Questions About Gun Laws Surround VT Shooting

Update: WNBC reports that Cho Seung Hui sent a "box containing a manifesto of sorts, photographs and other material" (including videos) to NBC News. NBC News received it today and president Steve Capus turned the box over the FBI, but MSNBC says that the box was sent between the two shootings.

The package included a long, “rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs,” Capus said. The material is “hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very disturbing — very angry, profanity-laced,” he said.

It does not include any images of the shootings Monday, but it does include “vague references,” including “things like ‘This didn’t have to happen,’ ” Capus said in an interview late Wednesday afternoon.

Capus said gloved NBC security personnel handled the package very carefully as soon as it arrived. The network immediately called the FBI and turned it over.

The package bore a U.S. Postal Service stamp recording that it had been received at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. ET Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho shot two people in the West Ambler Johnston residence hall on the Virginia Tech campus and shortly before Cho entered Norris Hall, where he killed 30 more people.

“We probably would have received the mail earlier had it not been that he had the wrong address and ZIP code,” Capus said.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams writes on his Daily Nightly blog, "NBC News has indeed received what I would call a "multimedia manifesto" from the gunman. We received it today, and immediately handed it over to Federal law enforcement authorities. We are still going over our own copy -- its a lot of material -- we are talking with law enforcement, our own standards people -- and Pete Williams, our Justice Correspondent, will join me live on the broadcast to go through the material."

There is currently a prayer vigil outside City Hall for the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting (until 5:30PM) and funeral services for one of the victims, engineering professor Liviu Librescu, is were held in Brooklyn today.

Previous:
As the Virginia Tech community, state of Virginia, and rest of the country reels and begins to heal from Monday's tragic shooting, questions about gun laws are coming to the forefront. ABC News reported that the owner of Roanoke Firearms, where Cho Seung Hui purchased a gun, said this was the fifth time a gun he sold has been used in a homicide. While Cho was able to buy a gun easily due to his clean record, Mayor Bloomberg's campaign against illegal guns (which includes stores that sell them illegally) is getting more attention.

Last year, the administration's gun stings, in states such as Virginia, showed dealers willing to sell guns to people who don't fill out paperwork - instead, someone else fills out the paperwork for them. Baruch College's David Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs, tells the NY Sun, "When you have an attack that gets this kind of attention that victimizes young people in what should be a safe environment, people think about safety and availability of guns. For all the most horrific and tragic reasons, it will help Mayor Bloomberg's campaign."

The counterargument from gun rights-groups is that if students were armed, then situations like this could be avoided, a sentiment echoed by an Asian Virginia Tech student - and gun collector - who spoke to ABC News about initial suspicions that he was the shooter. Mayor Bloomberg will be in NJ today to discuss Mayors Against Illegal Guns, but the Politcker reports that his comments have only been that the situation was a tragedy and that he's continuing to "keep guns out of the hands of criminals." The statement on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website from Mayor Bloomberg and Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino reads, "The rampage at Virginia Tech is a heinous crime that has shaken the whole nation. The families of all those affected are in our hearts and in our prayers."

All the reports suggest that many people were aware of Cho's isolated and anti-social behavior.

Roommates noted he barely spoke, and Cho apparently had a history of stalking women. A professor even tried to help him - from the Times:

Lucinda Roy, who taught Mr. Cho in a poetry workshop in the fall of 2005, said that in October of that year he submitted a piece of writing that was so disturbing that she contacted the campus police, counseling services, student affairs and officials in her department. Ms. Roy described the writing as a “veiled threat rather than something explicit.”

University officials told her that she could drop Mr. Cho from the class. Or, they said, she could tutor him individually, and she agreed to do so three times from October to December 2005. During those sessions, she said in an interview, he always wore sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low.

“He seemed to be crying behind his sunglasses,” she said.

Ms. Roy said she had been so nervous about taking him on as an individual student that she worked out a code with her assistant: if she mentioned the name of a dead professor, her assistant would know it was time to call security.

Roy added that she spoke to campus police and other resources, who said that they couldn't really do much more. The Washington Post writes that Cho shunned the help. Speculation about motives and mental health also continues as the police gather and examine more evidence.

