Don’t blame guns, blame the authories who allow crazies like this to walk the street and ignore their threats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Column: Montreal killer made intentions clear on his website
Date: Oct 4, 2006 9:43 AM
PUBLICATION: The Record (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo)
DATE: 2006.10.04
EDITION: Final
SECTION: INSIGHT
PAGE: A13
COLUMN: YOUTH COMMUNITY EDITORIAL BOARD
BYLINE: IULIANA RADULESCU
ILLUSTRATION: Photo: IULIANA RADULESCU
WORD COUNT: 565

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Montreal killer made intentions clear on his website

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Our newspapers have recently been inundated with details about the
Dawson College shooting in Montreal — the event that took us all by
shock on Sept. 13.

Many media explored related issues, along with the increasing concern of
college students everywhere.

But, said Humber College student Michael Vlasveld, “I don’t feel unsafe.
This isn’t something that happens all the time, I don’t know, I’m not
too worried.”

Several theories were raised, and when it was noticed that the killer
was not Caucasian, the inevitable question came up: “Is he a terrorist?”
This kind of stereotyping has reoccurred since the tragedy of 9/11.

He was going to do this regardless of his race. Police found evidence on
his website that he was planning on taking these actions. There were
many photos, including one where he was holding a rifle and pointing it
at the camera, with a caption, “Ready for Action.”

The media emphasized that the shooter played video games, in an attempt
to explain why this man would do such a horrific thing. The media was
trying to find something to blame these actions on, although one would
think that a 25- year-old man could differentiate between a video game
and real life.

Video games do not influence as much as the media likes to imply.
However, society does seem to associate these tragedies with a game
created after the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado on April
20, 1999. This demonstrates how very few people believe serious
tragedies such as this actually occur. The shootings were no game and
they shouldn’t have been turned into one. I hope the same doesn’t happen
with the Dawson College shooting.

Now, after all the controversy and pain caused by yet another school
shooting, is anyone planning on doing anything to prevent this from
happening again, or to make up for the pain caused?

Should students feel safe at their local schools?

“It does make me feel a little uneasy because although it seems like
something like that could never really happen, the truth is that it
can,” said Lauren Ringwald, a student at the University of Waterloo.

Troy Ethier a student at the University of Guelph feels differently
about the matter. “It’s a tragedy, but it doesn’t really scare me or
anything, and because you know things like that don’t happen often.”

One last view was given by Aaron Schwab, a student at Conestoga College.
“I don’t feel any more or any less safe at college after the shooting.
Everyone acts so surprised that it’s happened so close to home, but
realistically it can happen anywhere. And there was warning sign after
warning sign that this kid was going to act violently,” he said.

Parents need to pay more attention to children who are clearly
depressed. I think most events like this could be prevented if someone
would only listen.

Even though these students are fully aware of the incident, on the whole
they are not generally too worried about their safety. Personally, I
think it’s an intimidating concept, but overall I agree with the other
students. The chances of this happening are slim. I just hope it stays
that way.

I think the media need to stop trying to find things to blame the
problems of our society on, and face the fact that we don’t know what
the killer’s motives were. Only he knew.

We can’t blame it on his race, or that he was influenced by the video
games he played.

Maybe this tragedy could have been avoided if parents and friends had
taken time to notice the small details in this person’s life, such as
the website or the things they said.

Iuliana Radulescu of Kitchener is studying journalism at Humber College
in Toronto.