Why have we not heard an apology from the parents of the shooter at Virginia Tech?

Question

I feel such sympathy for the parents of the people who lost someone because of the Virginia Tech shooter. And believe it or not but I was feeling just as bad for the parents of the shooter, can you imagine that your child is not only dead but that he was the cause of not only his own death but that of so many other children.
I have 4 kids (30, 29, 25 and 19 years old) and if one of them had done something like this I would just want to die. The sorrow, guilt and remorse I would feel would be overwhelming! I must admit I would not want to be attacked by the media but I would have a spokes person for the family (Church pastor maybe) issue a statement of apology.

Answer 1

Apologize for what? If they had trained him from birth to be a killer or they knew he was planning this and did not do anything then they should (and they should be put in jail) but i don't think that is the case here. The fact that South Korea apologized is also bizarre. This was a 23 year old man with a mental illness that slipped through the cracks in our society. There was no prior history of violence when he was living with his parents and once he turned 18 and went to college they were not responsible and had no idea he was hospitalized;

A mentally ill person has committed an atrocity; This has happened before; it has happened now, and unfortunately will probably happen again in the future.

Should Timothy Mcveigh' s parents apologize? Should the parents of the Columbine shooters apologize? Should the parents of that waco women in carolina that drowned her three kids in her car apologize?

This is silly. If more people used their common sense the world would be a better place; What has happened is a tragedy but it is also a tragedy that the 3k+ men and woman we have lost in iraq so far does not get 1/1000 of the recognition that the va tech kids got.

I think all of this silly thinking is media driven; anything to get ratings (the fact they showed his video was inmoral). If someone needs to apogize it probably should be (in addition to him off course) the people who supposedly tornented him when he was growing up and the people who watered down the gun laws and stopped funding for mental institutions.

-peace.

Answer 2

Perhaps they too are in shock. There is also some cultural stuff going on. I wonder why this troubles you? They are having to deal with a great deal of things just now. From the media, authorities, friends etc and besides how do you know that they have not expressed sorrow to the families of the dead on an individual and private basis? It is always easy to judge and lay our own expectations on the behavior of others based on what we think they should do. I also would be affected if one of my children did this but I think that instead of being able to reach out to anyone, I would be immobilized for quite awhile. I would probably need some type of medication for a short time or longer because I don't know how I'd be able to cope.

Answer 3

Why should the parents apologize for the act of their 23 year old adult son? The teachers and students at the school spent more time with him than they did on a daily basis. The broken system at the University would not allow them to contact his parents to tell them what was going on with him - even when they found things suspicious, and because he was over 18, the authorities who had problems with him a couple of years ago didn't have to notify them either.

What their son did was not the fault of the parents. As you said, no one can even begin to imagine what kind of grief they are going through now.

This man alone is responsible for what was done. No one else should be apologizing for the tragedy. The gun manufacturers are not at fault. The shops that sold him the guns are not at fault. This man planned his actions many days/weeks in advance. I don't believe there was anything that could have stopped him from carrying out his plan. Circumstances could have been altered one way or another and he could have killed more or less, but he was determined to kill.

Pray for the families of the dead. Offer a special prayer for this man's family, as they will need every ounce of strength they have to get through not just these days, but the media circus and stigma that will follow them for the rest of their days.

Answer 4

May be they have.
On the other hand, they can be very afraid of coming out and worry about what other people will treat them.

If you read the news today, the shooter were bullied and discriminated against when he was in high school.

I think there is a cultural differences and they are worry about their own safety.

Answer 5

Deported ummm extremely no longer. i might have not any subject going to The Cho’s drying cleansing organization. comparing this to assert an 8 12 months previous newborn breaking something in a shop and their mothers and dads having to pay for it is purely absurd. Cho grew to become into an grownup (23 years of age) and made his own judgements. it would desire to be reported his relatives might desire to have tried to get him extra help, yet that could desire to be reported with regard to the college besides, the academics and consolers who observed he grew to become into falling off the sting. The Cho’s are actually not in charge for what their son did. the shown fact that they might even want secure practices is gloomy, and from what I even have heard they're being secure. I even have no longer something against it, merely that its unhappy that they might like it. I don’t remember the mothers and dads of the lads that did Columbine being placed below secure practices. Nor the relatives of the guy who blew up the Federal development in Oklahoma. I even have study no longer something that announces Cho grew to become into accompanied.

Answer 6

I don't mean this in a bad way but, why should Cho's parents apologize for his misdoings? They can't change the fact that he killed himself and others. Yes, his parents are very sad about what happened, but what's done is done and apologizing won't change the feelings that the residents of
Blacksburg and VA Tech have felt.

Answer 7

I'll get thumbs down for sure, however;

For those of you who believe that his parents don't need to apologise...thats ridiculous. Thats like saying that if parents train their child to shoot teachers once he/she turns twenty, that they aren't responsible for bringing up their child to do that. Who cares if the law says your an adult by age twenty one, that doesn't change the fact that you are most definitly shaped by your upbringing. To ignore that is plain ignorant.

I most definitly want to know who his parents were, and why they let him grow out of hand. I want to know why authorities or who ever, don't take people like this seriously and try to do something about them before they go completely berserk. I want to know why it has to take students/etc, being shot and killed for anyone to realize the time bomb thats about to go off. People don't just "poof" appear and do crazy things for no reason. They get that way by either being born psychotic, or went throw traumatic life experiences that led them that way, or both, but something should have been done to prevent this nonsense. It's easy to put all the blame on this ******, but he and his crazy actions wasn't invisable to people who was around him. Especially and specifically his parents and the authorities and doctors who spoke with him.

Answer 8

.I really don't believe i need to here there apology.I no down deep thy have said I'm sorry over and over and over for what there son has done. would you want to be put on the air for 32 killings and 15 teen in the hospital for and apology.I think people really no it was not there fault.

Answer 9

These parents are at fault, where were they when this child was being held in a mental health facility or having social difficulties, These people are made, made, made by society, when will we take responsibility for that, the warning signs were there its just that nobody gave a S h i t !

Answer 10

I can't even begin to imagine the pain, suffering and grieft that is being felt by those kids parents or the the parents of the scum bag who killed them. I understand his parents were very distraught and were being hospitalized. I'm sure an apology will be forthcoming.