Update: It looks like Virginia Tech authorities knew that Cho Sueng-Hui was mentally unstable. He had been committed. Female students had filed complaints about his behavior. I find it surprising that he still passed a background check. How is it you can be committed to a mental health facility and still show up “clean” to purchase a weapon?
As I expected, the debate continues to rage over what happened Monday at Virginia Tech.
Over the next few weeks, we will all form some opinion about the tragedy. An event as horrific as the mass murder that took place has to touch even the most jaded among us in some way, by reminding us that we are all mortal, and that death can lash out at anyone, anywhere in the most unexpected of ways.
What saddens me most about the firestorm of opinions being thrown around now is that many people will prefer to frame this debate in terms of limiting human freedom by limiting access to guns. I think we should be focused on mental health instead.
Cho Sueng-hui clearly needed mental help. He needed professional intervention because his brain health was damaged. For two years, no authority did anything to provide that help.
Ms Roy, a former chairwoman of Virginia Tech’s English Department, said that Cho’s creative writing professor came to her about his writings in late 2005.
Ms Roy said that she was so disturbed by what she found that she decided to take him out of the classroom for one-to-one tutoring. She also spoke to university authorities “repeatedly” about the student.
Sometimes, we focus our fears in all the wrong areas. I wonder how this story would have turned out differently if Virginia Tech had heeded warnings, and sent Sueng-hui to a mental health professional for evaluation.
Now we have to sort out the flotsam and jetsam he left behind. We have to debate the evil of guns all over again. And we have to bury 32 human beings, saying goodbye to them forever. The civil lawsuits resulting from this event are going to bear watching.
Ultimately, I wonder who society will blame. Will it be the evil gun manufacturers and sellers? Will it be the officials who shrugged at clear and apparently urgent warnings that Cho might have mental health issues? Or will it be Cho Sueng-hui, the human being who allowed evil to take over and rule his existence? Where the blame is laid to rest will portend a great many things for the long-term survivability of the nation known as the United States of America.