Monday, April 16, 2007

Virginia Tech Shootings

This story is still developing so I may be updating this post, or creating supplemental posts on the same subject. As I write this, all of the news services are reporting that at least 31 people have been shot to death, and 17 more wounded in shootings at the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. No one has yet given any great detail as to the identity of the shooter, though one report described him as "Asian, with a maroon cap and black leather jacket", and ABC News is reporting the gunman took his own life. For what it's worth, it never entered my mind until I heard it on a talk show that this might be a case of "sudden jihad", and I doubt very, very much that such will turn out to be the case.

I am never sure what to make of these mass killings beyond the obvious, self-evident conclusion that they are horrible events and that my heart goes out to the victims and their families. Still, the talk shows are already filled with callers who are screeching about blame, causes, etc. The gun control advocates and the NRA supporters are already spouting off, as are those who blame video games for every ill in our society. I would prefer to let the dust settle before any of those determinations are made, and this brings up one other point. The president of Virginia Tech University almost immediately issued a statement that there will be a ceremony tomorrow so that the "healing can begin". To me, this smacks of just so much psycho-babble. It's nonsense. What is this rush to "heal"? Can't we come to terms with what happened first (the who, the why, etc.)?

Update (5:20 p.m.): Both MSNBC and Fox News have increased the death toll to 32, not including the gunman.

Update (7:30 a.m. April 17): The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the shooter may have been from China: http://www.suntimes.com/news/343354,vatech041607.article. As well, the wounded total is now up to 28. Simply awful..............

Update (7:45 a.m.): The gunman was a student at Virginia Tech: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Update (8:18 a.m.): Predictably, there is a hue and a cry about the "American Gun Culture": http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18149774/. Given that preliminary indications are that the shooter was NOT American and had been in this country for less than eight months, this seems to me like it would fall neatly into the "rush to judgment" category................

Update (9:30 a.m.): ABC News is reporting that the gunman was a permanent resident from South Korea by the name of Seung Hui Cho. http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3048108. He apparently left a very disturbing note before he committed his horrific crime. One thing that has become pretty clear is that there was no link here to organized terrorism.

Update (9:43 a.m.): An Israeli professor was among the victims: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3388753,00.html.

Update (12:22 p.m.) ABC News has updated its report to indicate that the shooter bought his first gun on March 13, over a month before his massacre. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/first_gun_bough.html. Clearly, this was something that was a long time in the making............

Update (3:25 p.m.): AOL is providing a link to a blog entry supposedly from a classmate of the gunman in which he describes plays purportedly written by Seung Hui Cho: http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/. This gets more bizarre by the minute.

Update (6:50 p.m.): More from ABC News. This time it's a touching portrait of two of the deceased heroes of yesterday's massacre: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3049678&page=1. The first is of that same Holocaust survivor who gave his life so that his students could escape. Heart-rending...........

Update (6:35 a.m., April 18): Obvious error in one of my earlier posts; Seung Hui Cho had been in this country for about 15 years. So, the debate about the so-called "gun culture" is a fair one. I'll have more to say about this issue in a future post, and what I have to say may very well surprise some of you................

Update (6:50 a.m.): Today's Wall Street Journal Editorial on the massacre: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009956.

Update (7:17 a.m.): Sigh. I've avoided this until I saw it in at least one print outlet's online edition, but here it is: http://www.nypost.com/seven/04172007/news/nationalnews/va__tech_killer_revealed_nationalnews_.htm?page=2. Seung Hui Cho had the name "Ismail Ax" written in red on one of his arms. Of course, Ismail Ax is and Islamic name, though there is no indication anywhere that I've seen that Cho was either a Moslem or had converted. Still, I do find it strange that for the most part, this whole "issue" has been ignored by the MSM..................

Updated (8:09 p.m.): This wack job sent a video to NBC news in between killings: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/. If he wanted to die and had a persecution complex, fine. Why did he have to take 32 innocent lives with him?

Updated (1:11 p.m., April 19): A lot of people are questioning NBC's decision (followed by the other networks) to air the footage of Seung Hui Cho which he mailed to NBC after the first murders, http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/04/19/video-virginia.html. I have to say that I understand those concerns, and in fact agree with them. Did we, the public, REALLY need to see that footage?

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