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North Illinois University, home to over 50,000 registered students, experienced a traumatic situation on February 14th. Located in DeKalb, Illinois, it was a generally suburb area. Twenty- seven year old, Steven Kazmierczak, whom graduated from campus nine months ago, entered the lecture hall at approximately 3:06 pm. He was dressed in all black, carrying a guitar case. If only they had knew that under his black attire were three guns, two 9 mm and another shotgun, and in his guitar case a Remington shotgun. He immediately drew out two guns and started fireing on panicked students trying to flee the chaotic scene. As a result, according to CNN, he fired more than fifty shots, shooting at 21 people, killing six, including his own.
Police chief Donald Grady said at a press conference Friday, the shooting began at 3:06 and thirty seconds later, two police officers were on the scence. Less than 90 seconds later, eight more police officers came to control the situation. Although, before the two police officers arrived, Kazmierczak had already done his shooting and killed himself. There are no motives as of why he shot the students, as he was, according to teachers and students surveyed at the university, said that he was a straight A students and very well-liked. Evidence suggests that Kazmierczak had just stopped taking undisclosed perscription drugs, but is not a factor in determining his motivation yet.
Almost a half of year after the Virginia Tech shooting, instances around college campuses have been occuring throughout the United States. Police and college security have become more aware and prepared, but even so, shootings can not be predicted. In this case, the police were there within thirty seconds and yet Steven Kazmierczak had already shot 21, killed 6, including himself. Even the most prepared, with the best technology and security can not fully protect it’s students. So what are campus’s planning on doing? This question has plagued schools for many years.
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What’s scary is that events like this seem to happen more often now. On college visits, tour guides have made a point of assuring everyone what the security system is like and that it’s good. I’m starting to feel afraid of going to college now because of all of these shooting incidents. As seen in the Illinois shooting, it doesn’t take much for some one to kill.
Comment byGreat choice, again. I’m intersted to know more about how you’re thinking as you head off to college. There are many angles you can discuss here from a personal level.
Comment byIts really hard to understand why, all of the sudden in the past twenty years, there have been more and more shooting rampages. If a college shooting becomes an annual occurance, then we must work on how to stop the problem causing this before it starts. It must have something to do with the culture we live in and not just the individual person, although that is a huge part of it. I’m not fearful of going to college, I think its ridiculous to fear going to college because of a few isolated incidents. But it is incredibly important that this country put some effort into stopping these shootings.
Comment byTory, this is a very well written article and is a good topic too. It keeps the reader entertained throughout the whole thing. This is very sad what happened. Even though security got to the scene right away, people still died. This is very scary and something should be done. However, you have a lot of good facts that are precise. Good job.
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Comment byTory,you did good job at select topic. Illinois shooting was issue recently and you wrote well about fact and connection with Virginia Tech shooting.It would be nice if you suggest some solutions to prevent school shootings.
Comment byIt is certainly sad that one of the big things colleges like to point out is their extensive security network. Unfortunately this is the world we live in and it is no longer as easy to know when someone will do something like this. Do you personally think that there is anything more that colleges can do to prevent this or are we just going to have to be more conscious of the people around us.
Comment byIt is horrible to hear about stories like this. It is scary to think what it would be like to be a student trying to flee that situation. Colleges have drastically increased their security by making students check everyone in and out and asking for identification as you enter every dorm and academic building. However, this cannot fully be stopped. When things like this happen we should also take into consideration that things of this sort happen on a daily bases in other countries, therefore we are pretty safe considering how dangerous the world has become.
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