Purdue University Shooting

YorkeDaddy · 01-22-2014, 02:05 PM

Yesterday there was a murder at Purdue University in the electrical engineering building, just a couple hours from where I live (I go to Indiana University) and where a pretty large number of my best friends go to school.

In fact, to make it hit even closer to home, my very best friend and the other member of my band cloudcover is an engineering major at Purdue and spends most of his time in the exact building where someone was just murdered yesterday. He wasn't at the building during the shooting, but that's not really the point.

It's a terrible truth, but shootings like this happen quite often, but when they happen this close to home; this close to the ones you care about, it instills a fear in you unlike anything in the world. What makes it even scarier is that no one can establish a motive. I can only speculate, but if this was really just a random killing for no real reason...it's hard to want to go outside knowing that something like that just happens.

Anyway, there's not a whole lot of discussion possible here, but this is a current event and one that I'm very familiar with and that's part of what this board is about so I figured I'd let it all out here. ****'s not cool.

**Frownland** · 01-22-2014, 02:10 PM

Rogert Ebert had a great say on the subject:

Quote:

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. "Wouldn't you say," she asked, "that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?" No, I said, I wouldn't say that. "But what about 'Basketball Diaries'?" she asked. "Doesn't that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?" The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it's unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. "Events like this," I said, "if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory."

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of "explaining" them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

I agree with him to an extent, because this is a very newsworthy event in America. Maybe as a way to circumvent the "blaze of glory" attitude, names of the killers should not be released. I don't know how well that would mull over, though.

~~Cuthbert~~ · 01-22-2014, 02:11 PM

Bad that mate.

Might sound daft but at least if it's happened once in that building then the odds of it happening again must be mental.

I've posted it before but the gun problem in the US seems out of hand.

Plankton · 01-22-2014, 02:13 PM

I heard about that this morning. Terrible.

I'm just waiting to see what details come out, the who and why, if any. I worked with an Eng Major fresh out of Purdue many years ago (still had that fresh college smell even), and I'm sure he frequented the same digs.

The thing that got me to thinking was that they actually stopped all classes today. It's amazing how the actions of one moron can effect the lives of so many. The trickle down from this will linger for quite a while.

Paul Smeenus · 01-22-2014, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christian Benteke

I've posted it before but the gun problem in the US seems out of hand.

It's been out of hand for many many years. I loathe and detest the US gun culture

YorkeDaddy · 01-22-2014, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

Rogert Ebert had a great say on the subject:

I agree with him to an extent, because this is a very newsworthy event in America. Maybe as a way to circumvent the "blaze of glory" attitude, names of the killers should not be released. I don't know how well that would mull over, though.

yeah it's hard either way. do americans really need to know about every shooting? they're major events that unite us as a nation, so i think the answer to that is yes. but at the same time, plastering the face of every shooter on every website like the media has done for each of the past few major shootings might convince another troubled individual to do it themselves just like ebert suggested

**Frownland** · 01-22-2014, 02:16 PM

If it takes a fatal shooting to unite a nation, I don't want unity.

YorkeDaddy · 01-22-2014, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

If it takes a fatal shooting to unite a nation, I don't want unity.

pretty true. try and list all the recent times the U.S. has seemed to unite as a nation, and everyone will list Sandy Hook, Aurora, the Boston bombing, 9/11...only when people die.

~~Cuthbert~~ · 01-22-2014, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

It's been out of hand for many many years. I loathe and detest the US gun culture

Realistically do you think there is a solution to it or is it too ingrained now? Cos that's how it seems to me.

Shootings happen here (see something like Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird and it's mental and nationwide news for days and days) but when they do it's very much a rarity, even in the big cities. Over there it seems like it's happening all the time, can think of loads over the past three or four years.

In fact I posted an article last year, there was one mass shooting a day in 2013 in the US up to about September.

**Janszoon** · 01-22-2014, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christian Benteke

Realistically do you think there is a solution to it or is it too ingrained now? Cos that's how it seems to me.

Shootings happen here (see something like Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird and it's mental and nationwide news for days and days) but when they do it's very much a rarity, even in the big cities. Over there it seems like it's happening all the time, can think of loads over the past three or four years.

In fact I posted an article last year, there was one mass shooting a day in 2013 in the US up to about September.

And that's just mass shootings. The majority of gun deaths in the US are not mass shootings.

01-22-2014, 02:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
Plankton Just Keep Swimming... Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: See signature... Posts: 7,765	I heard about that this morning. Terrible. I'm just waiting to see what details come out, the who and why, if any. I worked with an Eng Major fresh out of Purdue many years ago (still had that fresh college smell even), and I'm sure he frequented the same digs. The thing that got me to thinking was that they actually stopped all classes today. It's amazing how the actions of one moron can effect the lives of so many. The trickle down from this will linger for quite a while. __________________ See location...

01-22-2014, 02:16 PM	#7 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	If it takes a fatal shooting to unite a nation, I don't want unity. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

01-22-2014, 02:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
~~Cuthbert~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Black Country Posts: 8,827	Bad that mate. Might sound daft but at least if it's happened once in that building then the odds of it happening again must be mental. I've posted it before but the gun problem in the US seems out of hand.