Sometimes words fail me.

[fickle]

Careful what you say...

If you want a quick run-down, William Freund posted on the Something Awful forum talking about birdshot vs buckshot, killing people and suicide. Some people encouraged him, other people told him to get out of the forums.

Last Saturday morning, what happened? He dressed up in a cape, went out and shot two neighbours, then killed himself.

Please, please be careful when talking to strangers. Situations like these, where online help isn't enough to stop offline violence, are hard to keep in mind, but thanks to the anonymity of the Net, it's hard to tell exactly what consequences your words might have. People might not have even realized what happened if the guy hadn't posted his real name.

*hugs you all and leaves for her Take Back the Night rally*

Comments

[xinda.livejournal.com]

All I can manage to say, right now, is thank you for sharing this.

[sorshawolf.livejournal.com]

...

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This is why I think we should take a stance like Canada does on fire arms.

Gun collectors be damned.

[ager-sanguinis.livejournal.com]

What ze fuck.

[alexshido.livejournal.com]

Well, that's going to put a dim view on cloaks for a long time again. Darn. People were just getting used to mine.

... On the other end, you don't think he was going to do this anyway? I mean, he went to the forum asking where to obtain buckshot. He didn't really even ask if it was more lethal. People affirmed that, but he probably knew it anyway.

I'm not saying the people should disregard what they say because it's on the internet, but this is a bad example. The forum members actually told him that it was a bad idea to defend his pumpkin with a shotgun (and that he was going to points out that he had problems anyway...).

I also seem to compulsively play the Devil's advocate. >.>

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

XD. Nothing wrong with Devil's advocate.

To your main point as to whether he would have done it or not, I agree that chances are he would have gone through with it anyway. Problem is, now there are people out there feeling guilty because they were part of it. Which is completely understandable since personally, if I'd helped someone decide between different kinds of shot and later found out they killed people, I'd end up sick with guilt.

And on a slightly different note, I was also thinking of Gaia, a popular - though noob-plagued - RP site that also has lots of OOC areas. They actually had to make a rule threatening to ban people that encouraged suicide because anytime that someone posted a thread saying they felt suicidal/alienated/lost, someone would pop up and link them to ways to kill themselves. ~_~ Seeing as a lot of suicidal people do reach out for help, I really don't think that kind of attitude is helpful. Yeah, some of them are probably just attention-whores, but on the whole, I don't think it's worth the risk of having culpability in someone's death.

[alexshido.livejournal.com]

Actually, a short Google search will send would-be suicidals whatever information they desire. Currently, decapitation by train and cyanide gas seem the most pleasant ways of self-inflicted death, as far as I have read. =P

Um... ... off topic, but may I contact you on AIM? My SN is LTaylor112524.

[fickle-goddess.livejournal.com]

...Oh, ew. Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch! *wincing slightly* But yeah, there are probably plenty of ways that people could figure out how to kill themselves without advice, point being that if someone is thinking of killing themselves and asking for help doing it, I'd consider it more as a cry for help in the "don't let me go through with it" variety than actual "hold my hand while I do it". If that makes any sense, that is. XD

Oh, sorry, I don't really use AIM much since I don't have it on my laptop. If you want to contact me on MSN though, it's ficklegoddess@yahoo.com *currently online and RPing*