A Week of Madness at Virginia Tech

As you are well aware, the shooting that took place this past Monday was the worst shooting massacre in U.S. history. 33 people were shot dead, including the killer, Cho Seung-Hui. A day of infamy, undoubtedly.

What caused such a sick act of human madness?

The question is on everybody's mind.

We can blame it on permissive gun ownership, excessive gun control, overly flexible immigration laws, hostility towards immigrants, depression, anti-depressants, racial profiling, anti-Americanism, or America herself. Chances are, you'll stand by at least two of the issues with a raging passion.

We rush to the stage, asking "what law should we invent as a result of this massacre?"

There is no such law that would have prevented such a tragic outcome. Laws need not apply to those who mean harm.

You can disarm the entire country. Yet, Cho could purchase a chainsaw for half the cost of a gun. You can cry for Cho's desperate need for attention, but that isn't going to earn him any pity points. You can open the borders wide open, only to become a stranger in your own country. You can give him Prozac, and he can oversleep all semester and express yet more apathy towards others around him.

Or, you can even forbid law-abiding students the right to carry a gun, like Virginia Tech chose to do a year before the incident.

As a result of the Virginia state legislature's proposal of a bill to make it easier to carry firearms on college campuses, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker had this to say:

"I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Sure, it made people feel safer, but in reality, it didn’t make anybody safer.

Ever since Florida adopted the right-to-carry in 1987, the murder rate decreased by 51%. According to the Florida Department of State, less than two one-hundredths of 1% of the state carry licenses were revoked due to crimes committed by firearms.

According to law professor and firearms issue researcher David Kopel:

"Whenever a state legislature first considers a concealed-carry bill, opponents typically warn of horrible consequences. Permit-holders will slaughter each other in traffic disputes, while would-be Rambos shoot bystanders in incompetent attempts to thwart crime. But within a year of passage, the issue usually drops off the news media's radar screen, while gun-control advocates in the legislature conclude that the law wasn't so bad after all."

Yet, the consequences of shouting down the rights of good men to defend themselves were not only more severe, but a reality.

When the incident emerged, Madman Cho killed two people and fled the scene. The university closed down one building and resumed classes, giving Cho a mere halftime show to reload and send his hate-filled, self-victimizing package to NBC. Let me reiterate: a college shooting takes place, the killer was on the loose, and the campus shut down one building.

As if gun control policies on campus would have any effect at this point.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger trusted the word of authorities who claimed that it was only a domestic dispute, and thought the gunman had fled campus.

His own words:

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur."

Why not?

You didn’t have the gunman in custody. You didn’t have him identified. But “go on with your lives, nothing to see here” had reached such a trustworthy consensus. And then you tackled the wrong man, as shown below.

To make matters worse, the police were standing around doing nothing while the shooting was going on.

Here’s the cell phone clip.

It’s bad enough that private citizens were stripped of their constitutional rights. But it’s a glimpse of Hell when the police pace around like husbands watching their wives get prettied up.

After receiving the “Cho Show,” NBC quickly broke the story. They have faced enough criticism over the Don Imus story, but why stop now.

Here are some excerpts of the “Cho Show.”

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today, but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

He went on.

"Jesus loved crucifying me. He loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorizing my heart and ripping my soul all this time."

Personally, I see no vice in NBC’s decision to air Cho’s package, other than the possibility of distracting attention from the victims.

In addition, Cho’s own literature was obtained. One of them which portrays a new stepfather as victim to his new stepson’s bizarre antics, which included accusations of pedophilia. Eventually, the stepfather is driven mad by the torment and murders the stepson. It can be read on the Smoking Gun.

Further incite could refer to his self-appointed nickname, “Ismail Ax,” which was written in red ink on his arm. In Korean cultures, red is a symbol of death. “Ismail” is a likely reference to the first Arab, Ishmael, who was born of Hagar, rather than Sarah, as God intended. Jewish tradition generally regards him as an illegitimate child, a result of sin, and forsaken by God, whereas Islam regards him as an appointed prophet of God.

Clearly, Cho was a self-victimizer who refused to get along with the good, the bad, and the ugly that exists in American culture. In reference to his suicide note, it’s tough to justify that "rich kids," "debauchery," and "deceitful charlatans" are solely, or even remotely to blame for this tragic outcome.

Although this massacre gave Rosie O’Donnell and Friends a convenient rush to judgment, more gun control is not the answer, as my previous argument suggests.

On January 16, 2002, a gunman opened fire at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, killing three people, and wounding three others. The heroes of the day were the three students who stopped the shooting, two of whom did so by exercising their right to bear arms.

This time around, Virginia Tech prohibited students from carrying firearms, but that didn't stop a madman from defying the law. It stopped responsible, law abiding citizens from fighting back. Instead, 33 lives were cut short.

The hero in this case was not the police department, but an Israeli Holocaust survivor who is no longer alive. His final act of heroism was barricading the doors, telling his students to jump out the window of the first floor, and taking the bullets for them. His name was Liviu Librescu.