VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE

Virginia Tech Massacre

Introduction

The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on Monday, April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many others before committing suicide. The massacre is one of the deadliest shooting incidents by a single gunman in U.S. history, on or off a school campus. The massacre prompted the state of Virginia to close legal loopholes that had previously allowed Cho, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to passage of the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008. It is also worth mentioning here that the legislators also called for the arm's possession policy of the institutions to be revised in the light if the incident.

The Virginia Tech Review Panel, a state-appointed body assigned to review the incident, criticized Virginia Tech administrators for failing to take action that might have reduced the number of casualties. The panel's report also reviewed gun laws and pointed out gaps in mental health care as well as privacy laws that left Cho's deteriorating condition in college untreated.

Background

Seung-Hui Cho was of South Korean descent and a permanent resident of the US. He moved to America in 1992 along with his family at the age of 8. Cho had a history of mental illness and speech impediments. As a child of 3, he was frail, shy and reserved. In eighth grade, Cho was diagnosed with severe depression as well as selective autism, a social anxiety disorder that inhibited him from speaking. His family sought professional medical and academic help in order to improve his condition. After years of therapy and counseling, Cho had still not recovered from his mental condition. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Due to federal privacy laws, Virginia Tech was not informed of Cho's previous diagnosis or the accommodations he had been granted at school. The fact that his mental condition was not revealed to Virginia Tech because of the privacy laws was a critical factor in the whole incident. On account of this information, the institute could have perhaps avoided the entire incident. In addition, the gun laws in the United States contain several gaps that may taken advantage of and manipulated. The University campus of the Virginia Tech was a gun-free zone which did not allow even licensed, authorized owners of weapons to possess them on the campus. This fact would also become a crucial factor in the entire case. In addition, the inability of the university to issue an early and timely warning to students played a pivotal part in the killing of 31 innocent people.

Cho went on a killing spree on the ...