Who do I blame for the Virginia Tech gun massacre? The psychiatrist who let Seung-Hui Cho get away. Cho was taken into custody on December 13, 2005 after having harassed two women. Neither young woman pressed charges, but Cho underwent a psychiatric evaluation that had declared him mentally ill. Unfortunately, the psychiatrist in charge of his evaluation decided outpatient therapy would work for Cho and that he was not an imminent danger to himself or others and a district court judge agreed with this evaluation and did not overturn it.
This meant, when ordering his guns, Cho was assumed to have had a clean record. Had Cho had an inpatient stay at a mental health facility on his record, both state and federal law would have denied him the gun purchase.
By all means, this is not the only concern. I do feel that for all our rules and regulations, gun purchases are all too easy. Guns are seen too much as a commodity in American society. The Second Amendment gives us the right, but does anyone seriously think that if the Founding Fathers knew what our society was to become, they'd still be talking about an easy right to bear arms? Please. Mentally competent, law-abiding people have the right to a gun, but they should have to jump through several hoops, each one higher than the other, to obtain one. And I think it's a shame that we see sensible gun control—gun control that does not deny Second Amendment rights to those who see the need for a firearm—as a liberal vs. conservative issue. We should be able to file this one under common sense.
However, gun crime in and of itself might not be such a problem if not for the fact that we are fed a high-violence media diet which rots our brains. It isn't of course just America that has this culture of violence. The two extremely violent films that had inspired Cho's rampage were South Korean. However, any society that allows a million-and-one versions of videogames such as Grand Theft Auto as a capitalist right just might be inviting problems. Never mind how such videogames (not to mention gangsta rap, along with many films and TV programs) glorify outrageous violence. These forms of media do desensitize people to violence.
For instance, a mentally disturbed young man in Britain went outside to stab a woman to death after spending all night smoking skunk (a very strong variety of cannabis) and playing Grand Theft Auto. Do we blame the drug or the videogame in driving his illness to a murderous level? The drug—which can induce schizophrenia in mentally incompetent young users—certainly played its part, but drugs need not necessarily encourage violence when the influence, in the form of violent audio/visual "entertainment," exists in the first place.
Besides, let's face facts, no matter how politically incorrect they may be: If it weren't for America's inner-city communities, in which gangs that constantly feed at the trough of "respec'" thrive, then U.S. gun crime statistics would take a nose-dive.
The inconsistent rules that determine gun ownership from state to state and the culture of violence which encourages gun use (or abuse, rather) are certainly culpable in last Monday's shootings. But, if Cho had been locked up 15 months ago, thirty-two Virginia Tech students would still be alive and well. And that is where the lion's share of blame ought to lie.
Article comments
1 - Louis Orlando
The issue isn't about guns! The issue is the right of an individual to protect himself against harm. What many non Americans fail to understand is that our Constitution was designed to protect us FROM government, not from each other. Any person, regardless of nationality, must certainly be aware of the fact that their government cannot protect them against a violent assault, and that for the police to get involved you have to be a victim first. The fact of the matter is that here in America, with over 300,000,000 inhabitants, about 13,000 gun deaths take place on average each year. We also record over 40,000 traffic deaths each year and about 15,000 of those are alcohol related. Well, no one is talking about taking our cars away, nor are they talking about prohibiting the possession of alcohol. Knowing that my goverment can't protect me from bodilly harm, the onus is on me to protect myself. I dare say that if someone broke into your home in the middle of the night armed with a tire iron, you'd prefer to have a gun in your hand than not.
2 - Mark Edward Manning
You misunderstand me, I do not want to ban guns and I never said I did. I used to be hostile to the idea of gun control -- I thought guns should be as free to obtain so that everyone could form the militia the Founding Fathers intended at a minute's notice. However, in the current culture of violence and amorality we find ourselves in, I think gun control is a good idea. It shouldn't be a liberal vs conservative, freedom vs dictatorship type argument; it should be common sense. Cho slipped through the cracks, which is the primary blame here -- but he could not have killed 32 people with a switchblade or a baseball bat. It took a gun to mow down as many as he did. One firearm (never mind two!) should never have fallen into this whackjob's hands, yet it did. Perhaps if someone wants a gun bad enough and are crafty enough, they'll get their hands on a firearm no matter what. But I'd at least like to know that they were put through the wringer before they obtained one should no-one realize beforehand what a mental case they were at the time of purchase. If we're going to be a gun-toting society, let's at least do the absolute best we can to make sure that only those with healthy brains are packing heat.
3 - Derek
What makes me sick is that a person on you tube said he only did it because he was a homosexual only a homophobic person would say such a stupid thing like that i cant believe that some people still think gay men have a mental illness.
4 - steve from CT
the campus administration is culpable for two reasons
A. not shutting down the campus after a double homicide with the killer on the loose
B. not allowing law abiding college citizens to carry concealed firearms on campus...there is a good chance at least ONE person in that building could have/would have been packing heat to stop Cho's assembly-line murdering spree. Instead,they were defenselessly slaughtered