Well obviously. I would too, it's an embarrassment.

Plus there's always some other loon out there who wants to avenge the victims by going after people they'd like to believe contributed to their deaths.

It's like totally The Punisher's thing.

The guy apparently had some sort of thing against his father, judging by the content of some of his writing.

On a different note, I was in the Roanoke(30 miles N. of Blacksburg) Wal-Mart today and saw some employees completely reworking one of the aisles with nothing but Tech goods. Never underestimate the human ability to capitalize on death.

Guh, someone in China has decided to recreate this tragedy in glorious 3d.

So Barack Obama's outed himself as a complete shitheel:

Obama 2008!

Wow, awesome. The idiots out there are already feeding off this, trying to pull their own little stunts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/..._DUzRscTNH2ocA

Basically, eight different states have had schools and universities lock down because of threatening notes (mentioning VT) and supiscious activity. My own school isnt mentioned in that, but we just had an alert put up on our website... someone wrote “Go VT is going to happen here 2” (sic) on a wall in a academic building's bathroom. That would explain why Campus Safety was prowling around the student center (I'm at work right now, student center building manager)... but if that is why, then they already fucked up, because they didnt tell me why they were there.

It just sickens me that people are trying to get a laugh out of this, or worse, doing stuff like this to get out of class.

The below is part of series of post I made against Jack "the FBI found the violent media was the common demonator" I saved this but neglected to save the first two segments. It shouldn’t be too hard to follow even thought it missing a lot of context. Sorry don’t have time to write proper post but at the same time I feel the need to counter Jack’s lies.


Just to jam yet another nail in the coffin of Jacks declaration that immersion in violent media was the sole common denominator in school shooting, as I demonstrated already the FBI and secret service caution against approach that try to explain these tragedies in terms of a single common denominator, but lets give Jack that benefit of the doubt and say that it could be consider A common denominator it still could not be consider the SOLE common denominator

Let’s have a look:
1) “Almost three-quarters of the attackers felt persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked
or injured by others prior to the incident (71percent, n=29)” page 30 of the secret service report.
Curious that Thompson rallies against the game Bully but effective turns a deaf ear to real life bulling when he calls immersion in violent media was the sole common denominator, when quite clear this is more common against school shooters.

2) “most attackers exhibited a history of suicide attempts or suicidal
thoughts at some point prior to their attack (78 percent, n=32).” Page 31 of the secret service report.

Again another more common variable

3) “More than half of the attackers had a documented history of feeling extremely depressed or desperate (61 percent, n=25).” Page 31 of the secret service report.

And another more common variable

4) “Almost all of the attackers had experienced or
perceived some major loss prior to the attack (98 percent, n=40). These losses
included a perceived failure or loss of status (66 percent, n=27); loss of a loved one
or of a significant relationship, including a romantic relationship (51 percent, n=21);”
Page 32 of the secret service report.

If some one can explain too me how Thompson concludes that some thing with a 98 percent prevalence but something with a 60% is not a common denominator I would like too know.

“For most attackers, their outward behaviors suggested difficulty in coping with loss
(83 percent, n=34).”
Page 32 of the secret service report.

5) “Experience using weapons and access to them was common for many attackers.
Nearly two-thirds of the attackers had a known history of weapons use, including
knives, guns and bombs (63 percent, n=26).”
Page 36 of the secret service report.

How is immersion the sole common denominator here?

Now for the final nail the secret service made ten key findings regarding school shooters. (which again are not meant to be looked at in isolation from one another) Notice how immersions in violent media which Thompson says was the SOLE common denominator isn’t even one of the TEN key finding of the report:

“The 10 key findings that the authors believe may have implications for the
development of strategies to address the problem of targeted school violence are as
follows:
• Incidents of targeted violence at school rarely are sudden, impulsive acts.
• Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea and/or
plan to attack.
• Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the
attack.
• There is no accurate or useful profile of students who engaged in targeted
school violence.
• Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused
others concern or indicated a need for help.
• Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal
failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.
• Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the
attack.
• Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
• In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.
• Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were
stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.”
Secret service report page 40

What part of this implies a SOLE common denominator? A sole common denominator which is not mentioned on the list no less?

I ask no one to take my word for it so here is the link to secret service study: The secret service’s report: www.treasury.gov/usss/ntac/ssi_final_report.pdf
The FBI’s report: www.fbi.gov/publications/school/school2.pdf

Can violent media play a role in these tragedies yes, but saying that it the common denominator is like coke a cola is the common denominator in diabetes.

What, exactly, would you like to have seen from him?

