No respite for students and staff in US, another gunman threatens slaughter

The people of the United States, indeed entire world, haven’t yet come out of the shocking incident of the Virginia Tech University shootings, news of another gunman armed with an AK-47 assault rifle threatening to plan a mass killing even bigger than the Va massacre kept the most of the schools and universities in Yuba City and neighboring Marysville in Northern California deserted and decayed. Police is searching for Jeffery Thomas Carney, 28, who has earlier been arrested numerous occasions for domestic violence and taking stimulants like methamphetamine, as on Wednesday night he threatened to make the Virginia Tech school massacre ‘look mild’ in comparison. The threat by Carney, just three days after 23-year-old South Korean student Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University, provoked a week of lockdowns and evacuations at schools around the United States after the tragic incident of the Virginia Tech shootings. Sutter County Sheriff Jim Denney said, He had some sort of explosive device and he was going to make the incident at Virginia Tech look mild by comparison. Our main emphasis, and I can’t stress this enough, is to find this suspect. The Virginia Tech University shooting has stunned not only the student community but every person around the world, and sparked a heated debate about students turning killers of fellow students in American schools and colleges, and the related gun control laws of United States. The right to own a weapon is rooted in the American psyche, which miserably is affecting the youth, even the school and college, of the nation. More than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds in the United States every year and there are more guns in private hands than in any other country. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a strong ally of President Bush, on Tuesday held the America’s ‘gun culture’, which was a negative force in society, responsible for the Virginia Tech shootings. He told reporters, You can never guarantee these things won’t happen again in our country. We had a terrible incident at Port Arthur, but it is the case that 11 years ago we took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country. British Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, who obtained a masters degree in political science at Virginia Tech in 1982, asserted, I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun law in the states then some good may come from this woeful tragedy. The reactions, around the world, over gun law in the US are forceful, but I doubt that it will change the gun culture of a nation where the pro-gun lobby appears to be more stronger with the generous support of lawmakers and in a country where the national constitution gives the right to carry weapons.