Warning Signs Ignored In Va. Tech Shooting

(CBS)  The massacre in Binghamton, N.Y., last week has chilling similarities to the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech that left 33 people dead in 2007.

Both were carried out by a loner, obsessed with guns and bent on revenge.

In a new book, a former Virginia Tech professor writes that she saw warning signs before the attack on campus. She tried to sound the alarm, reports CBS News anchor Katie Couric. But no one listened.

Sirens pierced the air on a cold day. By the end of a murderous shooting spree, 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho killed 27 students, five teachers, and then himself.

"This is a tragedy that's about a failure of imagination," said Lucinda Roy, the author of No Right To Remain Silent. "I mean, in many ways, people couldn't imagine something really terrible happening on a campus as beautiful and pristine and picturesque as ours."

But Roy could imagine it. In the fall of 2005, when she was chair of the English department, a colleague had alerted her to Cho's disturbing writings and disruptive behavior. Roy writes that Cho's classmates were afraid of him, and that he was taking cell phone pictures of them under his desk.

Concerned, Roy decided to tutor him privately, and found a student wearing dark reflective sunglasses who was almost always unresponsive.

"It's actually a bit terrifying in some ways to be with someone when you realize that all you are getting are things that bounce off them," Roy said.

In Roy's view, this was a very serious situation.

"There are a few times when you get nervous enough that you want to make sure you're really contacting multiple people. And this seemed, to me, to be one of those times," she said.

Roy contacted four different departments on campus, including the counseling center and university police. She was desperate for Cho to get help.

But, "I was told that - that would never happen," Roy said. "Because I was essentially requiring a student to seek counseling."

And that's against Virginia Tech policy as it is at several schools across the country, unless it's an emergency, and administrators claim Roy did not indicate it was an emergency situation.

"She indicated that she had worked out a satisfactory arrangement with him and didn't feel the need for any further involvement," said Ed Spencer, the school's vice president of Student Affairs.

"If I'd only just met with him very quietly and hadn't been campaigning for the entire year, I would say that interpretation was possible," Roy said.

Cho did get psychiatric help at an off-campus facility after he threatened to commit suicide. He was evaluated, but released when he was no longer considered a threat. At the end of that same year, he voluntarily contacted the school's mental health center. Records of any treatment he may have received there are missing.

"I learned that he had gone over and had gone over repeatedly, not just once," Roy said. "But was never really examined."

The university says they also were unaware of his history of mental health problems.

"If a student has been through counseling and maybe even intense counseling in middle school and high school that is protected information," Spencer noted.

And because Cho was over 21 at the time, his parents were never contacted.

A special state panel convened after the shooting concluded the school had misinterpreted privacy laws and had failed to connect the dots.

"If everybody did their job the way they were supposed to, I'm convinced that 33 lives would be with us today," said Joe Samaha, whose 18-year-old daughter Reema was shot and killed in French class.

Other victims' parents agreed.

"Cho was crying out for help," said Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded by two of Cho's bullets, but survived. "He sent up red flag after red flag after red flag."

Since the shootings, Virginia Tech has made some changes, adding additional counselors and establishing a risk assessment team to handle troubled students. But Lucinda Roy says the tragedy could be repeated - if warning signs continue to be missed in troubled students.

"You get very, very few opportunities to help someone who is mentally disturbed. Very few," Roy said. "And when you get them, you must take them."

[johninpennsyl]

"Cho did get psychiatric help at an off-campus facility after he threatened to commit suicide. He was evaluated, but released when he was no longer considered a threat. At the end of that same year, he voluntarily contacted the school's mental health center. Records of any treatment he may have received there are missing. "

What means "missing"?
If you are a FFL try telling BATF your records are missing.
Tell the IRS your records are missing.
This leads one to wonder who treated and did what to this lunatic-they should hold these shrinks to the standards they hold gun dealers .

