stand around waiting for SWAT forces. OPP is now trained to move in and "neutralize" the danger immediately. Many lives could have been saved today had the police acted differently.

This is another tragic event that has been added to our history, just as it was for the Dawson shooting(one death and leaving others injured), which affected most of us going to school there including those who didn't; therefore we sympathize with the students at the Virginia College, but how can we feel what they went through? It is fustrating to know that these things are still going on! Haven't people learned from all the other school shootings? What has happened to the commandment "Thy shall not kill"?

Just watched the coverage on CBCNews. The "Biggest Question" is not "why did the administration wait two hours before notifying students." This is definately a question, but not even close to the biggest one.

Typical news coverage. Who can we blame for the problem or incident? Stop editorializing and just give us the news. Lets not try making news.

Can we please keep politics out of this? Thirty three innocent people died today. At least give it a week before you start blaming people. Where's your decency? You know damn well that no one expected anything like this to happen. At least give the people who were affected by this directly -- because we all are indirectly -- have a chance to mourn and grieve in peace before we throw this issue into the political spotlight.

totally senseless
to imagine what the friends and family are going through, my thoughts are with them

To the one who said about not enough "God" being spread around: Hmm, how many "holy wars" were declared in honor of the Almighty Himself (maybe even Herself, but I doubt it)? It's all PERCEPTION. I see the shooting as one guy who just snapped into a path of unfortunate destruction, while you "john" see it as someone who didn't, perhaps, have enough of a connection with God.

Maybe the shooter did have good divine connection, but for some reason, just said the hell with this, I'm going down my own path. I dunno, again, it's PERCEPTION "john" and you nor I are right. NO ONE IS!

sadly, i do not think it is about gun control. maybe it would help but here in canada we have a complete ban on semiautomatic and automatic long guns as well as very restrictive rules for handguns - and we still had montreal polytechnic and dawson college.

we need, as a society, to understand what drives an individual to these extremes. they usually act alone and usually commit suicide.

so much isolation, alienation, anger. controlling guns won't stop it. maybe we need to go back to manditory mental health care.

i do not know the answer, if i did i would cure the problem. i do know that we need to find one though, before our society does slip below the level of recovery.

People need to quit criticizing the decision to not shut down the campus until all the facts are in and the families have had a chance to start the healing process.

The campus is huge with 26,000 students. A single domestic incident occured at a dorm and there was no indication it would turn into anything else. If you tried to close campus you would have had thousands of people waiting at a bus loop to get home as sitting targets.

If anyone should be having this debate it should be the families and they first need a lot of time to heal.

More gun control. Yeah. Legal manuevers like the orchestrated defeat of the 2006 bill which challenged the practice of denying concealed carry on campus DESPITE legal permits.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was quoted right after this Bill died saying "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Disarming sure made them feel safe. Right up until today.

Hmmm. Didn't seem to stop the gunman though, did it? Do we maybe need MORE laws that don't deliver?

I dont think so. I see more and more States becomming aligned to Florida's thinking.

I think you should be looking around at the guy to your left and the girl to your right. Looking for the subtle buldge of the gun under their shirt, because I'll bet you a full Canadian dollar that this incident will have convinced MANY poeple otherwise.

As a university student myself, it really saddens me to have to come to a discussion page such as this after such a tragic incident and realize that most people have already moved onto blaming society and debating gun control.

Can't we atleast save these discussions for later on and just concentrate on sharing our condolences for the families that have lost loved ones and for the students who have been emotionally scarred by this incident in Virginia. My prayers are with them tonight, and I hope that others will also keep them in mind tonight instead of immersing themselves in the practicalities of gun control laws.

This is another sad day in history. So many young people dead for no rational reason whatsoever.

Some posters here have suggested that this is an "American problem" because of the lack of effective gun control in that country. Remember that we too have had our own massacres. Denis Lortie shot 16 people in the Quebec National Assembly and 3 died. Marc Lepine shot 24 female engineering students at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, killing 14, because he "hated feminists".

