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Not Particularly Helpful For The Subculture

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

20:52 / 14.09.06

When initial reports started rolling over the airwaves of a shooting in Dawson College yesterday, I was obviously upset -- it's horrible news. But hearing the shooter described as a "tall, Goth-looking man" caused some spontaneous eye-rolling and underbreath cursing of news media shorthand.

Today, though, the shooter is revealed as somebody who called himself the "Angel of Death" in his vampirefreaks.com profile.

I probably don't have to expound at length as to why this is bad news for a lot of people. I can only imagine the spiral of recriminatory knee-jerking trouble this is going to cause. They just had the Webmaster for vampirefreaks.com on the national news, stammering a sort of awkward defense about how people are going to blame "the culture."

And people are going to blame the culture.

The good news, though, is that the immediate focus in news coverage hasn't been anti-Goth, but rather pro-gun-registry. The dead woman's parents have come out strong in terms of "something positive" happening as a result of this, and the Premier and Public Security Minister have both jumped out swingin' for the gun registry, in the face of the Prime Minister, who was elected partially in Western Canada on the strength of his anti-registry position.

But I haven't had much opportunity to see the right-wing media's take on the shooting. I fully anticipate a backlash of "anti-freak" blather in the coming days, and this isn't going to make life any easier for people that choose to deviate from our picket-fence and mown-lawn standard.

There is much more to the shooter than vampirefreaks.com. Maybe he owned fish. Maybe he wore red shoes. Maybe he loved pancakes. But we're not about to be buried under an onslaught of fish-owners-are-crazy, red-shoes-are-mental, pancakes-make-you-kill news coverage.

Betcha money.

21:04 / 14.09.06

I am cringing in a corner, just waiting for the bomb to drop and people to start filing lawsuits against Tripp pants and Hot Topic stores. Of course, in most people's minds, Goth=Satanist, so I'm waiting for the church to get involved too. Before you know it, the news will be telling us that a combination of emo poetry, HALO, and spiked dog collars cause people to go on killing sprees.

21:07 / 14.09.06

I could very easily go on a killing spree because of emo poetry.

21:15 / 14.09.06

For those who care, there is a cached copy of his profile here.
Turn your sound off before you click that link, btw.

The thing I find worrying is that despite all his posturing, he doesn't seem that odd, perhaps a little too eager to show his misery credentials, and certainly not too far from a few of the people we've vetted recently. Apart from the guns, thing, natch.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:18 / 14.09.06

The odd thing is, in both this and the Columbine massacre, none of the people involved actually DID look particularly gothy.

It's all very sad, obviously, but...

...fuck it, everyone's going nuts, both behind the gun and behind the camera. And I really wish they weren't. For all our civilisation, the world really isn't a nice place at the moment. I wish all our children luck.

21:25 / 14.09.06

the ABC here is focusing mostly on his Mohawk, of all things.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:46 / 14.09.06

I remember the English couple who went to the States and got mixed up with various far-right groups before committing suicide- (Jamie Delano's Hell Eternal was based on that case, Comics forum people)- and Jim Goad's account of it in his book Shit Magnet (he was one of the last people they called, though they'd not met him. They were just big Answer Me! fans). They were Slimelight regulars- I think I may have been introduced to them by an ex (who also introduced me to Manuela Ruda. It all seems very close to home, or where "home" was for me a few years back). It saddens me that they went this way (I'm guessing the experience of this guy was probably fairly similar), and frightens me that an awful lot of people I know could have chosen that route- and grateful that they didn't.

It's all just horribly sad, really.

22:11 / 14.09.06

This reminds me of a time, a few years ago, down her ein Brazil, when a group of goth Vampyre RPG players muredered a young girl in their group as part of a "black magic" ritual (more of a Whitewolf books-inspired mockery of "black magick" ritual would be) and the Evangelic churches and right-wing newspeople went all gigly with theri attention-grabbing witch-hunt: "RPG is evil"; "Goth music is evil"; "Young people by themselves is evil". Theu focused more ont he RPG aspect, but it was a mess. And the RPG community down here went all "oh, we're such nice people", when, IMHO, they should go "oh, shut the fuck up, you bunch of prejudiced creeps". But that's just me

But, anyway, I don't know how the Press and the Church works in Canada, but I'd expect some "witch"-hunting to ensue...

22:47 / 14.09.06

There's a video game element to the shooting in Montreal as well. Apparently he was fond of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, a game intended to offer some perspective and interact with the events leading up to and during the incident. With a name like that though, how do you think the media would position things.

23:28 / 14.09.06

-threadrot-

The Beretta CX4 has been seen in recent media such as Battlestar Galactica (2003).
On Wednesday, September 13 2006, a gunman opened fire on students at Montreal's Dawson College with a CX4 Storm Semi-Automatic Carbine.
(from Wikipedia)

Not the type of weapon someone should be able to get legally. IMHO. But he did. Gun laws need to be changed.
-end threadrot (sorry, still a bit 'irked')

00:26 / 15.09.06

It seems like every day there's more and more violence in Canada. I'm beginning to worry that its culture of violence might seep into the U.S.

01:45 / 15.09.06

"It seems like every day there's more and more violence in Canada. I'm beginning to worry that its culture of violence might seep into the U.S."

I am so hoping that's a strange flavour of sarcasm.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

02:57 / 15.09.06

Not the type of weapon someone should be able to get legally.

Actually this gun fires 1 of 3 types of bullets depending on which version you own. It can fire 9mm, .40 and .45, the most common pistol bullets made. It is a semi automatic carbine. Semi auto means that you fire 1 bullet for every 1 trigger pull. Carbine just means it has a shorter barrel then a rifle but has a stock so is not a pistol.

Basically all this weapon is is a long barrel pistol that looks like a Lazer Tag gun. The versions seen on Battlestar Galactica are hollywoodized to be fully automatic bullet sprayers.

All Acting Regiment

07:26 / 15.09.06

At least people who dress in nice black dresses don't get falsely accused of gun crime as regularly as people, who, you know, are black...

13:49 / 15.09.06

I am so hoping that's a strange flavour of sarcasm.

Well, they DID burn down the White House once.

NEVER FORGET!

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:15 / 15.09.06

Don't you mean 'NEVAR 4GIT!!11!!!' Grant?

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

09:27 / 20.09.06

I thought that was the British anyway. That burnt down the Whitehouse, I'd always been rather proud of that.

10:39 / 20.09.06

This should be in the Armoury forum. I'll let a Mod know.