[LOL_AT_CBS]

Hypothetical: say I am Seung-Hui Cho, A real nut job, I want to kill myself but I would only be just a blurb in the local obits and no one would ever know my name I would not be anything more than a statistic. BUT WAIT! If I massacre 33 students and go down as a mass murdering syco I will be glorified on all major network news programs and my name will go down in history! CBS and the rest just play into these maniacs scheme and until we stop glorifying these morons we will continue to see these mass shooting until they no longer get all this attention.

[pdbmarchmaddness]

Great job, Katie.

The real problem here is that Virginia Tech is trying to cover up their culpability in this mess. The administration of universities like Virginia Tech are accountable to no one. There is no oversight from the federal and state governments, which just hand colleges money without monitoring their activities. Also, the accreditation agencies are funded by the schools they are supposed to regulate. These universities have large teams of lawyers, funded by student and taxpayer tuition money, and they really want to be sued.

Keep up the good work.

[globalcoolin]

CBS is now CELEBRATING gun violence. This is a discrimination campaign against the law abiding firearms owner and example of activist journalism.
The next terrbile event in our population of 300 million people, may well be triggered it's self from articles and "news" stories inflicted on the public by CBS news.
This is NOT the first time in this nation in recent history we have had killings like this in rapid order!
Pilots need firearms, and it's becoming appearent merchant ship crews should have rudimentry arms with instruction and at least one .50 caliber aboard the ship as Hillary Clinton is laughing at the piracey probelm.
As our Government abdigates responsibilty to counter terror and crime the watch word should be, get a firearm, get instruction. tell a friend to,too.

[claydowner]

Several generations ago the NRA used to be an organization that promoted responsible gun ownership and firearm safety, proper hunting sportsmanship, and conservation of wildlife and respect for the law. Now they have become an extremist single issue organization for right winged zealots with a chip on their shoulder against the rest of society. I believe law abiding people should be allowed to own guns for hunting or home defense. I own firearms but the NRA does not speak for me. Common sense gun control laws are needed in America. All semiautomatic handguns and semiautomatic rifles with 20 round or 30 round ammo magazines need to be outlawed. The NRA creates a political culture that promotes the needless slaughter of Americans. More people die in America from homicides, suicides, and accidents each year from firearms than al Quaida killed on 9-11 and other terrorist attacks both before and after 9-11. There have been about 4,500 American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan with another 35,000 wounded from 2002 until the present. This is after SEVEN YEARS OF COMBAT OPERATIONS IN TWO COUNTRIES. In 2004 alone there were over 8,000 homicides by handguns in America. In 2004 there were 16,907 suicides by firearms. It was estimated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that there were 52,447 deliberate shooting injuries and 23,237 accidental shooting injuries in the year 2000. When looking at the homicide rates from 1976 through 2004 by method, handgun deaths every year in America ranged from a low of 8,000 deaths per year to a peak of over 14,000 homicides in 1994. Handgun deaths are double and triple the rate for all other homicide methods such as knives, blunt trauma, etc. every single year.

Here are the rates of firearm homicides per 100,000 persons followed by the overall homicide rate per 100,000 persons: Australia 0.31 firearm homicides and overall homicide rate 1.57, Canada: 0.54 with firearms and 1.58 overall, England Wales: 0.12 with firearms and 1.45 overall. The United States had 2.97 homicides with firearms per 100,000 persons and an overall homicide rate of 4.55 per 100,000 persons. These statistics are from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2000, Intentional Homicides by Country. The table also showed that most NATO countries in Europe had similar homicide rates comparable to the United Kingdom with some small variations.