The lunatic fringe will always be with us and when their brains start squirming they are capable of acts that no sane person could ever consider. They have the same totally insane mentality as radical Islamic suicide bombers and airline highjackers whose only objective is to kill as many innocent people as possible.

This is a problem that will not go away with gun control or any other laws. I fear that, as our society moves more and more toward a world with no moral absolutes and no real definition of right or wrong, these nutbars will be emboldened and encouraged to act out their monstrous fantasies with increasing frequency.

I keep asking myself the same question. If we're so much more socially advanced and enlightened than previous generations, why are we getting such disastrous results?

Regardless of any personal difference of opinions we should all sit quietly for a few moments and think about the torturous emotional pain that is being felt by so many people tonight and, if you are so inclined, say a small prayer.

Today's Virginia Tech shootings are guaranteed to revive the standard song-and-dance themes regarding the need for registering firearms; however, these facts need to be considered first.

In Canada, 84% of gun murders are committed with unregistered weapons. Australia introduced more stingent firearms controls in 1996; yet during the next six years, crime rates jumped by 32%, while armed robbery showed an increase of 74%. After Britain started banning handguns in 1997, gun crimes in England and Wales doubled in the following five years, and gun homicides increased by 64%.

Before Marc Lepin murdered fourteen women in Montreal in 1989, he filled out the necessary forms, passed the police security checks, and was allowed to purchase the military-style rifle that did the damage. Likewise when Thomas Hamilton killed seventeen at a Dunblane, Scotland primary school in 1996, he had already been investigated by police as a possible pedophile and had been rejected for membership in a local gun club. Regardless, he was still granted a handgun permit and owned several weapons.

And in 2002 when 19-year old Robert Steinhaeuser gunned down 17 at an Erfurt, Germany high school, it was revealed that he was using a registered weapon and had been a member atalcal shooting club in a nation where even airguns must be registered.

If governments aren't willing to hand out tough sentences to serious firearms offenders, they are merely sending a signal that packing a gun is no big deal. And as populations worldwide become more mobile, illegal arms become harder to control. Above all, no type of registry can stop a determined killer as today's incident reminds us. So gun-control advocates should save their pontificating.

We loose sight of one basic fact...that we are the architects of all of this.

We are far to focused on ourselves, our business, our lives and loose touch with the human beings that we coexist with. We become shocked at behaviour such as what happened today yet we allow people to be treated badly every day, we allow injustice to thrive and do nothing.

Our leaders cut funding to programs for those struggling among us and we say "Good....more for me". We do not have the right to sit back now and say that someone should have done something....here's some news for you....we all are the someones that you are talking about....we should be making our fellow man/woman our business....

But we don't learn....shootings, murders, wars...and we still haven't learned that if you push a person...or people down long enough, strip them of dignity, and deny them help they will eventually push back in any way they can.

This does not justify what happened today in anyway but it seems to me that things like this should not be too surprising.

My heart truly goes out to the victims and their families and they will play a central role in my prayers this evening and in evenings to come....but that is only till the next time since it seems unlikely that we will have the will to change any of this.

too much news on TV about war and hate

too many video games and play games, glorifying death and destruction

ie..paint ball games, pretending to shoot others,rewards for hunting and killing humans

too much hate and dis regard for others

not enough of the word of God

these are the end times for mankind

Ridiculous. To think that the staff wouldn't cancel classes as soon as ONE shot was fired, let alone many. Who in the right mind would decide that it's safe to continue after a short lived silence of the firing?

Who do these people think they are making that kind of decision? Why wouldn't their law enforcement agencies close it down immediately? Haven't we learned anything of the last few years about shootings in schools? They are progressively getting worse, in my opinion, it's about time they start to realize this will continue to get worse if they keep trying to prevent it in the same old fashioned ways that didn't prevent anything back then, and clearly didn't prevent it today.

