Darkness Falls

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1612715,00.html

SUMMARY
This article dwells into the reasons as to why and how the shootings took place at the Virginia Tech campus this week. It also highlighted the series of events that happened on that fateful day Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 other students before deleting himself out of existence.

Apparently, they found out that Cho did not face any difficulty in obtaining the weapons he used during the massacre. He had planned his attack months before, yet nobody really saw it coming.

On the night of April 18, his last words were aired on NBC. It was then clear that he had a desire to get even with the "rich brats" with their trust funds and gold necklaces and Mercedes. He was quoted as saying, "You have never felt a single ounce of pain in your whole lives."

Earlier on before the attack, Cho had attracted police attention by harrassing 2 other students, and was then reported by an acquaintance to be suicidal. He was placed under temporary detention order and was evaluated at a psychiatric facility.

Meanwhile, teachers and students became aware of his suspected mental disorder. He was even removed from poetry class and had the department head take him as her private student, just so that he would be kept away from the others. His class was alarmed by his violent, obsessive works which often focused on sexual abuse.

A federal source found out that Cho's extraordinary effectiveness and, according to witnesses, well-planned, coldly methodical killing suggested someone who had trained himself in "execution-style" killing. Cho had locked up the doors from the inside to slow down the police, and also to prevent anyone from escaping.

RESPONSE
I think that Virginia's loose gun laws are the one to blame.

"People with ready access to guns are likelier to use them than people who have to work their hands to get their hands on a weapon."

This is quoted from an article that followed which examined the reason why mass killers kill. I think this is absolutely true. How often do you get mass murders involving weaponry in say Singapore as compared to the U.S.? The temptation to solve problems with a click (or clicks) of the trigger is just so irresistable to souls who lose control over their conscience. Stop the problem from happening in the first place, rather than to attempt to put together the pieces after the glass has broken.

There is the tricky question on the action academic institutions should take when dealing with students with psychological disorders. If they act too soon and isolate the student, the school will get sued over discrimination against students with disabilities. Don't isolate them and it will get only worse. That is where I feel that teachers and peers come into play. These are the people who probably come into contact with the mentioned student more frequently, and they are also probably the ones who would find out if things were to start going astray first. Unless their parents are around, but even then parents are busy career people nowadays.

There is also this claim that the mass media just makes things worse in these situations, or even play a role in causing it to happen. These killers know that they will be elevated to "fame" after their act has been carried out, thus the message is instead delivered through the media, rather than the killer or his act himself. I like the way the writer puts it:

"One man was the villain; many of his victims were heroes, yet his is the face that is seen, the story that gets told and all too often the act that gets copied by the next broken loner with a grudge."

It sorts of paves the way for future killers to carry out their acts. Perhaps even a kind of benchmark of some sort. Yet this puts the media in a tricky situation. They have to cover it somehow. But how in a way such that it won't glorify the killer?

Anyway, seeing this, i wonder who would still want to venture into such a place to further their studies? Is it worth the risk? Governments should ban the use of firearms altogether. So that our world would be much safer to live in. Mothers and fathers of sons and daughters out there would be much more at peace of mind.