High School massacres…

[robertylea]

I thought we could do with a bit of controversial debate!

I was told that I was insane yesterday because I said that I could sympathise with the very disturbed teenager who shot up his school.

Having been bullied at school there were days when I felt desperate, and if only I had the courage I am not sure that I would be here now.

Obviously I am thankful that I am, and I’m quite happy with myself and my life – most of the time I am tough enough to cope and I resolved long ago that nobody would ever treat me like that again.  That said, there are still after effects of my school days.  I still self harm to an extent, and there are still moments when self doubt and low esteem eat me up

And at the time, if someone had given me a gun, I think I would have found it easy to pick off those who had made my life a misery, before ending that miserable life knowing that I had exacted the worst form of revenge.

I know all common sense says that any killing is wrong and that it is sick and despicable to do such a thing.  But I think that this is underestimating the desperation and hatred felt by those who are bullied.

If you’re so tortured that you feel that suicide is the only way to end it, isn’t it almost natural to want to take them down with you?  Given the choice between finishing your own life alone and desperate, or ending it in a hail of bullets and also exacting the ultimate punishment on those who have dragged you down to this agonising level of despair – well, what would you choose?

This thinking is exactly why the gun laws in this country must never come close to those in America – if guns were available to screwed-up teenagers, we would have the same sort of incidents over here.

[prince regent]

<br>he was a loony tune obsessed with ideas of racial purity for the indian tribe  he belonged to  nothing to do with bullying  he was aping a previous school shooting by two  kids who were also  members of various neo nazi groups

martydom and superioroity (in his eyes)  were his motivations

[dave jay]

I was bullied at school a bit, but that being down to me bullying others .. it left no lasting effect thankfully.

Robertylea .. everyone is special and we are all loved, even when we think we are not.

America is a violent and horrible country. Guns are freely available in Canada and the shootings don’t happen there.

[insomniac]

dj – a bit of an unfair comparison. The USA has 9 times the population of Canada, so it’s fair to say they have 9 times as many fruitcakes.  

[insomniac]

I concede the USA probably does have a higher proportion of fruitcakes than anywhere else.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that "America is a violent and horrible country" as dj does. (Although I’ve never been to the States.) I’ve never been to Zimbabwe  or North Korea either, but I reckon the average working class Joe is better off in the States than in either of those two countries.<br>Just out of curiosity, which country do others think serves the average working class person best?

[dave jay]

insomniac, 18,000 people a year die every year because they can’t afford health insurance, in the USA.

I reckon that out of all of the post industrial western countries the USA is the worst and Norway is the best, regarding looking after their seething masses. Zimbabwean and North Korean Governments do not have the resourses (or the will) to look after their own population in the same way that a rich country does.

[wit]

for quality of life, one international firm of employee benefits advisers puts four cities tied top:

vancouver<br>zurich<br>vienna<br>bern

http://across.co.nz/qualityofliving.htm

obvioulsy a matter of personal opinion as to the weight to be given to individual factors – eg some that look good for material wealth may be a bit dark psychologically.

best regards

wit

[centralpark]

just to change the tune a bit………..

if you had to chose a country to come from what would your order be from best to worst case scenario? Europe not allowed.<br>eg you might say, australian, american, canadian, russian, african, south american, indian, asian or whatever…..

[dave jay]

centralpark ..

Australia<br>New Zealand<br>Canada

In no particular order .. all of the rest of them are not properly civilised.

[insomniac]

good question Centralpark

Canada, New Zealand, Australia, USA and Rhodesia (before it became Zimbabwe and went downhill).

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