http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre

Been a year since the VTU shootings. Hope various institutions have put in place mechanisms to identify potential crack-pots like the VTU shooter as will as how to plan a re-action if this happens again.

Saw a very scary movie about one of these mass shootings. This DVD is called Out of the Blue http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0839938/ and is about the 1990 murders of 13 people in Aramoana, New Zealand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramoana_massacre

[SteveZ]

The event was tragic, and there have been several over the years of similar ilk.

The problem is the ultimate conundrum. In a country of 300 million persons, if 99.999% of the population is "okay," that still leaves approximately 3,000 potential crazies roaming the nation. Combine that with our Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees, the finding and monitoring of that 0.001% is almost impossible, and can only happen with severe reduction in the civil rights and liberties of the 99.999% of the population.

No institution can replace with "mechanisms" what the personal vigilance and willingness to be involved of people, singular and combined, at large can accomplish. "Mechanisms" invariably become restraints on liberty, and their implementation as a risk-reduction tool can cause more harm than the good intended.

There's an old FL saying: When your up to your @$$ in alligators, it's tough to remember your original intention was only to drain a swamp.

Originally Posted by SteveZ

The event was tragic, and there have been several over the years of similar ilk.

The problem is the ultimate conundrum. In a country of 300 million persons, if 99.999% of the population is "okay," that still leaves approximately 3,000 potential crazies roaming the nation. Combine that with our Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees, the finding and monitoring of that 0.001% is almost impossible, and can only happen with severe reduction in the civil rights and liberties of the 99.999% of the population.

No institution can replace with "mechanisms" what the personal vigilance and willingness to be involved of people, singular and combined, at large can accomplish. "Mechanisms" invariably become restraints on liberty, and their implementation as a risk-reduction tool can cause more harm than the good intended.

There's an old FL saying: When your up to your @$$ in alligators, it's tough to remember your original intention was only to drain a swamp.

Peer reviews and the like set up by individual schools could be a mechanism used by institutions to identify people who might snap. I think this is a lot more difficult to make out though as to who does and does not snap. People have tried to make it easy by using sloppy tags like "paranoid schizphrenic'" to label who might be a danger. But, from what I have seen, these labels only have any meaning after the person has already gone off the deep end.

There is also the fear that knowing the crooked timber of humanity people will use a label like "paranoid schizophrenic" as a weapon to curb anyone who might be a challenge to the powers that be. I saw a CBS News report around July 6, 1996 (1995?) that the Library of Congress of all places had implemented a policy to weed out troublemakers by questioning their mental health. The news report went on to say that this was a prevalent tactic used by various countries beyond the Iron Curtain. A gulag stuck onto how someone sees himself as well as others see him.

[SteveZ]

No doubt about it. I'm sure the Salem witch-hunts and Joe McCarthy's red-under-every-rug crusade all started with the best of intentions.

Originally Posted by SteveZ

No doubt about it. I'm sure the Salem witch-hunts and Joe McCarthy's red-under-every-rug crusade all started with the best of intentions.

Doubt if the Salem witch hunts started with good intentions as I believe I read somewhere where this was a land grab from those families accused of having "witches" but Senator Joseph McCarthy did seem to have the best of intentions with his "red" crusade even though some of the tactics used Joseph McCarthy seemed to belong more in the Soviets' bag of tricks than with someone trying to work within the checks and balances system as set up by the US Constitution.