Virginia Tech
Por Pierre Lemieux
23 de abril de 2007
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg), Columbine (Colorado), Polytechnique (Canadá), Dunblane (Escocia), Jonesboro (Arkansas), Nickel Mines (Pensilvania), y Dawson College (Canadá). ¿Qué tienen en común todas estas trágicas matanzas masivas de estudiantes y escolares? La respuesta no es obvia.
Lo que resulta obvio, para aquellos de nosotros que vemos más allá de los titulares, es que las matanzas masivas eran inusuales cuando las armas se encontraban fácilmente disponibles, pero se han incrementado a medida que las armas se han vuelto más controladas.
A comienzos del siglo 20, las armas estaban fácilmente disponibles para la gente común en todos los paÃses civilizados, incluida Inglaterra, Canadá, los Estados Unidos y Francia. En muchos casos, los individuos podÃan portarlas ocultas libremente. Pero todo eso ha cambiado.
La masacre de Dunblane en Escocia en 1996, por ejemplo, la cual se cobró las vidas de 16 niños, ocurrió en un paÃs donde, tras siete décadas de crecientes controles sobre las armas, se habÃa vuelto muy difÃcil para los ciudadanos comunes poseer armas, especialmente pistolas, e ilegal portarlas virtualmente en cualquier lugar.
De manera similar, los tiroteos en el Dawson College en Canadá en 2006 acontecieron después de 15 años de controles sobre las armas cada vez más rÃgidos, que tornan ilegal incluso portar armas en su propia propiedad. En los Estados Unidos, donde la mayorÃa de las trágicas balaceras han ocurrido, los controles federales sobre las armas se han incrementado prácticamente de manera continua desde los años 60. Ninguna de las masacres fue perpetrada por personas a las que se les permitió legalmente tener armas allà donde cometieron sus crÃmenes, y muchas de las matanzas tuvieron lugar en "zonas libres de armas" por disposición gubernamental.
Lo cierto, tal como nos recuerda la tragedia en Blacksburg, es que resulta imposible estar totalmente protegidos por la policÃa contra los maniáticos criminales, excepto convirtiendo a la sociedad en una prisión. No obstante, un importante interrogante precisa formularse. ¿Qué tal si alguno de los estudiantes o profesores hubiese estado armado en Virginia Tech, una universidad donde las armas se encuentran vedadas?
Resulta interesante que un proyecto de ley que hubiese permitido a los estudiantes y empleados portar pistolas en los campos universitarios de Virginia fue rechazado en la Asamblea General del estado a comienzos de este año. El vocero de Virginia Tech Larry Hincker elogió el rechazo: "Estoy seguro de que la comunidad universitaria está agradecida de las acciones de la Asamblea General en virtud de que esto ayudará a que los padres, estudiantes, profesores y visitantes se sientan seguros en nuestro predio". ¿Y ahora qué?
Cuando se le preguntó en una conferencia de prensa después de la matanza qué puede hacerse para garantizar la seguridad del campo universitario, el Presidente de la Virginia Tech Charles Steger señaló que no hay manera de colocar a un guardia de seguridad en cada aula o dormitorio. Eso es muy cierto.
Pero contrapónganse los horripilantes tiroteos de Virginia Tech con la matanza de enero de 2002 en la Appalachian Law School de Virginia. A pocos minutos de disparar a tres personas en la oficina del decano, el contrariado estudiante Peter Odighizuwa fue detenido por dos estudiantes que habÃan sacado pistolas de sus automóviles. Desarmaron al asesino y lo entregaron a la policÃa.
Obviamente, cuando personas están resueltas a masacrar a estudiantes indefensos, no existe ninguna panacea segura.
