Annnd yet another classroom rampage near Chicago... 18 people.

[seeker_two]

I am just wondering what religion the shooter was.   I have not heard anything mentioned about this fact.

  Christian is my guess.  THis is based on his name, complexion, and other characteristics including his picture. 

OK, I get the name thing, but how could someone's complexion or appearance indicate Christianity? 

Agreed.....he may be agnostic or athiest....or even follow another religion like that Richard Reed fellow....

[Manedwolf]

Wow, the guy was seriously messed up. At least the media is mostly focusing on that.

DEKALB, Ill.  Steven Kazmierczak, at 27, looked like an average schoolboy  except that his arms were covered with disturbing tattoos, including a doll from the horror movie "Saw."

Professors and students knew him as a bright, helpful scholar, but his past included a stint in a mental health center.

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080217/NATION/581694692/0/FOREIGN

[Perd Hapley]

Got to this link, and scroll down to the end of the story. 

A well regulated militia being necessary to the protection of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed

2nd amendment, US Constitution, 1791

Four Million members of the NRA

$100MILLION what members of the National Rifle Association give to the organisation annually

50% proportion of US suicides involving a gun

Four Presidents shot dead Abraham Lincoln 1865 James Garfield 1881 William McKinley 1901 John F Kennedy 1963

30,000 people who die of gunshot wounds in America each year

You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands Charlton Heston, ex-president of the NRA, 2000

[BridgeWalker]

In the print version it was probably a little text box offset from the article, rendered non-sensical in web format.

I'm not surprised, given the blatantly anti-American rantings I've encountered from Brits on other boards, many of them centered on the evils of guns.  No wonder they are so virulent if they're getting their propaganda from a rag like that one.

[Manedwolf]

It now turns out that this "normal" guy had a tattoo done along his arms of a demonic-looking doll from the movie "Saw", riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with more bloody slashes in the background. Also, he used to cut himself.

Is that "normal" these days?

[BridgeWalker]

Is that "normal" these days?

I dunno.  It seems a little bizarre to get a tattoo of a character from a crappy movie no one will remember in fifteen or twenty years.

Ultimately, what does it matter?  There is no just way to prevent this kind of thing.  Should we lock up everyone with bizarre tastes in tattoos, or everyone who cuts themselves (which, I can assure you, is a *very* common, if somewhat deviant behavior)?  Everyone who quits a job abruptly, or everyone who drops out of a grad program?

It's a little odd that he was being reported in the "ordinary guy gone nuts" mode, but that's just the media works.  They created an image to go along with what they figured out about him in the first hour or so after the shooting, and it matched his yearbook picture. 

It's all just media craze anyway, that is ultimately pointless.

[Manedwolf]

Nooz also reported that he "pushed around" his girlfriend some. That's the sad thing, if she'd reported a domestic violence incident, he would not have been able to buy the guns.

[BridgeWalker]

Nooz also reported that he "pushed around" his girlfriend some. That's the sad thing, if she'd reported a domestic violence incident, he would not have been able to buy the guns.

I guess not.  But I don't remotely support that law; it's so frequently used by women who just want to mess with an ex or stbx, and I highly doubt that "pushing her around but not hitting her or anything" which is more or less what I read, would have led to a conviction if reported.

Way off in the world of if's here anyway, but sadly, I don't think losing one's temper and shoving a significant other is basis enough to see serious trouble in the future. 


ETA: and the handguns would have been harder, but even a clean-cut college kid who doesn't know much from either crime or guns can easily pick up an 870 without a NICS check.  Private purchase, straw purchase, etc.

[Perd Hapley]

  But I don't remotely support that law; it's so frequently used by women who just want to mess with an ex or stbx,

And besides, what do the guns have to do with it?  Men usually don't need guns to beat up their women.  And I don't know if spousal abuse is really enough to nullify their right to self-defense.  Then again...   


What's an sbtx?

[The Viking]

It now turns out that this "normal" guy had a tattoo done along his arms of a demonic-looking doll from the movie "Saw", riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with more bloody slashes in the background. Also, he used to cut himself.

Is that "normal" these days?

A guy at my job has this picture of Linda Blair, in all her demon, going totally batpoo glory tattooed on his hand . He's a really nice guy. I'd trust him anyday . Even though he probably has some mild ADD .

[BridgeWalker]

stbx = soon-to-be ex, often the most dangerous phase of an abusive marriage, when there is danger for one party, but still legal ties and relative ease of access for the other party.

[Bogie]

The fun part is that _some_ attorneys will suggest that their clients allege all sorts of nasties about their spouses...

[SteveS]

Nooz also reported that he "pushed around" his girlfriend some. That's the sad thing, if she'd reported a domestic violence incident, he would not have been able to buy the guns.

She has denied this is several interviews.