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Brent Jesiek
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Brian Arner
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2007-05-26
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<p>A horrible tragedy. The bottom line is that sometimes awful things happen in life and there's not a satisfactory explanation as to why. Sometimes people fail to recognize this.</p>
<p>There's a lot of idle chatter regarding whether or not Virginia Tech handled the situation properly. I'm reserving judgment until more facts come out (interesting concept, cable news). I will say it's a lot easier to fault decision in the hindsight of a disaster than it is to make them in real time with incomplete information.</p>
<p>In the interest of saving many hours of TV airtime, I'll answer a few questions:</p>
<p>--Yes, this could happen at X college. (Whatever your nearby school is.)</p>
<p>--There are no security measures which will stop people intent on going on Kamikaze-style killing sprees.</p>
<p>--No, we don't need metal detectors and other fortress-like security measures on college campuses.</p>
<p>--No, right-wing radio, the fact that the shooter was an alien does not mean international students are about to lay waste to America.</p>
<p>--This could have occurred regardless of what the Blacksburg gun laws are.</p>
<p>--This could have occurred regardless of how many violent movies or video games were sold last year. [Not that those aren't legitimate issues, but speculative cause/effect chatter on these topics before you know anything about the suspect's background is silly.]</p>
<p>A trivial matter in the grand scheme of things, but I thought this clip yesterday afternoon is insightful in how our news media works. Here <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/16/sitroom.02.html">Wolf Blitzer asks</a> if President Bush will be attending today's ceremony at Virginia Tech:</p>
<blockquote>HENRY: No indication yet. Obviously, that's one event certainly the White House is weighing.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Typically in situations like this, although there's never been anything quite like this on a college campus -- but whenever there's some sort of a disaster or tragedy, the president, and this president in particular, tries to stay away in the early days, let local and state official do what they need to do. And then within a few days he usually goes, after they've had a chance to grieve, but also deal wit situation on the ground -- Wolf.</blockquote>
<p>Huh? Where did reporter Ed Henry get that analysis from? Sounds to me like he merely repeated a talking point the White House floated as it decided whether or not Bush would attend. Anyway, it was obviously wrong. Apparently, Mr. Bush is going to get in the way of local officials doing what they need to do.</p>
<p>Posted by on April 17, 2007 11:13 AM</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Original Source: <a href="http://www.brianarner.com/weblog/archives/002209.html">http://www.brianarner.com/weblog/archives/002209.html</a></p>
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Virginia Tech Massacre
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Seth Kravitz
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Posted On: April 16th, 2007
<b>Normally that would take at least a couple days.</b>
The sad state of the domain squatting industry, and society in general, is that after a horrible shooting a bunch of "business people" sprint to grab up every VT shooting/massacre domain possible.
If your first thought upon seeing the news of this horrible shooting, is "Oh crap, how can I make money off of this?", then you need to get off the computer because the internet has completely warped your ability to care for other people.
After noticing that domains were popping up right after recent tragedies like Katrina, I was curious how often these tragedy induced domain buying frenzies actually happen, and the results were <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B39413A35-F04A-4F5F-A615-837DC825F97D%7D&siteid=google">naturally disgusting and not surprising</a>. This latest VT tragedy is just a <a href="http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:4iqrHUFPJzkJ:www.domainmarketplace.com/amishshooting.com+amishshooting&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us">long history of people snatching up tragedy domain names</a> immediately and then selling them off later for a profit.
<b>The domains that were immediately purchased within 20 mins of the shooting are:</b>
virginiatechshooting.com
virginiatechmassacre.com
vtmassacre.com
vtshooting.com
<strike><b>Special Note: virginiatechschoolshooting.com is still avilable! Hurry, you too can profit from other people's suffering!</b></strike>
<b>UPDATES:</b>
The first domain is already up for sale already. These poor kids aren't even in the ground yet and this guy is already making his money: (Copy and paste if you want, I'm not linking to their auction.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Virginia-Tech-Massacre-info-Domain-name-lot-vatech-va_W0QQitemZ320104764149QQihZ011QQcategoryZ3767QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Not only has <b>virginiatechschoolshooting.com </b> been taken quickly after posting this, but the following domains were grabbed up as well (hokiemassacre.com is probably the worst): <a href="http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/godaddy_registe.html">Source 27BStroke6 on Wired</a>
<i>virginiatechshooting.com
virginiatechshooting.net
virginiatechshooting.org
virginiatechshooting.info
virginiatechshooting.us
vatechshooting.com
vatechshooting.net
vatechshooting.org
vatechshooting.info
vatechshooting.us
vatechshooting.biz
vtshooting.com
vtshooting.info
vatechmassacre.com
vatechmassacre.net
vatechmassacre.info
vatechmassacre.biz
vtmassacre.com
vtmassacre.net
vtmassacre.org
vtmassacre.info
virginiatechrampage.com
vatechrampage.com
vtrampage.com
virginiatechmurders.com
virginiatechmurders.net
virginiatechmurders.org
virginiatechmurders.info
virginiatechmurders.us
vatechmurders.com
vtmurders.com
hokieshootings.com
hokiemassacre.com
blacksburgshootings.com</i>
<b>Also, thank you to the dozens of people including (Washington Post, Univ of Kansas, Wired, Hipinion, and others) who have referenced my blog and did not just steal my content!</b>
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.secondcityceo.com/2007/04/16/breaking-news-people-already-profiting-from-virginia-tech-shooting/">http://www.secondcityceo.com/2007/04/16/breaking-news-people-already-profiting-from-virginia-tech-shooting/</a>
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People Already Profiting from Virginia Tech Shooting (Updated)
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Submitted by JohnMaxfield on Tue, 04/17/2007 - 7:30am.
<b>Would this have happened at a school like Hampden-Sydney? That is the question.</b>
And the answer must be dealt with <b>delicately</b>, in the aftermath of such a horrendous massacre that hopefully we will never see repeated in our history. But the fact remains--could this tragedy have been down scaled and at best, diffused, if students were allowed to possess firearms on school campuses?
I noticed Cliff Garstang's blog going through the aggregator. He had a <a href="http://democracyinvirginia.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-tragedy.html">post up about the tragedy</a> and I thought for once, that he might have a kind word to pass along to the families in mourning. Instead, it ended up being a diatribe about how <i>guns are <b>bad</b>, guns are <b>evil</b>, <b>conservatives</b> are <b>wrong</b> and <b>reactionary</b>, I'm <b>right</b> and <b>you all are wrong</b>, etc. <b>etc.</b></i>
He went on to say how conservatives are of the mindset that if perhaps either some of the students or faculty had been armed, then this might have stopped the shooter. Of course, he disagreed saying, "<b>Put a gun in the hand of every college kid in the country? That's not only absurd, it's just crazy. Arming the citizenry will mean more gun-related deaths, intentional and otherwise, not fewer. The sane approach is to make sure that there are fewer guns. Not more.</b>"
<b>What?</b> So here is where my question comes in? Do you think that this tragedy would have happened--better yet--do you think the students would have ALLOWED it to happen at Hampden-Sydney College? Of course not. Why, you ask? Because Hampden-Sydney promotes and allows the use of firearms on campus! Students sleep with shotguns under their beds! They hunt, fish, and target shoot on school property. The Admission Office houses a literal armory of firearms and weaponry under neath that building in their vaults. Statically, the college flaunts, enough firepower to defend the campus against a small country. In talking with a friend after the incident who goes to school there, he said that had discussed this exact issue. They figured that if a shooter dared tried to commit the same horrendous atrocities like at VPI, they wouldn't last but 10 minutes...alive. So is it absurd, Clifford? Is it a crazy notion? If you was that unidentified Asian...who would you be more likely to attack? A school who prides itself in the respect of the Second Amendment--or schools like VPI, UVA, or William and Mary--that have strict anti-gun polices on campus?
Cliff said that, "<b>Arming the citizenry will mean more gun-related deaths, intentional and otherwise, not fewer.</b>" <b>Really?</b> Well when was the last time of anyone hearing about those gun related incidents at schools that allow and promote gun usage on campus? Why do the 'incidents' only occur in school that have anti-gun policies? One can almost draw this parallel--why are the more violent crimes committed in cities like Washington, D.C. and in countries like Great Britain where firearm usage and most possession is illegal? Are we seeing a pattern here? And, sorry, just had to make this final comment, Cliff says that, "The sane approach is to make sure that there are fewer guns. Not more." <b>So people at Hamden-Sydney are insane?</b> Is that the point you are trying to make? And are the people in D.C. who make the gun control laws <b><i>SANE</i></b>?
More on the tragedy: <a href="http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2007/04/va-techs-derek-odell-story-of-survivor.html#links">here</a>, <a href="http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2007/04/george-allens-statement-regarding-va.html#links">here</a>, <a href="http://www.spankthatdonkey.com/spankthatdonkey2/2007/4/17/va-tech-vs-applachian-law-school-take-your-pick.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://kilosparksitup.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech.html">here</a>
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.progressiveu.org/103032-vt-massacre-could-it-happen-at-hampden-sydney">http://www.progressiveu.org/103032-vt-massacre-could-it-happen-at-hampden-sydney</a>
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VT Massacre: Could it Happen at Hampden-Sydney???
