Crazy things in the Taipei metro

[taiwanluthiers]

Seems like random crimes are coming to Taiwan too... someone thought he would do a columbine in Taipei metro (except with a knife)

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/21/world/asia/taiwan-train-stabbing/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

 

so far 4 dead, the guy will hopefully face execution...

Edited May 22, 2014 by taiwanluthiers

[boule]

Hey looks like gun control works against public violence....would never have happened if the guy hadn't had a gun. Oh wait, he used a knife. Let's ban those next!

[pyrokid]

Would the casualties not have been much greater had he used a firearm?

[taiwanluthiers]

don't know, but my guess is he just stabbed the people next to him, they really had no chance. Thing is, a knife is just as deadly as a firearm at close range, you really have to be at least 20 feet from the person to have any chance of reacting fast enough. Perhaps if he had a gun the death toll could have been higher if he knew how to use it.

[boule]

Would the casualties not have been much greater had he used a firearm?

 

Well, would the "casulties" have had a chance to defend themselves if they had been armed? Would he have picked a public place to go stabbing people in an armed society?

 

you really have to be at least 20 feet from the person to have any chance of reacting fast enough

True, there is no real safety anywhere but this is exactly the situation where you at least have a chance to fight back. Fortunately, the crazy stabber coming right at you is a rare occasion. If you carry some kind of armament with you (collapsible baton, irritant spray, firearm) and are forewarned by the commotion around you, you do have at least a better chance of fighting back than just shoving random objects and bystanders in the way of the assailant.

[MrB]

4 dead, 22 injured. Damn dude. You got close enough to stab 22 persons, but couldn't finish the job? Thank god you didn't have a gun, you'd shoot your foot off... Gun control might not be such a bad thing after all... No, wait. If he shot his own foot of, then he'd be done after that... Right. Now i don't know what leg to stand on.

Can i be for some gun control? That is... Nobody gets to have a bigger gun then me, and people better at using them then i am cant have any...

 

Honestly. This is of course a tragedy, like any school shooting. But it's a symptom of a systemic failure when someone can speak to classmates & friends about wanting to do something like this, for years, and when he finally goes "i'm going to do it" on FACEBOOK, the most public place in the world, nobody actually takes the "kid" to the side and asks... "Hey, whats going on in your life, can we help you with anything?" And no, i don't suggest they give him a gun at that point, but at least someone should have the sense to talk to him... Cant help feeling this is more about society letting him (and everyone else) down, then his actual crime...

I don't think "executing him" is the proper treatment. It's like that Norwegian dude that tried to blow up a bunch of politicians, and that only as a "diversion" so he could walk around killing kids in a camp... On a freaking island. These people aren't "healthy", they need help, regardless of if the Norwegian justice system deemed that guy healthy enough to get locked up for "life" rather then to get treatment.

 

Safety... Funny. Today it's all the rage to ask for safety from out goverment. Few remeber:

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

The quote shouldn't need the source, but sure.

I'm afraid the original documents aren't available online... Anyway, Ben had a way with words that still remains valid today.

B!

[taiwanluthiers]

Even if guns were legal in Taiwan carrying them on a subway is most likely going to be illegal anyways, as is any other weapons. Fact is very few crimes except for gang related crimes involve firearm and they are rare, because of that officers aren't prepared for that. Even if some people on the train were armed the casualty would be the same... the guy just stabbed the people closest to him and with a crowded train, it could take a while before everyone figured out who the bad guy is, and that gives him enough time to do a lot of damage.

[FlaMtnBkr]

I'm sure people have heard the term 'running amuck'. Look up the definition of "amok". Sounds exactly like what happened and used to be such a common occurrence that it wasn't major news. I'm surprised being on that side of the world you have never heard of that. Malaysia isn't that far from Taiwan.

[hindsight]

FlaMtnBkr, If running amok is a cultural phenomenon, perhaps taiwanluthiers could give us a better idea about the similarities between Indonesian and Taiwanese cultures, but they seem quite different to me. Eons ago, if I recall correctly, there was an ethnography I had read about some of the cultures in the islands east of Indonesia and I thought the anthropologist had described the disease as an infectious encephalopathy. But there are no locatable references on the internet saying that infection is the cause!? There is also the old idea that it was secondary to marijuana toxicity: http://books.google.de/books?id=4yaGePenGKgC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=running+amok+encephalopathy&source=bl&ots=vEGa8zyeCs&sig=ER6KIl6IrZS_WdZ7XCizv49R4hY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BKyAU43UCtKM7Abz94GYBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=running%20amok%20encephalopathy&f=false. In any event, you would agree that, in all cultures, erratic and destructive individuals arise who go on killing rampages and we are left to wonder why.

[FlaMtnBkr]

Yes, it is probably just coincidence. It sounded similar and I don't know if most people know where the phrase comes from. Thought it might be more common knowledge in that area of the world but I guess there are many cultures within that part of the world with so many island communities.

 

You are right that such actions are always a tragedy and leave most of us wondering what could cause a person to do such harm.