Sin embargo, debe haber un motivo por el cual tales matanzas no han ocurrido en sitios como la University of Utah, donde la gente que cuenta con licencia para portar armas puede llevarlas al campo universitario, incluidos los edificios de la universidad. DeberÃa haber un motivo por el cual el asesino del Dawson College, quien tenÃa un automóvil y aparentemente ninguna razón especial para tomar como blanco a esa escuela en particular, no se dirigió en cambio a la Escuela Nacional de PolicÃa, a unas 100 millas de Montreal, donde todos los estudiantes están armados.
Necesitamos tener una visión más amplia. Algo más que la baja probabilidad de ser detenido antes de cometer tanto daño debe estar en juego. Hace algunas décadas, la mayorÃa de la gente, incluidos los jóvenes revoltosos, y tal vez incluso la mayorÃa de los criminales, se encontraban bajo ciertas restricciones morales a las que estaban abochornados de quebrantar. Desde esa época, estas restricciones se han desmoronado, siendo reemplazadas por un nihilismo post modernista y la pesada mano del gobierno.
Siempre han existido maniáticos auto engañados quienes, a efectos de buscar solaz y fama, causan destrucción. Asà era Eróstrato quien, en 356 A.C., y precisamente por esta razón, incendió el Templo de Artemisa en Efeso, una de las Siete Maravillas del Mundo. Sin embargo, dudo seriamente que hubiese asesinado a escolares o jóvenes mujeres, aún si hubiese tenido la facultad de hacerlo.
Mientras toleremos una cultura de dependencia en un estado niñera, en el cual las personas sean tratadas como niños, desarmadas e imposibilitadas de protegerse asà mismos, las absurdas matanzas masivas continuarán, y tal vez aumentarán.
Traducido por Gabriel Gasave
<b>Pierre Lemieux</b> es co-director del Economics and Liberty Research Group en la University of Quebec en Outaouais y un Investigador Asociado en The Independent Institute en Oakland, California.
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Fuente Original: El Instituto Independiente
<a href="http://independent.typepad.com/elindependent/2007/04/virginia_tech.html">http://independent.typepad.com/elindependent/2007/04/virginia_tech.html</a>
Pierre Lemieux
2007-08-02
Elva Orozco
Gabriel Gasave
Reasearch Analyst
Center On Global Prosperity
The Independent Institute
ggasave@independent.org
August 2, 2007
spa
Shootings don’t call for unreasonable security
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Section: Editorial Section
Christian Alexandersen, Senior Staff Writer
As I write this column, I, like most people in the world, am in disbelief of the terrible shootings that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus that claimed the lives of at least 33 people.
First and foremost, I want to say that the thoughts and prayers of everyone at West Virginia University go out to everyone affected by the shootings at Virginia Tech. Words cannot begin to describe the pain and sorrow all college students are feeling on the worst day in our college careers.
While this is now the worst public shooting ever to occur in the nation's history, it is the responsibility of college students, faculty and staff everywhere to act responsibly following these tragic events.
Directly after the shooting at Columbine High School in April 1999, schools all over the country began instituting extremely strict policies to deter future acts of violence in American schools. Growing up in the post-Columbine school system, students today remember the heightened security measures that were taken.
Superintendents everywhere were no longer allowing students to carry backpacks around schools or go out for lunch.
While it is impossible to know if those new precautions actually deterred anyone from shooting people in school, one of the most important lessons to take from both the Columbine and Virginia Tech shootings is that no matter the security precautions you take, nothing can stop a killer.
It is crucial for WVU as well as all other colleges and universities around the country to act accordingly following the Virginia Tech massacre. However, higher learning institutions should not make unnecessary and costly security upgrades because of an isolated incident at Virginia Tech.
During a press conference, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said, "(We) can't have an armed guard in front of every classroom." When asked if the campus had enough security to protect their students, Steger said, "It's very difficult because we are an open society and an open campus."
Other than the shooting that occurred at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, there has not been an event that can compare to the one that occurred on Monday.
Hopefully, school presidents will comprehend that placing metal detectors, instituting increased security or having people rummaging through our belongings is not the answer.