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<b>Arms Control Begins at Home</b>
April 29, 2007 at 3:28 pm · Filed under Virginia Tech, compassion, meditation, violence
I need to be hit with a ton of bricks for a message to sink in. For a long time I've spoken about gun control, nuclear disarmament, and crisis prevention, but it took the VT massacre to finally get the message. I know this must appear selfish to the millions of people across the globe who wake up to gunshots on a regular basis, but since my own personal life is relatively peaceful, I didn't do anything overt to help stop violence. Until now.
I used to think that all I could do was to practice a non-reactionary life by not exploding in anger toward those who cross me. Even though anger management and meditation on a worldwide scale to me is the answer to violence, I now think political activism must also be added to my list of solutions. No more cheering from the sidelines. My voice will be heard beyond the walls of my comfortable home.
--
<b>Making sense of slaughter</b>
April 20, 2007 at 7:17 pm · Filed under Virginia Tech, violence
At the Virginia Tech memorial service, Nikki Giovanni gave a moving and memorable speech. Her words were poetry in motion, urging the students to "embrace their mourning". She reminded us that no victim ever asked to be rubbed out, citing examples of atrocities from Africa to the Appalachians.
As an individual, I can shape what I want my life to be by acting on my dreams. That's what the students and teachers at VT were doing. But somehow their dream got tangled up with a madman's nightmare. Caught defensless and unaware, they were slaughtered as if they were still targets on a shooting range. Easy to mark.
No, this guy wasn't insane. He chose to commit evil. But a long time ago a shift had taken place in his mind that separated him from the rest of the human race. He wasn't born evil. He had to become the monster. Something or someone shaped him into what he was.
Where does evil begin? How do I reconcile the opposing images of slaughter with the fact of my own continued existence? I don't think there's enough time left in my life to figure out the answers to these questions.
In the meantime, I act. I embrace the mourning, and also wait in awareness to feel a moment of joy.
--
<b>Where were you when it happened?</b>
April 19, 2007 at 3:06 pm · Filed under Virginia Tech, violence
On Monday, the day of the shootings, I went to a yoga class, unaware of the violence unfolding in Blacksburg. The class was serene. Before raising our arms in salutation to the sun, the teacher had us fold our palms over the sternum, then place our hands over the third eye, fingertips touching. We repeated these motions throughout the class, while flowing in and out of the various postures.
I went home, worked for a few hours, and then made lunch. I sat down at the table and reached for the remote. I watch CNN during lunch because I eat alone, and I'm also a glutton for punishment. When I looked at the remote, something surged inside of me. It was a thought, or a sense, that as soon as I turned on the TV I would learn of something catastrophic, something worse than the typical bad news. It was a thought that made me pause.
This strange intuition wasn't like my usual fears. I worry about imagined events about 50% of the day. It wasn't fear, it was simple certainty.
When I turned on the TV a nano second after that flash of thought, it was like stepping into a nightmare. Twenty-two shot dead, then thirty-two!
Later, in the evening, I went for a walk. The air was softer and sweeter, the leaves on the trees more vibrant, the sky more blue than I've ever seen it. And I thought, this is so beautiful, how happy I am to be walking along this road, enjoying the evening sun reflected off the tops of the live oaks. And all the while I thought about the students and professors, who in this place and time will never again witness a walk down a country road. Their loved ones will never again enjoy the pleasure of their company. Their parents will grieve the loss of their special child until the end of their days.
--
Original Source: <a href="http://mariacristina.wordpress.com/tag/virginia-tech/">http://mariacristina.wordpress.com/tag/virginia-tech/</a>
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by D. Grant Haynes <i>Thursday, Apr. 19, 2007 at 2:10 PM</i>
<i>The senseless murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech underlines once again the necessity for stricter gun control laws in the United States.</i>
Americans are busily soul searching one more time after another mass killing at an educational institution.
This time the setting was a university rather than a secondary school.
But the ghastly spectacle that unfolded at Virginia Polytechnic University in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16 when a disaffected student--Cho Seung-Hui, 23--systematically executed 32 innocent students and faculty members was fully as terrible as other such recent massacres in America--only worse.
More were killed at Virginia Tech than at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago. And the killer's cold-blooded and methodical resolve, as well as an inexplicable lack of appropriate and timely responses from police officers on the scene, will put the Virginia Tech massacre in a class apart always.
Media pundits, politicians, university administrators, psychologists, clergymen and others talk endlessly now about what lessons might be learned from Virginia Tech.
The university should have had a better evacuation or lock down protocol in place.
University and other police officers should have been more diligent in protecting students from Cho Seung-Hui's rage after his first shooting spree in which he killed two individuals more than two hours before he reappeared on campus to kill 30 more students.
The mental health community should have done a better job of intervention when Cho Seung-Hui had, over several years' time, displayed symptoms of mental illness.
There is ample blame to go around in this botched and bungled phantasmagoric mess that, seemingly, could not have been handled in a worse way than it was handled.
But in all of the hand-wringing 24-hour non-stop media reportage and speculation about Blacksburg, few professionals and fewer politicians with their fingers to the wind and their campaign coffers chock full of National Rifle Association dollars in some cases, have been willing to state the obvious.
Cho Seung-Hui could not have murdered 32 people so efficiently in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16 without access to two pistols and endless rounds of ammunition for them.
Cho was a brooding youth. One of his teachers had identified him as deeply troubled because of the excessively violent nature of his fictionalized scenarios. She had even referred him for counseling.
He had had encounters with the university police over allegations of stalking others.
He had been described as a potential menace to himself and others by a mental health professional.
Should not these facts alone have been a red flag sufficient to dictate a more than perfunctory look at him when he sought to acquire death-dealing hand guns?
That should have been the case and would have been in a more sensible culture.
Had minimally effective gun control laws been in place in Virginia when Cho sought to purchase his pistols and cartridges, he would have been denied a permit and 32 dead Virginia Tech students and faculty members would be alive today.
For all practical purposes, anyone in this nation can obtain a firearm, regardless of his or her emotional stability, maturity, or legitimate need for the weapon.
This is wrong and is cause for people in more sane societies to fear for their very lives when contemplating a trip to America. This writer knows whereof he speaks because he lived in Great Britain for a time and was asked often about the danger of being gunned down in America.
What must they all think today?
More stringent gun control is the only answer to the madness of disaffected youths and others who, repeatedly, have walked into schools and work places and murdered innocent people.
But cowardly Democrats who should be at the forefront of gun control legislation are already distancing themselves from calls for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
Congressional Democrats fear the wrath of the National Rifle Association and that organization's clout with a certain segment of American voters too much to do what they know is both right and desperately needed.
Senate majority leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) squelched serious talk of more rigid gun controls following the Virginia Tech shootings. The Associated Press reported Reid's lackluster and cowardly response to questions of stricter gun control as blood was being mopped at Virginia Tech.
"After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a 'rush to judgment' on stricter gun control....
"I think we ought to be thinking about the families and the victims and not speculate about future legislative battles that might lie ahead," said Reid... ."
And you should also be thinking about the families and the victims of the next such massacre, Senator Reid.
A ban on the sale of assault rifles in the United States--one that was in place from 1994 until 2004 when a Republican Congress permitted it to expire--should be reinstated as soon as possible.
And hand gun acquisition requirements should also be made more restrictive as soon as possible.
The American with a legitimate need for a personal hand gun--certainly and especially a license to carry such a weapon on his person--should become a rare exception rather than the rule.
The Cho Seung-Hui's of this nation should never be permitted to purchase a handgun or an assault rifle. Background checks prior to the sale of a pistol should be infinitely more thorough--modeled, perhaps after the British system.
The only viable solution to the epidemic of mass killings at American educational institutions and work places is to drastically reduce the number of guns in the hands of Americans.
This can be done and should be done.
And to those who would at this point trot out the tired old bromide, "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns", one can only observe that we must start somewhere and at some point in time.
The process may take decades, but if assault rifle acquisitions are stanched altogether and hand guns are made infinitely more difficult to obtain, there will be ever fewer of each in circulation over time.
That would represent a move in the right direction and would be a fitting memorial to those who gave their lives at Virginia Tech because Virginia's gun laws had permitted a psychologically impaired youth to acquire the instruments to murder 32 people on a morning that will live in infamy throughout American history.
How many more Virginia Techs must occur before our elected representatives muster the courage to confront the gun lobby and do what must be done?
--
Original Source: <a href="http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/197101.php">http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/197101.php</a>
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It's time to confront the gun lobby
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Posted Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 1:43 AM by Justin
I hate it how, whenever we have a national tragedy, journos just eat it up. The TV stations make logos for it, and slogans like "Massacre at Virginia Tech" that become ominous jingles as the anchors and announcers repeat them as a story unfolds.
We're watching Dateline NBC now (for the first time ever), and the exploitation of the V Tech tragedy is enraging. Matt Lauer is just getting too much mileage out of it.
They take every aspect of the story and make it into an entertainment event. They interview grief counselors and find out how that works. They pull out footage of previous shootings. They interview paramedics and enlighten us about their work. It's all for entertainment and to create viewership for the network.
The other people who infuriate me when we have a tragedy is the "expert" morons who get on the tube saying how this could have easily been prevented. Their hindsight is perfect, and they get to promote themselves as experts every time an unpreventable tragedy happens. There's a guy on Dateline now talking about how they should have sent in a massive anti-terrorism response team after the first two people were shot. Come on. We're going to send in the ATF or the army or whomever every time there's a shooting? Ten thousand people are shot to death each year in this country. We can't treat each incident like an act of terrorism as this guy is suggesting.
