Virginia Tech Massacre, Part 2

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The coverage of this has been too overwhelming to follow in minute detail, so I'll ask here the one question I haven't seen answered elsewhere:

Is there an explanation for why he chose the particular classes/classrooms that he did?

[Cyclotron]

I keep thinking about that Romanian-born professor, who was a holocaust survivor.

He endured during a time when some human beings thought he, and all people like him, were vile and unworthy of life. He experienced the very worst that people do to their fellow people.

I don't think anything could shake my faith in humanity more than being subjected to what victims of the Holocaust were. Yet somehow, Librescu still managed to sacrifice his own life to let others survive. He saw what terrible things humanity was capable of and gave his life for his fellow humans anyway.

This is the kind of person we need to remember in the face of senseless murder and cruelty.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by joncha
9/11 changed everything.

I don't think that 9/11 and a traffic accident are very comparable.

[-Jrabbit]

Just got back from some business travel and went through both threads. Whew.

My condolences to the VaTech community, especially the victims, their classmates and friends.

Threads like this can be be revelatory. I've been forced to reassess my overly generous assessment of the intelligence and maturity of several Poly posters.

[joncha]

Originally posted by Bosh

I don't think that 9/11 and a traffic accident are very comparable.

That is not what is being compared, my disingenuous friend.

In case your memory needs refreshing:

Originally posted by Bosh

And if that's the accepted way to treat foreigners as a group when one of them does something, well...

[Meticulous Man]

I just think that it's incredible that the guy was known to have psychiatric symptoms to the degree that he had been hospitalized for this reason a couple of years ago and he still easily got hold of two firearms... Though I must add that here in Finland a similar pissed-off loner blew himself and six other people up with a home-made fertilizer bomb at a shopping mall in 2002 so guns are not always necessary for this kind of massacres.

A friend of mine remarked on IRC about Cho's final statements that maybe Cho had some kind of a point when he said that it was "the others" that brought this upon him as he really seems to have done the best he could to appear disturbed and still nobody seems to have reacted in an adequate manner.

[Arrian]

I just think that it's incredible that the guy was known to have psychiatric symptoms to the degree that he had been hospitalized for this reason a couple of years ago, and he still easily got hold of two firearms...

The "background check" (if it was actually done) was obviously pathetic.

-Arrian

[MichaeltheGreat]

The background check queries a federal database. Somewhere between the Feds' criteria for what is reportable, and Virginia's definitions of reportable events, his psych orders were not disqualifying.

On the opposite side of the coin, an active domestic violence restraining order is disqualifying by statute*, even though such orders are routinely granted on the spot in a hearing with minimal to no evidence needed. There's no perceived due process issue, since the DVRO merely enjoins future conduct and does not charge the respondent with any offense.

If that's an acceptable basis for disqualifying firearms purchase, then the standards for when and what psych evaluation orders are disqualifying should be made consistent.

* Except in the jurisdiction of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, due to Emerson v. United States. In the 5th Circuit's jurisdiction, existence of a DVRO in and of itself, with no probation, arrest, or pending charges, is not disqualifying for firearms transfer.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Geronimo


I can think of two possible backlashes by Americans he might have in mind.

The backlash against muslims following the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks.

I'm not sure how either of those reactions compared to the korean reaction to the death of the two girls.

Your not serious are you? Reaction to people of Islamic faith was and is surprisingly muted. Actually a credit to the sensibility of Americans and truth be told one of the few things Bush did right by urging restraint. The fact that a few (emphasis few) bigots are around is not the same as a governmental response.

A more appropriate response would be Japanese-American internment circa WW2.

[Arrian]

Seriously, there was almost no backlash to speak of... I honestly expected worse and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

-Arrian

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Ditto. One of the few things that make me hopeful that bigotry is on the wane (despite best attempts to sensationalize it whenever possible).

[Arrian]

Yes, and one of the few things I thought Bush did right: he went out of his way to say over and over and over that Americans should not take part in such a backlash.

Not that he alone could've stopped a backlash had the general population been inclined to go that way, but I think it was helpful.

-Arrian

[Straybow]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Just got back from some business travel and went through both threads. Whew.

My condolences to the VaTech community, especially the victims, their classmates and friends.

Thanks. I almost wish I'd taken the time to go to my 20th class reunion last fall. After an incident like this the nostalgia gets a little tarnished.

Threads like this can be be revelatory. I've been forced to reassess my overly generous assessment of the intelligence and maturity of several Poly posters.

You don't come to OT very often, do you?

[SlowwHand]

If this guy was "picked on" in school, why didn't he go find them and kill them?
The human mind. Shrinks have their work cut out for them.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Arrian
Seriously, there was almost no backlash to speak of... I honestly expected worse and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

-Arrian

Likewise, there wasn't a backlash on a society-wide level to Korean immigrants in the wake of the LA riots. I'm guessing that most people understood them defending their stores against the rioters and were sympathetic that they were bearing the brunt of anger and opportunistic mayhem against society/whitey, f.e.

That said, I do not live in those neighborhoods, so I don't know what the situation was like there. Were the rioters holding it against all Korean immigrants that one too many hoodlum had been run off from the local corner grocery? That the corner grocery was charging too high of prices? The analogy seems a little strained, IMO.