Thoughts on the tradgety at V-Tech

When my alarm clock woke me up this morning I immediately turned on the radio, as I usually do (can't start my day without NPR!), and the first thing that I heard was a report about the shootings at Virginia Tech University.

I didn't pay it much thought as I only had 45 min. to take a shower, get some food, and get to class, but later on while I was at work I had "Love Line" on the radio and the guys were trying to sort of dedicate the show to what had happened. It seemed like a lot of people were either ignorant of what had had happened or were too caught up in there own immediate personal issues, such as the usual "do you think 'three ways' are a good idea?", and "My girlfriend's vagina smells really bad. What can I do?"

The one really interesting call they had on was from a guy named "Eric" who apparently was a substitute DJ at the University radio station. He was friends with one of the guys who had been in the classroom where apparently most of the deaths occurred and said that his friend, in order to have a chance at surviving, hit the floor and "played dead" and had to watch as his lab partner was shot in the eye and then land right next to him. Later when the police showed up and asked for everyone who was still alive to stand up he was the only one who did so.

After this Dr. Drew mentioned that one of the first people who was killed was the RA in the dorm that the shooters girlfriend lived in (the girlfriend being the other of the first victims) and he thought that, because of the apparent interaction that the guy and the RA had, RA's, and people in situations like them, should have some sort of training in how to deal with volatile/ violent people.

Being the safe guy that I am, this got me to thinking. What would be the best way to train to survive a situation like this? I have to say that I really have no idea and I don't know that you really can train for an event like this.

Because the likelyhood of this sort of thing happening to you is probably less than getting hit by a meteor, I think that training specifically to deal with this scenario would be a big wast of time. If you think about it too much you might fall into the pitfall of what Marc "Animal" MacYoung refers to as "What if monkeys". This basically means that, among other things, you can get too caught up in the whole scenario training thing.

I think that the only thing that you can really do is continue with whatever training you are currently doing and look for better ways to do that.

If someone who had no training were to ask me what they could do, I would have to refer them to my "Choosing a martial art for self defense..." post and tell them to get educated about their local and state mental health laws because, ultimately, this is an issue of that system failing. I don't know if this guy, Cho Seung- Hui, would have been helped by "Kendra's Law" or not but he fell through the cracks, and hard. He was well known to a number of V-Tech staff as a person with severe mental health issues but, due to legal restraints as they pertain to the mental health system, they could do nothing about it.

And as far as his use of firearms (please excuse the rant. If you're reading this, I'm probably "preaching to the choir") THIS IS NOT A GUN CONTROL ISSUE! Everything criminal about guns is already illegal. As Mr. Cho fell through the cracks in the mental health system, he also fell through the cracks of the legal system. According to the New York Times, "Federal law prohibits anyone who has been 'adjudicated as a mental defective,' as well as those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, from buying a gun. The special justice’s order in late 2005 that directed Mr. Cho to seek outpatient treatment and declared him to be mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself fits the federal criteria and should have immediately disqualified him, said Richard J. Bonnie, chairman of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Commission on Mental Health Law Reform." So, regardless of the legality, Mr. Cho was able to purchase and use two pistols.

Under the circumstances, the only way that I can see that this might have been averted would be if the university system of Virginia allowed students to "carry" on campus (most schools, anywhere in the country, do not allow this). Remember: "An armed society is a polite society." Although I do understand that this would not necessarily apply to Mr. Cho as he was not really concerned about being polite in his state of mind, as a rule, it still holds true. Excessive gun control laws, overall, do not work. If you don't believe me read "Guns and Violence: The English Experience" by Joyce Malcolm. You can start with this review by Dave Kopel of The Second Amendment Project.

I would ask that everyone reading this to please keep the family and friends of everyone involved in this tragedy in there hearts and prayers. I think also that it is important to remember that forgiveness is not for the benifit of the person being forgiven, but rather for the benifit of the person forgiving.

Stay safe!