The other thing I hate about the "if only" experts is that they implicitly blame everyone involved. If only the campus police had done something different. If only the email had gone out sooner warning people to stay in lockdown. None of this was foreseeable - who could have known a campus shooting (like the one that happened in Seattle a few weeks ago) would turn into a massacre?
I say, mourn with those who mourn, and stop exploiting them for publicity and our need to know.
If that weren't enough, they're now doing a story about a guy who survived the Columbine massacre but lost his sister, Rachel Scott. Emotional aftermath and all that. Ugh. "Soon, even prayer was no match for the terror..."
--
Original Source: <a href="http://www.radicalcongruency.com/20070416-massacre-at-virginia-tech-let-the-media-exploitation-begin">http://www.radicalcongruency.com/20070416-massacre-at-virginia-tech-let-the-media-exploitation-begin</a>
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Massacre at Virginia Tech: Let the Media Exploitation Begin
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a4g / Point Five Blog
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By a4g
Point Five Staff Writer @ 4:51 pm
April 16, 2007
--
Fears Raised That Details Of Shooting Might Be Released Into Context-Free Void
--
A massacre at Virginia Tech took the lives of 32 on Monday. But as the sun set, and sketchy details slowly emerged on what was still a largely unclear series of events, an even greater tragedy began to reveal itself, as a few irresponsible Americans had not yet drawn broad life lessons from the atrocity.
"We've got scores of kids dead or wounded," said one police officer on the scene, "and there's folks out there who have the gall to tell me they haven't decided what this teaches us about America? Sometimes I wonder if I even recognize this country anymore."
While most media reports wisely began to correlate the shootings almost immediately to pre-packaged positions on gun control and video game violence, few ordinary citizens have the resources of a major television network to so neatly encapsulate the horror�- and the life lessons� of the shooting spree into an easily digestible sound bite. This worries analyst Greg Collier, who warned that such individuals were basically "on their own", and may find themselves without a support system when the media machine moves onto the next big story sometime Wednesday or Thursday.
"Listen, if you're big on Sudden Jihad Syndrome, just for example," said Collier, "you've got a window of basically six to twelve hours before they identify the shooter. So what are you waiting for? If you don't take your shot against Islam now, and this guy turns out not to be a diabolical Muslim convert�- but just some ordinary shmuck with some adjustment problems�- you're out of the discussion, irrelevant."
He said the same devastating metric applied to race hustlers, white supremacists, militant feminists, conspiracy theorists, and Bill Maher.
"If you haven't drawn your conclusions by nightfall, you're going to be trampled by tomorrow's news cycle. I mean, imagine if right now you were still pondering the implications of the Imus firing, leisurely asking yourself questions about the proper response to boorish behavior in a society that values free speech. Hello? Imus is gone, baby. Al Sharpton already solved racial inequality last week. We're on school shootings now. We've got a country to save, people."
Even worse, mental health professionals feel that important "closure" may not occur in those who are unwilling to quickly find a way to make sense of the murders.
"As humans, we need to make sense of the senseless," said Dr. Jane Krempsky, a grief counselor, television commentator, and frequent expert witness in civil trials.
"We need to exert our control over those things that seem uncontrollable, in order to feel safe once again. Some people just don't appreciate that the clock is ticking."
Krempsky said the issues involved in this shooting became plain almost the instant that the widely conflicting reports hit the wires, and included increased gun control, liberalized concealed carry, the effects of the Iraq war, America's obsession with violence, the feminization of the Western male, and the prevalence of pre-marital sex and binge drinking on campus.
As one blogger noted in an iconic post near the end of the day: "Virginia who? Oh yeah... I remember that. Horrible tragedy. That was the one caused by global warming, right?"
--
Original Source: <a href="http://pointfiveblog.com/index.php/2007/04/1260">http://pointfiveblog.com/index.php/2007/04/1260</a>
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Tragedy In Virginia As Some Fail To Draw Conclusions From VTech Massacre
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<p>Tom DeLay</p>
<p>Former Tennessee Senator and potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson had a very interesting article in the National Review on April 20th entitled, "Signs of Intelligence?" which dealt with concealed carry laws on the Virginia Tech Campus. In the article he writes,</p>
<blockquote>Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus...</blockquote>
<blockquote>...So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university's "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.</blockquote>
<p>To read the article in its entirety click <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTIwYzMyZmQ1YzQ1MDNmZTMyYzQ1Y2U3YTU4YzNmNGE=">here</a> (and I would encourage you to do so because Senator Thompson makes a lot of sense on this issue).</p>
<p>I did some research on my own on the background of this Virginia Tech concealed carry debate and I found <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80510">this article</a> in the Roanoke Times submitted by a Virginia Tech graduate student during August of last year. Entitled "Unarmed and Vulnerable" it is written by a Mr. Bradford Wiles and it says this,</p>
<blockquote>On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."</blockquote>
<blockquote>Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself...</blockquote>
<blockquote>...This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.</blockquote>
<p>Given the horrific nature of recent events, Mr. Wiles' article has certainly become even more prescient and chilling. Would that Bradford had been in the engineering building that terrible day with the correct law in place - perhaps the tragedy may have ended very differently.</p>
<p>There are many who view supporters of concealed carry laws as fringe crazies who envision life as some kind of ongoing shootem' up western movie. However, statistics don't lie. Jurisdictions which allow responsible citizens the free exercise of their Second Amendment rights have lower levels of violent crime. Ask most incarcerated criminals whether they take into account existing gun laws in choosing their targets and where they will commit a crime and the answer is a resounding yes.</p>
<p>Call me a crazy if you wish, but I think this pro Second Amendment Argument of mine and others bears listening to.</p>
<p>Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 09:41AM by Tom DeLay</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Original Source: <a href="http://www.tomdelay.com/home/2007/4/26/dont-conceal-this-debate.html">http://www.tomdelay.com/home/2007/4/26/dont-conceal-this-debate.html</a></p>
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Don't Conceal This Debate
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Mark Malloy
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Today was by far the most trying day I've experienced in my life. On April 16, 2007 33 people were killed, with 15 more wounded on the Virginia Tech Campus. I know that this is likely not new information, but I repeat it just to add strength to my message. There are not words to properly express just what feelings this day has brought. Surreal doesn't even begin to describe it. I've spoken to more people on the phone today than I have in any day I can remember. The hours spent in the dorm just waiting and watching, seeing the events unfold and hearing the number of dead and wounded climb higher was the epitome of helplessness. This was a tragedy the likes of which have never been seen before, and hopefully will never be seen again. We heard it over and over again. The worst school shooting in US history, they said at first. Then, the worst mass murder in US history as the numbers climbed. Any attempt to convey the emotions and thoughts which barraged my mind today would be futile, vain, and ultimately trite. This was a dark day, near black as night.
That said, I have every confidence in this university and this community. I believe this town is capable of rising to the occasion and overcoming this monumental tragedy. I have no idea what the coming days and weeks hold in store, or even the slightest notion of what will happen as time transpires. There is no set procedure for handling something of this magnitude, by sheer virtue of the fact that it has never happened. In spite of that, I feel we, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, students, faculty and staff all, and the town of Blacksburg, are capable of bonding together to lift each other over this hurdle. We will pay our dues and respects to those deceased. We MUST pay our dues and our respects. Anything less would be a mark upon our record.
It is only then that we can hope to begin the rebuilding and healing process. It will be a long time before any student can step into Norris Hall without immediately drawing to mind thoughts of the events which occurred in that building today. I can only imagine what those who live on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall must feel now, and likely for nights to come, in regards to what transpired there as well. However, as time passes and we slowly heal, these things will become easier. And until that time, if we band together, teachers and students, all majors and classes, then we will be able to carry on our work as an academic institution. That is the best way we can hope to honor the memories of those murdered here for years to come. We must continue to learn, to advance the knowledge of our society and our species, that we may continue to understand the universe in all its parts. This applies not only to this university, but to every university in the United States and the world, present and future. I leave you all with one final plea from a freshman at this university, a plea echoed from every corner of this university by every student, faculty and staff member, all who witnessed this tragedy. I beg of you, on Tuesday, April 17, 2007, and for as long afterward as you may be convinced to do so, wear any maroon and orange you can find in remembrance of those innocents slain here. To borrow from several sources throughout the day, for the sake of those lost, put aside your allegiances and college ties for at least a short time. For today, we are all Hokies.
In most sincere regards and hope,
Mark Malloy
Virginia Tech Class of 2010
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
A letter to the world from me, a Virginia Tech student, regarding the events of April 16, 2007. Please spread this as far as you can.
Feel free to copy it and send it to people. If you have trouble doing that here, go to my xanga site, <a href="http://www.xanga.com/guitaristam73">[link]</a> for a copy. I'd also like to thank everyone around the world who has been so supportive in this time. We are all Hokies, yesterday, today, and every day hence.
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 19, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53551291/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53551291/</a>
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Letter from a VT Student
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by SamiSunshine
That is a prime example of colleges not looking into the right cases and not checking up on people. Once Cho started to stalk people, he should have been expelled. They seem to spend more time fighting underage drinking than sexual assult.
