Another sad school shooting has occurred (New York Times), this time at Virginia Tech, and with it, millions of Americans will ask the simple question, “Why?” Why do people want to kill so many others? Why do they get away with it? Why can’t we do more to stop such tragedies?
But as I’ve pointed out previously here and here (just 3 months ago),
The sad truth is that no amount of analysis of a person’s possible [illness or motivations] explains criminal behavior of this nature.
Whether or not the person who perpetrated the shootings has an illness or specific motivations doesn’t explain a tragedy of this nature. Honestly, nothing can. Most people deal with human tragedies throughout their lives and most people do not go on shooting rampages. A failed exam? A break-up with a girlfriend? Angry at the school for not letting him or her in? Even if there was such a “reason,” what would it explain? People normally don’t take such extreme criminal actions when confronted with a big life disappointment.
Some are looking to blame someone, and since the shooter is already dead, they’re turning to the school. But hindsight is 20/20 and while a campus double-murder is gruesome and certainly newsworthy, it’s not clear the school’s administration knew the murderer was on some sort of deadly rampage. After all, most murderers don’t go on killing sprees — they kill their intended victim, and sometimes a second or third who might’ve witnessed the crime.
It’s human nature to want “answers,” to want to make sense out of senselessness. To say, “If only this had happened instead of that,” and to mistakenly believe it all could’ve been averted.
But answers can’t be made of irrational acts such as this, and blaming people for not taking into better account one person’s irrational behaviors is a difficult argument to make. Psychologists — people who are trained in making sense of human behavior — are horrible predictors of such basic things as whether a person is likely to take his or her own life. As I said 7 months ago,
While it’s natural human behavior to try and make sense of such irrational acts — even by looking at the individual’s words online — you won’t find any answers there.
I’m sorry, but we still can’t predict human behavior in the way many people want. We can’t say, “Well, it’s obvious this person is going to commit so and so a crime,” (which would also go against the very foundation of our American society — innocent until proven guilty). It’s not obvious. It never is. Not until it’s already happened.
What we can do, and what people continue to do, is to become more aware of people’s emotional states, and to try and act more compassionately when confronted with someone who is in pain and in need. To encourage our friends and dorm-mates to seek out help when they need it. To not look at them in a different light if they do. And to remember that life is full of random acts of beauty and violence — it always has been, it always will be.
Our hearts go out to those at Virginia Tech today.
(PS – If you know someone at Virginia Tech or another school-age student, we also recommend this article about how to talk to someone about school shootings.)
39 comments
Facebook has become much more than a place to find a “hook-up†or a kegger, but rather a virtual townhall for the VTech communtity to begin a dialog and somehow find a way to pick up the pieces.
http://collegecandy.com/2007/04/16/grieving-vtech-students-and-families-turn-to-facebook-for-answers/
Facebook has become much more than a place to find a “hook-up†or a kegger, but rather a virtual townhall for the VTech communtity to begin a dialog and somehow find a way to pick up the pieces.
Of course, we’ll probably never understand the human psyche to the extent that we can fully explain what makes a person do what the gunman in Blacksburg did today, but even with our limited knowledge today, we can at least attempt to get enough information to help us prevent such things in the future. Sure, no amount of therapy will prevent all such behavior, but preventing 1 is progress.
its time for reflection on a startling fact.
in 1995:
Japan 34 gun homocides
Great Britain 72 gun homocides
: : :
USA 15,835 gun homocides
the availability of guns is obviously
different in these cases, cost, ammo and perhaps simpler weapons such as a knife should are also factors.
In my opinion the emotional stabilty of ordinary people is quite different
throughout the world.
The active social climate of the USA, which absorbs many different cultures,
provides economic opportunity to all
immigrants, is quite different from the isolated, quiet(??), reflective(?) culture of say Japan or the far more legalistic culture (?) of Great Britain.
where (?) indicate my guesses
The USA must do something to reduce the excesses of its citizens ! !
m.shen
I personally think it is only too soon now to know why this particular new case happened, but these behaviours have been repeatedly occuring in the U.S. and serious professional research should be done. And also, serious official measures should be taken.
