Post by Keith on May 28, 2007 12:07:57 GMT -8
33 people including the gunman are dead after a bloody shooting rampage at Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, Virginia on Monday April 16th, 2007. So far, the bloodiest school shooting in United States History.
As a student still in college and a former substitute teacher, hearing and watching the massacre at Virginia Tech pretty much hit hard. I happen to also be a United States Army Reservist and I should definitely know the sounds of gunfire and explosives.
With the news reports of school shootings such as the one at Columbine, I've always had the thought in the back of my head the possibility that I might find myself on the receiving end of a school shooting. I've dealt with plenty of problematic students that are prone to acts of violence during my two years as a substitute teacher.
The school shooting was a very terrible thing. Especially that it's the bloodiest school shooting in United States history. It shows that even colleges are prone to school shootings if the shooter(s) are crazy enough.
The report said that the gunman Cho Seung-hui is an English major from South Korea. The developing story that Cho was blaming the "rich" kids and that they drove him to this from a note that he had left. I can't even fathom what Cho was going through or what was going on inside of his mind. Then again, nobody can. Possibly his girlfriend but she was the first one that Cho ended up shooting. They say they couldn't get much information on Cho because was a "loner." But still, one could observe the warning signs to see if Cho was capable of this.
But what's done is done. We can reflect on the past and figure out the chain of events that had caused Cho to go on the shooting rampage. But of all people, why did Cho shoot his girlfriend first? That's going to be a answer that won't be uncovered for a very long time. And there's no use getting answers out of Cho after he killed himself.
All we can do is do a serious evaluation and examination of things. As soon as I saw the Virginia Tech shooting on the news, I had immediately called two of my friends up and we had a three way conference discussing the whole thing. Neto is currently a social psychology major at Florida State University (FSU) and Cliff works a full-time job as a security guard out in New Jersey. We were talking about how security needed to be more prepared. Security was one of the biggest points we brought up. Campus security isn't going to be armed most of the time. But they should at least have tasers on them. Cliff brought up a good point if you go to school in the surburbs, the security isn't going to be as heavy versus going to school in the city where security is going to have tazers.
The students say that police officers and sherriff's deputies are on the campus 24/7. But this tragic and bloody mass shooting still occured anyway. The fact that Virginia Tech is a very campus with numerous buildings alone should be considered a good reason for heavy security. The bigger campuses need more security because of large ground that would have to be covered. That's going to be a given. The school administrators themselves said that the school campus was extremely large with about 2,600 acres. That would give Cho a good window of opportunity to go hide for a bit and continue with the rampage.
And after the shootings, why did class go on as proceeded? The school should've been under a lock down, simply put. There was a lock down one time at this middle school I subbed at. A robbery at this local convenience store that was near the school with the guy being armed. Though it didn't happen on school grounds, the middle school was placed on lockdown. The schools should've been on lock down and the students should've been evacuated as well. If you're in class and you hear gunshots, you should've taken cover.
Virginia Tech should also have their own radio station. It is a very big campus. There are plenty of big colleges and universities with their own radio stations. American University for example has their own radio station. Why couldn't one of the students send an e-mail out to the school radio station and announced what was going on? The radio could've been a big help in saving many lives. Perhaps, the students, staff, and faculty could reflect on that next time. Most of the students should have cellphones on them as well. They could've even called into the school radio station. There should be students that have cellphones with text messaging, they could've gotten the word out through AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, etc.
Why wait two hours before getting on the computer?
As soon as the shooting early Monday morning took place, all classes should've been cancelled to that day. Students should've went to the dorm rooms and stayed in there. A complete lockdown. For students living off of campus, the school should've been immediately barricaded making sure nobody gets in or out. All buildings should've been locked as well which would limit the amount of places Cho could hide. The campus could've and should've been way more prepared for this. And there were two shootings with the second happening a few hours later. That just goes towards incompetence and neglegence on the part of the administrators.
Also what got me is that how did Cho manage to get a hold of a kevlar vest, two handguns, and a bunch of handgun clips? Where'd he get those? And who sold them to Cho? How did Cho obtain those? If Cho had to pay for them, how'd he get the money in the first place? The damage is done. But now, those questions will have to be answered. And we should definitely be asking those questions.