Relating that to the U of A, at one of the dorms my friend was staying with a girl who had moved into her room from another dorm. What my friend didn't know was that the girl was moved from the other room for taking a knife and slashing up the furniture and threatening people. Finally my friend got really scared because the girl did something similar again and instead of kicking the psycho girl out, they moved my friend in with another girl and the psycho has her own room. In this same dorm, another friend got kicked out of the dorm system because his roommates said he didn't clean and said he was smoking pot while there was no evidence of the fact.
And counselors and administrators never get back to you. I had a really bad panic attack the night before an exam and I couldn't take it because of some harm I did to myself and I explained that to the dean's secretary who said that she was going to refer me to counselors who would call me in the next few day. They never called. I finally went to the counselors on my own and a lady gave me the names of therapists and said she would call in the next few days. She never called. I could have been so far on the edge that I could have harmed myself or others. I could have been another Cho. But, the university decided to not check up on me, a severely stressed out, freaked out person who was living in the dorms with many other students. I could have been a risk to others and they still did not make sure that I wasn't a threat to myself or others.
I wouldn't be surprised if that had happened at Virginia Tech. Don't blame strict/lax gun laws, violence in the media, or society in general: blame the people who were supposed to be protecting, mentoring, and caring for the students. Cho Seung-Hui had been referred to counseling, he had a record as a stalker, he had a reputation as a disturbed individual: did the President have to march over to the Virgina Tech campus health and demand that they see Cho? This tragedy could happen anywhere. My heartfelt condolences to the victims, their families, and Cho's family. This should be something that should inspire universities to protect and try to heal their students, not lose them in the masses.
ETA: On a more frivolous note, its appalling that someone with such bad writing could be a Senior English major. The most disturbing things about his writing is how bad it is. That says something about the writing program at Virginia Tech. And, it ain't good.
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
This is a little rant about how many chances they had to stop Cho and how little they did and how it isn't just a problem that Virginia Tech has. Its a problem at universities all over the United States.
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 19, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53594990/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53594990/</a>
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Losing Students: Virginia Tech
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Joseph M. Skipsey
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Why must we pay the price
For others sins and vice?
As I lay dying here, I cry.
I wonder, <i>Why, why, why?</i>
~Joseph M. Skipsey, April 23rd, 2007
<b>Of Shooters and Schools</b>
Can video games make kids more violent? A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that the answer may be yes.
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal - and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention.
Does this mean that your teenager will feel an uncontrollable urge to go on a shooting rampage after playing "Call of Duty?"
-Excerpt Taken from the MSNBC On the Level article, "Does game violence make teens aggressive?"
It's the same tired old stories, over and over. These are but entertainment, without meaning. So, they make you more violent? No, I believe the article is suggesting that playing violent video games simply makes you more more "emotionally aroused."
You can't blame games, the ESRB was put there for a reason. If you're unaware that video games are under a strict ratings system, you don't deserve to speak on such an issue. Movies don't have anything on the incredible vista of the ESRB. You can't find a medium of entertainment with a more defined set of guidelines than the ESRB, and the ratings are there for a reason, and deserve enforcement.
Pardon me, but just because you can scan and find emotional arousal, does that mean positive emotion? Negative emotion? Neutral emotion? What exactly does this arousal mean? Until it can be discerned, all these statements are inaccurate. You need to prove then, that emotion is the link. Or, is it? After all, these killers are described as being cold and emotionless, right?
What makes people do the violent acts in the first place? So far, most of these cases have shown mental illness, rage/anger issues, hate, race, and of course, suffering. Where are the cases of sane, rational, normal individuals playing these games and deciding to go kill people? None. All the school shootings? Most were angry youth, youth with guns, youth who were outsiders, the weak, the defenceless, the bullied. Not a single average Joe picking up a gun after a refreshing game of "Kill People" and blowing away innocents.
What we fail to see is an actual connection between motive and games. I see motive in one way, and games in another, because they are NOT the SAME! There are very well-defined lines between motive and what someone does in their spare time. You see, when it comes down to it, you need motive to commit, and without a motive, there is no crime.
Motives like, oh say: Abuse by parents, abuse by peers, bullying, loneliness, delusions, hatred, religious beliefs, monetary issues, and many more.
What needs to be examined is the link between society and killers like this. What makes these people? Look, and you shall find, and it will surprise me not, but shock you beyond your comfortable world of minor tragedy.
The breakdown in society comes not from video games, but from the way we treat some people in it. No one can imagine what horrors some have gone through. I have lived through what I can only describe as sheer torture, for a lack of wanting to dredge up the painful memories. I have come through, and come through well, and I am now working on becoming someone to change the ways these things go about. "Boys will be boys." A bitter, and cruel memory of a tear cried long ago.
I came through my own trial that was childhood, and emerged matured beyond my chronological age. I have stared a coming death in the eyes, and welcomed it with relief. Never does one grow so quickly than when faced with their own life, about to be snuffed out. But I did not die, thanks to one boy who saw others throw me into a dumpster like so much trash, unable to move my arms from the beating they gave me first, bare seconds before a garbage truck came by to collect the garbage, to compact it... and me. One boy, who defied apathy, and saved my life. Live through the worst pain you could ever feel, for six years, alone, different, and scared, then claim that "Boys will be Boys."
For some, the burden warped them, destroyed them, and turned them into beasts, murderous and violent. Killers. But, thanks to several factors, including loving, caring parents, kind teachers, books, and counselling, I stayed human.
It's an odd feeling, to know you have lived through what broke others, what turned them into bitter, meek, but ever defiant individuals, right down to when they killed others and then themselves.
It's hard to take when others blame playthings, hobbies, toys, and useless, un-important junk and lay the cause of guilt onto simple objects. Hard to take, to know that someone spent their life in pain, ends it, and yes, they made a bad choice, but it was also a lesson. One which went ignored. Rather than try to fix what is broken, we find ways to avoid examining it. It's hard to believe, that when a young man kills his peers, takes his life, and writes in a note left in his house about just how horrible a life it was, that others simply dismiss it as vanity, preening, a bid for publicity, rather than take in stride that there is a problem in the echelons of societal form. No one understands them. And that's one of the worst parts.
I am alive. I am well. I live my life, and rejoice in the pleasures of taking breath, looking at the natural beauty of the world around me, the cool caress of the wind on my face, with the glow of the sun. I live content, confident in a future, bright in possibilities. But I will always remember what it took to make me see the way I do, to have the very thing that makes me different, and the humiliation and indignities I lived through. But the past is the past, and I look to the future, looking to speak, be heard, and change the system that nearly destroyed me, the system that is supported by the strong, the system that propagates stereotypes, and the system that creates the very things it fears most.
I lost my childhood when I was but six. I grew up too fast, in a hard system, and have learned some very hard lessons. These lessons have taught me what you're still struggling to comprehend. There is no deep mystery to why the school shooters do this. It is simply misguided vengeance, striking against what they feel is the cause of their misery. Their school, their peers, and themselves. They hate their existence, and others for what they did to make their existence the kind they hated. Therefore, they attack both at the same time, and martyr themselves to their ideas of justice, of vengeance, and of retribution. They do it for themselves, for other victims, for the weak, the defenseless, whatever they want to.
Because they are without hope. They are without pity, for they have received none. They have no mercy or regret, as they have learned from those who showed them nought. Their consciences are but husks, destroyed by oppression and injustice. They looked into others eyes as they were hurt, as they were abused, in pain, and all they saw were the malice of their attackers, and the apathy of the crowd, staring into their eyes, and seeing nothing. They have walked where few have dared to tread, but where several are forced to walk. Alone, feeling only the worst things, falling into darkness, with healthy shoves from ignorant and callous peers.
This is why. This is what no one will say. This is not your pretty glossy CNN coverage, not your heartening fiction of fantasy, nor your peppy college psychology lecture. This is hard, gritty truth, this is a revelation of knowledge, and a desperate cry to end the pain, the bloodshed, the sorrow.
Kind of sad, don't you think, how a 17 year old just told you exactly what countless people have been searching for. The answers to why School Shooters do what they're named for. And do you know what the saddest part will be? When this goes ignored, because this couldn't possibly be it. And I will watch and cry, as more and more people die while we look for the answer that is right in front of our noses, as we assign blame to scapegoats, and as we lower the bodies of innocents, and heroes into the ground.
--
<b>Author's Comments</b>
I hate the way the world is working these days. All violence and bloodshed, killers and crazies, all over school shootings. The latest Tragedy is now becoming a Travesty, and all we can seem to do is blame peripherals.
Monsters aren't born; They're created.