If these kids can't feel safe going to a school that size "secluded" from the majority of the nearby population, where can they? This is not in any way a gun control issue, this is a security issue. Sweet and simple. They need to start thinking extremist and stop thinking typical criminal. The crimes are going to get worse if they don't face the music with a pre-active actions, not a post-active response.

The schools need to start thinking here and now, and less about "IF or WHEN, then we'll change it drastically" These people could have been saved if they had simply had more security in place on site, and had cancelled all classes at the first onset of a shooting.

My entire heart and soul goes out to the loved ones of the victims, and to the students and faculty left behind to remember forever the horror of the halls.

Please don't let these victims lives be lost for nothing, Please, people, stand up, make a change. For your childrens sake, make this change.

It breaks my heart to say it, but this may be the wake-up call that critics of stricter gun control need.

But honestly people, how many human beings have to die, how many kids must suffer, and how many lives must be ended prematurely before we say enough is enough?

It seems everytime something of this nature occurs, it always starts up the gun control issue again.

This is NOT about gun control. Gun Control would NOT have stopped this. Let that go.

It is about a deranged mental midget who somehow has been out there walking around in the general population for who knows how long. A time bomb. And there are more like him out there.

There were probably signs that something was wrong, but nobody was looking. Or cared. No doubt there were indicators in his behaviour that may have tipped somebody off if they knew what to look for or paid attention. Maybe soneone made excuses for him.

They say the shooter had a girl friend. I'll bet SHE knew what he was capable of.

And that is exactly why gun control is useless. Money for nothing. This kind of incident can and will happen again. It is about a culture that has become tolerent of increasingly violent behavior in young people, and a medical system that no longer offers help to those that need it.

It is about courts and judges that no longer punish those who deserve it. They are failing us all.

It is our society in general that has failed and will continue to do so until someone wakes up.

But gun control? Not even worth discussing because it has nothing to do a crime of this nature.

But... 1 Billion dollars a year for mental health facilites and programs? Now THAT would help! And that is what useless gun control costs.

There used to be many facilites for the mentally ill. And criminals. Our governments shut them down. And that is why there are more crazy people on the streets than ever. Because that's where we put them now.

If there is nowhere to put the crazies, they will always end up back on the streets.

That 1 billion dollars we continue to waste on so called gun control could sure help fix that.

My only hopes for the outcome of this is that American citizens realize that their current gun laws are not safe for their own citizens. Sure it is a redundant topic but it is a seriously prevalent issue as this tragic event dipicts for us. For everyone affected by this tradegy my heart goes out to you. People who say ATC has nothing to do with it are not on the right page.

The saying "Guns dont kill people, people kill people," is accurate. However, guns allow people to kill much easier and more abundantly. The right to bear arms and defend oneself in this way will likely escalte to an internal (civil) arms race within a nation. This does not sound like a safe thought to me.

Where would you start in your blame for something like this? I'm not sure it matters, seems more appropriate to make real change. As pedophilia came on the rise with media awareness so it seems the same is happening with casual mass shooting/killings. I say casual b/c it's becoming more frequent and less out of the ordinary, is this really the world you want to live in?

The answer will hopefully include more than just centralized militarizaion of power on campuses in America. We as a human race will not likely see moral perfection in any of our lifetimes but we can most certainly strive for peace. But if peace does not exist everywhere and we sponsor the mentaliy of death, destruction and killing (and Canada is no virgin to this) then we can only sit back and accept the consequences.

Again I hope the healing process for all affect is powerful and fulfilling.

If, in fact, the story played out just as the media has reported, the school better round up a steller defence team. The actions or (should we say) non action by school officials is pure negligence. As a parent I can't begin to imagine how those parents are feeling but I can say I would be looking for heads to roll and I would be doing some serious blaming.

This, like so many other acts of violence, seem to happen most in violent societies. In the U.S. today violence seems to be foremost in the minds of most. "Carry more guns to shoot the bad guys", "fry the b*d", "shoot first and ask questions later". Sorry but your president seems to promote these feelings.
What bothers me is that the first questions asked at the press conference were trying to fix blame rather that find out who the injured and dead were. Vengence is violence and seems to be the answer to every one of these senseless acts.