With this, we need to take a serious look at the Fourth Amendment. The reasons we have such weak gun laws in this country is because of people like the National Rifle Association (NRA) take that amendment so far out of context. They read the Fourth Amendment as the "right to bare arms." What it actually says, "right to bare arms in case of defense."
In this country, anybody can get a hold of a firearm. Even kids can get hold of firearms and explosives; those school shootings in the past are more than enough concrete proof. In this country, there are so many gun related crimes that it's not even funny. Canada has far less gun crimes in this country. We really need to evaluate the interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and groups like the NRA. Honest, we need much stronger gun laws. The Virginia Tech shooting is more than enough proof.
On CNN, there was an interview with a former NYPD officer. He said that the shooting should've been treated like a terrorist attack. For that I have to agree.
Me being Asian, I was pretty shocked that the gunman was infact another Asian. I was used to the school shootings in the past that were committed by White guys. Honestly, I thought the shooter was White. But then again, I thought the DC Sniper was White until it was confirmed that he was Black. But it shows that skin color has nothing to do with someone going on a shooting rampage.
Hopefully, we can take a good look at what had happened and make better changes for the future. Perhaps if someone recommended Cho to counseling, perhaps the shooting could've been avoided. But we'll never know. If the school was placed on lockdown, perhaps the casaulties would've been in the single digits. But we don't know that either though it's a very strong possibility. With the shooter being Asian, it shows that anybody is capable of such bloody violence regardless of age, gender, skin color, religious preference, etc.
My friend KV who's Iranian said that he doesn't identify with people because of genetics and skin color. It's all about the circumstances that you grew up with. We have no idea yet on the circumstances that Cho Seung-hu had grown up with yet. He also added that it's a matter of probabilities which is true. I'm hoping Cho's actions doesn't give everybody else a bad impression of Asians.
The shooting is indeed tragic. But only two people I know that will benefit from this for the time being: Don Imus and Alberto Gonzales. Mainly because they've been bumped off the front page news for awhile.
www.helium.com/tm/281380/people-including-gunman-after
As a student still in college and a former substitute teacher, hearing and watching the massacre at Virginia Tech pretty much hit hard. I happen to also be a United States Army Reservist and I should definitely know the sounds of gunfire and explosives.
With the news reports of school shootings such as the one at Columbine, I've always had the thought in the back of my head the possibility that I might find myself on the receiving end of a school shooting. I've dealt with plenty of problematic students that are prone to acts of violence during my two years as a substitute teacher.
The school shooting was a very terrible thing. Especially that it's the bloodiest school shooting in United States history. It shows that even colleges are prone to school shootings if the shooter(s) are crazy enough.
The report said that the gunman Cho Seung-hui is an English major from South Korea. The developing story that Cho was blaming the "rich" kids and that they drove him to this from a note that he had left. I can't even fathom what Cho was going through or what was going on inside of his mind. Then again, nobody can. Possibly his girlfriend but she was the first one that Cho ended up shooting. They say they couldn't get much information on Cho because was a "loner." But still, one could observe the warning signs to see if Cho was capable of this.
But what's done is done. We can reflect on the past and figure out the chain of events that had caused Cho to go on the shooting rampage. But of all people, why did Cho shoot his girlfriend first? That's going to be a answer that won't be uncovered for a very long time. And there's no use getting answers out of Cho after he killed himself.
All we can do is do a serious evaluation and examination of things. As soon as I saw the Virginia Tech shooting on the news, I had immediately called two of my friends up and we had a three way conference discussing the whole thing. Neto is currently a social psychology major at Florida State University (FSU) and Cliff works a full-time job as a security guard out in New Jersey. We were talking about how security needed to be more prepared. Security was one of the biggest points we brought up. Campus security isn't going to be armed most of the time. But they should at least have tasers on them. Cliff brought up a good point if you go to school in the surburbs, the security isn't going to be as heavy versus going to school in the city where security is going to have tazers.