At least the dude doesn't play PC games. If he did you can bet that the media would associate playing PC games with his shooting rampage.

Ignorant baboons.

Edit: Guess not judging by the noob in the video on the previous page

I guess I would've liked to have not seen him use the largest mass-shooting in US history as an awkward metaphor for outsourcing and Don Imus.

He's a politician. He'll use any opportunity he can get.

Why is that so shocking? Business as usual, man. (Not that it's RIGHT, but hey.)

Opportunity? It's the most tasteless statement that anybody could make at this point. Brushing it off as "business as usual" doesn't even begin to consider how mind-bogglingly stupid it is. He analogized losing jobs to overseas manufacturing, to being shot in the back of the head.

If 50/50 involvement in the murders of 32 people doesn't say "fucking incompetent" to you, you've got some pretty low standards.

:o_O: unnecessary. I mean the article and not you lol.

I wouldn't say that. Did you read that class assignment of his over on the smoking gun? I'd say it's the obvious point of the story, but it may not reflect his relationship with his dad. There are some anti corporatism overtones in there as well as direct jabs at the influence of media on impressionable minds.

That may be reading way too into it though. When I read the play, I coudln't take it seriously. In my head it sounded like a hardcore dark humor version of Problem Child.

My hearts and prayers go out to all those who have suffered, this is a terrible tragedy.

I really believe that these events are preventable. These psychos just need a place to vent out their rage against the world. Unless something is done, we're just waiting for the next one to go "copycat" and snap.

My suggestion is to somehow get the message out that these guys can put their anger to a noble cause by joining the army.

I think Cho Seung-hui's writing was a big cry for help. But his parents and teachers ignored. I blame them for giving him no counseling.

His teachers didn't ignore it, he was referred to campus counseling and refused to take part.

That writing is not a cry for help. That is way past the cry for help stage.

I've been looking for links to the writings, but I can't seem to find any. Maybe I am looking in all the wrong places or maybe they're not public? Reading these posts, seems like there are at least excerpts.

Can someone provide a link? Or at least tell me I am a moron, and that there are no press releases with the writings?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...071vtech1.html

That's the play. Along with the imagery, he's not a very good writer. Probably shouldn't have been a creative writing major in the first place. :P

Richard McBeef
Mr. Brownstone

Some thoughts:

• I wonder if Cho knew that the police would apprehend a patsy, allowing him to continue on with his killing spree?
• If Cho took both weapons with him to the second shooting scene, how did the police come to the conclusion that the first incident was the result domestic dispute?
• At 10:52, almost a full hour after the shootings ended, campus buildings were locked down. Unless I'm missing some bit of info (like, say, whether or not the first building locked down after the police first arrived on the scene), this seems to be a huge failure by campus and local police.
• It took VT's "leadership team" a full hour to send out an e-mail concerning the first shooting, and the second shooting happened 4 minutes afterwards. How long would it take you to to batch-send an e-mail telling all your friends your dog just died? In fact, this "leadership team" was pretty bad at communication in general.

I understand the argument that you can't predict or stop these things from happening, but, seriously. If he was that creepy a guy (which they should've figured from the outset if he didn't talk in class, stalked women, etc.) they should've pegged him a whole lot sooner. Even then, how hard is it to lock a building down when a shooting occurs AT ALL? What, are shootings at colleges really that common that you can just act like if you don't have a suspect arrested and charged with the crime but you've detained someone you consider a "person of interest", you've properly protected everyone from further danger? I like how no one instantly thought of Cho when they asked themselves in their minds, "Who do we know that's CRAZY enough to do this?" Noooo, first they think about the people who have obvious access to guns. Like possessing a gun immediately places everyone on the top of the list of suspects in every gun-related crime ever. The director of security at VT should be forced to resign.

In my mind, if there's a shooting at a school...be it a high-prestige, Division 1-A college or a urban high school, you do the same thing: put a halt to classes, lock down the crime scene, and let everyone know ASAP what happened.

Thanks, Mikey.

An outside observation: is this standard for university-level English classes? I wonder how he scored on that play. It was awful. You're right about the English major bit.

Just watching this press conference, I still don't see (actually i'm stunned at)how someone who has been committed to a mental institution and stalked 2 women could have legal access to firearms. Jesus Christ

I've had CNN on in the background nearly since this started and I have heard nothing about him actually being institutionalized. I know he was told he should seek help from his counselor, but nothing about being committed. Have I been misinformed?

Yup, late 2005 he was admitted to a mental health unit:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6568781.stm