David Albert Newman: You're referring to the same "Progressive" Europe which caused the worse violence and sadism the world has ever experienced, World War One and Two? Let's not forget The Holocaust and the misery of 70+ years of Soviet Communism. The same "Progressive" Europe that created untold misery for many in Asia and Africa through European imperialism and racism? The world is still today reeling from past European Imperialism. Many problems we face today can be directly traced to past "Progressive" and "Cultured" European perfidity. Is this the "Progressive" Europe you're referring to?

I echo the sentiments of some others here, “This not a gun control issue”. This is a tragedy no question about it. However, killing people can be accomplished by many means such as bombs, many kinds of poisoning, motor vehicles, knives, etc, etc etc. Guns have been around for hundreds of years, they are not a modern day invention!

This issue is about people killing people period! Taking away the mood of which people kill will have basically no effect. If someone is determined to do this they will find a way. The REAL question here is “Why are people doing this”? Look around the world, what do you see but , war, crime, hunger, hate! That’s what I see. How in hell’s name will taking away some farmers shotgun stop such tragedy?

We will never get to the bottom of this if we keep pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Personally, I think the problems are found mostly in our larger cities, not in our rural areas, so why not start there!

I am saddened and sickened by this tragedy. I do not think it is a gun control issue at all. It's about society today! I was a teenager in the 1960's. I didn't see the violence on TV or the movies like today; I didn't have absurd and violent video games to play; I didn't hear the absolute crap that is in some of today's music. We've sunk to a new low as a society, and we need to change what is accepted as 'normal'. I'm for freedom of speech, but we've gone way too far with our tolerances. I'll pray for the families of the innocent kids who were murdered.

This is so sad, Gun Control could not have prevented this... Why is this the only college in VA that prevented concealed weapons.... Something could have been done.

There are a number of issues this tragedy brings up. Gun control, student violence, university procedure, and publicity for killers.

Here are my thoughts on each.

There should be no guns in North America. No civilian has the right to hold something the sole purpose of which is to take lives.

Secondly student violence is committed by people who are obviously deranged. We need to recognize and treat these people in society. We need to get them while they are young, as in schools or Big Brother/Big Sister foundations.

Thirdly, this is not a time to point fingers but if we can close a school for weather, we can close a school for a shooting, and this should be university policy everywhere, no matter how isolated the incident.

Finally, in agreement with LGM the names and identities of killers should NOT be published. The names of victims are sadly forgotten, but I can still remember the name of the shooter in Montreal.

My heart goes out to all the families that lost. I hope our collective society can learn from this...whatever caused this person to do this, whatever reason or reasons (there are many) so that this NEVER happens again!

When the Columbine shooting happened I was shocked. This story is sad but what really bothered me is that it didn't surprise me at all. Dave from Alberta said everything perfectly. This is a cultural issue (including Canada - remember Polytechnic) not a gun control issue.

As a high school student I have witnessed 4 fights at my school this year. I'm sure similair occurences happen at other schools. So i find it strange when people say that any students should be armed to defend themselves... seems to me that having more weapons around might cause even more trouble.

Jason from Canada,

Explain then why there are 10% of the gun related deaths (per capita) in Canada than there in the US. If bringing in as you call it "ATC" would help reduce these sorts of tragedies, wouldn't the US have far fewer gun related deaths?

I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone use a mass shooting as a reason to remove gun control. Even if Michael Moore is a pompous idiot who is merely fighting fire with fire, if one can get past his arrogance and look for his point, it is a good one.

I suggest you watch Bowling for Columbine with an open mind. Pretend it isn't being narrated by someone really annoying.

With regards to looking for the real root of this problem, I would agree with anyone who believes it is a mental health issue and a cultural issue. Mental health is one of the most overlooked and unrespected forms of medicine. It should without doubt be covered by basic medicare. That should include both psychiatrists and psychologists. The two biggest problems with the mental health system are that it is unaccessible and that people assume you must be really crazy if you see a therapist.