Unfortunately, there are no remedies for tragic events like this.
The only thing universities and colleges can do is take minor precautions to protect their students, faculty and staff. If Sept. 11 has taught us anything, it is that people who want to cause violence will find a way to do it. Wasting thousands or even millions of dollars on security upgrades is not going to solve anything.
I am not saying, however, that precautions should not be taken at all; I am simply saying that adding SWAT teams to patrol campuses is unnecessary. ID scans and similar campus precautions are good ideas and should be considered by all institutions.
Though the shootings at Virginia Tech are tragic and terrible, we have to remember to act sensibly and not rashly. Being prepared for situations like this is important, but we have to remember that this isolated incident is not an excuse to allow college presidents to overreact and start spending money on frivolous security measures.
Once again, I want to say that the thoughts and prayers of every West Virginia University student, faculty and staff member are with the people at Virginia Tech.
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Original Source: The Daily Athenaeum
<a href="http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27552">http://www.da.wvu.edu/show_article.php?&story_id=27552</a>
Christian Alexandersen
2008-02-18
Kacey Beddoes
Leann Ray <Leann.Ray@mail.wvu.edu>
eng
Controlling the threat
In my opinion
By: Elon Glucklich | Opinion Editor
Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: Commentary
The list of communities stricken by gun violence rings out like a grim roll call - it's best left out of mind, if possible. But now there is no such luxury; we find it back in the spotlight, following last week's tragic shooting on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.
People raised around here know this all too well. In 1998 Kip Kinkel, then 15, walked into the Thurston High School cafeteria in Springfield with a semiautomatic rifle. By the time he was apprehended, he had killed two students and left 25 wounded.
In Blacksburg, VA, 33 people are dead, and an entire community finds itself grappling with feelings of grief and shock. And I sit here, 3,000 miles away, trying to sort through it all for some meaning. I could recount the tragedy, minute by minute. I could try to psychoanalyze the shooter - look into his past and try to figure out what drove him to such a depraved act. But what good would that do? All that there is to say has already been said. Besides, none of it really matters. He and 32 of his classmates are dead because of his actions. Nothing is going to change that.
But have times changed? Look at the past ten years: Springfield, Columbine, Colo., Red Lake, Minn., Lancaster, Calif. and a slew of others are still fresh in the nation's mind. Now, as members of the Virginia Tech community try to sort through their anger and pain, the rest of the country begins to ask questions. Are there too many guns on the street? Are we in the midst of an irreversible moral decline? Should we prepare for more incidents like this? Certainly it will happen again. When, where and to what capacity is anyone's guess, but it will happen again.
In the meantime, we must not be afraid to ask these difficult questions - questions that cut through the unbridled emotions of the present in hopes of finding some reason, some underlying cause as to why this happened, and how such an event can be prevented in the future. Every incident of this kind has two main components: The unstable individual and the weapon. Determining who has the capacity to take lives is nearly impossible. Furthermore, when a potential shooter decides they no longer have the will to live, there's really no stopping them. I mean, how do you deter someone who, like Seung-Hui Cho, has already embraced death?
The answer: You take away their guns. Of course, that answer raises a whole new set of questions. In the wake of this tragedy, some advocates have renewed their efforts to bring the gun control issue back into the spotlight. But gun rights advocates, led by the National Rifle Association and backed by the Second Amendment, have been quick to counter. Their argument is that gun control legislation will leave our criminals as the only ones with weapons.
But when you examine Cho's mental history (he was deemed "an imminent danger" to himself and others as recently as 2005), and the ease with which he came to legally obtain a 9 mm Glock and a .22-caliber pistol, it becomes clear that more stringent gun control is needed. Besides, what exactly defines a criminal? Cho wasn't a criminal when he walked to the pawnshop across the street from the Virginia Tech campus and purchased that .22. What we need are more thorough background checks to ensure that criminals are not the only people exempt from buying weapons; people with the capacity to resort to criminal acts must be exempt, too. And yet, as the Second Amendment and its unwavering supporters make abundantly clear, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
The Second Amendment used to make a lot of sense. When I say "used to" I mean about 200 years ago. The United States of America was a lot different back then. Its inhabitants lived under the constant threat of conquest: England and France occupied land to the north, the Spanish lay in the south, and all around were Native Americans; it's easy to see why an early American's life was steeped in fear.