--
Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 23, 2007:
href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53886930/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53886930/</a>
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<p>Dr. Roger Passman</p>
<p>April 18, 2007</p>
<p>Reporting for <a href="http://tinyurl.com/35g965">Reuters</a>, Andrea Hopkins writes:</a></p>
<blockquote>By all accounts, the prayers started even before the gunshots stopped at Virginia Tech university, and the pleas to God from grief-stricken survivors of the massacre have continued ever since.</blockquote>
<blockquote>"God cares about Virginia Tech," said Megan Martin, 24, joining about a dozen fellow students in a traveling prayer vigil that rambled across the sprawling campus a day after the worst U.S. shooting spree in modern history.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Carrying placards reading: "Jesus loves you," "God knows and He cares," and "Can we pray with you?" the small knot of students worked their way through the university grounds in Blacksburg, a Bible Belt town in the mountains of southwest Virginia.</blockquote>
<p>I suppose turning to God(s) cannot do any serious harm to the individual that does the turning. The evidence, however, does not justify such a move. <i>"God cares about Virginia Tech," said Megan Martin</i>, is quoted in the article. Is this God so cruel that he (she, it) only cares after the fact? Is this God(s) so indifferent that he (she, it) only takes an interest after the dastardly deed has been accomplished? God knows and He cares, is another after the fact fantasy that may serve to salve heightened emotions but does not address the fundamental issue-was this God who cares so much simply on vacation when Cho Seung-Hui decided to engage on a shooting rampage on the VT campus? Does the evidence point to a God(s) who cares, who knows? I think not. What the evidence points to is a random series of events that occur every so often because Americans are willing to sacrifice security for the right to bear arms for any purpose whatsoever. The evidence does not point to a loving God(s) but, rather, to a heightened probability that because guns are so readily available in the United States tragic events such as the VT shootings are more likely than not to occur.</p>
<p>While turning to God(s) is a defensive move in cases of unthinkable tragedy for many people, it seems to me that it is simply a misplaced use of human energy. Telling one's self that God(s) really care, while that might have a temporary calming effect, does nothing to solve the problem that lies at the root of the VT shootings. Far more productive an approach is to focus the anger and frustration one feels in moments of unspeakable tragedy into efforts to place meaningful regulation on the ownership of weapons that have no other use than to cause permanent harm to those to whom the guns are directed. Gun nuts that demand no regulation of weapons spouting rights granted under the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States <i>(A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed,)</i> must ask: <b>to what militia did Cho Seung-Hui belong</b> when he began his rampage? Why was Cho Seung-Hui permitted to purchase and own guns? Why do we put up with this cowboy mentality? Is life really imitating the wild west shootout of the movies?</p>
<p>Rather than turning to God(s) how about turning to Congress and demanding that your lawmakers do something to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again. If you don't then, it seems to me, that events like the VT shootings will surely occur over and over, again and again. One Italian journalist wrote that the VT shootings are as American as apple pie. It this the image America and Americans portray to the world? Is this the image we want to portray? It is time to stop the madness.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Original Source: <a href="http://rpassman.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/vt-students-turn-to-god/">http://rpassman.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/vt-students-turn-to-god/</a></p>
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VT Students turn to God
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Apr. 18th, 2007 at 12:02 AM
Virginia is, if memory serves, one of the states that had a particularly malevolently horrible 2004 national election, one marked by substantial Republican chicanery and vicious suppression of the minority vote, so the last thing on earth that I could ever have imagined myself doing was cheering for Virginia's Republican governor, Tim Kaine. But Tuesday afternoon I not only cheered out loud over something he said, I was so glad he said it that I was waving my fist over my head and very nearly jumped out of my chair. And it wasn't just what he said, but how he said it; I wish I could find a way to show it to you. But at the end of the Tuesday press conference, some sleazebag in the audience, knowing how pro-gun Kaine is, tossed him what he probably thought was a softball question, namely, did the governor think that some of the deaths could have been averted if Virginia Polytechnic students had been allowed to carry concealed firearms on campus? Instead of the reaction the so-called "reporter" was expecting, what happened was that governor Kaine's face twisted up as if he had bitten into a bug. And with disgust dripping from his voice, he said something to the effect that the only response he had to anybody who would try to use this tragedy to make any kind of a point about gun control was "total loathing."
And he's right. So I don't feel good that I've let some of you prod me into having to defend my statement from last night that neither more guns on campus, nor fewer guns, would have made things any better. That some of y'all are sliming up this horrible but essentially random tragedy, that some of you are dragging your muddy political bootprints all over this while the corpses aren't even yet in the ground, that so many of you are so sick as to seek to twist this massacre into proof that your side should win in the literally pointless debate over gun control before even one family can bury their dead in peace, both sickens me and lowers my opinion of some of you. It lowers my opinion of your collective intelligence, too, because both arguments are so trivially disposed of that I'm having to struggle to maintain my faith in your sincerity -- or even your basic decency, your humanity. If you're one of the people who's been doing so, whether pro-gun or anti-gun, you should be ashamed of yourself.
<b>Fewer Guns Wouldn't Have Prevented the Massacre.</b> I'd like to thank <a href="http://xiphias.livejournal.com/">xiphias</a> for being the first to point out to me, in the replies to somebody else's journal posting, that while the Virginia Tech massacre is the worst school shooting in American history, it is only the second worst school massacre. The worst school massacre in American history was in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster">Bath Township, Michigan</a>, and its murderer used no guns at all, but instead a pair of bombs. It was in 1927, before the Depression even really began, when a farmer about to lose his farm because of rising property taxes decided to vent his wrath on the community by destroying the public building they were taking his farm to pay off, the local school. With the students still in it. He then waited at the scene, and made history as the first ever suicide car bomber, blowing up the first wave of would-be rescuers who rushed to the scene.
This is probably also a good time to remind you that it is, perhaps, a good thing that Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold had guns. They had not planned to shoot up Columbine High School. They had planned to level it, and to that end had planted two ill-designed propane bombs. Their original plan was to use the guns only to pick off any survivors of the blast that escaped the rubble, before killing each other. Had they not had guns, they might have come back another day with better bombs instead of wandering around shooting at random, and the death toll would probably have been substantially higher. I know that Seung Cho didn't do anything at Virginia Tech on Monday that he couldn't have done just as easily and even more effectively with a machete or a good kitchen knife and a couple of ordinary pipe bombs.
England's got pretty strict gun control, you know. During the Troubles, this caused neither the Irish Republican Army nor the Ulster militias any difficulty whatsoever whenever they got the urge to slaughter a large number of people in British-occupied Ireland, either. Oh, once in a rare while they used guns smuggled to them (depending on which side they were on) either from the British army or from sympathizers here in the US. But more often, they used explosives. It's also worth pointing out that, since we destroyed their government, Iraqis have had a Virginia-Tech-sized school massacre at least once a month for the last four years. Even though the Iraqi people are some of the most heavily armed in the world, even more heavily armed than your average American, none of their school massacres have involved guns, either. When al Qaeda wants to slaughter high school or college students, they use suicide bombers, just like at Bath Township, just like the Columbine killers tried to do. For that matter, when Timothy McVeigh decided to slaughter a ton of federal employees in Oklahoma City in revenge for the Waco massacre, he didn't need any guns to do it, either, remember? Just some ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a couple of barrels of diesel fuel, and a few blasting caps.
Throughout history, we've been lucky when the sickos take up guns rather than bombs; the bombers were the ones that produced the truly horrific death tolls. So you should count yourself lucky that Seung Cho had decided to buy two handguns when he was indulging his violent fantasies to himself over the last month or so, one of them a weeny little .22 that he probably didn't manage to kill anybody with, rather than the dynamite or pipe bombs or other improvised explosive devices he might have bought or built if he hadn't had guns.
<b>More Guns Wouldn't Have Prevented the Massacre, Either.</b> I grant that this case is a little harder to make, but the only reason that this isn't obvious is that too many of you have failed to think through what would have happened if some armed student had tried to use his own handgun to overpower Seung Cho. So let's roll back the clock to Monday morning, or roll it forward to the next school shooting, and pit Rampaging Killer against some hypothetical John Q. Student, both of them armed with handguns. It's 9:45 on a Monday morning, and it has slowly dawned on John that that banging noise down the hall isn't construction, but some guy with a gun and a ton of ammunition working his way from classroom to classroom. Or maybe John gets a text message on his phone from someone who tells him that there's a pistol-wielding maniac in a bullet-proof vest full of ammo heading his way. John, being a responsible type, draws his weapon, pulls the firing pin out of his wallet and resets it, removes the safety, chambers a round, and somehow miraculously gets this all done in time to draw a careful bead on the door, waiting for Rampaging Killer to enter. We will even give him the unlikely credit for having thought to look for the flak jacket and the gun, so he doesn't accidentally shoot any of his fellow students who are fleeing from the shooter into this room. So the door bangs open, and John Q. Student sees a flak jacket and a gun, and then one of only three possible things happens:
1. Remember that John Q. Student has not just spent the whole morning practicing shooting at real human beings. On the contrary, shooting at an actual human being is something that he's never done before. In fact, the odds against his having ever fired a pistol at any moving target are astronomical. Also, we know that John Q. Student has at least some humanitarian impulse, at least some urge to not shoot at people. I say this because, frankly, if he's been carrying this gun with him everywhere he goes for long enough that he happened to have it on him when he needed it, if he didn't have that hesitation to shoot another person, he would have shot somebody by now and would be in jail, not in a classroom waiting for Rampaging Killer. So I flatly guarantee you that he shoots late, and that he jerks the weapon when he shoots as his body reflexively tries to stop him from shooting someone, and the round goes completely wild. How can I guarantee this? Because this situation has come up over and over again since the invention of the gun, and it is what everybody except for a few combat veterans has done, the first time that they've fired a gun at a criminal. And that's if he fires the gun at all. In example after example, we have seen that what John Q. Student is much more likely to do is the stupidest thing he could possibly do: shout "drop the weapon" or yell "stop or I'll shoot" or fire a warning shot, wanting to give Rampaging Killer a chance to surrender. All that this achieves is to tell Rampaging Killer, now a practiced shooter, exactly where to aim. If Rampaging Killer hadn't made up his mind whether or not to shoot up this particular room, he does now, starting with emptying his clip at John and thereby gunning down everybody between John and the wall behind him, and everybody for three feet on either side.