It's really fruity or its for the weak minded, those sorts of things. Every single one of these shootings could have been prevented if they had just had someone unthreatening, unbiased to talk to.

In fact most people out there could benefit from seeing a therapist, even if you think you are the happiest person in the world. And no I am not a therapist or a psychiatrist, so I am not just trying to promote myself.

First off my sincerest condolences to the families of these victims. Another school shooting in the states and yet another set of tragedies. In the area of gun legislation though I would like to give my opinion.

First off even though in a lot of areas I'm as left as they come the gun registry wouldn't have prevented this kind of B.S. If somebody wants to commit a crime with a firearm well there's enough of those without serial numbers on the street to go around.

I have family and friends who farm and hunt. Do they need their rifles....I would have to say yes...However do we as a society need semi-automatic and automatic weapons. I would have to say no.

I have never heard a reason for their existence in the hands of the common person at least not a good one anyhow. Maybe we should ban the manufacture of these altogether. Make them for military and police use only. Maybe then people would be less inclined to do the things done in Virginia today.

On a final note, the shooter was a pure sicko, not the type you could cure with therapy or meds. This person wanted notoriety, he wanted attention. I say to the media don't even give his name. To do otherwise would give satisfaction to the people who supported this person and would make it glamourous to do the same...or worse.

As a prof at a college in Canada, I feel much shock and grief over what has happened, to peers and students in Virginia. Many of the comments will talk about gun control etc., but these debates have gone on for years, and never been solved.

What could be changed is classroom and school administrators own efforts in order to prevent. Because of the long delay, and use of email to alert individuals of lockdown situations, it furthers the argument, my colleagues and I have, in putting in emergency TWO-WAY phones. At least the faculty members in Norris Hall would have been alerted while they were teaching.

Some that school administrators tend to disregard in the safety of their staff and students.

Start putting two-way phones in the classroms. If they had them, the faculy and students could have evacuated Norris Hall on their own.

I can only see that these people want to be martyrs. Let's deny them this wish, let the Government and the Press only identify them with a number from a ledger. Give the facts of the atrocious act to the public but print, identify or say nothing of the barbaric person to anyone. After all what else could they be possibly seeking? Let's deny them even infamy!!!

This is about the misguided USA Constitutional right to bear arms as much as it is about the cause of why this occurred.

Until the Constitution changes, which is archaic by bearing a time of the Declaration of Independence and that precedes the Civil War and the Wild West, there will continue to be unlawful use of guns.

GW Bush has been quoted as saying that he is sorry that is tragedy occurred but that he believes Americans have the right to bear arms within the confines of the law.

Perhaps the law needs to change. Thankfully I live in a more progressive country like Canada, albeit we would be more progressive if we formed a partnership with the European Union (of course now all we need to ensure that we continue to progress, rather than regress, is to get Stephen Harper, GW Bush's buddy, out of office).

As for the gun laws in the U.S and everywhere else.. I only have this to say.

There is absolutely no reason at all nor is there any moral or esthetical reason to justify why ANYONE should posses a weapon such as a handgun, or any type of gun used only for one purpose, to kill people.

The right to bear arms is absolutely outrageous, especially when you consider how unsafe and volatile the world is today. Everyone has the right to live peacefully without having to worry about getting killed by those who practice their rights to bear arms.

Why any power in the world that legally gives you the right to possess a handgun is extremely horrific.

My heart goes to all the family's who have been devastated by this very tragic event.

God be with you.

To all the Canadians who have expressed their condolences, thank you. Although we have our differences from time to time, we are fortunate to have such good neighbors.

As you have seen from your own school shootings, strict gun control laws do not prevent this sort of thing from happening. If someone is crazy enough to kill, he will find a way to do it.

The U.S. government cannot just ban guns. Possession of arms is a long-established Second Amendment right that cannot be overturned unless the Amendment (which has been in place since 1791) is repealed. It would take a 2/3 majority in both the House and Senate plus ratification from 3/4 of the state legislatures. Bottom line: not likely to happen.

