Okay, I turned on the news about ten minutes ago and got on the internet to procrastinate studying for Criminal Law. This is what, in a matter of about four minutes, I see:
“This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services.”
This quote was taken from the MSNBC article about the Oikos University school shooting, copied below:
Report: Oikos University shootings suspect ‘can’t deal with women’
By msnbc.com staff and news servicesOne Goh, the former student accused of shooting dead seven people at a small Christian college in Oakland, Calif., was consumed by an inability to get along with women, according to a report.
The 43-year-old Korean-American, who had been expelled from Oikos University for “anger management” issues, had been cooperative since being taken into custody after Monday’s shootings but was “not particularly remorseful,” Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Tuesday.
He is expected to face charges from prosecutors Wednesday.
About 1,000 people, including relatives and friends of the victims, gathered for a memorial service on Tuesday evening at the Allen Temple Baptist Church, where the congregation consists mainly of African-American and Korean-American worshippers. The service was conducted in both English and Korean.
Many of the assembled wept quietly with hands clasped and heads bowed. Flowers were laid at the podium, where clergy from different faiths offered prayers. Some mourners swayed and waved their hands in the air and wiped tears from their eyes while hymns were sung.
One of the speakers, Mayor Jean Quan, said the gun violence that shook Oakland this week could occur anywhere in America.
“This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services,” she said.
PhotoBlog: Tears, prayers at memorial service for victims of shooting
Oikos, founded by a pastor from South Korea, serves about 100 students in a single building and has close links to the Korean-American Christian community.
Oikos University shooting school catered to Koreans
Goh’s former nursing instructor, Romie Delariman, was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle saying the student didn’t fit in at a college where women make up the majority of the nursing faculty and student body.
Behavioral problems
Delariman described Goh as a good and eager student, but added, “He just can’t deal with women. … I always advised him, ‘You go to school to learn, not to make friends.’”The teacher disputed accounts that Goh had been picked on due to his imperfect English, characterizing his problems as behavioral.
“He can’t get along with people,” Delariman was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “If you say, ‘How are you?’ he’ll say, ‘Why? Don’t I look OK? Did I do something to you?’ “
Oikos University shootings: Gunman targeted administrator
Police on Tuesday said Goh’s intended target – a female administrator – escaped the shooting spree and remains alive.
Three people wounded by Goh were released from an Oakland hospital by mid-morning on Tuesday.
Goh surrendered at a Safeway grocery store several miles away.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
This case in which a neighborhood watchman shot and killed an unarmed teenager is absolutely appalling. And the police inaction is almost as dispicable as the tragedy itself. I cannot even listen to the 911 tape without getting tears in my eyes.
Fortunately there have been positive developments in the case this morning:
Hopefully this thing starts moving along much quicker now that more attention has been focused on it… If you haven’t already, go to change.org to sign the petition supporting Trayvon!
So, so sad.
This MSNBC article is about the teacher/coach at Chardon High School who chased the shooter out of the building, risking his life to protect the entire student body. This teacher acted as a hero on Monday, during the shooting rampage, and is a great inspiration in every other part of his life as well, as this article explains…
This is absolutely tragic. 
Good Samaritan, shot by carjacker, dies in front of his 2 sons
By Rick Martin and Michael Martinez, CNN(CNN) — A 44-year-old New Orleans man died in front of his two sons Wednesday after he responded to a woman’s screams and was shot by an apparent carjacker, according to police and family members.
Harry “Mike” Ainsworth was with his two sons, ages 9 and 10, as the boys were waiting for a morning school bus, Ainsworth’s brother, Bill, told CNN affiliate WWL.
The two boys saw their father try to help the female motorist in the Algiers Point neighborhood and, after their father was shot, the boys ran to him and sat with him until emergency responders showed up, Bill Ainsworth said.
“They were there with him when he passed,” Ainsworth said. “It’s going to be hard on them.”
“Pray the cops find him before I do,” he said about the carjacker, in an interview with CNN affiliate WDSU.
The series of events began when a carjacker approached a woman motorist sitting in her vehicle, knocked on the window and asked for the time, New Orleans police said.
As the woman turned to check the time, the carjacker pulled out a handgun and told the woman to get out of the automobile, police said.
Ainsworth then jumped on the hood of the vehicle, and the carjacker shot him, left the car and ran, police said.
Police released a sketch of the suspect and were offering a $5,000 reward to anonymous tipsters who can help detectives find a black man, in his 20s, between 5-6 and 5-8 in height, and weighing 140 to 150 pounds, detectives said.
The woman was unharmed, New Orleans police spokesman Frank Robertson said.
“When you have someone trying to come to the aid of someone who is in need and — whenever something like this happens, it’s a real tragedy,” police Lt. Gary Marchese told WWL.
Skip Gallagher, president of the Algiers Point Neighborhood Association, told WDSU that good Samaritans aren’t unusual in the neighborhood.
“I think any other male that had heard that in the neighborhood would have done the same thing,” Gallagher said. “They heard some woman screaming, they would have come running. I would have, and every male in this neighborhood would have done the same thing, and we see what happens.
“I’m not sure it’s going to change my behavior.”
Feel compelled to help? I definitely do. These children will now be growing up without a father because he tried to help a woman in danger.
CNN has provided an address to which donations can be sent:
Ainsworth Family fund
Whitney Bank – Algiers Branch
501 Verret Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70114
So, so sad. What gets me about these kinds of stories is the fact that friends and family always describe the shooter as kind and gentile and nice and harmless… but then some warning signs come to light shortly thereafter. It seems like neighbors or coworkers always seem to come out after a tragedy like this and say, “Well, I always knew something was wrong with him…” or something similar to that. I’m interested to see if anything comes out during these next few days.
Also, I do not understand how a mentally unstable person has a gun. I don’t get it. It should not be easy for anyone in the US to obtain a deadly weapon, but it is. It doesn’t matter how many of these tragedies occur, our government does not do anything about the fact that guns are getting into the hands of the wrong people.
And for anyone that thinks that everyone should have the right to carry a weapon around: read the article. A nearby restaurant owner heard gunshots, grabbed his gun, ran outside, and saw the shooter about to enter the IHOP (where he would kill 4 people). But this gun-bearing citizen froze. He backed away. He got scared. He said, “I wish I had shot at him when he was going in the IHOP. But when he came at me, when somebody is pointing an automatic weapon at you — you can’t believe the firepower, the kind of rounds coming out of that weapon.”
I’m not saying anything negative about this man — I’m just trying to make a point. Those conservative crazies that think everyone should tote a gun around? Pay attention to this story. There was a bystander with a weapon who had the opportunity to take out this gunman, but he could not get himself to do it. Obviously putting guns in every citizen’s hands is not the answer.
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in this story, and I hope for the sake of the families that questions about the gunman are able to be answered quickly.
