Virginia Tech

First and foremost, I have a very unsettled feeling after seeing the news yesterday and watching the coverage pretty much all day today. It is always difficult to see tragedy of this magnitude no matter how connected or disconnected you are. There is one thing that is particularly unsettling in mass shootings like this one. In any of the mass murders that have occurred in this country that I can remember that I have been conscious of and watched coverage of, there have always been people that knew or knew of the shooter coming forward to share their observations with the press. There is an old cliché that comes to mind from old movies and television shows: "You have to watch out for the quiet ones." This is reiterated in a few different ways during cases similar to the Virginia Tech Massacre. The shooter's neighbor, childhood friend, classmate, or teacher comes forward to tell the press that the shooter was a loner. They were quiet. They had some sort of antisocial tendency. In other words, there were some sort of warning sign that went unnoticed. The shootings at Virginia Tech were no exception. I was watching the local news tonight and one of the interviewees was a teacher of Cho Seung-Hui the senior English major that was the shooter in this case. This teacher said that the content of Cho's writings was disturbing to the point that she contacted student counselors about the matter. She said that there were warning signs. Other students reported that Cho was a loner. It makes me wonder how many violent outbursts and shootings could be prevented if these people that saw the warnings ahead of time actually intervened or if there were some sort of societal intervention for extreme antisocial tendencies. It's just a thought.