We should instead focus on improving our mental health system so that individuals like the gunman receive help before such a tragedy occurs.

Those who support gun control only do so because it is a quick fix. Legislators could put in strict regulations but not deal with the problems behind it.

I don't know why this topic was posted so early in the forums. With few details on the story the only reaction you'll get is one of sympathy and sorrow. Any meaningful debate with occur weeks or months after. I think this story speaks to today's society but not on the topic of gun control.

This is not just about guns, it's about masculinity and guns. We can't solve these problems unless we're willing to talk seriously about the ways masculinity is constructed/ distorted to combine rage, guns, and macho.

First and foremost, I along with every empathetic person on this earth would obviously express our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the victims of this horrific event.

Firearm registry or not individuals intent on violence do not abide by law. The murderer knew his victims would be unarmed, even though the State of Virginia allows citizens to carry firearms lawfully, because the school in question was proclaimed a “gun free zone”.

While this is not the best time for this discussion ATC (authorization to carry) could prevent or lessen these tragedies. With victim based self defence laws and ATC we can do a much better job in Canada at preventing violent crime.

Despite this horrific slaughter, no gun control will be considered, as the gun lobby, headed by the NRA has US legislators in their grip.

The right to bear arms has translated to the highest levels of society, "shoot first ... ask questions later", a practice that is being demonstrated in Iraq at this very moment.

It's simple. Take away the guns and the killing will cease. All other complex explanations fail when confronted with the reality of Occam's Razor... "One should always choose the simplest explanation of a phenomenon, the one that requires the fewest leaps of logic."

the problem isnt just gun control for all my joyously anti-American countrymen though you've got a point there, the problem is one that gets overlooked every single time' it's the question of why these people do these things.

And if you look at every case the perpetrators are always introverted young men and they do this because society won't help them, they think differently but are ostracized and tormented by their difference. We are sooo proud of being a society that accepts diversity but we fail to help the introvert and the autistic and when they cry for help in this horrible form we call them crazy. e

Even though they've done horrible evil they always shoot themselves, these are suicides born from so much anguish they selfishly take others with them; innocent young people who would probably be the first to want to understand exactly why they had to die.

Americans need to ensure the students at post secondary institutions are fully armed with appropiate anti-terrorist firearms and weapons.

This could be done via registration and enforced with periodic weapon inspections to be sure each and every student possesses a firearm that is in good working order.

To me, things like this and Columbine are bound to continue to happen because students are not carrying enough firepower to protect themselves and friends.

Thank you,
Harry

I cannot believe that such a terrible thing has once again happened. How is it that these kinds of monsters can roam? It seems to me that any policies in place are merely words. Did words stop Hitler? Did words stop Stalin? Do words stop Kim Jung Il? No, they do not. All three of these monsters were stopped by action, not words. Action would be the serious consideration of the authorities to allow people to provide a means to protect themseleves. Laws are only obeyed by the law abiding. You know, those who would not commit this kind of attrocity in the first place? Gun control is a failure in our nation. Just as it is in the UK.

School massacres…in recent history there have been 3 in Europe, 3 in Canada and 6 in the United States. Each of them a tragedy, including today’s shootings at Virginia Tech., but these might not be as preventable as some people would like to have you think.

Regardless, today isn’t the day for the rest of us to figure out how or why this happened. Nor is it the time to renew and echo demands for legislation.

There is an exorbitant amount of suffering going on…not just in the States, but all over this planet. It’s sad and confusing to think of how destructive we creatures can be.

Today, I offer my deepest condolences to the families, friends and acquaintances of the injured and deceased. Their life journeys have just taken a devastating turn, the impact of which will surely alter the very core of their beings.

IMAGINE…

It seems that this is once again the perfect excuse to start banning inanimate objects, just like Britain and Australia did.

And look at Britain's crime rate now. I'll save you the trouble from looking at statistics - it is WAY higher than that of the state of Virginia.

