A Valentine’s Day Massacre: Shooting at Northern Illinois University

• Becky
  February 15th, 2008 at 4:32 am

  i just . . . can’t imagine. i’m a college student again, after almost ten years out of the classroom, and it never once occurred to me to be nervous about something like this happening until now. I hope their souls find peace, and their families can find forgiveness.

• Paul22
  February 15th, 2008 at 6:28 am

  Why is this posted here on Neatorama? One of the reasons I visit this site is to have a brief escape from crap like this. A million news sites have covered this story and will talk about it for days to come. There is nothing Neato about it and I’m disappointed to see it even mentioned here.

• MoonCake
  February 15th, 2008 at 6:41 am

  i find it fascinating that people truly find it in their hearts to a) kill a person, and b) have the intention of killing several people in a traditionally tame envorironment. what i find more fascinating is that when these incidents happen, institutions around the country tighten their security in hopes of preventing a similar situation. nobody is ever caught with intentions of shooting up their school and it’s always too late once a couple people have lost their lives. not saying precautions shouldn’t be taken, but i find it pointless to raise levels of fear and spend time and money on needless survaillance. crimes will happen. people will become disgruntled. people will kill people. it’s a sad truth, but there’s really only so much we can actually do to “prevent” these things from happening. my heart goes out to the victims of this senseless crime, and it’s unfortunate that the kid who committed it found it necessary to bring utter depression to those families.

• ted
  February 15th, 2008 at 6:42 am

  Didn’t know it happened until I read it on Neatorama.

• Jerse
  February 15th, 2008 at 8:45 am

  If everyone could carry a gun with them, this would not have happened

• Ali S.
  February 15th, 2008 at 8:49 am

  Sad sad…:(

• the lord
  February 15th, 2008 at 10:12 am

  Hmmm I bet he was taking antidepresents, and maybe had a family member that worked for the government. And it goes to show you how important having a techer or techers with a gun at school or a permit that allows students to cary guns at school legaly. Although I dont think it would have helped in this case, everything happend so fast.

• Amy
  February 15th, 2008 at 11:17 am

  @ Jerse: If *nobody* could carry a gun with them, this would not have happened!

  What a tragedy. Peace and prayers to the victims and their families.

• Tim
  February 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

  This is hardly Neat.

• hikikomori
  February 15th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

  “This is hardly Neat.”

  Yeah, I totally agree. Neatorama has had some weird posts as of late.

• L.C.
  February 15th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  Well if nothing else its informative. Im a campus police officer at a college right in the middle of a huge city and ive responded to many shootings on our campus. Im also a student and I do not go to class unarmed any day just in case something like this happens. Its scary and you never what could happen.

• Man or Monster
  February 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pm

  “If *nobody* could carry a gun with them, this would not have happened!”

  Well, since it’s impossible to stop everyone from carrying guns, Jerse’s solution is more realistic.

• heather
  February 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

  Oh good god, what’s going on with this world?! What is causing all of these students to snap like this?! My thoughts go out to the families of the victims.

• Tim
  February 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

  Psychiatric drugs are causing this…

• Tommyjonny
  February 15th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  the title of this post is pretty damn insensitive

• ted
  February 15th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

  Question #1:

  163 students are in a classroom. Each student is armed.

  1 ex-student comes in, starts shooting.

  How many students fire back? Out of those students, how many actually hit their intended target? How many actually end up wounding other students?
  What is the total number of deaths once all 164 people in the room stop firing?

  Show your work.

• just a guy
  February 15th, 2008 at 7:05 pm

  “Troubled youth shoots people at school” is becoming a cliche. How often is this happening?!

  What a world…

• Thebes
  February 16th, 2008 at 12:06 am

  Amy said “If *nobody* could carry a gun with them, this would not have happened!”

  This guy COULDN’T carry a gun with him. That is felony in Illinois, and its a further felony to have a gun on a college campus. Yet, he did. That is the thing, criminals don’t care about what the CAN and CAN NOT do… they just break the laws.

  Now, if the mad-man knew that there were even 5% of students who legally COULD have guns on campus, by virtue of being trained and licensed, do you really think he would have picked that place for his massacre? Historically only ONE recent mass shooting has occurred where a mere civilian could legally possess a firearm, that one was in a Colorado church, and the gunman was STOPPED by an armed woman who the press later demonized .

• Rosi
  February 16th, 2008 at 3:31 am

  If he couldn’t carry a gun with him, then how come he had one?
  There are gun stores all over america, so it’s not exactly difficult to obtain a gun, even if you don’t buy it yourself it could be stolen from someone who had one. If guns for civilians were banned almost completely, like in England (okay there is still some gun crime but not nearly on the scale as in America), then I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t have happened. It’s only because guns are available that the guy even thought of doing this.
  And I love how all Americans immediately say that if everyone was armed it wouldn’t have happened. For a start, they didn’t know the guy was armed till he started shooting, so people still would have died. And how many people in that crowd, if they were all armed, would actually react in time, and have had sufficient training to take out the gunman (not to mention the moral effect of shooting someone)?. Surely revealing that you yourself were armed would make you a target?

  I understand that the security at the university should carry guns, provided they’re used appropriately, but having everyone carry guns could have just led to more deaths, possibly accidental by the other students.
  This has happened so many times now, its hard to believe that people still support the old system.

• the lord
  February 16th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

  wow thebes i agree with u it was sad what the media did to that brave women

• ted
  February 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

  Do you really think people who massacre do the math about the likelihood of their victims having guns? He stopped when he felt he’d taken enough lives, and then killed himself. Not one person in that room could have stopped him from killing those people in the time that it would take to react, get your own gun out, take aim, and fire. Oops, and fire, drat - winged him…

  Maybe we’d have a lot less accidents from drunk driving if everybody drove drunk, too.

• We are in some deep S#*^t
  February 16th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

  hey stupid person what do you think stopt him?
  thats right a gun + there are many types of criminals
  some might think 2 some may not

  but dont go comparing guns to drunk driving

• alice
  February 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am

  It’s true. If he was intent on killing people, he was in a particular state of mind which probably didn’t include thinking about the logistics of how many other people had guns, how long it would take for the police to get there etc.
  If everyone carried a gun, gun crime now would seem insignificantly low.
  If noone carried a gun, we don’t know how many people he would have killed.
  There are arguments on both sides, so lets not get into that one.
  But morally, is it right to shoot someone who’s shooting others? Does it not make you as bad/debased as the person doing the shooting to begin with?

  It’s all a question of angles…

• Luci
  February 17th, 2008 at 8:17 pm

  My husband earned his master’s degree at NIU. These shootings are starting to hit a little too close to home.

  And I agree, this isn’t “neat.” However, I did appreciate Alex’s empathy. Thank You.

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