I guess, in a lot of ways, we're just like those early Americans. We're all just as scared. But while our early ancestors lived in fear of outsiders, we fear each other. This is a different America we're living in. We don't like to admit it, but the rugged individualism that defined our frontier forefathers is largely a thing of the past. Still, many choose to cling to this old mentality - a mentality so interwoven with gun obsession that the two are practically indistinguishable.
In the meantime, the guns are still here. And the violence is still here. Complaining about them isn't going to make either go away - especially when a lot of people believe the answer to stopping gun violence is to give people more guns. Maybe we as a society are just desensitized to guns. Maybe we need to re-sensitize ourselves.
eglucklich@dailyemerald.com
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Original Source: Daily Emerald
<a href="http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215.shtml">http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215.shtml</a>
<a href="http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215-page2.shtml">http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215-page2.shtml</a>
Elon Glucklich
2008-02-19
Kacey Beddoes
Judy Riedl <jriedl@uoregon.edu>
eng
NIU has several examples to follow for Cole’s future
Photo:
Photo by ALAN LEON | RRSTAR.COM
Six huskies and flowers are set up as a memorial in front of Cole Hall on Feb. 22, 2008, on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
Story:
Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman
GateHouse News Service
Mon Feb 25, 2008, 02:36 PM EST
As officials at Northern Illinois University prepare for the return of 25,000 students this week, they have announced only one decision about the scene of the shootings.
The building where a gunman killed five students and then himself on Feb. 14, Cole Hall, will remain closed this semester. Space has been found in other campus buildings to move all classes from the two large lecture halls in Cole.
What happens afterward is the subject of speculation. Some students say they could never go back into the building and could not concentrate on academics if they did. Some suggest Cole be turned into a memorial. Others say that despite the tragedy,
NIU cannot afford to raze a classroom building in an era of declining state support.
Officials say they haven't discussed the future of Cole. Cherilyn Murer, who chairs the
NIU board of trustees, said she doesn't know what will be done after this semester.
Murer said the options include resuming classes, transforming it for some other use or closing it permanently. But it's too early to say, Murer said.
"It's only been a week," she said. "Right now, the emotions are so raw that it would be premature to make a decision about what we'll do with that building."
Another trustee, Barbara Giorgi Vella of Rockford, expects there won't be serious discussion of what to do with Cole until summer. At that point, she said, financial constraints have to be taken into consideration, along with the feelings of students and staff.
Busy building
Cole Hall, where nearly every undergraduate has at least one class, is one of the largest classroom buildings on campus, with two auditoriums seating what students estimate to be 250 people each.
The idea of closing the building permanently is circulating on campus but doesn't seem practical to Justin Weaver of Beloit, an NIU sophomore.
"Given that NIU already has issues in terms of space, even though it seems appropriate to close it forever given the tragic events that happened there, it still seems foolish," Weaver said.
"When I looked at the schedule for reassigning classes, it was staggering how many classes are held in Cole Hall," Weaver said. "You can't duplicate that space."
There are labs in the Cole Hall basement and one, for journalism students, is the best-equipped on campus for that kind of work, Weaver said.
As for changing the atmosphere inside the building, Weaver also takes a practical approach.
"The only thing that can change Cole Hall is time," he said. "As people at NIU graduate, new people will come in. They will know what happened but they weren't there and they won't feel the gravity quite as much."
McHenry senior Colin Leicht suggested transforming the front of the building, perhaps using the large walls erected this week for students to express their sorrow.