You say:
“The sad truth is that no amount of analysis of a person’s possible [illness or motivations] explains criminal behavior of this nature”.
I sincerely and humbly disagree. If that statement was true, why should Psychology exist at all?
Dozens of theories already propose theories and hypothesis surrounding the WHY in cases like this one. And there is a multitude of perspectives, as you know. It is only too soon.
I find your point of view extremely pessimistic, and uninformative. I am sorry.
My point is, you can’t prevent human behavior, because we’re quite lousy at predicting it. The best predictor? Previous behavior. So once a person has committed such an atrocious act, we can reliably say chances are they may do something similar in the future.
Guns are a part of our culture and American heritage, for better or for worse. We wouldn’t exist as a country today if it weren’t for the fact that rifles were fairly readily available in 1776. It would be damned near impossible to put that genie back in the bottle.
Well, John, I would have to say “for worse.” While I understand a feeling of inevitability, it is also true that the country has taken strides towards gun control, and then away – in response to the powerful gun lobbys. The possibility of becoming a civilized country like the UK or Japan exists. It may require a constitutional amendment. I do not know how many will be required to die for this to happen.
The largest variable influencing the huge difference in homicides in the US is the availability of guns. Now, will the NRA say that had all of the students been armed this problem would have been solved?
We live in a country where our majority and our leadership has endorsed violence as a solution to problems. It is not surprising that individuals follow the lead of the culture, the majority, and the government.
Of course the legislators and litigators who allow guns to be readily available on the streets are generally working in buildings that screen for guns upon entry. Perhaps if we removed those screenings the resulting laws would be different?
Violence begets violence. The only way to create peaceful civilization is to endorse it entirely, in thought, word, and deed.
Monica,
I will eagerly await the science that predicts violent behavior to the degree we will know who to lock up in advance. I will not, however, hold my breath.
While I believe it would help to eliminate access to guns in this country (as well as to stop providing them to other countries) I don’t believe there is any to create “safety” through external measures. Feeling safe enough to not have and use a gun, or to engage in other forms of violence will come from inside – from a stable lifestyle including regular sleep patterns, regular exercise, a meditation practice, elimination of stimulants and depressants, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and so on. From a willingness to listen to each other, and respect each other’s point of view. It will not come from some “serious official measure”
I think that while it may be an interesting idea to try and “eliminate access to guns in this country,” I believe it to be an impossibility to work toward — not even in 100 years is such a goal achievable. Efforts like the Brady Bill seem to have had little impact in the main goal of getting rid of guns — reducing homicides:
“Our analyses provide no evidence that implementation of the Brady Act was associated with a reduction in homicide rates. In particular, we find no differences in homicide or firearm homicide rates to adult victims in the 32 treatment states directly subject to the Brady Act provisions compared with the remaining control states.” (Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 284 No. 5, August 2, 2000)
Instead, I think it more reasonable to work on the underlying issues the lead to irrational acts like this — community, teen and young adult outreach. It’s difficult, even in a college setting, to find appropriate care sometimes. College counseling centers often farm out serious emotional health issues to outside therapists, which wouldn’t be such a big deal except many students carry little or no health insurance.
There are so many existing holes in the current patch quilt of mental health services that could use the same effort and strong arguments as we give things like gun control debates. Not as sexy, but far more implementable in the short-term.
