Boston Explosion.

[Kotik]

Just saw that there was an explosion at the Boston marathon. Whatever individual came up with that idea - I hope they get him and kill him to death until he dies.

[Asso]

I too have seen. I do not know what to say.

[Weeble]

Senseless terrorism

[Alelou]

It's so sad. Plus for anyone who remembers 9/11 it brings back a lot of terrible memories.

I'm forcing myself to leave behind the endless coverage. After awhile I find I'm mostly just comparing newscasts. Oh look, CBS has a lot more actual information (as usual). Oh look, Brian Williams is sounding tough and sardonic. Oh look, CNN is clearly digging in to talk about nothing else for the next two weeks.

[putaro]

Just more crazy.

[Kotik]

I'm forcing myself to leave behind the endless coverage. After awhile I find I'm mostly just comparing newscasts. Oh look, CBS has a lot more actual information (as usual). Oh look, Brian Williams is sounding tough and sardonic. Oh look, CNN is clearly digging in to talk about nothing else for the next two weeks.

It should be talked about though - This was a deliberate act, trying to maim and kill as much people as possible. The bombs exploded 4hours after the start. That's when all the high profile runners are long gone, but at 4h hundreds of amateurs start pouring in with their families on the sidelines cheering them on. This was done by some inthinkably sick person, who's goal it was to injure as much people as possible. I'm not a friend of american gun craziness, not by a long shot, But if the american people find out, who it was and deal him a slow, inhumane, torturous death, I'll be on the sidelines cheering.

[Alelou]

Oh, it's news all right, and it has to be covered. It's unfortunate that the endless coverage is probably exactly what whoever this was wants, though.

I don't think it's healthy to just watch this stuff loop endlessly, though.

I'm so glad that old guy I must have watched crumple to the ground at least 25 times the first day was just fine. The follow-up stories were sometimes a great relief in that regard. (In other regards, just more horrifying.)

[Kotik]

So looks like the two scumbags were muslim Chechen bombers. Born in Kazakhstan, grown up in Daghestan - called 'bombers valley' in Russia and then radicalized in Chechnia. Maybe we shouldn't have objected when Putin tried to exterminate the whole lot a few years ago.
What I don't get is, the two lowlives managed to thrash a 7-11, kidnap a car and kill a cop. How come the good guys always leave their legal assualt rifles at home? Could it be that your glorious gun laws achieve nothing but making sure that the nutjobs have lethal weapons?

[Distracted]

Owning a semi-automatic "assault rifle" - basically just a dressed up hunting rifle in most cases - is legal in the US, but carrying it on your person on a city street is not. Handguns are legal to carry if you have a license to do so, but only in certain states and in certain places. If I'm not mistaken, the area where the accused bombers killed an officer and hijacked a Mercedes was on or very near a college campus, since the police officer they killed was a campus police officer. College campuses in the US are "gun free zones" even in states where carrying a hand gun on one's person is permitted. That's why there are so many shootings on college campuses. The gunmen know that no one but a police officer can offer armed resistance. Yet the law was supposedly passed to ensure the safety of our students. Go figure.

[Cogito]

That's why there are so many shootings on college campuses.

I never realized that. But it reminds me of that story about a report (was it in the USA?) a few years ago that leaked the locations of people with firearms permits. If I remember right, it was done deliberately in the hope of embarrassing the gun keepers. Criminals were very interested in that, because it told them which houses not to burgle.

[Weeble]

Good News, appears they have the mutt trapped. I hope they follow Kotik's original advice and save the expense of a trial. This piece of Sh*& is just garbage. If he is tried and sent to prison I give him less than 6 months before he is expired.

[Distracted]

Far be it from me to suggest that the Boston bombing was anything less than horrendous, but I'd also like to point out that we're dealing with a suspect who is only 19 years old. This boy is someone's possibly mentally disturbed (certainly culturally brainwashed) beloved child. Not to mention the fact that he hasn't yet been convicted of anything. None of which excuses his behavior if he's actually guilty, of course. For those who ask "Why would he run if he didn't plant the bomb?", my answer would be "That's an excellent question. Let's take him to trial and find out."

[Alelou]

He sounds pretty normal, at least compared to his brother who sounds more like the classic antisocial personality. How sad if he got sucked into this horror by the older guy. I'm relieved they got him alive and hopeful that we will mean we get the answers we want.

Having lived as a Resident Assistant in the graduate dorm at UNH, I can say that I am very, very, very glad guns were not allowed on campus. Things could get plenty weird enough without adding easy deadly force to the mix. And in my undergraduate years? Hell, the Red Sox/Yankee games aired at UMass might have elicited a rain of gunfire, instead of just the usual storm of toilet paper and pumpkins.

On both campuses, I would have expected the suicide rate to rise, and the number of murdered significant others, too. Most gun violence deaths in this country are not caused by homicidal maniacs or robbers, but by suicide and domestic violence.

[putaro]

Well, I'm glad they've caught/killed what appears to be the prime perpetrators but there may be others involved still.

As far as guns on campus go, when I was a college student we challenged or broke loads of rules. If having guns on campus had been important to us, I'm sure we would have broken that rule as well. It may even have been OK (or at least not prohibited) to have guns on campus back then but the subject never came up.

[Alelou]

I'm not sure it ever got mentioned, actually. I know the no knives on campus thing gets pretty annoying these days and most of us ignore it if we want to be able to slice our apples or whatever. (And we have had a couple of stabbings anyway.)