"Don't tear it down," said Leicht. "It's still a good building. NIU has had problems getting money from the state to rebuild other buildings. I don't think we're in a position to tear down a building."
Rockford junior Krista Robinson said one professor asked her and other students what they thought about NIU erecting an environmental feature, perhaps a windmill, as a memorial.
Robinson wasn't impressed.
"I think a windmill is a good idea, but not as a memorial. I can imagine parents wondering what kind of memorial that is. It's not really relevant."
Cole Hall was constructed in 1968. The general-education building contains 18,000 square feet of space.
Columbine's library
Other institutions have faced the question NIU now confronts.
At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 12 others and one teacher in April 1999, the library where most of the killing took place no longer exists.
Frank DeAngelis, principal then and now, said the old library would have been forever associated with the April 20 massacre. Students, parents and community members agreed they could no longer enter the room without reliving the pain, he said.
Thought was given to demolishing the entire school but that would have been a mistake, DeAngelis said.
"If we tore the building down, Harris and Klebold would have won," he said.
The solution was to tear out the library, which was above the cafeteria/commons area, and open the commons into a two-story space. A new library was constructed nearby and connected to the school by a hallway.
The problem, said DeAngelis, is that spectators still come to the school, sometimes in tour buses, distracting the students.
Constructing a memorial on campus is a problem because it becomes an attraction, bringing in people not connected to the school, DeAngelis said. That's why a separate memorial was built at a nearby park, far enough from the school so students don't see people coming and going.
The new library cost $3.5 million. DeAngelis said a community fund drive, coupled with donations from building contractors, quickly raised the money.
Virginia Tech ponders changes
Officials at Virginia Tech are still using buildings that were the scene of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007.
Cho shot his first victims in a dorm room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Two hours later, he opened fire in Norris Hall, which contains the school's Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others.
Norris Hall would have cost $30 million to replace, according to university estimates. Instead, officials reopened Norris two months after the shootings and a task force was formed to entertain ideas for its future.
In December, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger announced the school would spend $1 million remodeling about 4,300 square feet of the second floor of the building, which will be home to the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.
The dorm room where the initial shootings took place is still closed, but it's not practical to close the entire 800-room residence hall, said University Relations
Director Mark Owczarski. Approximately 10,000 of the school's 26,000 students live on campus at Virginia Tech. The school has 14 residence buildings and another under construction.
"On-campus housing is a premium here," Owczarski said. "Honestly, students enjoy living in West Ambler Johnston Hall as they do in all of our residence buildings."
Memories will remain
Changing a building does only so much to relieve the hurt, said Columbine's DeAngelis, adding that he still has flashbacks.
DeAngelis said he has spoken with NIU leaders. Given his experience, DeAngelis feels compelled to reach out to schools where shootings have taken place.
"People still ask me, 'what was the one day when everything got back to normal?'" he said. "It's never going to come."
NIU students seem to understand.
Going to class in Cole would never be the same, said Leicht.
"The first day, I would be a little anxious, knowing this is where it happened," he said about having class there. "After that, as long as that door stays locked, it would be just another classroom. It could have happened in any classroom. But I think that door (where the gunman entered) should be locked."
"It would be difficult" to go back into Cole, said Weaver. But if it's reopened at some point, "it would be something I and everyone else would have to do.
"I'll tell you this, though. I have had a lot of classes at Cole and I always sat in the first two or three rows. I will never do that again, not ever."
Robinson thinks Cole ought to become part of campus learning again, at some point.
"I wouldn't close it down indefinitely but definitely for the rest of the semester. Maybe open it back up next year," she said.
"But let Cole Hall be for right now," she said. "Let there be a little bit of rest in Cole Hall."
Geri Nikolai can be reached at 815-987-1337 or gnikolai@rrstar.com.
Isaac Guerrero can be reached at 815-987-1371 or iguerrero@rrstar.com.