We need to take time to love on those that are not at the top of the social chain. We may never truly know the motive behind such horrific actions that the killer uses to justify his or her means. However when the downtrodden and socially uncool are are excepted I believe a major motive is removed. Guns are not the problem in a case like this. Guns are the problem when a child kills himself b/c the parents of that child didn’t put the gun away properly. Anti guns is one step closer to communism. If some one is hell bent on killing they will find away gun or no gun.
http://www.hollywoodsquared.com/
We need to take time to love on those that are not at the top of the social chain. We may never truly know the motive behind such horrific actions that the killer uses to justify his or her means. However when the downtrodden and socially uncool are are excepted I believe a major motive is removed. Guns are not the problem in a case like this. Guns are the problem when a child kills himself b/c the parents of that child didn’t put the gun away properly. Anti guns is one step closer to communism. If some one is hell bent on killing they will find away gun or no gun.
Don’t see how this guy could kill 33 people without a gun. A bomb, I guess, but it just doesn’t play out the same way – starting with a couple people in one place, and then taking it to another building and continuing – seems like a progression, not a plan to kill 33. I don’t think we’ve tried outlawing guns – which has worked for other countries. There is no denying that it would help – we can see how it works in other countries. I know how unlikely it is, but that is not a good reason to cave in on something so important.
And, I agree that there are “holes” in the mental health system, in the sense that with a disease/diagnosis model, there has to be something “wrong” with you before you can get help. Help is needed by the population as a whole. Help in learning to re-connect with each other, and reduce cases of social isolation. The hole that has been left as organized religion declines needs to be filled by groups that support each other, listen to each other, and reach out to those suffering in silence.
Monica, the prevention and prediction tools we have to combat this sort of a thing are a joke. They do have plenty of theories and hypotheses…when tested they suck. Profiling couldn’t help; a freshman psych class can do just as well as an “expert” in profiling and even then it isn’t very good. Validity & reliability in this type of research are terrible. As they should be….this type of event is so rare that the empirical methods we employ just aren’t going to work well. I read on blogs how people say this one was so unusual comapared to similar incidents…but there is no “usual” to make that comparison to. Don’t be too overconfident in the progress we have made in this type of research, or in the idea of progress in general (it has its critics). His view may seem uniformative, but it is because there isn’t much legit information to put out there that explains this anyway.
I also don’t think gun control would work in practice. In theory and in a fantasy world where it was implemented succesfully, it would be a homerun. But there are over 200,000,000 guns estimated to be in the U.S., and trying to take them away could even lead to civil war. 2nd ammendment supporters take this type of thing VERY seriously. Would concealed carry prevented some of these deaths? Maybe, but only if someone there was actually armed. But who would say to themselves, “well it’s time for my morning engineering course, I better take my gun with me.” But frankly, I think hurricane Katrina officially ended the gun-control debate. There was absolutely no law at the time to help people who were unarmed from being looted or worse.
Cho Seung-Hui’s journey to the dark side is complete. While taking prescription medication (SSRI’s) for depression, the “troubled” student opened fire on students at Virginian Tech., killing 32 people before turning the gun on himself.
How do I know that Big Pharma is responsible for this carnage? I took the same medication Cho Seung-Hui did. http://www.theeffexoractivist.org
There is more emerging today about the identity and life of the murderer:
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_9896.aspx
and this blog has some interesting tidbits and speculation:
http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2007/04/cho_seunghuis_d.php
Just thought I’d pass along some background on the individual. It appears he was a student, was taking an antidepressant, had some previous run-ins with the campus police, and left a note behind. And because of Virginia gun control laws, he was the only one armed on campus (outside of the police).
So these revelations are true, this might be an example of someone falling through the cracks of mental health care in a college setting. It appears some professors had some concerns about him, but nobody was in a position to connect all the dots — police trouble, creative writings of a disturbed individual, doctors prescribing antidepressants.
Now granted, you put these three together, and you might come up with a list of 50 students on campus at any given time. The key is not to lock folks that meet X, Y, or Z criteria, but simply to keep closer tabs on them, ensure they are getting help if they want it, and don’t turn into someone like this person did.
