What can we as a community do to try and prevent another shooting massacre?

Question

Are there any fundamental changes we can make in our society to keep another depressed and suicidal "maniac" from doing this again? Was there anything we could have done to keep the Virginia Tech shooter from doing this?

I feel like we had gotten all the warning signs that this guy was severely depressed or even psychotic and was more than capable of committing these acts of atrocity, but most people seemed too perturbed by his strange behavior over the years to want to help him.

Do we need better mental health intervention programs in our country? Or could it be as simple as loosening our gun laws, allowing more innocent people to be able to defend themselves in situations like this? Maybe we should look to some European cultures for more perspective like this...places like Norway (albeit a socialist country) have an incredibly low crime rate.

Your thoughts, please.

Answer 1

Sometimes I think we have a false sense of security and community. We think that if we can just get to a safe area, we're safe. That all we have to worry about is what's happening in our own back yard. It's nice in theory, but no man is an island. What goes on in our poorest communities may not affect our lives on a daily basis. The plight of the untreated mentally ill may not cross our minds when we think of health care coverage. But when something like this happens, "out there" hits awfully close to home.

What happened in this young man's life that caused him to take the lives of so many others? Was it abuse? Neglect? Mental illness? Drugs?

We can't bring the victims back, we can't stop what has already happened. The only thing we can do now is learn from it.

What can we do to reach out to "at-risk" children so that they don't resort to what this young man did in order to make his place in this world, or deal with his pain, or whatever it was that drove him to do this?

We cannot choose who children are born to or what bad influences and traumas are in their lives.

We can mentor them and be good influences in their lives, and research shows that mentoring and advocating for at-risk kids reduces their risk of criminal activity later in life.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters only requires 4 hours a month. Offer to read to children in a homeless shelter, or in poor schools. Volunteer for after school programs.

We can support better and more accessible mental health care coverage, and longer hospitalization for certain psychiatric conditions.

What we can learn from this - what matters now - is that we can't pretend that "those peoples' kids" are not our concern. All children are our children. They all need our concern and assistance and love.

Mentor a child, change the world.

Answer 2

The mentality have to totally change, that is the case I think. It's true that Norway have a low crime rate (I;m from Norway), but the Norwegians also have a different mentality, AND Norway is SO much smaller than the US (maybe you could compare with the size of a state).
Remember that in Norway not even the cops wear guns!! I don't think this could ever be possible for the American police.
To deal with a problem like this, I think it has to start in the center, to find solutions. Too look for ideas other places is good, but the difference's in the countries is too big.
Personally I think that the school have to be much more involved in the students. That is where it all should begin.

Answer 3

Loosening your gun laws?! Even further? I'd have never thought of that. So basically everyone will be able to shoot anyone they think is about to take a gun out of their pocket, even if then it turned out to be a lighter.

It seems logic tto me that the more guns are around the more people will get shot. If no guns can be found, what are they gonna shoot with???

I think that approaching people genuinely, would be a good start. A sad and despondent youth nowadays is sent to a mental ward like a blabbering lunatic, tagged for life, laughed at, when its just common youth angst. What about friendly talks to peers? They've gone out the window.

All you get is the smartalec, coldhearted, bully-minded simpletons like the two "room mates" the media strived to show everyone as they were grinning along the whole interview. Grinning, at such a tragedy. And leaving the light on a t night and liking music were made to sound like suspicious activities, while the reasons the killer wrote, to do with his disgust at greed and total lack of sympathy for the next guy were not even mentioned!

Try being less horrible, judgemental and leery at people from a different background. Snobbing all "foreigners" is not a good way to make people to be friendly. Would you like that done to you?

Answer 4

We, as a society in general, tend to turn the other cheek too often and say "It's not my problem." Obviously, this young man's behavior became a problem for at least 32 other people. And it was one that had been reported, but nothing had been done about it. We need to listen to each other, not turn away. I know we all have our problems, but, if we all had someone to turn to when the load became too much to bear, wouldn't we all feel a little better? No, I don't think loosening the gun laws would help. Then even more whack jobs could get guns even easier. Reverting to the days of the old west when everyone had a gun I think will only cause more bloodshed, not prevent it. We need to listen. We need to learn to care for each other again. That's something that we, in general, have forgotten.

Answer 5

Take warning signs seriously. Officials at VA Tech knew that Cho had serious problems, but even though a court psychiatrist declared him mentally ill, they still allowed him to remain on campus. I don't see how the university can get out of assuming a major part of the blame. Look for law suits to be filed.

Answer 6

Dear Matt,

I understand your great concern about our people who act in such ways. I believe that the only way to put a stop to all this, and other form of violence and crime, is to speak out and reach to others, by means of protesting, giving speeches, and getting together with those who oppose to violence, like you and I do.

This guy was depressed and mentally ill. I think they had tried to get him into counseling, but he refused. I think VT was unaware that this guy would pose danger to the students and others in the Blacksburg community. But, they did know that he had problems, because of his writings they came across, which, his English teacher found out about.

As for gun laws, I think they should be stricter and tighter. Some innocent people cannot defend themselves in such times.

To the rest of you who have families, friends, and classmates from VTech, I'd like to share something with you :

To those who attend VTech
To the families of students who were affected of such crime
To the entire campus, staff, and faculty of VTech

May this time be a time of remembering, healing, and praying.

May this time bring strength, courage, and love.
Amen.

The incident at VTech was very insane and was an immature crime.
Let us hope that this will never again happen.
Let us learn from these mistakes, and prevent them.
We must speak out.
Speak out now, and stop this and other violence to our colleges and
schools.

To the deceased students of VTech. R.I.P.

Answer 7

We as a society have become pretty detached from eachother. Especially with the Internet, text-messaging and things of the like, it's like we don't have the same meaningful interractions with people anymore. It's all microwave now. Why write a letter when you can email? Why call when you can text? Why meet people when you can Web Cam? We need to get back to the fundamentals of human interraction. That's a start at least.

Answer 8

both tighten protection at school campuses and issue the scholars to random pat-downs, dorm-room searches, and metallic detectors (that isn't %. up the ceramic guns made by Glock and different manufacturers) OR decontrol the gun administration guidelines and allow students to guard themselves. Unconceal those guns. If Cho knew the children and instructors had the capacity to fireside again and stop him, he does no longer have attacked. Terrorists with a message will continuously %. on the susceptible and defenseless. they do no longer desire a straightforward strive against.

Answer 9

I think that V.Tech killer was, perhaps, not properly assimilated into US (or adult) society. His declaration that "we" have blood on our hands shows that he doesn't quite realize that in the US people generally feel that, as adults, they are responsible for themselves and their immediate relatives only.

"We" (society at large) are not responsible for him nor for his actions. I know that he came over from S. Korea when he was young, perhaps he hadn't processed this part of Americanism.

The fierce independence of the American psyche can, of course, be good and bad. Obviously his aquintances were not responsible for Mr. Cho, but one wonders... what if they had sat down and tried to talk to him instead of labeling him as a "loner". Perhaps if he had had someone caring to listen to him he would have changed his perspective about "all of us."

I don't think Cho's aquintances did anything wrong, but one wonders: What if society was set up so that you tried to break through the veneer of coldness that troubled people sometimes put up? Maybe that would make it worse, maybe it would help troubled people. Who knows...

Answer 10

You can do whatever you want to try to stop but you never can. The more compact you make our society, the more people are going to break out and want attention. They are crazy and need mental help. But you don't know when somebody is going to eventually explode like he did. There will always be another one, remember that.