Writing alone probably isn't a reason to single him out (If that was the case, half of what makes it to theatre screens is written by nutcases), but in context with the rest of his behaviour, it's hard not to see the red flags and wonder why action wasn't taken earlier. An English major who sits in class and says nothing? Hardly seems right does it?

I'd heard a story that he set a fire in his dorm room at some point.  The kid should have been ejected from College for that act alone.  That would have been the end of it. Period. (Unless he'd harbored a grudge and come back).

I've lived in the US two years now, and in that time, there's been three shootings I can recall, the Amish community in PA, the two girls on another campus and now this - that's in two years.  In the time I spent living in the UK (33 years), I can only recall two mass shooting incidents.  Hungerford, and one in Scotland.

Bottom line is, I think, you guys gotta get some gun control. You can't own a gun in the UK (legally) unless you're a registered member of a gun club and hold a licence for said gun.  It's all very well pointing fingers after the event and asking how it could have been prevented, but if anyone can walk into a gun store and buy a gun - you can't stop someone doing something like this if they're hell bent on it.

The "constitutional right to bear arms" is no excuse to fall back on.  If you want to live by that sword, then innocent lives will die by that sword.  And it will happen again, and again, and again. A comment reported on the news this morning from the pro-gun advocates was "Well if someone else on campus had owned a gun they could have stopped him."  I can't believe what I'm hearing.

Interestingly enough, one of the news channels looked into whether it was legal for a resident alien to own a gun - and it is.  So basically anyone entering the country can buy a gun.  Homeland Security.  Say what????

Jim, I'm glad your son is safe, and like so many others I'm appalled at the events at VT and my deepest sympathies go out to all those affected by the tragedy.  There is a simple solution though.  Stop making it easy for people to get hold of guns.

Stuart you realize of course that most people who are against restrictive gun control laws point at gun violence in the UK as an example of how the concept fails. snippet=[The frequency of shootings has also reignited doubts over the effectiveness of policing policy. Scotland Yard officials admit privately that they have to start developing a 'really clear understanding' of how gangs operate and, in particular, how they recruit their teenage foot soldiers. Certainly their influence and numbers appear to be on the rise. The frequency with which the Metropolitan Police is required to deploy its 552 armed officers on to the streets would, in the words of its superintendent, Bert Moore, surprise most of the capital's population.]=read the rest of the link

Beside; law? What law? There are 20 thousand gun laws across the US right now. VT campus has a zero tolerance policy about guns. Strangley enough that 0-policy only seems to have stopped everyone BUT Cho from bringing the gun on campus.

The constitution was not designed as a legal buffet. People who would scream about the slighest change in the 1st Amendment in order to stop a NAMBLA or Al Quida sympathizer in the name of the Hallowed Document would cheer as parts of that same document (the 2nd Amendment) were ripped apart.

Talk to people who lived through Katrina or the LA riots and see how they feel about gun control. Look at gun violence in the UK or NYC to see what happens when you have heavy, restrictive gun laws.  

The truth is the laws could be tougher in some instances. In the case of Cho he was deemed an Iminent Threat by a court in 2005. I'm pretty willing to say that should have come up on his ID check for the gun application.

I'm not willing to grasp hold of the pipedream that criminals will obey gun laws any more than Cho obeyed VT's 0-tolerance guns on campus policy.

As a logic game ask yourself what would have happened if one of those Iraq vets at VT on a GI Loan had been armed? Would he have made the situation worse? Could he have stopped it?

I'm not necessairly saying "arming everyone" is the answer (anymore than I'm likely to start bragging about my spelling) all I am saying is that dismissing such an obvious answer as A Single Person Taking Personal Responsibility For His Own Protection is not something that someone would say causes them disbelief at what they're hearing.

I read a book by former Crip member Lil_Monster where he desribes x-mas in Compton at the height of crack sales when members of the gang drove a pickup truck down the neighborhood and handed out chinese model AK-47s as presents to EVERYONE. We'red they get them? Same place they bought their bulk cocaine: Mexico.

How exactly is you taking my pistol supposed to help me again? Like this =[Although the Metropolitan Police seized 909 firearms and more than 16,000 rounds of ammunition last year, no one knows with certainty how many guns are on Britain's streets. Only last Friday a wealthy businessman who controlled an international gun-smuggling operation from eastern Europe to London was jailed for 10 and a half years. Officers caught Gerald Smith, 47, handing over 18 converted Baikal pistols, 18 silencers and 748 rounds in north London last May. But such successes are relatively few.]

I realize I might seem a little sharp, Stuart, in my laughing at your belief system as being unsporrted by actual facts, but to be frank you struck me as a little smug and self satisfied in your sanctamonious judgements and use of a horrible tradgedy to engage in dirahea of the mouth about your personal political ideology and about how America brings this on themselves.

I'd like to thank you all for the good wishes for my son.  He's home, and is doing better emotionally.  The School is doing a tremendous job to address the stress and fear amongst the students.  They held a beautiful candle light ceremony last night on the drill field in the center of campus, several thousand students attended and it lasted several hours.  No planned agenda mind you, just an opportunity for the students to come together, talk and grieve.  Tom reports he spent an hour there talking with other students, then spent time with a goup of friends.

As for the gun issue, I would throw out two points; VT is a gun-free zone.  Guns of any description are prohibited by law on campus, permit or not.  As several of you said, gun control would not have prevented this, and I agree.  This fellow had no interest in the law.  He would have found a way no matter what.

But I must fault Virginia law on gun licenses.  I'm hearing today that Cho had an involuntary psychaitric hospitalization in 2005.  As a government attorney, I've handled these types of cases in Delaware.  A person has to present a real danger to himself or others to be hospitalized, and suffer from a major mental health problem.  But I also know that such an event is placed in police records with any criminal arrests or convictions, so police and other authorities will be aware if they have contact or involvement in the future.  This should have been picked up when he applied for the handgun purchase approval.  I would have been here.  I can only assume Virginia law does not require these hospitalization be recorded.  Had it been, police would have been alerted and they certainly would have followed up.  Sad.

Jim Reichert

Nathan,

I apologize that my post offended you so deeply.  I thought I was raising some points for discussion - primarily, wouldn't making it difficult to get guns and having fewer guns on the streets be a good idea and secondly, at a time when the US is so concerned with protecting itself from outside attack, shouldn't the fact that anyone who enters the country can easily get hold of a firearm something of a concern.  You need to protect yourself from all avenues of attack, external and internal.  Perhaps being caught up in the media frenzy of the last two days - I didn't articulate that very well.

I certainly do not dismiss the notion of a person taking responsibility for their own protection and salute the professor who sacrificed himself so that others might escape and the student who barricaded his classroom door so the attacker could not get in.  Both of them undoubtedly saved numerous lives.  Neither of them needed a gun to do it.

I read the article you linked to with interest.  Whilst there is no doubt there are shootings everywhere, what your article is referring to is primarily drug related gang shootings.  I do not fear getting shot from drug dealing gang members, even though they are criminals and can probably easily get guns, because I do not operate in their circles and will probably never have contact with them.  However, I do fear the mentally unstable person down the street who can also easily get a gun.

I attach the following links for your interest and stress that the opinions contained within do not necessarily concur with my own:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070417/wl_asia_afp/uscrimeshooting

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4725093.html

http://www.gladwell.com/1996/1996_06_03_a_tipping.htm