Mark, Canada is hardly a “fantasy world.” We have gun control here. If you have any doubts as to whether it works, try comparing statistics for gun-related murders between any Canadian capital and any American capital with a comparable population. We’ve had our school shootings here, but they’ve been less frequent, with lower fatality rates.
Also bear in mind, in many Canadian firearms deaths involving semi-automatic or automatic weaponry, the guns in question are black market weapons originating in the U.S. or other countries. The system isn’t perfect – getting rid of guns entirely would be more effective – but it has succeeded in reducing the risk of firearms-related deaths.
John, you’ve suggested a disturbing possibility here. If it is true that the shooter was on SSRI’s, we should definitely be reviewing prescription drugs and the frequency with which they are employed as the solution to any problem…particularly because more effective methods for treating depression and anxiety exist (CBT, IPT) that DON’T trigger largely unknown chemical changes in our most poorly understood organ.
However, attributing the VTech shooting directly to an SSRI and its manufacturer is fallacious reasoning, as hundreds of thousands of people take these medications without unleashing carnage on those around them (presumably including yourself). It could have been the SSRI in combination with his unique neurochemistry, or with other cognitive variables of which we are and will remain unaware.
In any case, it is likely not the drug itself that is responsible, but instead doctors and psychiatrists that believe one-session diagnoses and reckless prescription of medications to be acceptable practice. It should be recognized that individuals with unstable behaviors or cognitions may have severe or unpredictable reactions to medications, and new medication implementation should always be highly supervised, not only to protect the patient, but those around him/her.
When I mentioned “fantasy world,” I was referring to the possibilities of gun control being implemented effectively in the U.S.. I don’t think Canada has the same gun culture that the U.S. does; head to the south and you’ll see what I mean. For example, the NRA is considered to be one of, if not the most powerful lobbying groups here. They have a very strong political wing that can easily sway local and national elections here. Even right after this incident, a cursory look at conservative blogs virtually all immediately started in with it…it’s a tragedy but we have the right to bear arms, concealed carry would have prevented this, etc.. Even the White House press conference went right into that.
I’m pretty sure we are on the same page. I do think gun control would definitely reduce the number of fatal violent incidents in the U.S. by a great deal, but I consider it a complete fantasy that gun control laws would ever be passed here, at least in my lifetime and definitely not under the electoral college system.
That is the quotation I disagree with. Exactly that one. Moreover, the new facts revealed today speak very clearly in regards to the WHYS, even if not yet to detail.
Maybe the spirit of Psy D. Grohol was centred on prevention, but I was never referring to that in my comment, if any of you read carefully.
I think it is very good to think about prevention, yet, despite many isolated facts, it couldn’t be done. Insisting on “could it have been prevented?” makes me think of personal feelings of over-responsibility being activated.
I also have to say it makes me feel sad that be it people or countries, we, human beings in general –leaving flags and nationalities aside–, have so much trouble facing shadow (looking honestly at our dark sides), and looking for solutions because “it simply can’t be done”.
I think positive changes can take place when we start thinking “out of the square”. That has been demonstrated in all arenas, including…. Science.
great post, john.
It’s very hard to find what other person thinking inside. What one finds if a person who always have plain face no emotions no feeling or nothing…
The mind has been notorious to play tricks on us, let us down, skip to another level and so forth. Obsessive-compulsive behaviors, anorexia, phobias of socializing, hypochondrias and so forth are the most severe symptoms in this disorder.
Mental health is tricky since there are many types of diagnosis, together with personality disorders, cognitive disorder, mental diseases and so forth. To understand mental health entirely is nearly impossible, but there are many answers to questions that many have, because all of us directly or indirectly are affected by mental illnesses.
Dr Grohol says
[quote]We can’t say, “Well, it’s obvious this person is going to commit so and so a crime,†(which would also go against the very foundation of our American society — innocent until proven guilty). It’s not obvious. It never is. Not until it’s already happened.[/quote]
well, suppose that “very foundation of our American society” is incorrect. suppose instead of “free will”, people actually are psychological automata? and suppose we don’t want to believe it, because it goes against our social standards?