My condolences to the families of the victims of this school shooting. It saddens me to hear about an event once again challenging our freedom.

The press is asking what would prevent these things from happening - from metal detectors to security. If someone wants to hurt people they are going to find a way. I think the important thing now is to reach out to our friends and family members who appear to be depressed or in some kind of distress and talk to them.

"Since this sort of thing next to never happens in other countries, whereas it is almost sort of regular in the USA, one wonders what it will take for Americans to realistically deal with their gun culture."

First, Dawson College ring a bell? How short is your memory? Second, the US has many, many bans on firearms. In fact, in places with the strictest gun bans, crime is indeed higher than in other places. See: Washington, DC. This attack could've come to an end much sooner had someone other than the gunman been able to end it, as we now know he took his own life.

Was this a terrorist act?

If not, why not? No one is calling it such, yet it seems like one to me.

My heart goes out to all those who have suffered an unimaginable loss.

As tragic and unfortunate as this day is it is still a byproduct of a free and open society. Would we all be willing to trade our freedom and live in a security state to avoid these rare and occasional tragedies? I hope not.

There are no words, just shock and sincere sympathy to the friends and families so sadly affected by this terrible tradgedy.

First of all condolences to all the families for what little words are worth.

This is a horrific form of protest. It was most certainly planned out by a mind that was set on the outcome, not a misguided and thoughtless rage. The person here was in complete misery mentally and wanted to say something and if we do not try and discover what this something was many more innocent young lives are in danger.

This is a pure tragedy.

The sadness for the grieving families will be overwhelming. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Gun laws will not stop this kind of thing because there are 'sick' people out there. We must be vigilant and teach ourselves and our children how to respond well in these situations. There will be copycats...remember Taber?

Condolences to the families first but let's be serious; the problem is not the tools used but the person using them.

Timothy McVeigh made similar headlines with agricultural fertilizer...

We need to be more caring to our fellow citizens. We need to be able to help people with anti-social problems so we can avoid these kinds of tragedies. Focus on social services not guns.

This is absolutely horrific. As a Canadian living in the states am I acutely aware of the ideological differences between Canadians and Americans, and our attitudes towards weapons are certainly different.

However, regardless of how we regulate arms, everyone everywhere should be appalled by what has happened in Virginia and consider reassessing our safety policies, both in the US and Canada.

Alex

As a University student, I try to imagine myself in a situation as horrific as that in Virginia, and it is truly difficult for me to believe that a tragic incident such as this could even occur.

My heart goes out to everyone involved. I can not imagine if I or my loved ones were the ones involved in this incident, and it frankly scares me to think about it. Tears came to my eyes when I first read about the tragedy, and my heart is still heavy. This shooting will not soon be forgotten, and we must ensure that history will not repeat itself again.

This is just so terrible. Since I started reading about it this morning, I just watched the death toll go up and up. And just now after looking at the map with the violent acts in schools since 1975, it's just exploded over the past few years. If you ask me, there is something that HAS to be done about this. Our society is becoming so appalling.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims and their friends. God protect those who are fighting for their lives now in hospitals.

I am utterly saddened by what has happened here today. My heart goes out to all the families involved in this tragedy. It is clear to me that no measure of gun control can stop insanity. Right now the gun debate is pointless, 32 people are dead and many more are injured.

Let's leave the entire gun control arguments for a time when the grieving has subsided.

respectfully,

Simon

Hollywood celebrates violence.

The American media peddles fear.

The Right Wing cries maniacally about its rights

And North American youth pays for it all

When this happened at the Appalachia Law School the shooter was promptly stopped by two students who (and this part was left out by 246 of 250 news sources) retrieved their own firearms. Even though in the US firearms are used 2.3 millions times annually to save lives (as opposed to the 15,000 whole are killed my mostly illegal firearms) I regret that this tragic incident will be used to push the Canadian position that it is better to watch your loved ones die then defend them.