If you read carefully about all of the mass murders committed in the United States in recent years you come across a common thread: semiautomatic pistols with 20 round or 30 round ammo magazines were used in nearly all of them. Look at the Columbine shootings, the Virginia tech incident, and many other smaller multiple homicides around the country like Omaha, Nebraska and Alabama you will notice that semiautomatic pistols with large ammo clips were frequently used by the assailant(s). There were some cases of semiautomatic rifles used in mass homicides but they are much rarer. The killer had hundreds of rounds of ammunition in clips ready to shoot with two or more semiautomatic pistols. The killer also fired many dozens sometimes hundreds of rounds in the first few minutes of the assault. These are all indications of semiautomatic weapons with large ammo clips. There is clear linkage between semiautomatic pistols with large ammo clips and multiple homicides and massacres in America. These are simple facts just look up the AP wire stories or look at local newspaper stories where these tragedies have occurred. Also over 7,000 people in Mexico were killed in 2008 by firearms purchased in the US often at gun shows. The most common type of firearm confiscated were assault rifles like the Chinese SKS, AK-47, or AR-15 semiautomatic rifles with 20 round or 30 round magazines. A skilled gunsmith can very quickly turn a semiautomatic rifle into a fully automatic rifle. Large numbers of semiautomatic pistols capable of using large ammo clips have also been confiscated in Mexico all legally bought in the United States. What a terrible and horrible neighbor we make for Mexico. The US should be ashamed of itself for allowing such carnage from weapons bought within our borders.

The NRA is an extremist political organization that creates a unique culture of death, massacre, and killing American style that is not tolerated in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. No law abiding civilian in America needs a fully automatic weapon or a semiautomatic pistol with large ammo clips to go hunting or for home defense. Gun shows should be outlawed. Semiautomatic weapons of any kind need to be outlawed. People who belong to the NRA are insecure right winged zealots whose political actions condone a culture of mass murder and mass killings. Canada, Australia, and England have said NO to carnage caused by semiautomatic firearms. America needs to do the same. The NRA should be destroyed as an organization because they are like the mafia only worse.

[JoeNVirginia]

I need a little help from those who think gun control makes America safer. I carry a gun 24/7: in the house and out of the house. My carry permits provide legal carry in more than half the United States. I once carried a gun while helping save a person?s life. I am very good with a firearm; I practice weekly. If I happen along where another is attempting to murder you or your loved ones, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to use my gun to save lives or should I stand aside and watch? Please answer. I wouldn?t want anyone upset with me for preventing their murder. And remember; those without a gun must just watch murder.

[geena5]

do they go over the warning signs for how to deal with criminal perhaps homicidal students at schools and universities? They should have a meeting at every school for all ages about the warning signs for troubled kids who may be turning criminal. I know at the middle school I went to in Las Vegas was horrible with frequent drive-by shootings and the teachers seemed like it was so common they just ignored it and stayed in their offices as much as possible. kids just being ignored year after year are going to just get more criminal when not stopped at the petty crimes

[payasyougo]

The only people who should be allowed to own a semiautomatic handgun or rifle are law enforcement officials.
----
1.) GENEVA, Alabama (CNN) -- The gunman who authorities said launched a shooting rampage over three south Alabama towns, slaying 10 people in his path before killing himself, was once a police officer in Samson, the small town hit hardest by the deadliest crime in the state's history.

2.)Former Police Officer to Face Murder Charges in BART Shooting
The ex-officer is being held in connection with the shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight.

3.) Three Former Atlanta Police Officers Sentenced to Prison in Fatal Shooting...
Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:09pm EST

That's right. The world would be safer if only police were allowed guns as seen by these three examples of cops going to jail for killing civilians.
These are three examples of why it is the individual behind the weapon that is the problem.
Based on your logic, cops shouldn't be allowed to carry guns either.

[payasyougo]

"Warning Signs Ignored In Va. Tech Shooting
CBS Evening News: Author Of New Book, And Tutor To Killer Seung-Hui Cho, Says She Sought Help For Him"
-----
No accountability for not dealing w/ all the warning signs. But quick, ban the guns.

[displeased]

Here's a sign: he owned a gun.
Crazy follows.
Posted by jumkey

You're suggesting 80 million gun owners will eventually go on a shooting spree? You're not very logical, are you?