2. Or else, when John Q. Student sees a flak jacket and a gun come through that door, he's thought of this possibility. Or maybe he's a combat veteran himself. So knowing better than to try to get Rampaging Killer to not shoot, he immediately opens fire the instant he has a target, and let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he shoots improbably accurately. Only guess what? More doors were banged open by the SWAT team, who covered more of the building looking for Rampaging Killer, than were banged open by Rampaging Killer. So the odds are that John Q. Student shoots Officer Friendly, and now we have at least one more corpse. And at least one more killer.
3. Or else maybe this particular John Q. Student is a combat veteran, and an Olympic quality pistol shot, and has faster reflexes than your average Olympic athlete and thinks faster and more clearly than any college aged student you've ever met in your life or that you ever will. So in the 1/10th of a second between when the flak jacket and gun crash through that door and when he would need to pull the trigger, he recognizes Officer Friendly's police uniform, and therefore holds his fire. Officer Friendly makes his combat entry into the room, sweeping his weapon across it in a practiced move, knowing that if Rampaging Killer is in the room and waiting for him then he absolutely must get a shot into Rampaging Killer fast or he's going to die. Officer Friendly sees John Q. Student's gun barrel, mistakes John Q. Student for Rampaging Killer, and empties an assault rifle into the area where John Q. Student is sitting, killing John, everybody within 3 feet either side of him, and everybody behind him for at least two rooms. Alas, Rampaging Killer was two floors away. Now we have an entire roomful of more victims.
No other outcome is even vaguely humanly possible. Frankly, if he had any impulse to fight the Rampaging Killer rather than to jump out a window or bar the door, John Q. Student would have been safer and just as effective if he had used his bare hands.
And to again draw the parallel to Iraq, I've read that virtually every adult male Iraqi owns an assault rifle, and has since long before Saddam was overthrown. If "more guns" are the solution to school violence, then why are the Iraqis having at least one Virginia-Tech-sized school massacre every month?
<b>So What Are the Politicians Supposed to Do?</b> Voters in a democracy are prone to an obnoxious fault: when something truly awful happens, they demand that every elected official do something about it, right now. It doesn't matter whether or not there is anything that elected official can do that would be at all useful. All that matters is that the voters see every politician prove that he or she cares about the same things the voters care about by doing something, however futile or counter-productive. So in a way, while it's sick and tragic and pointless and futile and stupid and inhumane to the families of the victims that we're having a gun control argument now, I suppose it is sadly inevitable. So what do I think the politicians should do to prevent the next massacre like the one at Virginia Tech instead of arguing about gun control? Nothing. Let's face facts. One third of the nation is mentally ill. Of that hundred million people, there are probably at least 10,000 who are sick, twisted loners who are total losers with their preferred sex, prone to stalkerish behavior, and altogether too fond of really sick violent imagery. Heck, I've known at least two of them personally. Every eight years or so, one of those 10,000 people goes off. And there is still no way to predict which of those 10,000 people are going to go off, and no way to coral or herd or manage or contain or even disarm those 10,000 sickos without setting even more of them off than already go off.
Learn elementary first aid, practice building evacuations, live a good and loving and full life, and if you have dependents pay your life insurance. Not because every eight years or so you have a one in 10,000,000 chance of being the victim of a rampaging mass murderer, but because you run a much higher probability of at least once in your life of being involved in some kind of random disaster, whether from dangerous weather, or other natural disaster, or a building fire, or an act of war, or any of a long long list of things that can go wrong in this life. Sometimes death just comes at random. Sometimes there just isn't anything useful we can do about that other than to do what you political carrion eaters aren't allowing us to quietly do instead of getting dragged into your pointless argument, and that's to comfort the survivors and rebuild.
* Mood: aggravated
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Original Source: <a href="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/328865.html">http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/328865.html</a>
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Virginia Tech: It's Not About Gun Control, and You're a Fool or a Monster If You Say It Is
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Sunday, April 22, 2007
Topics like these are always hard to approach. For some, the event holds particular weight, either because of their relationship with the victims, with the assailant, with the location where it takes place, or because of the events relationship with another similar incident.
The coverage of these events is usually the same. To provide the viewer with context- there is footage of the location from every possible angle, there are reporter stand-ups near the location providing a feeling of being well informed by the people "on the scene", there is video from security cams or other sources that allow an inside view of the event or of the lead up to it, and there is commentary, lots of commentary.
In these ways, as is the case with much of news today, the coverage of such events can be compared to the coverage of a sporting event: Heavy on filler, and light on actual content. As of today, it's been almost a week since the incident, and coverage of the shooting takes up a giant share of the programming schedules of networks. With less that four or five (if that) big stories running at the same time, it is in the forefront of the news audiences mind.
Like most tragedies, answers are what are sought after most, that and blame. And this is what takes up most of the coverage. There are investigations into the profile of the assailant, interviews by "experts" in the field, with witnesses, with family, with victims of other similar tragedies, with law enforcement, with neighbors, ad <b>nauseam</b>.
We watch all of this and assume that somehow there can be meaning found once all the pieces are known. That if enough time is spent on it, answers will be found, that proper blame will be placed, justice will be served. This is a false hope.
Tragedies like these happen all the time. Not all of them are covered. Not all of them are given the weight that The Virginia Tech Shooting has been given. This is not to belittle the severity of the situation, nor is it to undermine the pain that resonates from the news of such an event, or the loss of the survivors. What should be looked at however is how these events are covered in the news, and how it affects our understanding of them as a viewer.
The news media does a great job of drawing connections between events in order to apply meaning. This event is connected with the Columbine shooting, as it is also a mass shooting in a school. Connections are drawn between the fear of terrorism, and the fear of an unexpected terror. The words "Terror", and "Terrorist" are thrown around wantonly. Particular weight is given to the assailant's status as an American, drawing further connections to the fears of an attack by a foreigner. It is put into the temporal context as being "the deadliest shooting in American History" or it is given by some news agencies even more gravity by being called a "Massacre", a "deadly rampage". What does it mean to be the "Deadliest", is the loss of ten victims more profound then thirty, or one? How many victims are required for it to be counted as a massacre? Are there particular characteristics that make a shooting a rampage, instead of a methodical series of executions? There is no litmus test for tragedy outside of personal experience.
These titles are nothing more than advertising slogans and marketing catch phrases. They are designed to draw the audience in, to get them to pay closer attention to the coverage of one report over another, to boost viewer-ship and ratings. To help fill this content, the lions share of programming time is given to interviews with the "experts", the press conference, and news releases after the fact. Officials stand in front of a dozen microphones twice a day, stating that they have "no further information at this time" and "those questions can't be answered during an ongoing investigation". But some news outlets are quick to point fingers. To cast blame. Somehow talk show celebrities like Dr. Phil are considered experts into the mind of a killer by CNN, and is constantly referred to in order to gain insight into how this could happen, when in reality his role is one of familiarity. Dr. Phil is placed in front of the camera to draw in the viewer ship of his entire constituency. For countless American viewers, he is a trusted face that could help bring meaning to such an event.
Witnesses are interviewed hours after the event. "How does it feel to be one of the only survivors?", "How did you escape?", "How does this affect you? These questions, while apparently directed to the witness, are really directed to the audience placing themselves in the survivor's shoes. "How would I handle this?" is the question. How can I learn from this? The reporter leans in and asks the obvious- "have you talked to anybody about this yet, are you seeking professional help?" Obviously not yet, they are in front of the camera. They are prevented from recovery so that the audience can gain catharsis and false closure instead.
What is missed in all this is that we are all being exploited in some way in order to boost ratings and sell advertising space. The coverage is excessive, bordering on irresponsible. People are pulled out of the woodwork, their lives interrupted so that we can know what it was like to be in elementary school with someone who grows up to be a killer. We see a mother of a child who murdered dozens and then killed himself, and wonder why she is stunned and despondent. We "talk" to "experts" who say this is a gun control issue, that everyone should be armed. We hear from security experts who say it's because of a lack of police and security presence, and other similar people who are pushing their own agenda, not helping to inform on the subject.
The audience wants to know what is happening out there. They want to know when they should be legitimately worried about something, and this is what they get instead; hyperbole, speculation, grandstanding and sensationalism.
One particular interview strikes a nerve. A criminologist was being interviewed on a major network, and was asked how this could happen. Is it video game violence, easy access to guns, copycat crimes, bad parenting? The criminologist dismissed these easy scapegoats and answered in the only rational way anyone could. He said, that it is a combination of factors. Not every one is predisposed to criminal behavior like this, but under the wrong conditions an unstable mind can be pushed to commit horrendous things.
The real problem is that the system is such that someone this unstable could slip through the cracks and not get the care and attention that they need to heal. The problem is the focus on violence in media after the fact, not before it happens. The problem is a society who would sooner cast blame on others than take care of their own, or that would blame lax immigration laws that would allow for someone like this to get into the country, instead of diligently pushing for a system where those with emotional and mental problems get help. But ultimately the problem is that no real meaning can be found in a situation like this. No matter how many laws are in place, or police are around, or security checkpoints we have, a troubled mind left unchecked, will find a way to follow through with their plan. The news agencies and the commentators will be standing by, ready to add their opinion to the pile, without ever providing solutions to the core societal problems that allow tragedies to unfold. The sound-bytes will search for meaning in a meaningless action. The viewer will tune in to try and add meaning to their understanding of the situation, drawing from the only resources that they have. The advertisers will reap the rewards of our attention.