Beyond the Massacre at Virginia Tech: Of Tragedy and Resolute Leadership
The shooting has stopped. The news networks are analyzing. And an event that spanned but a few hours will be remembered forever, especially by those whose lives were touched by the violence on the Virginia Tech campus. At the end of the day, what we have left is really a leadership issue. And that is the hard part, because it requires us to look closely at what we have allowed.
It is up to us, those who control how and why we make a profit. Resolute leaders refuse dollars that come from violent video games. They say “no†to rap music and its poisonous message of hate, racism and violence. It’s time to take full accountability of the examples we set as leaders, and make those examples worth mirroring.
What if the Virginia Tech murderer had received different messages? What if his examples of right and wrong came from resolute leaders instead of defective personas? We can’t change what happened. We can influence what happens next.
To read my whole posting: http://www.resoluteleadership.com/2007/04/17/beyond-the-massacre-at-virginia-tech/
As a psychologist, I think there is increasing evidence that this young man was experiencing a genuine psychotic break — probably indicitave of schizophrenia. There is certainly some overlap between his issues and those of the Columbine shooters, for example, but his highly detailed fantasy life/delusions, religious preoccupations, verbal ramblings, and efforts to avoid eye contact sound like the pattern typical of first psychotic breaks.
My sister was on campus at the time of the 2nd shooting. She’s not a student, she was headed for their vet hospital a few buildings down from Norris. To say she seems suddenly fragile is a gross understatement.
The shootings have _not_ stopped. They live on with those impacted directly and indirectly. To see so many attempts _everwhere_ at highjacking this to political rants is heartbreaking especially those so disconnected from reality as to be their own form of psychopathy.
So … is it better to help someone one-on-one or by ranting? Which one involves another warm human being? Which one is a _saner_ choice?
First my heart goes out to the families and friends of the victims of this terrible crime.
i’m praying that God will continue to comfort and help each one.
About guns- it’s totally wrong that a person who is as unstable and psychotic as the gunman in this tragedy can go into a gunstore and buy a gun.
There should be a system of checks- you have to pass a test to get even a drivers licence- why isn’t there any checks- psychological and safety and competence tests when someone buys a weapon as dangerous and deadly as a gun?
Why are there guns on campuses anyways? After 9/11 and threats of terrorists, why aren’t there metal detectors at the doors of dorms and school and other public buildings? Why isn’t our government doing a better job with keeping us safe from these terrible violent acts of terror?
i’m afraid to go anywhere. If anyone can buy a gun then we’re at their mercy- it isn’t healthy or safe or sane. The government should do a much better job at keeping us safe. No guns at school. No guns at court- no guns at school either. Also- checks- psychological tests and safety knowledge tests should be manditory- a safe waiting period of at least 30 days and a valid reason that a gun is needed. We’re NOT the same society as we were in 1776. Terrorists and persons who terrorize others are inside this country and it’s not in the law abiding citizen’s interests to allow anyone to have a gun without passing any safety testing or manditory waiting period in EVERY state.
Why does anyone who is a student in college need a gun?
We’re not safe. Precious people are losing their lives at the hands of sick and violent people and we need to take steps now to make this nation a safer place.
It’s so troubling to me about all the talk of ‘marking persons’ with emotional problems and mental disorders. What if persons with mental disabilities/problems won’t be allowed in colleges anymore because they start to be seen as a threat? That would be so unfair- most of persons with mental problems would never be violent against another. i’m afraid that there will be a stigma against them now, making it even more difficult to succeed in college than it is already because of incidents like this. One TV station in my city suggested call-in/ email response question to the public about “not allowing students in college if they’re known to have mental problems”- that’s so unfair.
The horrific incident could not have happened at Columbine or Virginia Tech without guns. Students never need to have a gun and they never need to bring guns to school or to any public building.
