"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." (Winston Churchill)
Hats off to the administration at NIU for their excellent work in this tragedy. It's truly impressive to see their response from the university and surrounding communities. This demonstrates the importance of a solid crisis management plan.
Another sad day though....
"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith. " -Bertrand Russell V. Delong
Posts: 3106 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL | Registered: April 04, 2003
I know several kids in the Glenbard West graduating class of 2007 who attend Northern. I also have a good friend who's an emergency room doc at the hospital were most of the victims were taken; I haven't yet spoken to her, so I don't know if she was on duty.
But this - combined with the shootings in Kirkwood, MO last week (another very good friend of mine, a fellow author, lives there and knew three of the dead), makes me wonder why the hell none of the candidates are talking about gun control during this highly newsworthy election season.
I know my husband spent a good portion of the afternoon on the phone with one of Barak Obama's staffers - who was very responsive - requesting that this become part of the dialogue going forward. Who knows if it will, but all we can do is try to make it so.
Daniel Parmenter, as reported this morning to me, was one of the students killed. He was one of my counselees during his junior/senior years. I knew his older sister very well. First, I ask that all of you say a prayer for these families. Dan was the only son.
This was the second death in one week of York graduates - both by guns. (The other one was an accidental shooting.) I second Scribbler's note: I don't want all guns removed but some gun control should be on the list of issues for candidates to address.
Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.
"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith. " -Bertrand Russell V. Delong
Posts: 3106 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL | Registered: April 04, 2003
Oh, Amy, I'm so sorry. I saw that he was a York grad, but forgot that you worked there until now.
Whatever your position on the gun issue - and mine's pretty extreme, I know - I just have to wonder why none of the candidates are even touching it. It was such a big issue about 8 years ago, but it seems to have just faded from our consciousness, even with all the recent events.
Originally posted by Amy: Daniel Parmenter, as reported this morning to me, was one of the students killed. He was one of my counselees during his junior/senior years. I knew his older sister very well. First, I ask that all of you say a prayer for these families. Dan was the only son.
This was the second death in one week of York graduates - both by guns. (The other one was an accidental shooting.) I second Scribbler's note: I don't want all guns removed but some gun control should be on the list of issues for candidates to address.
Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers.
Paper says Daniel played rugby on the Glenbard West team (though he didn't attend school at GW). Very sad.
Daniel sounds like the kind of student you would have especially enjoyed helping with his post high-school plans. My heart is breaking for his family and friends.
It's a sad commentary that these school shootings are almost becoming common place. I can't help but wonder if this is because we live in a society where people feel more isolated and alone. When I was in college, if I wanted to talk to somebody, I called them or stopped by. Now people text message or e-mail, and something gets lost. When you sit and talk with someone, there is so much more of a connection. Just my opinion, but when you feel more a part of a society, I think it would be difficult to go out and just kill people in a random fashion.
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." (Winston Churchill)
Yoss, you are so right....and here we are, on an electronic BB.
Dan probably did play rugby. He was tall and strong. He was on the York football team. He was a nice young man. Honestly, I still can't believe it. I mean, what are the odds? York sends probably 20 students a year to NIU....what are the odds that one of the victims went to York? Well, it happened. We've lost too many students and former student. I'm really tired of these funerals....it's exhausting.
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for keeping all the families in your prayers...hug your kids so they know how much you love them.
"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith. " -Bertrand Russell V. Delong
Posts: 3106 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL | Registered: April 04, 2003
Amy wrote-"Yoss, you are so right....and here we are, on an electronic BB."
Yes, the irony did not escape me. I don't know how many of the other BB members would appreciate a call from Yoss at 7:30 a.m.
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." (Winston Churchill)
As an alumna of NIU, I am deeply saddened by this incident. According to one new source, the killer purchased the guns "over the counter" in Illinois. He had stopped taking his medication and was reacting irrationally. Legally there was no way to prevent the purchase of the guns by this young man.
I am sorry, Amy, for the loss of one of your students. I was looking at NIU's website this week for football or music camps which may be offered for my boys. It was a place I deemed safe enough to send my young children to for an overnight camp. Not so amymore. It's truly a loss of innocence.