My father was actually told this by Toronto police saying he would be jailed if he used an inherited firearm to stop an attack on his children. A friend was further told by police that she was allowed no self-defense measures from a gang was going to kill her for reporting an attack; to make her feel better they did say that if she was still alive in six months she'd probably be okay.

And then there's the elderly mother of friend who the police threatened with jail for pointing a realistic water pistol at an attacking burglar. Yes, I despair of the growing attitude that it is better to let people die than to offend the easily frightened and await the onslaught in the media of those who would turn this awful massacre to push their fear based agenda.

It will be days if not weeks before we will have anything like complete information on this shooting. As far as prevention of such tragedies is concerned, it must be understood that a mass murder such as this is perpetrated by an individual. Only by identifying and stopping the individual can the murders be prevented. This is plainly impossible. Just as impossible is the deployment of sufficient guards stop the perpetration of such a crime.

Probably the best defence against such crimes is the knowledge that they can happen and the knowledge that only YOU can protect YOU. It might be worth mentioning that, had anyone at the location of the first shooting been carrying a concealed weapon (legal in Virginia but NOT at the school), the death toll might only have been one or two and one of them would have been the murderer.

Perhaps it is time America began fighting terrorism at home before looking abroad.

I just hope that some good will come out of this, and the Americans will realize the incredible problems associated with their gun policies.

My condolences go out to my fellow students.

It is this kind of carnage that we are lucky we live in a society that is not obsessed with the right to bear arms. How many more shootings will have to happen before they realize a ban is necessary like was done in Australia?

My heart goes out to all the familys of these children. This is a very sad day for everyone.

Amazing, that after Columbine and the Amish school shooting there still has not been any serious, senior level government discussion about gun control in the US. Now 32 more young people have been killed in an identical situation. I would be quite concerned if I lived in the United States, it appears that the right to carry weapons is more important than the right to safety and security.

Since this sort of thing next to never happens in other countries, whereas it is almost sort of regular in the USA, one wonders what it will take for Americans to realistically deal with their gun culture.

It is a very sad day, so much carnage, so much waste, and heartbreak, and terror. Almost reminds me of everyday in Baghdad.

We live in a sick society.Our regard for human life has diminished.

The mind-numbing horrificness of the Blacksburg slaughter will hopefully force U.S. authorities to re-evaluate their policies of weapons on campuses.

As a college student I find this news not only devastating, but also somewhat frightening.

I want to be able to go to classes without the feeling of foreboding that the growing pattern of campus shootings in North America creates.

We must express our sorrow to the family and friends of the victims. We in Canada have experienced similar calamaties. However, I hope this horrible tragedy is not used to justify the billion dollar long gun registry which was useless in stopping recent killings in a Montreal school where the killer used registered weapons. Society, with all its laws against killing, cannot stop a deranged murderer.

Henry Champ may be able to tell us, Canadians, whether times have changed. When I lived in the U.S., news of a murder centred on the particular weapon that was used.

No one talked about who was shot, they were only interested in the firing characteristics of the weapon that was used. I've noted that FoxNews is already headlining a story that the shootings took place in a "gun-free zone".

If only those students had assault rifles to shoot back with.
'Mind you, the firing characteristics of the students' weapons might have been inferior to those of the madman.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who have been hurt or killed in this tragedy.

My condolences to the family of those who are no longer with us, may god help them to heal. The right to bear arms are the cause of the problem, easy access to weapons that can cause carnage on a nation.

Ban all weapons, and charge the the NRA with conspiracy.
Thank God for the principles of peace and with that at least we can have hope for the future of our children.

thank you
Anthony Montreal, Quebec

This news is very devastating, and my heart and prayers go out to the people of Virginia.

It is amazing this event could ever occur, and the security of students in schools, workers in office towers, etc needs to be addressed seriously as this most definitely and most unfortunately will happen again.

Why do people chose to take out their anger/issues on innocent people this way? Better mental health facilities and programs are perhaps needed as well. This must be prevented in any way we can.

This is very sad should not be happening in any school either in the USA or Canada.

How can we protect our youth from such violence.?