Cho Seung-Hui, the killer, was the killer, of that, there is no doubt. Who knows what causes a mentally deranged person to snap and slaughter dozens of people, most of whom he didn’t even know. However, we do know that this barbarity didn’t need to take place.
Some facts regarding the case are beyond dispute. We know that Seung was the author of numerous fictional pieces that alarmed his professors with the amount of hatred and violence he inserted into the stories. The English major was so well known in at least one class that the majority of his classmates were afraid to attend lectures with him. Additionally, the instructor in that class, a beloved professor, threatened to resign from Virginia Tech if Seung wasn’t immediately removed from the course.
Sueng was known to the Virginia Tech Police Department at least two years ago. At least two college coeds there filed complaints against him as a stalker. He was also involuntarily committed to a mental hospital last year and declared mentally ill and a threat to others by a psychiatrist.
In an interview with CNN earlier this week, his two roommates said he railed on for hours about the supposed sins of female classmates and the fact that many other students had more money than he did. He also demanded that his roommates no longer refer to him as Seung, rather, he wished to be called Question Mark. What kind of sane person wants to be referred to as Question Mark?
The question I have after considering all these facts is, what exactly does one have to do in order to be expelled from Virginia Tech? It seems obvious that this man was known to be dangerous at least a year before his rampage, and nothing was done to protect his classmates and teachers.
Why was that? Was the college in more fear of a discrimination lawsuit than they were from a young man known to be violent and with a long-standing grudge against just about everyone he knew.
Were they more concerned about hurting feelings and being politically correct than the protection of teachers and students? This is a question that will be difficult for administrators to face, but they must come to grips with ways to deal with this dilemma.
I wonder if CVN readers were aware of what happened in the Virginia Legislature days before the shootings? While the state has shall issue concealed carry laws, which allow law abiding citizens to carry a concealed handgun with a permit, the laws do not apply to state colleges and universities.
A group of Second Amendment activists had attempted to pass a law allowing licensed gun carriers to take their guns onto college campuses, but the bill died in committee. The college president applauded the committee by saying he knew that parents and students would feel safer knowing no one in school was carrying a gun.
Think about that statement for a moment. This man believed it was safer for all students to be unarmed, than to have a few, law abiding citizens carrying arms that could, conceivably at least, taken action against the lunatic who observed no laws at all.
Imagine, for a moment, if you will, this scenario. Seung enters the halls of the university, and begins to kill indiscriminately. A student, seeing the crimes taking place, takes cover and draws his 45 caliber Colt Commander pistol. He screams at the shooter to drop his gun. When the shooter faces the student with his gun, the student fires one shot, striking the lunatic in his chest. Cho Seung-Hui falls to the ground, dead.
Some might consider this scenario a National Rifle Association fantasy, but in fact, similar incidents have taken place. A shooter entered a high school in Pearl, Mississippi, and began shooting. When the shooter left the school, heading in the direction of a nearby middle school, a vice-principal went to his car and retrieved his licensed handgun, and captured the teenage shooter.
Earlier this year, a shooter entered a shopping mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. The troubled man began to fire at shoppers, and was engaged by an off duty police officer, who drew his gun and killed the perpetrator, saving hundreds of lives.
Guns save many more lives than are taken by them. It is a documented fact.
Consider what happened at a rural Virginia law school just over four years ago, according to an entry at www.wikipedia.org.
On January 16, 2002, 43-year-old Peter Odighizuwa, a Nigerian student at the Appalachian School of Law, arrived on the campus. While numerous reports stated that Odighizuwa had flunked out of school or had been suspended, Jeremy Davis, former dean and professor of law at the school, later said that Odighizuwa had withdrawn voluntarily due to poor academic performance.
Odighizuwa first discussed his academic problems with professor Dale Rubin, where he reportedly told Rubin to pray for him. Odighizuwa then walked to the offices of Dean Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell, where he opened fire on them with a 380 auto pistol. According to a county coroner, powder burns indicated that both victims were shot at point blank range. Also killed along with the two faculty members was a student, Angela Denise Dales, age 33. Three other people were wounded.
When Odighizuwa exited the building where the shooting took place, he was approached by two students with personal firearms.
At the first sound of gunfire, fellow students Tracy Bridges and Michael Gross, unbeknownst to each other, ran to their vehicles to fetch their personally-owned firearms. Gross, a police officer with the Grifton Police Department in his home state of North Carolina, retrieved a 9 mm pistol and body armor. Bridges pulled his .357 Magnum pistol from beneath the driver's seat of his truck. As Bridges later told the Richmond Times Dispatch, he was prepared to shoot to kill.
Bridges and Gross approached Odighizuwa from different angles, with Bridges yelling at Odighizuwa to drop his gun. Odighizuwa then dropped his firearm and was subdued by several other unarmed students, including Ted Besen and Todd Ross.
There has been dispute about this account of events, with Besen saying that before Odighizuwa saw Bridges and Gross with their weapons, Odighizuwa set down his gun and raised his arms like he was mocking people. Either way, once Odighizuwa was securely held down, Gross went back to his vehicle and retrieved handcuffs to detain Odighizuwa until police could arrive. The shooter was eventually convicted and sent to a mental hospital, where he remains to this day.
It is clear that issues regarding mentally disturbed persons, their treatment, and the circumstances wherein they go on shooting sprees are many. If releasing mental health information would save lives, then it is clear that it should be done. The fact that someone has been committed involuntarily to a mental institution for any length of time should be available to public agencies in case they unlawfully attempt to buy a firearm as well.
However, even though various leftist groups believe that under no circumstances should citizens be allowed to defend themselves with firearms, this should be an option to any law abiding citizen in the shopping mall, grocery store, and yes, college classroom.
One person with a gun, that’s all it could have taken to stop Cho-Sung-Hui’s brutal swath across Virginia Tech.
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