I think SO has made the staff position on this clear, but on a personal note, I'd like to extend my thoughts and sympathy to the victims and their families. Having lost ones close to me myself, and at a young age, I know too well what lies ahead for them as they grieve.

This is a sad and tragic event to be sure.

A very sad event indeed, and i wish to also extend my prayers and thoughts to the family at this time,

Wow, I rember reading Weise's School Scare post when I first joined ATS.
The post sounded like he was being treated unfairly based on how he looks and his company.
I would of never thought that this was going to happen. I guess sometimes you never know .

From recent chat conversations I know that there are members who are wondering right now if there was anything they could have done to help Weise given the nature of his posts.

Back in the 90's I was a Samaritan volunteer in the UK. This is an organisation set up to help those in despair and suicidal. When I was a volunteer, contact was made to us via telephone or personal visit to the offices. I spoke to many people in the few years I was there, some more than once but no matter how long I had to talk with them, I never truly knew them. And that was via telephone or face-to-face. The 'job' would have been seriously difficult if those forms of communication were removed and replaced only with IM.

Discussion via the internet, whether within forums, IM, chat or U2U is very different to those performed by telephone or face to face. The latter is preferred since body language is an important way of understanding a persons 'inner mind'. Telephone is a close second but 'screen based' conversations are seriously lacking since neither body language nor tone of voice can be transmitted in that way.

I spent two years using IM as my primary way of contact when KayEm and myself were apart and even we (who knew each other better than we knew anyone else) still had the occasional misunderstanding due to the limits of screen-based media.

What I am saying is that it was impossible for any of us to have truly understood what Weise was feeling, neither could we have really helped him other than maybe guiding him to seek further professional help. Maybe face-to-face conversations would have helped if there had been such an organisation as the 'Samaritans' in Minn, but I really don't know.

All we can do is feel for the families of the victims and the grief they are enduring, extending our thoughts to them in this time of pain. But neither should we forget the torment Weise must have been going through to drive him to perform this atrocity. And it goes without saying that we certainly should never ever forget or allow ourselves to become inured to such tragedies.

Edit due to grammatical error.


[edit on 22-3-2005 by Pisky]

For the sake of ATS I hope that something like this will never happen to a member again.

[edit on 22-3-2005 by invader_chris]

Crap you know what this means. The feds will more likley keep an eye on this site and probably label it as a terrorist breeding ground. I myself am sort of a noob and I clearly remember his bigfoot post!

Originally posted by invader_chris
For the sake of ATS I hope that something like this will never happen to a member again.

For the sake of humanity I hope something like this will never happen again anywhere - but with all the drugs the so-called professionals are pumping into kids these days, I doubt my hope will come true.

The school shooting is tragic. My heart goes out to the families of the victims. It's disturbing and creepy that an ATS member did something so hidious.

Does anyone else see the irony of ATS members calling for a 'cover-up' with this guys posts and involvement at ATS? I can't help but laugh at the hypocrisy ... thread after thread screaming about Governmental cover ups and conspiracies and then when something hits close to home how do some members react? Hide it, quick! Cover it up! Don't let this be known!

Deny Ignorance?

Jemison

Based on his post it seems that he was intelligent and well-spoken. What a shame that he had to go out like this. It's chilling reading that post, but at the same time heartbreaking.

Rest In Peace Weise

Originally posted by Jemison
I can't help but laugh at the hypocrisy ... thread after thread screaming about Governmental cover ups and conspiracies and then when something hits close to home how do some members react? Hide it, quick! Cover it up! Don't let this be known!

Deny Ignorance?

Jemison

ROFL Totally agree. I say keep it where it can be seen. The mods and all look much better making it clear whats happend and it raises awareness. On the other hand were all labelled as problem people now. Just look for example.... After Columbine all the people I knew that listend to Marilyn Manson were labelled as threats in my school. Im pretty sure if this hits the media we will all be labelled badly.. I cant hurt a fly.

One can only wonder if there is anyone else among us who may be in a similar frame of mind or situation. Wouldn't it be nice if we could somehow reach out to that person and help them. I would like to encourage anyone else feeling like Weiss did to seek help and know that there's a huge community here who wishes you well.

Does anyone else see the irony of ATS members calling for a 'cover-up' with this guys posts and involvement at ATS? I can't help but laugh at the hypocrisy ... thread after thread screaming about Governmental cover ups and conspiracies and then when something hits close to home how do some members react? Hide it, quick! Cover it up! Don't let this be known!

Yes, very astute, and ironic. However, the staff members on at the time (myself included), didn't want to overstep our bounds and were waiting for the official position from those who own and administer the site. Until hearing from them, it wasn't prudent to have the board go crazy with this.

Once such word was received, postings were restored asap as you may have noticed. As mods, we are merely caretakers of the site to assist the owner and admins. We did what we thought was best for the site until hearing from them. Was it a good idea, bad idea? Well, that's for all to decide I suppose, but never doubt that we had ATS' best interests at heart...

It's easy to get caught up in the "conspiracy" of this or that, but let's not forget that people died in this event, shall we. Our thoughts are with them....

I also agree this needs to remain out in Public View.

This is news. This is reality. Will it reflect badly on ATS? Honestly who cares if it does...such is life. Is it surprising? Not at all...the very essence of any website based on discussing 'alternative' subjects is that they will and do attract elements of society who perhaps are unstable.

Condolences to the victims. This fool should have just stuck his gun in his own mouth before turning it on innocents...

I havent had a chance to read thru all of this thread but the fact that the news is reporting he belonged to a "Nazi" website...Do they mean us?
A Nazi website....

this is horrible!?!?!?!?

a shooter on ATS???

damn...

I hope all will go well in the future for the families of the victims. And I'm sorry we couldn't help Weis. Personally I've never seen his member name until today. The forum is so huge, you don't see them all. But Pisky explained it best above.

Anyway... Rest in Peace all the victims and Weis.

Bandit

this is very sad ... you never know who is gonna crack next....repressed anger will com out sooner or later.

D for Depression + anger = Danger

It's natural for thinking and caring people to witness an event such as this, especially since he spent time with us, and wonder at the old question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

If anything, we may have now seen how a culture of hate-mongering can have a terrible and lasting effect on a person... to the point where the possibility of tragedy exists.

Certainly in this environment, "cyber space", interpersonal communication and expression of emotion are difficult if not impossible. However, this is very much the environment in which our member thrived, and in which millions of others find daily distraction. We shouldn't ignore this.

In this environment being our "brother's keeper" may be very difficult, but perhaps we can learn how to at least be a helpful friend for those who need it.

Originally posted by dgtempe
I havent had a chance to read thru all of this thread but the fact that the news is reporting he belonged to a "Nazi" website...Do they mean us?
A Nazi website....

No its not ATS. Like many of us, he may have frequented many spots on the Internet.

My condolances go out to the families of the victems of this tragic event

The emphasis should be on the families of the murdered. These are the real victims of senseless acts of violence such as this one.

I agree Pisky summed this up perfectly.

A sad day for HUMANITY indeed...

m...