Posts: 33 | Location: Glen Ellyn IL | Registered: September 03, 2003
Teach your kids how to deal with heartache. Take them away from the video game on the bigscreen that shows the guy blowing away the bad guy and blood spurting everywhere.
Go have a skate together at Lake Ellyn. Go play catch at the park.
That will solve more problems then letting Durbin, Obama, Hillary, or Bush do anything reactionary....
I can teach my children but I can't teach every child; it's not the state's obligation to, either.
It is the state's obligation to protect its citizens. There are many societal issues here that cannot possibly be fixed or addressed fully because our country simply doesn't have the funds to do so. But the one thing that can be done, and should be done, is limit access to firearms. Note I did not say take away all guns. But limiting them and making it much harder to get them, not to mention banning all assault weapons because there is no reason why anyone should have them - that should be done, in my opinion.
I just don't see how anyone cannot make the correlation between lots of guns for everyone, and mass violence of the sort we're currently seeing. I know there has always been mass violence and people who want to harm others. But it's just so very easy to do so today, in a way that it was not 100 years ago.
Originally posted by scribbler: But limiting them and making it much harder to get them.
It took me 45 days to get a Firearm Owners Identification Card from our state. That was plenty long in my opinion.
While I too don't see the need for assault weapons, where does one draw the line. I have a shotgun for sport. My Dad has 8 shotguns and 4 rifles (both new ones and those handed down through generations). Who is someone else to tell him that he cannot peaceably own these? Next we are going to complain that people shouldn't have guns because they don't know how to store them properly or hold them properly.
People are idiots....always have been....always will be. Last thing we need is a group of idiots in Springfield or Washington telling me how to live my life.
I'll now jump on my NRA soapbox - if some in the audience had guns, there would have been a lot less killing.
Now I'll jump off my NRA soapbox because I feel dirty. [I actually heard someone make that argument today].
I would say that it has never been more difficult to buy a gun in this country. FOID cards, waiting periods, and backround checks are all safeguards put in place to prevent events such as this one. But where do you draw the line? A 27 yr old award-winning grad student with no police record?
It's human nature to want answers to the cause of a tragedy. Who's at fault? What's to blame? Let's enact legislation so this "never happens again"(How many times have we heard that?). Put it all in a neat little package and we can get on with our lives.
People are idiots....always have been....always will be. Last thing we need is a group of idiots in Springfield or Washington telling me how to live my life.
Though not an NRA supporter, I do tend to agree that its people that kill, not guns. It appears this kid went off his meds and went berserk.
I worked a number of years in a psychiatric facility and it's is truly amazing (& scary) how people change due to medication. I've seen people who were totally disconnected from the real world (schizophrenia & multiple personalities) get connected in as short as 24 hours due to a good doctor who knows who to administer medication. Once they are no longer a threat to themselves or others, they must be released. Many though will discontinue their medication due to side effects, lack of means to afford the meds or because they think their better and don't need to take them. They can slide back into their delusional world in a matter of hours, with symptoms that often are worse because they are also withdrawing from the medication.
Just my opinion, mental illness was the cause here, guns were the tool. It's sad, but until our society really makes caring for the mentally ill a priority, this will happen again.
"Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains." (Winston Churchill)
I agree that I would hate to see any kind of knee-jerk reaction (like forcing schools to recite the pledge everyday in Illinois after 9/11) in regard to gun control. I also agree that this young man probably still would have been able to purchase a gun. However, what I don't understand is this (and I hope some of you can help me understand it): How many guns does one person really need to have? What types of guns do people really need to have? Should there not be some kind of limit on the type and number of guns a single person can own?
Shotguns typically do not kill until used at a fairly close range and they are much harder to conceal. Handguns, whole different story.
Of course, there are several issues just as large - like why we cannot require medication for mentally unstable people. Or, why we do such a poor job at providing mental health care in this country. Or, why young people feel that this "going down in a blaze of glory" is the way to go....makes me want to go overseas where this kind of gun violence is much more rare.
"The most valuable things in life are not measured in monetary terms. The really important things are not houses and lands, stocks and bonds, automobiles and real state, but friendships, trust, confidence, empathy, mercy, love and faith. " -Bertrand Russell V. Delong
Posts: 3106 | Location: Glen Ellyn, IL | Registered: April 04, 2003