Change must take place in the way these types of things are covered in the news so that people can help to identify those that need our help before extremes of desperation are reached. A change in the way we look at tragedy must take place before meaning can be found. Tragedy and our fear of it must not be exploited for the profit by the news. We as the audience must demand more than empty rhetoric and facile coverage and questioning, bold red headlines and somber musical montages of mourners. We must demand more, of ourselves and of the news.
Posted by nickdigital2.0 at 5:01 PM
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Original Source: <a href="http://alifelessmediated.blogspot.com/2007/04/news-coverage-of-va-tech-shooting.html">http://alifelessmediated.blogspot.com/2007/04/news-coverage-of-va-tech-shooting.html</a>
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News Coverage of the VA tech Shooting
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<p>April 16, 2007</p>
<p>It's been a dizzying day taking in the horrible news from Virginia Tech, just a few hours west of DC, with at least 30 people on campus killed by a lone gunman. I spent a good part of the morning running back and forth between NPR's digital media department, the offices of Talk of the Nation, and the central hub space shared by NPR's news team during emergencies.</p>
<p>Now that I've had a chance to sit on the train, head back home from work, and think about what happened today, I'm already angered by one bit of news I hadn't considered earlier in the day: that approximately two hours passed between the first shooting incident and the later massacre in the classrooms. During that time, it appears that almost no communications went out, apart from several mass email informing students of a shooting incident earlier in the day. The first email went out just before 9:30am, just after the final shootings began in the classrooms:</p>
<blockquote>Subject: Shooting on campus.
"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.
"The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411
"Stay attuned to the http://www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information."</blockquote>
<p>This was followed by several other emails:</p>
<blockquote>Second email sent at 9:50 a.m.:
Subject: PLease stay put
"A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows"
Third email sent at 10:17 a.m.:
Subject: All Classes Canceled; Stay where you are
"Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus."
Fourth email sent at 10:53 a.m.:
Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody
"In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.
"Police and EMS are on the scene.
"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.
"All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice.
"All entrances to campus are closed."</blockquote>
<p>If the gunman was at large, why on earth wasn't the campus in lock-down mode sooner? Why didn't they have any other form of mass broadcast, apart from the campus-wide email?</p>
<p>At minimum, the campus should have had an emergency PA system. I don't care if you want to use shootings or tornados or any other excuse for making the investment, but every campus in America should have a basic PA system for any potential civic emergency.</p>
<p>And I know I've said this each time a disaster has happened over the last couple of years, but why the hell don't we have an emergency SMS broadcasting tool that can be used to send warnings to every cell phone in a given area or to a given group? Please don't take this as yet another pitch for people to use Twitter or Jaiku or Mozes, because frankly I don't care what tool people use, as long as it's reliable, easy to manage and secure - and Twitter doesn't exactly meet those needs yet. It's a start, but there's a long way to go.</p>
<p>Back during the Boxing Day Tsunami, the Swedish government was able to get the local phone companies to send an SMS broadcast to every one of their subscribers whose phones had recently sent out a signal emanating from Southeast Asia. While they weren't able to do it in time to save lives, it made a major difference in tracking down who survived and who didn't. If they're able to figure out a way to do that, why can't we figure out a way to allow schools and municipalities here in the US to send out emergency SMS broadcasts? There's no way I can know for sure, of course, but I would surmise that almost every student and faculty member injured or killed today had a cell phone on them when they were attacked. Imagine the difference a single text message could have made.</p>
<p>We can wait and see if some dot-com company can come up with a tool that could be jury-rigged for such purposes. Or we could get off our asses and make the necessary investments to develop an serious SMS broadcasting tool specifically designed for emergencies, both for warning the public and coordinating first responders. How many more disasters will it take before we do take the necessary action? -andy</p>
<p>Posted by acarvin at April 16, 2007 6:33 PM</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Original source: <a href="http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2007/04/we_need_emergency_sms_broadcasting_tools.html">http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2007/04/we_need_emergency_sms_broadcasting_tools.html</a></p>
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We Need Emergency SMS Broadcasting Tools NOW!
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Monday, April 16, 2007
I broke down and turned on CNN to check out coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. I see there and elsewhere, without really knowing the details from this morning's mayhem, that the media are turning to the question of what it all means. With the help of sociologists, CNN bloviator in chief Lou Dobbs is going to scrutinize school shootings.
It's an unspeakable tragedy, of course, and what will come to distinguish it will be the awful, heartbreaking details to be revealed over the hours and days to come. But really: does this tell us anything about any aspect of our society that we didn't know before this morning? Or before Columbine? Or the Killeen, Texas, massacre? Or Oliver James Huberty's slaughter of the innocents at the San Ysidro McDonald's. Go ahead and jump in -- you can all think of an incident that fits.
I'm not sure what any of these killings says, by the way, beyond the obvious: how violent the society is, how efficient firearms are at doing what they're designed to do. But regardless of the meaning, to me, these have come part of the landscape we live in, a little like earthquakes in California. You know they're coming; you know they could be devastating; but you never know when it's going to happen.
Of course, unlike earthquakes, in theory, at least, there's the hope we might be able to do something to stop random massacres. After every one, there's lots and lots of talk; Lou Dobbs and his sociologists. Then -- then we move on, till the next time.
Posted by Dan Brekke at 03:15 PM
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Original Source: <a href="http://infospigot.typepad.com/infospigot_the_chronicles/2007/04/force_of_nature.html">http://infospigot.typepad.com/infospigot_the_chronicles/2007/04/force_of_nature.html</a>
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Force of Nature
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William Bishop
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Monday, April 16, 2007
My heart and prayers go out to all of the families involved in the senseless shootings at Virginia Tech. My understanding is that 33 individuals lost their lives in the massacre. What a tragedy! There is noting I can do or say that will make things any easier for those involved. I'm sure that we will hear gun control advocates ranting and raving about this unfortunate event demanding stricter gun control laws, but the gun(s) didn't do the killing, an individual pulled the trigger. Most likely, a very troubled individual planned and carried out the killings without remorse.
I have been keeping up with the reports all day and I have heard various takes on the situation. A lawyer was interviewed and suggested that the person that did the killing probably played games like "Grand Theft Auto." Personally, I don't see the validity of such games in the first place. I have a much easier time justifying gun ownership than I do allowing such games to be sold in mainstream America. What do they teach our children?
My wife and I were discussing these type games and she said that she had 4th graders that were already playing them. I can't imagine allowing a 4th grader to play such a game. 4th graders are not mature enough to play them. I'm not mature enough to play them nor do I have the desire. And the really bad thing is that when she asked how they got these games, some said that their parents bought them. I don't understand this. I just think that these violent immoral games hurt our society and as a result individuals place little or no value on human life. How sad!
Fantasy games even the violent ones are just that fantasy. They do not resemble any form of true reality. I can justify these fantasy games with magic and dragons. I even like playing some of them. But these fantasy games are a far cry from games like "Hit Man" or "Grand Theft Auto". I don't foresee anyone turning into a dragon and devouring a class of innocent students. But I also believe in the freedom that our nation was founded on. As such, where do we draw the line? I just don't have the answers and I'm heartbroken about the entire event.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter if we are for gun control or banning violent video games. Neither will bring back the students that lost their lives today. It's just all too ugly! What an unfortunate day! Once again, my heart and my prayers go out to the families. God Bless Them All!
William Bishop (Bill)
Technorati Tags: school_violence, shooting, videogames, virginiatech, lostjohns
posted by WBishop at 4/16/2007 07:21:00 PM
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Original Source: <a href="http://lostjohns.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-massacre.html">http://lostjohns.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-massacre.html</a>
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Virginia Tech Massacre
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Posted by Helena Cobban at April 16, 2007 04:33 PM
Tragedy has <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6560685.stm">struck</a> the community at Virginia Tech, our state's "other" fine flagship university, which is located around 120 miles southwest of my hometown, Charlottesville.
Apparently a single gunman went on a rampage there earlier today and killed at least 30 members of the university community-- most likely, most of them students.
Obviously, this is a truly horrible blow for all members of the community there.
Equally obviously, we know that communities throughout Iraq have been suffering blows as huge as this one-- or on occasions, even larger blows-- on a daily or almost daily basis throughout the past 3-4 years. Many communities in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from gun violence on this scale, too. And last week, Algeria, in North Africa, was the scene of two extremely lethal suicide bombings...
Can we all unite in grief together, and in sad wonder at the senselessness of ultra-lethal weapons and the tragedy of their widespread availability and use in many different parts of the world?
Can we unite in sad wonder at the depth of alienation and hopelessness that leads some people to engage in mass killings, even sometimes to the point of throwing their own lives into the project, as well?
Can we unite with a commitment to support, help, and try to repair all those bereaved by these and other acts of violence?
Can we unite around a strengthened commitment never ourselves to resort to violence, and to redouble our search for the nonviolent ways that <u>always do exist</u> to resolve any differences among us as humans?
