That rant for another day? It's here.

[thatcrazycajun]

Our local paper, as I imagine many others have done this morning, fronted its A-section with a banner-headline story about the package received by NBC News in New York this past Tuesday from Cho Seung-Hui, the now-dead Virginia Tech student police have identified as responsible for the previous day's shootings on the Blacksburg campus. It included an 1,800-word screed from the disturbed senior and videotape of him ranting about how the school and/or society was slowly killing him. Meanwhile, the same paper reports that in December of 2005, Cho was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment by a Virginia court for what a schoolmate reported as suicidal tendencies and after two complaints by other students regarding his behavior.

So there was a public record—not only with the medical establishment, but the justice system as well—over a year prior to the massacre showing that this guy was at least a potential psycho. Which begs the question: did this not come up in that instant background check the owner of Roanoke Firearms, one John Markell, was required by Virginia's pitifully inadequate gun laws to perform, and if not, why? (Nota bene: VA is one of the five states where NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg (R) is suing gun dealers to pressure those states' legislators into toughening up their laws and helping stem the flow of illegal weapons into his city. I live in another, and South Carolina makes three Southern states of the five.) One hopes and assumes that this information, had it been to hand, would have given Mr. Markell pause before sending a 9mm Glock and a box of bullets out the door in the hands of a documented nutjob.

The gun store's site is now fronted by an angry, defensive notice from Markell that it will be closed until further notice. "How many of you called the company who sold Timothy McVeigh the diesel fuel or fertilizer he used to make the bomb in Oklahoma City, or the company who rented him the Ryder truck?" he writes. "Should we outlaw diesel fuel and trucks?  How many of you read about a drunk driver who crosses the center line and kills a family, then call the dealership who sold him the car? Should we outlaw automobiles? If we ban silverware, do you think there would be no more obesity?" Intelligent readers (are there any others here?) will note that none of the other products Markell names are designed deliberately to kill human beings when used as intended, whereas handguns have no other lawful or benign purpose.

Markell maintains that Cho, and Cho alone, bears sole responsibility for the horrifying events of this past Monday. Am I the only one who thinks that Markell and the other dealers who armed Cho for his rampage must bear at least some portion of said responsibility? Or even if you accept Markell's argument—the one sure to be adduced by National Rifle Association reps and other Second Amendment fetishists (including several I know of in the fannish community) in the wake of this heinous act—can we not all at least agree that there should have been some way to spot this lunatic and stop him before he got his hands on live ammo and ordnance to carry out his sick vendetta against his school and society?

Comments

[tovahs.livejournal.com]

You should have been at LUMSFA dinner last night. We were talking about this same issue.

I hope to see you soon at Balticon.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Deus volent and the crick don't rise, I plan to be at Balticon.

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

From what I heard on the news, the reason this stuff didn't appear on the background checks because the kid had gone for the counselling "voluntarily", so it wasn't on his school records.

Of course, it's now just all gonna be part of the "how do we abdicate our responsibility for this?" game being played by all sides.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

As I heard it, that doesn't apply.
The fact that he was committed involuntarily was a red flag that should have stopped processing of his purchase.
He lied on his application (which is a feeble excuse that "Gun Nuts" use to justify selling him the piece). A lie that a proper background check or WAITING PERIOD would likely have caught.
Part of me always knew just how crazy GUN NUTS are, but this just puts the nail in the coffin.

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

The argument is a specious one. There are legitimate, non-harmful, uses for automobiles, fertizer, cutlery, etc. The only function of a gun is to shoot something. In fact, the fault is the perpetrator's; SOCIETY made it easier to do damage on a mass scale.

[callibr8]

the fault is the perpetrator's; SOCIETY made it easier to do damage on a mass scale

Well said, and I agree. Nice to see a[nother] voice of reason!