Virginia Tech shootout- over 20 dead reported

[johnny]

Originally posted by VulcanRider: quote: Originally posted by ladyzekke: I agree with Jorath. Splashing this guy's pictures all over the news and Internet is only kind of glorifying him, giving him the outlet he wanted when he made those videos and pictures.

Worse than just glorifying him, I worry that it'll encourage copycats looking for attention. [/QUOTE]Seeing as there appear to have been lockdowns all over the US, but mostly in California today, i'd say the copycats have already started, or at least the copycat wannabees.

[Aragorn1]

What exactly is a 'lockdown'? I'm at uni at the UK, and the whole idea is fogeign to me. Does it involve locking all the students in their halls of residence? (I making the assumption that the majority of undergrads live in such things).

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Jorath Calar: I can't believe they acctually published these photos and the video, if there was any sense in the US media this should have been given to the police and never seen by the public, this guy does not deserve his "point" being heard by anyone ever... But of course he is made into some sort of a Anti hero for profit of the media... Sick twisted world we live in...

They were given to the police as soon as they were received. It was only the other day that they were actually published. There's now criticism of NBC for airing them so soon after the event.

[Memnoch]

Apparently this guy fits the profile of a "textbook shooter" - friendless, bullied in school, mental problems, thought the world was against him, and decided to go out in a blaze of glory against "them" (whoever he felt had given him grief in his paranoid mind).

Va. Tech shooter a 'textbook killer' . By Matt Apuzzo and Sharon Cohen, Associated Press Writers | April 19, 2007 . BLACKSBURG, Va. --In high school, Cho Seung-Hui almost never opened his mouth. When he finally did, his classmates laughed, pointed at him and said: "Go back to China." . As such details of the Virginia Tech shooter's life come out, and experts pore over his sick and twisted writings and his videotaped rant, it is becoming increasingly clear that Cho was almost a textbook case of a school shooter: a painfully awkward, picked-on young man who lashed out with methodical fury at a world he believed was out to get him. . "In virtually every regard, Cho is prototypical of mass killers that I've studied in the past 25 years," said Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox, co-author of 16 books on crime. "That doesn't mean, however, that one could have predicted his rampage." . When criminologists and psychologists look at mass murders, Cho fits the themes they see repeatedly: a friendless figure, someone who has been bullied, someone who blames others and is bent on revenge, a careful planner, a male. And someone who sent up warning signs with his strange behavior long in advance. . Among other things, the 23-year-old South Korean immigrant was sent to a psychiatric hospital and pronounced an imminent danger to himself. He was accused of stalking two women and photographing female students in class with his cell phone. And his violence-filled writings were so disturbing he was removed from one class, and professors begged him to get counseling. He rarely looked anyone in the eye and did not even talk to his own roommates. . Cho, who killed 32 people and committed suicide at the Blacksburg campus Monday, cast himself in his video diatribe as a persecuted figure like Jesus Christ. Cho, who came to the U.S. at about age 8 in 1992 and whose parents worked at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington, also ranted against rich "brats" with Mercedes, gold necklaces, cognac and trust funds. . Classmates in Virginia, where Cho grew up, said he was teased and picked on, apparently because of shyness and his strange, mumbly way of speaking. . Once, in English class at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., when the teacher had the students read aloud, Cho looked down when it was his turn, said Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior and high school classmate. After the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said. . "The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,'" Davids said. . Stephanie Roberts, 22, a classmate of Cho's at Westfield High, said she never witnessed anyone picking on Cho in high school. But she said friends of hers who went to middle school with him told her they recalled him getting bullied there. . "There were just some people who were really mean to him and they would push him down and laugh at him," Roberts said. "He didn't speak English really well and they would really make fun of him." . Cho's great aunt, who lives in South Korea, said Thursday that because he did not speak much as a child and after the family emigrated to the United States, doctors thought he may be autistic. . "Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold," Kim Yang-soon said in an interview with AP Television News. "When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism." . Neither school officials, who have his educational records, nor police who have his medical records, have mentioned such a diagnosis this week. Autistic individuals often have difficulty communicating, but such a diagnosis would not necessarily explain his violence. . Regan Wilder, 21, who attended Virginia Tech, high school and middle school with Cho, said she was sure Cho probably was picked on in middle school, but so was everyone else. And it didn't seem as if English was the problem for him, she said. If he didn't speak English well, there were several other Korean students he could have reached out to for friendship, but he didn't. . http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...ges_of_gunman/

[johnny]

Originally posted by Aragorn1: What exactly is a 'lockdown'? I'm at uni at the UK, and the whole idea is fogeign to me. Does it involve locking all the students in their halls of residence? (I making the assumption that the majority of undergrads live in such things).

No, they simply closed down schools, informed the students to stay home after getting reports of possible threats. Most of it is false alarm, but right now nobody wants to take any chances i guess.

[Ladyzekke]

They've already arrested some guy who made some copycat threats, sigh.

They just held a moment of silence for those students that were killed. Everyone's wearing maroon and orange as well today (VA Tech's colors).

Really wish Memnoch would take those pics down in this thread....

[Thoran]

These sorts of tragedies always make me think about gun control. I'm from a pretty hardcore anti-gun control family, and I agree with much of their reasoning... but at the same time I can't help but think there's a better "middle ground" out there when it comes to firearms.

I personally have no problem with the "Pistol Permit" licensing here in NY. In order to purchase a handgun you need to have a license, and to get that license you have to have a background check done and jump through some hoops. No felons, no mentally ill patients, and nobody doing it on a 'whim'. That kid would not have had any luck buying two handguns if he lived in NY.

On the other hand, if a person HAS the license and has gone through training and background checks to get a handgun... I think they should be allowed to carry it. In a collegate situation that would most likely be the teachers, since you can't even apply for a pistol permit in NY until you're 21.

A single licensed responsible gun owner could have ended that rampage LONG before 30 people were killed. That kid was able to languidly wander around the engineering building shooting victims 3 or more times EACH because he KNEW the only problems he'd have would be from the cops... and they'd take a fair amount of time to get on the scene.

It wasn't that long ago that a similar situation at a different school (Appalachian School of Law) was averted because two students were able to quickly run to their cars and get their guns.

I don't have much use for handguns myself, and I don't think they should be easy to acquire... but if someone is trained and legally checked out to responsibly own one, they can make a big difference in these sorts of situations.