I have only been to Virginia Tech once. It was a magical half-day I spent there, in the summer of 2005. The Friends General Conference (FGC), which is the main body of 'liberal' north American Quakers, was holding its annual summer gathering in a small part of Tech's beautiful campus, which is built from flinty blue-grey stone in the incredibly beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I wasn't a participant in the gathering, but I made a special trip there one evening to spend a few hours with my dear friend Misty Gerner, who was then in a fairly advanced stage of her cancer. Misty, her husband, and I walked around the beautiful lawns a bit, and had dinner at a small nearby restaurant. Then Phil (the husband) left Misty and me alone a while. We walked and talked a whole lot more. She was wracked with bouts of pretty intense physical pain but her spirit was radiant.
I prefer to remember Tech's campus as the place where I talked with Misty on that sunny evening about life, death, love, God, justice, peace, and the Middle East... She died last summer. Maybe a little part of her still hovers over the Tech campus. If so I hope she can help to comfort the many shocked and bereaved people there today.
God forgive us all for having let the spirit of violence permeate our communities and animate our actions to this extent.
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Original Source: <a href="http://justworldnews.org/archives/002479.html">http://justworldnews.org/archives/002479.html</a>
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Tragedy at Virginia Tech
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steppen wolf
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2007-05-21
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<p>Tuesday, April 17, 2007</p>
<p>Listening to the Virginia Memorial, and all I hear is: "God-given", "God bless you", "community", "strength", "prayers", "family", "sanctuary", "violated', and of course, here come the leaders of the religious communities: "children of Adam and Eve", "singularity" (yes, unbelievable), "non-violence" (thank the buddhists), "faith", "darkness of Evil", "light", "seductive temptation" etc. The Memorial really turned into a sermon.</p><p>But that's enough. I am here to try and compare the reactions, as seen in media from different continents, to the events of Virginia Tech. A reaction where it is easy to notice how, on different sides of the Earth, people are really interpreting (or trying to convince others to interpret) the story in radically different ways. Forgive me this, but you can see framing at work in crisis communications like you never see it at any other time. Here are the main points of view - soem of which are quite disturbing:<p><b>"The Loner"</b>: now, since when mentally-ill people have become "loners"? However, this is how the 23-year-old responsible for yesterday's killings has been named by - well, basically most of the people who have been asked to talk about him, and subsequently by most media outlets?</p><blockquote>Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech, said: "He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him." (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6563565.stm">BBC</a>/<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266582,00.html">Fox News</a>)</blockquote>
<p>I could not find this on the Korea Herald article though - I wonder why.</p><p><b>"The sick American hater"</b>: not stated with these words, but this is how I could refrase a sentence like this:</p><p id="quote">The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service. News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus. (<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266582,00.html">Fox News</a>)</p>
<p>Very different is the report on the BBC (which from the very beginning tried to omit information that could encourage racial hatred):</p><p id="quote">US media reported that a "disturbing" note had been found in Cho Seung-hui's dormitory, and that he had been referred for counselling after producing "troubled" work in his creative writing class. (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6563565.stm">BBC</a>)</p>
<p>Let me say something: I have been watching the news, and all I saw was Caucasian students crying. All I could read were comments coming from Caucasian American-born (at least that is what I can deduce from the names) students. The dead killer seems to be the only "Asian oddball" (ironically speaking, of course) on campus - now no more. That is an illusion created by the media. You really have to search and look to find some facts on international student presence on the Virginia Tech campus:</p><p id="quote">Only 7 percent of the more than 26,000 students at Virginia Tech are foreign, according to the school web site. But Chinese undergraduate and graduate students comprise nearly a third of that. (<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266509,00.html">Fox News</a>)</p>
<p>Now, if you calculate, that means that about 1,820 students at Virginia Tech are in fact international students, and that about 607 are Chinese (therefore "Asian-looking"). Why have I not seen any interviews with these students? What are their reactions to a fellow international's debacle? Can they suggest what problems he might have had (such as a strong cultural shock associated with a pre-existent - or triggered - mental illness)? Why maybe he was "a loner"?</p><p>I have plenty of experience with international students and their challenges, being one myself. Some peers, especially the ones of Asian descent, seem to be having more problems. In my university, there are about 10% of internationals, and maybe half of them, if not more, are Chinese. A quite smaller chunk are South Koreans. Our university, just like VTech, has some form of international student services - VTech is more advanced apparently, as they have an <a href="http://www.uusa.vt.edu/cranwell/programsclasses.shtml">International Centre</a>, which also offers advising services to international students. However, having worked with many of them, I can tell that often such services are inadequate, and "loneliness" (as well as heavy cultural shock) are not infrequent problems reported even (or maybe even more) by students who used such services.</p><p>Moreover: what about the mentions of debauchery? I have seen it myself - and it ain't always pleasant. When I used to live on residence, I remember drunk (or drugged) people coming down from my roof at about 2 AM. They crushed on the path below, laughed, and went away. Loud parties, where booze and drugs are abundant, are a norm on residence. Should we limit them? No, but we need to help people who are not used to this kind of situation. And with the international student population growing on North American campuses growing, we might want to think about them.</p><p><b>"The forgotten issue in American media: gun control"</b>: to find this, you need to visit forums on non-U.S. media websites, and check articles on international news outlets to see how this is an important issue related to the V Tech massacre.</p><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="http://www.april16archive.org/archive/fullsize/_42811311_firearms_deaths3_203gr.gif"></p>
<p id="quote">The risk of being killed by a firearm in the US is higher than in any other Western nation. Of countries outside war zones, the risk is greatest in South Africa, according to a United Nations report. (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6562529.stm">BBC</a>)</p>
<p id="quote">"No society that feeds its children on tales of succesful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded" Margaret Mead. A society that feels the need to arm itself with lethal weapons for protection from society, is no society at all. It's all about fear. Steve, Livingston, <a href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=6121&&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&edition=2&ttl=20070417193257">Recommended by 49 people</a></p>
<p>Apparently, the rest of the world can see that, no matter the pain a mentally ill young person goes through (and which, given the killer's past action, must have been significant), access to automatic army-type weapons, deregulation of access to weapons, and the U.S. "gun culture" really are the main cause behind - classroom - shootings.</p><p>Posted by steppen wolf at 11:43 AM</p><p>--</p><p>Original Source: <a href="http://skeptalchemist.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-massacre-in-media-sermons.html">http://skeptalchemist.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-massacre-in-media-sermons.html</a></p><p>Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada</a></p>
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the virginia tech massacre in the media: sermons and loners
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Friday, April 27, 2007
Early Monday morning Toronto, April 16; very nice day, it's spring at last - you can feel it in the air - maybe the oxygen levels are up a little - there's a craziness in the air, a frenetic kind of feeling...
I punched the computer; threw on the radio; and began to create coffee.
I prime my story-writing brain with <a href="http://www.npr.org/">National Public Radio</a>; but soon the voices will be in the back of my head, and I'll be blogging down a pathway in search of a twig.
The twig appeared on NPR, news at 10:00; a shooting at Virginia Tech, a lock-down, nothing more...
I have been interested in the phenomena of the serial and mass murderers since the 1970's - when a peer of mine took a hunting rifle to school in a nearby town.
In the early eighties <a href="http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/memorial2?q=Elliott%20Leyton&domains=mun.ca&sitesearch=mun.ca">Elliott</a> <a href="http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/memorial2?q=Elliott+Leyton&domains=mun.ca&sitesearch=mun.ca">Leytons </a>excellent work, 'Hunting Humans' came out; and I gave it a read. I have followed the science of profiling with interest ever since. The most strange and distorted individuals, sometimes offer the most interesting reflections of a culture.
The X-files, the 1990's TV series, starred David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, FBI profiler. The shows writers used up-to-date theory and research to punch up the script. One of my favorites.
I knew right away this was my twig - I also knew this was going to be a lousy day. As a writer though, it would be a rewarding one.
I knew a fast breaking story like this one could change the way news is consumed. In the San Francisco earthquake of 1989, CNN went live for at least 12 hours (I feel asleep), until the next morning. It was the first time a network had done this kind of news coverage. CNN's next big gig was the 1991 war with Iraq. Brought to you live; with the CNN correspondent sending video as American Bombs rained down around him; and anti-aircraft tracer fire lit the sky at mid-night.These two events took CNN from small player to a major in the news business.
Now perhaps the Internet was about to experience a similar metamorphosis.
My plan was to watch a national story unfold in real time on the Internet, and write about the experience.
So I click on my FireFox icon, and Boolean search: Virginia + Tech + Blogs.
I've found the 'Blog 'O' Sphere' is a good place to find citizen journalists close to the scene as a story is breaking - like Baghdad Blogger in 2003 and the Blogs out of Beirut, under Israeli siege in the summer of 2006.
Interesting, No Bloggers, No MySpace...
List, List, List. Common thread, come on. What's common other than VTech?
Facebook! Everyone at Virginia Tech is on Facebook!
So I joined.
Apparently, so did a '<a href="http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=facebook.com/">million</a>' other people.
I'm exploring its Web 2.0 possibilities now.
Yin & Yang, Dam Yin & Yang.
mh
Posted by Michael Holloway at 4/27/2007 06:55:00 PM
Original Source: <a href="http://filter--blog.blogspot.com/2007/04/fun-facebook-rises-out-of-tragedy-at.html">http://filter--blog.blogspot.com/2007/04/fun-facebook-rises-out-of-tragedy-at.html</a>
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Fun Facebook in Juxtaposition with Virginia Tech Tragedy
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