Sadie Gurman can be reached at 815-987-1389 or sgurman@rrstar.com.
What others have done
Here is what other institutions have done after being the scene of multiple deaths from violence:
Columbine High School: Two student gunmen, who committed suicide, killed 12 students and a teacher in the April 1999 shooting at Columbine in Littleton, Colo.
The library, where most of the shootings took place, was torn out and the cafeteria below it remodeled into a two-story room. A local artist painted a skyline mural with the branches of Aspen trees and 13 clouds — one for each of the victims. A library was built nearby.
Virginia Tech: Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007. It is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Virginia Tech is still using buildings where the shootings occurred. Norris Hall was reopened in June 2007. The school will spend $1 million remodeling the second floor of the building, which will be home to the newly created Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. The dorm room where a student was killed is closed, but the rest of the 800-room residence hall is still open.
University of Texas: On Aug. 1, 1966, a sniper barricaded himself on the observation deck of the tower on campus and began a shooting spree that killed 14 people and ended when police killed him. It was the worst school shooting until Virginia Tech in 2007.
The observation deck was closed until 1968, then opened and closed again in 1975 because of a series of suicide jumps. In 1999, security and safety measures were installed and the deck was reopened.
Crandon, Wis.: Six young adults were killed by a 20-year-old off-duty sheriff's deputy Oct. 7 as they relaxed in a home.
Plans are to tear the building down and create a memorial garden, but first the mortgage must be paid. A fund drive was started but contributions dwindled when the homeowner, the father of one of the victims, announced plans to sue the county over the shooting.
Nickel Mines, Pa.: A gunman burst into an Amish schoolhouse and killed five young girls Oct. 2, 2006, then killed himself. The building was demolished 10 days later and the site is used to graze cattle.
About NIU
Enrollment: 25,200
Budget: $104 million
Founded: 1899 as satellite of Illinois State Normal School
Renamed: NIU in 1957
City: DeKalb
Main campus: 755 acres
Regional sites: Hoffman Estates, Naperville and Rockford
Programs of study: Seven degree-granting colleges; 55 undergraduate majors; 75 graduate programs, including 10 Ph.D. programs, doctoral degrees in education and juris doctorate
Students: 91 percent from Illinois; 46 percent men, 54 percent women; 26 percent ethnic minorities; 862 international students from 88 nations
Faculty: 1,279
Class size: Average is 28 students (18 in senior-level classes)
Oldest building: Altgeld Hall, opened in 1899
Newest building: Yordon Center, opened in 2007
Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported</a>
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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/x257795083">http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/x257795083</a>
Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman
2008-02-26
Kacey Beddoes
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported
eng
Valentine's Day in DeKalb: Two, Three, Many Virginia Techs?
Ben Agger and Timothy W. Luke
Last Thursday, February 14th, 2008, Steven Kazmierczak reportedly shot and killed five students, and then turned a weapon on himself at Northern Illinois University. At least sixteen students were wounded in the rapid-fire shootings in this large NIU lecture hall during class. We have few certain details about the shooter, except that he used four weapons, two of which were purchased legally within the past week—a shotgun and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun. Ironically, he purchased two magazines and a holster for the Glock from the same online vendor which sold Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, one of his guns through a dealer transfer last spring.
Apparently, he was a good student (a former sociology major at NIU) who had no police record. He was pursuing graduate studies in social work at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. It was also rumored that he recently had ceased taking mood-modifying medication and had broken up with a live-in girl friend. He was 27 when he died in the large NIU lecture hall. Yet, there was another side to him. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 2001, but soon was "administratively discharged" within six months. More recently, he took a job as an officer at the Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana in September 2007, but he failed to complete his preliminary training after only two weeks, and then never returned to work.
