As more facts begin to emerge on the circumstances surrounding the senseless massacre on the Virginia Tech. campus, one cannot but ask some fundamental questions about what was going through this young man's mind. Could anyone have done a little bit more to prevent this heinous and despicable act? May the souls of the departed rest in peace.
Labels: VT Massacre
posted by koontzopinion @ 1:22 AM
1 Comments:
Hmm. Deep… Truthfully though, I doubt that there was anything anyone could have done that would have deterred psycho kid from his task. I’m of the opinion that he was a very determined man on a very well planned mission, and at the very most, his plans would have been delayed rather than prevented.
There are (in my opinion) WAY too many variables involved in a situation like this for one to propose an effective solution. To get a solution, we must first identify the problem, and 'that' (again, in MY opinion), is where we fall short. WHAT is the real problem here? Who/what is really to blame?
Do we blame his parents for not committing their psycho child into a mental institution before said psychosis took him over completely? - For those who're readying themselves for a compelling argument in favor of his parents, please stop yourselves. I refuse to believe that they didn't know their child was disturbed... According to VERIFIABLE and CREDIBLE news reports, the kid made no effort to hide his weirdness. What, they didn't notice how unresponsive and stoic he was? You can't say his mom had never been in his room... she'd have had to see some disturbing things, right...? - (Also, the 'immigrant mentality' argument - Its the one where its argued that due to such vast differences in culture and upbringing, immigrant families are not as 'open' or as 'educated' about mental illnesses as the average American family, also falls short here.) They had to have seen or known SOMETHING... anything. Adult or not, he's more of their responsibility than ours... They could have sought help out for him... As we all learned when we watched Forrest Gump in 1993, "Crazy is as crazy does"... There’s no hiding ‘real crazy’. (Yes, I'm aware that Forrest said 'stupid' not crazy)... moving on.
Do we blame the school? It turns out that in this case, the school did pretty much all it was expected to do... He was referred to the counselor's office because of some disturbing images and text he'd drawn/written up, and the counselor followed school/state/board of education guidelines to a T.... Let's not forget that this is college... You've heard that saying about being able to force a horse to the water, but not being able to force it to drink, right? In the eyes of the legal system, psycho kid was an adult... The school authorities could only do so much...
Do we blame our law makers for making the gun control laws too lax? As broad a topic as this might be, I seriously think that if one was to dig really deep underneath the many layers of bureaucracies that cover, surround, and protect these laws, we just might find the weak link we're looking for...Lets examine our facts closely...
A 2005 declaration of mental illness was made about psycho kid by a Virginia Stage Special Justice. He was declared a danger to himself by the court, and was sent for psychiatric treatment. Now even though purchase of firearms in Virginia State by permanent legal residents is legal as long as the buyer shows proof of residency, Federal law prohibits those "adjudicated as a mental defective" from buying said firearms...
I think its safe to say that after you've been declared a danger to yourself by a court of law, you fall under the 'mental defective' category... no? How then was he able to purchase these firearms? Well, I checked, and it’s all a bunch of bureaucratic (yes, that word again) nonsense. It’s confusing (I think they do that on purpose), so brace yourself…
The Virginia STATE law on “Mental Health Disqualifications to Firearms Purchases” is worded a little differently from the FEDERAL statute. Because of this, the form that the Virginia State Courts use to notify the state police about a “mental health disqualification” addresses ONLY the State criteria. One would need a completely different form for the Federal notification. (Basically two different forms both stating the same thing).
Well, according to the State, the two categories that the person would have to fall under to warrant notification to the State Police are:
1. Someone who was 'involuntarily committed'
2. Someone who was ruled 'mentally incapacitated'.
I still think psycho kid fits the bill here, no..? That alone should have made him unable to purchase those guns, right? Well, according to Federal Law, more was needed… See what I mean by unnecessary bureaucracies? I'm almost done; Bear with me...
That federal law I had spoken about earlier defines 'adjudication as a mental defective' to mean:
Determination by a court, board, commission or other lawful authority that as a result of mental illness, the person is a "danger to himself or others".
But wait… Aren’t we all basically saying the SAME thing here? I mean, it’s not just me.... is it? WHICHEVER way it’s looked at, this kid was certifiably crazy (by BOTH the State and Federal Laws), and should NOT have been able to purchase those firearms.
Well, because of the different steps required to complete both the Federal and State filing process, lines got mixed up and lost somewhere along the way, and psycho kid’s legal status was not reported to the Federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Following the laws of ‘Cause and Effect’, this in turn failed to prevent or even deter his firearms purchases. Our lawmakers are so busy burying existing laws under the piles of paperwork they're using to write up new ones, that seemingly NOTHING is getting accomplished. It’s quite the vicious cycle, I tell you.
To summarize in plain and simple English, based on the guidelines and definitions provided by BOTH the State and Federal government, psycho kid should NOT have been able to legally purchase those firearms. Even though the State and Federal laws both acknowledged him as psychologically unfit for said purchase, he was able to purchase not one, but two weapons of carnage because the people who could have stopped him were too busy following pointless, redundant ‘procedures’.
ALL of that having been said though, I still believe that had he been prevented from purchasing those firearms by the law, he still would have found a way to wreak his deadly havoc on campus that day. Be it by detonating pipe bombs he learned how to make on the Internet, poisoning the campus food/water, or by using guns he bought illegally. He was a man on a mission, and he was determined to get his point across... The law would only have managed to delay the inevitable…
Scary thought, isn't it?
To echo your words, “May the souls of the departed rest in peace.”… God bless/save us all…
Bro' Kunle, how far? Sorry for the long comment... I got carried away. How you dey? How our family? Holla!
Post a Comment
<< Home