Give us a chance to be safe and not see innocent lives taken by a gun in the wrong person’s hands again.
For love’s sake,
kerria
As an Asian and also for having counseling degree from University of Mississippi I am just curious about the role of the multicultural University counselor in this context. We know we cannot predict so many things that goes on to a human mind but after the incident happen we can atleast learn to help ourselves for next time. All over the world everyone knows USA as a research oriented country so, I think very soon we are going to see the research finding of this incident. Menteal health professionals can take precautions in future to protect innocent lives.
Dr. Grohol and all others who study Psychology,
Why has no one suggested that the killer at VA Tech was a psychopath? There is so much research done on the subject – Robert Hare’s book is the classic text. There is a whole lit. out there on the phenomenon and Hare’s checklist of what constitutes a psychopath will definitely suit Cho’s profile. Though the investigations may take many months, I am positive that it will be revealed with time that Cho was a psychopath by Robert Hare’s definition. No emotions, no empathy, no feelings for others, cold-bloodedness, high rationality, and no communication or social skills. There is no need to be looking for other mental illnesses if this particular disorder (also known as Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is out there, well-researched and there is so much evidence that serial and mass killers are ALWAYS psychopaths. While it is true that most psychopaths are non-violent (in fact, most psychopaths are intelligent and excell in many fields; many can be found on Wall Street because they make the best financial executives – cold-blooded and willing to take such risks upon themselves that normal persons with emotions would be incapable of), those who do committ mass murders are always them. I wonder what the American Assoc. of Psychologists is doing these days if not informing the public about such an important and widespread disorder (it’s not even illness – psychopaths simply LACK emotions) and not training educators from K to college to recognize these traits in children and young people. And how many Americans today know that one of the Columbine killers (Harris) was a hard-core psychopath? Have we not learned anything from that massacre? Until the knowledge about psychopaths trickles down to the general public, we cannot hope to catch individuals of Cho’s kind until after the act.
umm hey guys I barely have looked into the article but it seems the comments are on gun control and the sort. the problem was the guy. If someone would have reached out to him its a possibility it may have never happened. he may have had something wrong with him but that is not a true excuse. people laugh at love being the answer it seems to simple and maybe it is but that is the underlying problem here.
I feel there is an urgent need to create awareness among students and general public regarding abnormal beghaviour so that anybody suffering can contact for correcting such behaviour . There must be a national helpline so that some suggestion can be given to the person suffering, if he does not want to reveal his identity.
Information makes a difference and these measures are adopted i hope so that we would not have any Chow in future .
24 months ago in a small Minnesota town, a mentally unstable student murdered and wounded 14 students before killing himself (my April 2005 weblog posting:
http://www.invisiblechildren.org/weblog
Jeff Weise also kept an outrageous website openly referencing homicide and suicide. Jeff was also denied treatment and prescribed Prozac*. After the carnage, Red Lake community found the money for a mental health family center to counsel troubled youth.
At that time in Minnesota there were 15 child psychiatrists in the entire state (population about 4 million) and the student to counsellor ratio in MN high schools was 900 to 1.
As a child advocate (long time guardian ad Litem) I strongly feel the need for mental health therapy for those who need it. The children I work with have been severely traumatized and need adequate attention paid to their needs.
In my many years as a guardian ad-Litem it has been my experience that at risk children don’t get help until after their behaviors have become unmanageable and dangerous. Often the help they get comes in the form of a pill and not the personal professional counselling that they really need.
A Hennepin county judge has shared with me the psychotropic drug medications being taken by children in her courtroom. It is truely unbelievable how many disturbed and undertreated youth walk among us.
When attention to mental health services comes earlier, our communities can save themselves from the immense suffering that follows these horrific events.
* Not too many years from now it is my hope that we will recognize the repercussions of legally drugging children with psychotropic medications without adequate mental health services. Today we can only read about these consequences in the newspaper.