The shooting in DeKalb, Illinois occurred almost exactly ten months after the shootings at Virginia Tech last April, when 33 died, including students in classrooms, some of their professors, and the gunman himself. On November 7, 2007 Pekka Eric Auvinen walked into his high school in Tuusula, Finland, and shot eight people, killing five, and then also turned the gun on himself. There are parallels between these three bloody events: The shooters were young males; they used deadly semi-automatic weapons; they burst into school classrooms to do their damage; they took their own lives. There were apparent differences, too, although as yet we know next to nothing about the 'real' Steve Kazmierczak. Cho had already been identified in the Virginia mental health system as a troubled individual, and a potentially dangerous one at that. And Auvinen and Cho left video and written manifestos. In his testimony, Cho acknowledged the inspiration of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed twelve of their high-school classmates and a teacher at Columbine in Colorado on April 20, 1999.
How are we to understand the sequencing and connections among Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tuusula, and now Northern Illinois? It is unimaginable that the Valentine Day's Massacre in DeKalb would have occurred in the way that it did without Virginia Tech having occurred, as the December shootings in Finland also demonstrated. Tech is imbedded in DeKalb as its prototype and possibility. Kazmierczak might have found other ways to kill and to die without the example of Tech (and Columbine or Tuusula before it), but he surely framed his actions last Thursday within the scenario of last April in Blacksburg, Virginia.
This is not to suggest that DeKalb is simply a copy-cat killing. What did Klebold, Harris, Cho, Auvinen, and Kazmierczak have in common that led them to enact these epic killings and suicides, on school grounds? It seems they were alone in a crowd; they were alienated, lacking social ties. Whether they were mentally ill or not is somewhat beside the point. They might have been stopped, helped, redirected—yes, even medicated. We are intensely interested in the experience of being alone in a crowd, in Cho's case as an Asian-American outsider on a big-time college/fraternity campus, which considers itself 'Hokie Nation,' —the illusion of tight community achieved through the gridiron Gemeinschaft of the Virginia Tech campus. And in the hours after the NIU attack, the response in DeKalb, Illinois and around the nation was to appeal to the school's athletic mascot, the Husky, and tout "Huskie Spirit." Perhaps we know only this: people more on the inside do not tend to commit mass murder and then take their own lives.
It cannot escape notice that the killers at Columbine, Blacksburg, Tuusula and DeKalb were men. Women usually do not embark on shooting/suicide escapades, even though not even a week before on February 8, 2008 at Louisiana Technical College a female student shot two classmates and then herself in a classroom. Four of the five killed at DeKalb were women students, and many of those killed in Tuusula and Blacksburg also were female. This is a potent admixture: social isolation, male gun culture, fantasies of revenge.
Were the killers evil madmen predestined to wreck havoc? Were they beyond social influence and redirection? They committed mad acts, to be sure. But there is a thin boundary between those who keep their demons within, and at bay, and those who erupt. The answer to these acts of deliberate madness lies not in armoring our campuses but in acknowledging people's interior turmoil and trying to help, where possible. This is difficult amid a sea of faces in large college lecture halls. But can we afford to reduce such acts merely to irreversible psychopathology? Columbine and Virginia Tech have now become a set piece—a media spectacle--with a certain inexorable momentum.
Ben Agger is professor of sociology and humanities at University of Texas, Arlington. Timothy W. Luke is professor of political science at Virginia Tech. They co-authored a book There is a Gunman on Campus: Tragedy and Terror at Virginia Tech forthcoming in April 2008.
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Original Source: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Blog
<a href="http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2008/02/valentines-day.html">http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2008/02/valentines-day.html</a>
Ben Agger and Timothy W. Luke
2008-03-24
Kacey Beddoes
Tim Luke (twluke@vt.edu)
Ben Agger (agger@uta.edu)
eng
Columbine gift
This poster was sent from Columbine High School.
The text says:
"In the hearts of the children a pure love still grows
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone.
Columbine
April 20, 1999"
Kacey Beddoes
2008-04-10
Kacey Beddoes
Kacey Beddoes (kbeddoes@vt.edu)
eng