Shooting incidents in the US terrifies me although I'm thousands of miles away. How did these young people become killers?! I guess there're things in every society that have gone terribly wrong!

It's too close to home for me too....the shooter currently attended U of I, near where I live, and bought his guns in Champaign.  Does he go to the same psychiatrist as my son, who is now also "off his meds" so he can get into the Navy?   I, too, have a son like that, and I would get seriously hurt if I tried to force pills down his throat.  You can't force a mentally ill adult to go to the doctor, take their meds, get therapy, get into the hospital or anything..  It's scary as hell, as a parent.  It stresses you out; it makes you sick, literally.  Physically ill.   I have tried to have him hospitalized several times earlier last year - it only worked once, then they allowed him to "sign himself in" and then he promptly "signed himself out" three days later.  What's a parent to do?  Legally and medically, our hands are tied, once they turn 18.  Something needs to change about that.  These kids do have a right to a life, an education, and everything else - believe me, I was a special ed advocate for him for years - but everyone else on campus certainly has a right to pursue their own life and education and happiness without fear of being gunned down. 

My other son will be attending college next year, either at NIU, WIU or ISU, and I fear for him.  No, they should not have to carry guns...they are already carrying books, backpacks, musical instruments, cell phones, lap tops, they don't need to worry about another piece of equipment that will only hurt somebody.  It's ridiculous, isn't it?

I, too, am praying for the families of the victims and Northern, and for all the families and students.

Did ill-advised prescription drugs (and perhaps a desperation to be free of them) drive him to this?  If so, the psychiatrists must share some of the blame. 

I'm sorry this hit so close to home for you. I too do not know what the answer is. It seems insane to be thinking of arming students. Students! Whose only concern should be exams, sports, club activities. There are so many issues raised by this... and this seems to be happening more and more often. It seems as though school is not so safe as place as if used to be and should be. I'm thinking this weekend of those kids at NIU. I'm glad everyone close to you is safe.

@squeakysoul - 

Thanks, me too.  Those poor families. Thanks for your input I really appreciate the comment.

@musicalsoulmel - 

I agree, but I wonder what they can do?  High schools are a little easier, since they are more contained.  Colleges are big, with many buildings and dorms and all kinds of people going in and out.  I don't know the answers.

My co-workers and I will keep the community in prayer.  The Virginia Tech shooting was 3 hours from where I live/work...and many people I work with had friends/relatives/sons/daughters that worked and attended there. 

Now is the time where we fear the unknown.  The unknown amount of safety...the unknown amount of security available to our loved ones.

All we can do is pray...and prepare as best we can...

The best thing that could provide protection will eventually come out of these atrocities, so we hope.

Be blessed, and know that our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of those hurt.

Blessings.

Just terrifying.  You've managed to say just what I've been thinking.

It makes me scared as hell too with two kids in college. I'm like you...I prefer to live under the assumption that they are safe there, but with incidents like this happening more and more, it terrifies me. I have a mentally ill nephew, and like the one commenter said, once they turn 18, it's out of the parent's hands. If as a society, we said they couldn't attend college for the protection of the other students, would they just take out their frustration in the workplace? I don't know.

What I do know is that I am sick to death of the media doing big stories on school shooters. I wish they would focus only on the innocent victims and only mention the shooter in general terms without identifying him. To me it seems like that in recent years it happens more, because it becomes a media circus and the shooter becomes a sick sort of celebrity. If an ill person who feels isolated and worthless didn't think he would at least go down in history with his 15 minutes of fame, maybe it wouldn't happen as much.  

Dear Laura,

I actually would have been your first commenter but it was late, and I couldn't find the list I was looking for. NIU was the fourth shooting this week.

1. Louisiana Technical College shooting Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States February 8, 2008
2. Mitchell High School shooting Memphis, Tennessee, United States February 11, 2008
3. E.O. Green Junior High School shooting Oxnard, California, United States February 12, 2008
4. Northern Illinois University shooting,  DeKalb, Illinois, United States February 14, 2008

One of the teachers at NIU, I believe, was quoted in the L.A. Times as saying "There's nothing but cornfields around here. This isn't a place where you'd immediately think of something like this happening."

When I read about NIU I still hadn't gotten over the shooting that took place in Oxnard, not "a skip and a jump" but up the Cali coast, and a place I was just in five weeks ago.

I wrote a poem last year at about this time, after Virginia Tech. I'll post it below this comment.

I also posted a question about school shootings for Featured Question, but don't know if it will be picked.

Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

"Constant Carnage"
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
4/17/07 6:15 a.m. pdt

Columbine still fresh in memory
Weekly accountings of killings
listed in Monday's "local" section of the newspaper
Horrendous reportage doesn't cover the scars
and last week's headlines pale in comparison

Then another young disillusioned iconoclast
with a gun
goes hunting

A first barrage isn't enough
Where are the authorities
when the second barrage
eradicates the lives of over 30 souls?

Is anyone safe anymore
Even in America?
No, we knew that in 1999
and we certainly knew that in 2001
and we know that even better today
Are we living on borrowed time
while the misbegotten
are allowed to lock the doors
of our innocence
and barricade themselves
inside our psyches?

Are we moments from our final exit
as police and government seem to
ignore the realities of constant carnage
in the workplace and at school
even as the unsanctimonious shards of insanity
sever our serenity with sudden reports
from hidden guns

All too
easy access to weapons,
All too easy access to
support groups for homegrown
terrorism
Are there clues on
thousands of MySpace pages
portending the slide into
anarchy?

Another day passes from memory
But the events prove
that even the last shocking act
of inopportune mayhem
is not going to be as shocking as the next

And the next
And the next

And will there
ever
be an end to the constant carnage
???
Or will you and I be counted among the dead
next time.....
????

The world is a more dangerous and scary place to live in now.

No one deserves to die in this way.

Thoughts aree with everyone who is mourning whether their have lost someone in this tragedy or who have affect by a past shooting.

The world is a scary place. My babies are still young, and I think about the world I will be sending them out to, and I really don't want to. I can't fathom losing myself to somebody else, due to violence. And people seem to forget that the shooters themselves have families, someone that loves them and didn't expect this. Doesn't make it easier, and I'm definitely not trying to mourn for the shooter... but the families are left to pick up the pieces of this needless violence... all of them. Those poor mothers. One can only hope it ends, but it's bound to happen again. But I'm happy to hear that no one you know was hurt. Doesn't change things... but you know what I mean.