The students say that police officers and sherriff's deputies are on the campus 24/7. But this tragic and bloody mass shooting still occured anyway. The fact that Virginia Tech is a very campus with numerous buildings alone should be considered a good reason for heavy security. The bigger campuses need more security because of large ground that would have to be covered. That's going to be a given. The school administrators themselves said that the school campus was extremely large with about 2,600 acres. That would give Cho a good window of opportunity to go hide for a bit and continue with the rampage.
And after the shootings, why did class go on as proceeded? The school should've been under a lock down, simply put. There was a lock down one time at this middle school I subbed at. A robbery at this local convenience store that was near the school with the guy being armed. Though it didn't happen on school grounds, the middle school was placed on lockdown. The schools should've been on lock down and the students should've been evacuated as well. If you're in class and you hear gunshots, you should've taken cover.
Virginia Tech should also have their own radio station. It is a very big campus. There are plenty of big colleges and universities with their own radio stations. American University for example has their own radio station. Why couldn't one of the students send an e-mail out to the school radio station and announced what was going on? The radio could've been a big help in saving many lives. Perhaps, the students, staff, and faculty could reflect on that next time. Most of the students should have cellphones on them as well. They could've even called into the school radio station. There should be students that have cellphones with text messaging, they could've gotten the word out through AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, etc.
Why wait two hours before getting on the computer?
As soon as the shooting early Monday morning took place, all classes should've been cancelled to that day. Students should've went to the dorm rooms and stayed in there. A complete lockdown. For students living off of campus, the school should've been immediately barricaded making sure nobody gets in or out. All buildings should've been locked as well which would limit the amount of places Cho could hide. The campus could've and should've been way more prepared for this. And there were two shootings with the second happening a few hours later. That just goes towards incompetence and neglegence on the part of the administrators.
Also what got me is that how did Cho manage to get a hold of a kevlar vest, two handguns, and a bunch of handgun clips? Where'd he get those? And who sold them to Cho? How did Cho obtain those? If Cho had to pay for them, how'd he get the money in the first place? The damage is done. But now, those questions will have to be answered. And we should definitely be asking those questions.
With this, we need to take a serious look at the Fourth Amendment. The reasons we have such weak gun laws in this country is because of people like the National Rifle Association (NRA) take that amendment so far out of context. They read the Fourth Amendment as the "right to bare arms." What it actually says, "right to bare arms in case of defense."
In this country, anybody can get a hold of a firearm. Even kids can get hold of firearms and explosives; those school shootings in the past are more than enough concrete proof. In this country, there are so many gun related crimes that it's not even funny. Canada has far less gun crimes in this country. We really need to evaluate the interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and groups like the NRA. Honest, we need much stronger gun laws. The Virginia Tech shooting is more than enough proof.
On CNN, there was an interview with a former NYPD officer. He said that the shooting should've been treated like a terrorist attack. For that I have to agree.
Me being Asian, I was pretty shocked that the gunman was infact another Asian. I was used to the school shootings in the past that were committed by White guys. Honestly, I thought the shooter was White. But then again, I thought the DC Sniper was White until it was confirmed that he was Black. But it shows that skin color has nothing to do with someone going on a shooting rampage.
Hopefully, we can take a good look at what had happened and make better changes for the future. Perhaps if someone recommended Cho to counseling, perhaps the shooting could've been avoided. But we'll never know. If the school was placed on lockdown, perhaps the casaulties would've been in the single digits. But we don't know that either though it's a very strong possibility. With the shooter being Asian, it shows that anybody is capable of such bloody violence regardless of age, gender, skin color, religious preference, etc.
My friend KV who's Iranian said that he doesn't identify with people because of genetics and skin color. It's all about the circumstances that you grew up with. We have no idea yet on the circumstances that Cho Seung-hu had grown up with yet. He also added that it's a matter of probabilities which is true. I'm hoping Cho's actions doesn't give everybody else a bad impression of Asians.
The shooting is indeed tragic. But only two people I know that will benefit from this for the time being: Don Imus and Alberto Gonzales. Mainly because they've been bumped off the front page news for awhile.
www.helium.com/tm/281380/people-including-gunman-after