These shooting acts are not irrational. They are impractical and violent and ridiculous and ineffective at solving the perpetrators problems.
But the shooters havea rational plan of destruction. the irrational part is thinking such a plan will fix anything.
Mental illness is not a static state. It frequently involves episiodes of sanity between psychotic breaks. It involves seeing the world in a slanted way.
This idea that they are impossible to predict is rubbish. Most people who do this have an orchestrated plan it has taken them months or usually years to set up and do. It’s not done on impulse at all. It’s based on long standing fantasies which they usually divulge to those close to them. I know because I have seen people divulge aberrant plans and act on them years later.
Mental health checkups are critical and everyone should have one – there are tons of measures that have been shown useful for predictors of abberant behaviour. If everyone was given an MMPI to check for personality traits and a SPECT scan to check for abnormal brain functioning and I think that would help enormously to see who might be at risk for committing such acts. A lot of the people who do it are having a psychotic break. CHo was showing flat affect, a known marker for schizophrenia. We can predict who is most likley to commit sucha crime. these people need social supports. We have to identify them and get them supports.
Why are we letting people on psychotropic medication have access to guns and ammo??
Here is the URL for a 54 page technical paper on risk factors for shooters.
http://www.education.ucsb.edu/schpsych/School-Violence/PDF/RiskFactorsShootings.pdf
In it, it is mentioned that most shooters describe there plans in detail prior to committing their act. They are mentally rehersing and than verbally rehersing. It is similar to the process a persion uses when they are quitting smoking in that they are getting to think of themselevs as the sort of person who should act in this new way. 🙁 But in this case the ‘new way” is to be a murderer and a committer of suicide. They need help to see this is NOT the only option of dealing with their problems and it’s a very poor option at that.
Cho and Kimveer Gill went over their plans in their writings. People who saw their behaviour were disturbed by this. But they were young and didn’t know what recourse they had.
We need to get the word out to teenagers and twenty somehtings what I learned the hard way.
People who are on psychotropic meds should NOT HAVE ACCESS TO GUNS. I say this as someone in an unusual position to know. I have a degree in psych and also a diagnosis of chronic depression. I once had such bad insomia I started geting break through REM and knew I was on the edge of or already in a psychotic state. I took myself in to the hospital. I know a tin of people with mental illness. The drugs do not always work on everyone. In particular I know two people who engaged in extremely aberrant acts – one, my ex, committed suicide (this is before I was takin psychology and before my own depression diagnosis. He had told me all about his plan to kill himself, and I didn’t know what to do. I was horrified and Iit sort o froze me. I think this is what happened to the people who Cho and Kimveer Gil told their violent fantasies and plans to. People want to think everyone is normal but ruminating on repetative violent actions is NOT NORMAL!
I tried to talk him out of it but if I had known at 20 what I do now I would have gotten him into therapy.
The other was another ex who years after we broke up enacted a very public theft which he had fantasized about for months years before when we weer dating. After we broke up I didn’t think about it much. Friends called me to say he was on the national news for having attempted to steal the mace from the Canadian house of Commons. The RCMP had arrested him and he was being held for a 14 day psych assessment. I wasn;t at all surprised. he had gone over and over it in his head, like a person getting up the nerve to do skydiving or quit smoking. Thank God neither of these two’s fantasies involved killing or shooting!
People who do most abberant behaviour this sort of thing plan it out in their heads. Then they speak of it. More people need to get these violent talkers help before they have time to amass the weapons and whatever else is needed to commit the mass murders Because of what I’ve learned I managed to interfere with 3 other people I know from commiting suicide.
The basis for this argument seems to be, how can we prevent an incident just as horrid from happening again? The solutions discussed can be generalized into the following: gun control, psychological analysis, and pharmaceuticals. The use of only one method will not significantly prevent another school shooting. The combined use of all these methods must be utilized to become effective in the future. In addition, one cannot fully implement all these restrictions without stepping on the toes of our constitution, bill of rights, and personal morals. We need to find equilibrium between preventing school shootings and respecting common law.
