Shooting at Virginia Tech

[Cebby]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

One of his professors wanted to get him help, but you can't force someone to get help. She even told the police to keep track of him because he was exhibiting strange behavior. But there's really not much anyone can realistically do. I believe he was removed from one of his classes, but he can't be kicked out of school or anything like that obviously.

We need to be allowed to get these people help... someone with mental issues is not going to be able to realize that they need help, yet they are the ones that have to seek the help themselves. If the professor could have gotten him the help he needed instead of being told that he needed to go voluntarily, this all could have been avoided.

I'd imagine the Supreme Court has already stricken this down at some point.

[Skerik]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

How about an argument combining guns and mental health? Like how easy it is for someone with mental illness to purchase a firearm. Take a look at the form you have to fill out when you buy a gun.

http://www.ocshooters.com/Gen/Form-4473/ATF-Form-4473.htm

Question 11f states: "Have you ever been adjucated mentally defective(which includes having been adjudicated incompetent to manage your own affairs) or have been committed to a mental institution?"

I'm pretty sure that's the only background check against mental illness that is performed when you attempt to purchase a firearm. That's crazy. I'm not an advocate of gun control by any means, but it should be at least a little more difficult for someone with a history that includes mental illness to purchase a firearm. You can't mandate counseling for someone like Cho and you can't arrest them just for being crazy and weird, but you can at least do a better job at preventing them from getting their hands on a gun by legal means.

[Cebby]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

It's not like illegal guns are hard to find. Much cheaper too.

[Graphik]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

How about an argument combining guns and mental health? Like how easy it is for someone with mental illness to purchase a firearm. Take a look at the form you have to fill out when you buy a gun.

http://www.ocshooters.com/Gen/Form-4473/ATF-Form-4473.htm

Question 11f states: "Have you ever been adjucated mentally defective(which includes having been adjudicated incompetent to manage your own affairs) or have been committed to a mental institution?"

I'm pretty sure that's the only background check against mental illness that is performed when you attempt to purchase a firearm. That's crazy. I'm not an advocate of gun control by any means, but it should be at least a little more difficult for someone with a history that includes mental illness to purchase a firearm. You can't mandate counseling for someone like Cho and you can't arrest them just for being crazy and weird, but you can at least do a better job at preventing them from getting their hands on a gun by legal means.

Meh...if it wasn't a gun, then it would have been a bomb. If not a bomb, then maybe a knife. I dont know why people are so uptight about how he got the guns. There are plenty of illegal ways to aquire a pistol without all the red tape. Bottom line is this dude was mentally ill and it just so happens he was able to obtain legal firearms. If was unable to get firearms, whos to say he wouldn't have taken a diffrent route?

[Beantown]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

If not a bomb, then maybe a knife.

He wouldn't have been able to kill 32 people with a knife, that's for sure.

[Graphik]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

He wouldn't have been able to kill 32 people with a knife, that's for sure.

He probably would of been able to kill many more with a homemade bomb.

[Beantown]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

He probably would of been able to kill many more with a homemade bomb.

He probably could have.

But he did have a gun. He did kill 32(33 if you count himself) people. He should have never been sold a gun legally. If he gets it illegally there is nothing any government or legislature can do about it. As Skerik said...gun laws, plus mental health, certainly should be looked at together in this case and see if there is anything else they could do.

And isn't Virginia known for being the easiest state to acquire a firearm in? I remember the governor of New York wanted something done about them, because most of the illegal firearms in New York were being brought in from Virginia...IIRC.

[Double Eights]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

Honestly i feel bad for him, he needed help and never got it. Why he had to take everyone down, somethin in his head said now they will notice. Scary, to think about it really.

No one should ever feel bad for him. He killed 32 people, which is downright unforgivable. He should rot in hell and the memory of his existence should be forgotten.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

He probably could have.

But he did have a gun. He did kill 32(33 if you count himself) people. He should have never been sold a gun legally. If he gets it illegally there is nothing any government or legislature can do about it. As Skerik said...gun laws, plus mental health, certainly should be looked at together in this case and see if there is anything else they could do.

And isn't Virginia known for being the easiest state to acquire a firearm in? I remember the governor of New York wanted something done about them, because most of the illegal firearms in New York were being brought in from Virginia...IIRC.

Virginia is ridiculously light on gun regulations.

We're a very red state.

[Herbsinator]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

This entire incident is a terrible tragedy, but this was an isolated incident of a crazy man doing crazy things. But lets just remember one thing:

1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle crashes

[rubisco43]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

He probably could have.

But he did have a gun. He did kill 32(33 if you count himself) people. He should have never been sold a gun legally. If he gets it illegally there is nothing any government or legislature can do about it. As Skerik said...gun laws, plus mental health, certainly should be looked at together in this case and see if there is anything else they could do.

And isn't Virginia known for being the easiest state to acquire a firearm in? I remember the governor of New York wanted something done about them, because most of the illegal firearms in New York were being brought in from Virginia...IIRC.

I believe the people in charge of the Brady Bill grades each state on their gun control policy. I believe Virginia got a C/C-... not great, but still was better than 20 other states. (this is from memory of a news clip I saw yesterday... I don't remember if it was a C or C-, but the 20 is accurate)

I don't understand the comment "He should have never been sold a gun legally." Isn't that an oxymoron? Based on the present law, he violated no laws in purchasing the gun, nor did the seller break any laws in selling it.

[pfunk880]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

Virginia is ridiculously light on gun regulations.

We're a very red state.

Even so, it's still illegal there to have a gun on a college campus, and that didn't stop the shooter.

I still maintain that it's not the gun, it's the fact that the crazy gun owner has to go nuts before someone else can make him get help.

[Skerik]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

Virginia is ridiculously light on gun regulations.

We're a very red state.

Yet legislators, including people on the VT faculty, shot down a bill last year that would have given people (students, employees, etc) the right to the concealed carry of legally registered firearms on college campuses.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

I like the following quote, from VT associate Vice President Larry Hincker at the time:

"The writer would have us believe that a university campus, with tens of thousands of young people, is safer with everyone packing heat. Imagine the continual fear of students in that scenario. We've seen that fear here, and we don't want to see it again…Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Very sound, until one crazy person decides to disobey the rules and bring a gun onto campus to shoot all the defenseless innocents who were unarmed and playing by the rules. One wonders how this tragedy would have played out had just one student, in one of those classrooms, been in the legal possession of a registered firearm.

[umt_griz]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

Yeah right, like I want to go to a college with a bunch of drunken frat boys carrying guns. That's not a recipe for disaster.

[rubisco43]

Re: Shooting at Virginia Tech

Very sound, until one crazy person decides to disobey the rules and bring a gun onto campus to shoot all the defenseless innocents who were unarmed and playing by the rules. One wonders how this tragedy would have played out had just one student, in one of those classrooms, been in the legal possession of a registered firearm.

Let's say everyone was allowed to have concealed weapons in class. Cho goes nuts and starts shooting. Now everyone has guns. In the chaos, I'm one to believe that the students carrying guns might shoot other students with guns because it's hard to know in the heat of the moment who the perpetrator is.

These students with guns might have been taught HOW to shoot guns, not how to think during a moment like that.