The world's reaction

So, here I am bored at work (imagine that). The BBC News online page has this section called "Have Your Say," where readers can leave comments. I'm not giong to say anything about any of them, just have them here to ponder, and continue to pray for the victims and their families. Some of the comments left about the tragedy at Virginia Tech this week:

Unfortunately there are some deranged people in the world, just as there are harmful viruses, violent lightning strikes, random earthquakes, motor accidents, viscous dogs the list of possible things to go wrong in our world is endless. Fortunately most deranged people are harmless but occasionally one will commit an outrageous crime. Yes the availability of guns will make it more likely a deranged individual will use one, but even in our non-gun culture we have had Hungerford and Dunblane.

Arnold, Blackburn

The 1st (church-state separation) & 2nd amendment both have ambiguity (semantics & interpretation). Its interesting to observe as a ‘foreigner’ that exploitation of this ambiguity in the case of latter is seen as unpatriotic & used to defend its maintenance in modern society, while with the former, its seen as moral pursuit in achieving the addition of theology onto school curriculum. Criticism of the constitution is seen as both a moral imperative & morally moribund depending on circumstances

Cut Chemist, United Kingdom

My heart goes out to the lives destroyed by this tragdy. God only knows why these things happen. I feel saddened by such a blamful response from fellow UK residents. America is such a large place and there are so many different indivuals even if guns were not legal this would of still happened (not that I agree with them being legal) Even if illegal this would of still happened please remember guns are harld available legal in this country yet still teenagers are walking around with them.

Alicia, cheshire

"Only people completely devoid of intelligence would put AK7s and Uzi machine pistols into the hands of homicidal maniacs yet Americans think its okay to do just that."

John McLaughlan, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Sorry, John, US citizens may not own automatic weapons in the United States without very extensive and expensive permits and background investigation by the FBI.

Both pistols were European. The nutcase was Korean.

robert, Wadsworth, Ohio

Amazing, with over 1700 comments published it seems the tragety in Virginia is being used more as a forum for taking shots at the US constitution than anything else. I have to wonder if a similar tragedy occured in the UK, Would Americans use the tragedy to to belittle and denigrate?? Somehow I don't think so. My sincere condolences to the families of the victims.

Alan Holmes, Las Vegas, United States

I wish we could muster the same compassion, that we all feel, for these helpless college students, for the hundreds of thousands that we (the US) have killed in Iraq for no good reason. Let's stop all killing today.

phil greene, houston, United States

The hatred and rancor expressed in many postings on this site are like more bullets being let loose, regardless of geography.

Samantha, Northern Virginia