Gun control is the first method of prevention we need to implement. Currently, Gun manufacturers are protected by a broad spectrum of civil lawsuits. The “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” prohibits civil lawsuits from being filed against manufacturers or sellers of firearms, ammunition, or components of a firearm for damages resulting from the “criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm”.This means that gun manufacturers cannot be held responsible if someone shoots someone else. This makes sense because it would be quite illogical for George foreman to be held responsible for your burnt hotdogs on your new grill if you can’t grill for your life. In addition, our problem is not the manufacturing of guns but the distribution and control over them.
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act also requires anyone who buys a handgun to undergo a background check. Under the Federal Gun Control Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 922, a “firearm may not be sold or transferred to a person who is under indictment for or has been convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year, is a fugitive from justice, is an unlawful user or is addicted to any controlled substance, has been adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution, is an illegal alien or has been admitted to the United States under a non-immigrant visa, was discharged from the U.S. military service under dishonorable conditions, has renounced U.S. citizenship, is subject to a court order restraining him or her from harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner or child, or has been convicted in any court of a felony or misdemeanor crime of domestic violenceâ€. The Brady imposes a five-day waiting period on the purchase of a handgun. Ever since the Brady Act’s inception in 1996 approximately 976,000 of the 45.7 million background checks conducted resulted in rejections.
What is mentally defective and did Seung-hui Cho, the Virginia tech killer, fall under this category? A Virginia court found Cho to be dangerously mentally ill in 2005 and ordered him to receive outpatient treatment. But because Cho was not ordered into hospital treatment, the court’s order was never provided to the FBI and incorporated in its database, which two gun dealers checked before selling Cho the 9-millimeter Glock 19 and Walther .22- caliber pistol used in the shootings. Ever since the Virginia Tech incident, Justice Officials said the FBI’s Mental Defective File has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000, primarily additions from California. Steps have already been taken to prevent school shootings by gun control.
The second method of prevention is psychological analysis. You must first ask yourself if you believe the human mind is empirical like a computer or unlimited in irrationality. Those who believe in the empirical aspect of the human mind are physicalists, those opposed to that view believe in dualism. If one believes the mind can be mapped, than it’s only a matter of time before psychologists find out a way to predict behavior and predict the future in a way. Personally, I believe in dualism and the uncharterable nature of the human mind. In that case, I agree with John Grohol’s statement that “The sad truth is that no amount of analysis of a person’s possible [illness or motivations] explains criminal behavior of this natureâ€. Currently, there isn’t even a correlation between illness and behavior due to the overwhelming amount of outliers in the graphs.
The third method is the implementation of pharmaceutical drugs. Do we need more or less? Well, a 16 year old shot 10 of his friends on an Indian reservation while he was on Prozac. The Columbine school shootings involved two kids on anti-depressants. Cho Seung Hui was on antidepressants also. The obvious pattern is the use of strong anti-depressants. These anti-depressants detach kids from reality and make “real life†a first person shooting game. But would these kids be worse without the drugs available to them? We can say with certainty these children would be more depressed, but maybe they would have less of a chance of killing someone. Killing another human being is a lot harder if you’re sober, isn’t it?
If steps are taken by parents, law makers, and schools to prevent school shootings on these three levels, the amount of school shootings will decrease significantly. Our natural rights are important, but aren’t our children a little more of a priority? That’s why the government restricts the rights of students in schools, because our children should be protected at all costs. Well balanced safety and privacy in law and school will result in a safer environment for children in school.
What everybody is saying here is essentially the same rhetoric over and over. This guy was on the wrong medications all along, why was he not prescribed meds such chlorazine or riserpidone? He was psychotic so ant-psychotic major tranquilizers would have been the correct stuff for him. They would have all of those innocent lives.