They Want to Place the Blame

My heart goes out to the parents and other family members of the students and faculty who were killed or injured earlier this week at Virginia Tech. Noone should have to suffer through such horror. But, is there a way it can be prevented from happening over and over? Who's to blame for not stopping that sick young man who killed and killed and then killed some more?

Should the blame be placed with the security and police departments? Why? They're supposed to be mind readers now? What about his professors, his classmates for not reporting more vigorously how strange he acted? His parents? Current gun laws?

There is probably nothing much that the campus cops or the local city police force could have done about stopping a young man hell bent to kill. The young man who committed mass murder in Blacksburg, Va. made overtures so unwelcome to young women that their ultimate rejections had to be delivered by the campus police. They in turn were troubled enough to send him to a mental health facility after a court magistrate declared him "mentally ill" but not "an imminent danger" to himself or others. (another article I read stated that they had declared him a danger to himself and others). That was in 2005.

There are millions of people, just in our country, that suffer from mental illness, many, if not all, are probably not even aware that they are mentally ill. These people seem to be ignored, overlooked, or simply misunderstood by others. Unfortunately it is too late for all those victims who have lost their lives so needlessly in Virginia Tech and even more sadly, is the fact that there could be hundreds of other Cho Seung-Hui’s out there ready to snap at a moment’s notice. Does one wait until something like this occurs before getting these people the help they need? Our society has a duty to point fingers in the right direction so that we can perhaps stop future tragedies from occurring.