Shooting at Virginia Tech - Page 15

Roc3b · #**141** 04-20-2007, 09:28 AM

The parents had mental breakdowns are both in hospitals...turns out this kid was diagnosed with a form of autism but the school was never told. He parents were either ashamed to say to could not afford the treatment he needed.

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noncom23 · #**142** 04-20-2007, 09:37 AM

They both had mental breakdowns. I guess that says it all...

Roc3b · #**143** 04-20-2007, 09:44 AM

Rules should have barred weapon purchase

By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press Writer | April 20, 2007
McLEAN, Va. --A judge's ruling on Cho Seung-Hui's mental health should have barred him from purchasing the handguns he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, according to federal regulations. But it was unclear whether anybody had an obligation to inform federal authorities because of loopholes in the law that governs background checks.
Cho purchased two handguns in February and March, and was subject to federal and state background checks both times. The checks turned up no problems, despite a judge's ruling in December 2005 that Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness."
"On the face of it, he should have been blocked under federal law," said Denis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The 23-year-old South Korean immigrant was evaluated by a psychiatric hospital after he was accused of stalking two women and photographing female students in class with his cell phone. His violence-filled writings were so disturbing that professors begged him to get counseling.
The language of the ruling by Special Justice Paul M. Barnett almost identically tracks federal regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Those rules bar the sale of guns to individuals who have been "adjudicated mentally defective."
The definition outlined in the regulations is "a determination by a court ... or other lawful authority that a person as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness ... is a danger to himself or to others."
Virginia State Police send information on prohibited buyers to the federal government. They maintain that the sale was legal under state law and would have been barred only if the justice had committed Cho to a psychiatric hospital. Barnett ordered outpatient treatment instead.
The Virginia attorney general's office declined to discuss the application of gun laws to Cho's case. Barnett also declined to comment.
The state uses a slightly different standard than the federal government, barring sales to individuals who have been judged "mentally incapacitated."
George Burke, a spokesman for Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York, said millions of criminal and mental-health records are not accessible to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, mostly because state and local governments lack the money to submit the records.
McCarthy has sponsored legislation since 2002 that would close loopholes in the national background check system for gun purchases.
Initially states were required to provide all relevant information to federal authorities when the instant background checks were enacted, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling relieved them of that obligation.
"The law is very confused about this," said Richard Bonnie, a professor of law and psychiatry at the University of Virginia who heads a state commission on mental-health reform. "The source of the confusion is the relation between federal and state law."
Also Thursday, the owner of an Internet gun store based in Green Bay, Wis., told The Associated Press that Cho used his Web site to purchase one of the weapons used in the shootings. Cho paid $268 for the gun.
Eric Thompson, who runs http://www.thegunsource.com, said the Walther .22-caliber handgun was then shipped to a Virginia pawnbroker so Cho could pick it up.
Thompson said he had no idea his business was involved until he was contacted Tuesday by ATF agents.
"I just feel absolutely terrible that this tragedy even happened in the first place," he said.

rebound · #**144** 04-20-2007, 11:11 AM

So what this is saying is that we have a prima facie case that there is enough law on the books to have stopped him from legally purchasing a weapon. We just need the local governments to do their job.

Eric5273 · #**145** 04-22-2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebound

there is enough law on the books to have stopped him from legally purchasing a weapon. We just need the local governments to do their job.

Such is the case with most problems in this country. Laws are on the books, but rarely enforced. Hell, rarely is the constitution even upheld anymore.

rebound · #**146** 04-22-2007, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric5273

Such is the case with most problems in this country. Laws are on the books, but rarely enforced. Hell, rarely is the constitution even upheld anymore.

Except for your freedom of speech.

rebound · #**147** 04-23-2007, 09:39 PM

'Only in America'? Gunning Down a Claim

By Steve Stanek : 20 Apr 2007

In response to the horrible mass shooting at Virginia Tech on Monday, overseas leaders as well as many Americans have condemned the "gun culture" of the United States. Perhaps these overseas leaders and American citizens would be less hard on our country if we discuss what has been happening in other countries.

Major news outlets reported on April 18 about the shooting deaths of at least 19 gang members in Rio de Janeiro by rival gangs and police. These shootouts occurred despite Brazil's strict gun control laws.

Also in Wednesday's newspapers are reports about Tuesday's shooting death of the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan. Japan has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the industrialized world.

In Scotland authorities are enacting knife control policies because violent crime has continued to climb (with knives as a weapon of choice) in the wake of the nation's gun bans. Should Americans speak contemptuously of Scotland's "blade and booze" culture?

Last November in Emsdetten, Germany, a teenager shot and wounded more than a dozen persons before killing himself. In 2002 in a school in Erfurt, Germany, a gunman killed 17 people and himself.

Five years ago I did research for an article on mass shootings. Here are a few of the headlines I came across:

"8 slain at council meeting"

"Teen wounds 5 in tech school"

"Suspected gang shooting leaves 4 dead, 2 injured"

"Man kills ex-bosses, principal, himself"

"Gunman kills self, 7 others"

The incidents these headlines describe occurred in France, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany and Italy, respectively. In the five years since that research, crime rates have continued to climb in many other countries with far stricter gun control laws than those in the United States.

In 1996 in Port Arthur, Australia, a crazed man shot and killed more than 30 people. After learning of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told reporters this about his nation's response to the Port Arthur horror: "We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country."

Prime Minister Howard neglected to say anything about the "culture" in Australia that prompted a man to commit a mass shooting. He also neglected to mention Australian government figures that show five years after the Port Arthur-inspired gun crackdowns, homicides had climbed 3.2 percent, assaults had gone up 8.6 percent, and, astoundingly, armed robberies had soared 45 percent. Crime rates remain high in Australia despite the confiscation of hundreds of thousands of firearms, and gun bans.

On September 28, 2001, in peaceful Switzerland, a man shot and killed 14 people, including 11 members of a local canton council.

In the 2002 presidential election in France, many political observers cited soaring crime as the Number 1 issue. Nationwide strikes by thousands of France's police officers a few months before the election heightened the issue. The strikes came in response to what police said are growing dangers from gun-wielding criminals. They had strong evidence to cite, including the recent shooting deaths of two police officers during an armed robbery in a Paris suburb.

I've heard people say "only in America" in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings. Clearly, though, it's not only in America. Terrible incidents like these have occurred and are occurring in countries across the world, including countries that severely restrict or ban the private ownership of firearms, and countries with a reputation of peace and harmony.

Steve Stanek is a freelance writer and editor in McHenry, Ill., and research fellow at The Heartland Institute in Chicago.

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X5Jones · #**148** 04-24-2007, 02:16 AM

Not to mention the Monash university shooting a few years back!

The handgun bans that followed it were equally useless!.

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