Parents of Virginia Tech students want the campus police chief to resign, as it turns out the two hour delay in letting students know about the shootings was due to what the Times headlines a "bad lead" - the boyfriend (who attends another college) of one of the first victims was known to go to the gun firing range. Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine has asked a former state police superintendent to lead the investigation, but Virginia Tech's procedures have raised questions for other colleges. The Columbia Spectator notes that now uniformed security will swipe ID cards instead of students and has an editorial asking Columbia president Lee Bollinger to provide a response plan. The question of counseling and how much support a college can provide will also likely enter the debate.

More: The President attended Virginia Tech's convocation and said, "In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you, and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected." The Roanoke Times covers the vigil held at Virginia Tech's Drillfield. The NY Times has an interactive feature showing the victims of the shooting.

Photograph of a candlelight vigil at the Virginia Tech campus from Virginia Tech's Hokie Sports

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on April 18, 2007 5:07 PM

Comments [rss]

Liz

We have a right 2 keep and bear arms, taking that away, would lead 2 more murders, i am fully educated on this topic, as i have done reports on this topic. givng out only hunting linces, would be unconstititutional. conclead carry, means less murders b/c criminals have no idea, of who has a guna dn who doesnt and about 1/10 shootings r stopped /c some1 else had a gun. not 1/10000, 1/10 r stopped. 2ED AMENDMENT RULES ADN DONT U EVER TAKE IT AWAY U FOWL MOUTHED, UNEDUCATED LIBERALS!!!

johnny a

Hey , A month ago Texas passed a law allowing citizens to actually shoot anyone tresspassing on their property & of course for anything else , to this day their has not been one murder in 33 days in Texas since the law was passed .

So i would think responsible people can handle a gun law like this in order to protect it's property & possesions.

If their is a gun ban on Americans , we will be in huge trouble as the Bush administration will find a way to threaten our freedoms & attempt to take away hat is ours. The government has been chipping away at the constitution for 50 years & the laws that are coming out since the fraud of 9-11-2001 (a total inside job in every sense of the word) are not for the terrorists , they are for us ,that's right you& I & everyone you know , these laws affect everyone sometime each & every day since they've been passed , The Patriot Act & The Military Commissions Act .

Once they crash the dollar & come to take your home , you will wish you had a gun , believe me.

Sounds a little far fetched right ??

Think about it or do the research yourself , we are in big trouble unless RON PAUL is voted in as our president , he is the only one left who is for the people of our land & he will get rid of the scum who are controlling our lives .

The Edge

So how many of you rabid anti-gunners have actually held and fired a firearm before?

Just wonderin', here.

ummm

You right-wing-gun-nutties like to quote obscure articles where someone with a gun actually stopped a crime. Those happen once for every 10,000 actual shootings? Irrelevant.

dhex

"It's 2007, you savages. If I was in charge we'd totally ban guns. Ok maybe some permits for hunting.. but hunting only. Fuck the 2nd Amendment. How do we even know that the framers weren't specifically talking about states militias? I doubt they'd be thrilled with automatic weapons being available to most anyone who tries head enough to get one. Ban guns. But it'll never happen because this country is barbaric and full of gun-totin' yahoo dipshits."

from the punching myself in the brain department, i'll reiterate that despite the massive increase in private gun ownership - something along the lines of 40 to 50% of households in the u.s. report having at least one firearm in them - and the amount of guns - 225 to 250 million - crime rates rose and fell.

the other point is that you're making a great case for the patriot act - fuck the constitution, we're at war!

bart: you make a very good point about "what ifs" in cases like these.

however"fighting fire with fire" sometimes stops a massacre before it really gets going. even if you take the lowest defensive gun usage survey numbers - 27,000 (contrasted with 70k, 200k and 2.5 million at the top range) - and you even then throw out half of them just for shits and giggles, you're left with around the same number of DGU's as there are gun homicides in the u.s.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Woo... (pearl river, miss; stopped by assistant principal)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_W... (edinboro, pa; stopped by restaurant owner from across the school)

anonymous

30 day period huh? That's Virginia's idea of a "restriction"? Laughable. You gun-nuts have no grounding in reality. Try licensing gun-owners and having records of what guns are out there, wondernuts. Those are real gun laws.

Bart

Some of you dingleheads make it sound so easy - oh just plant guns in their hands and none of this would have happened. These are students you morons, not Navy SEALs or SWAT commandos. What the heck do they know about combat with guns? Heck they'd probably piss their pants in the split second it takes to register everything. It's very easy to talk about this and this scenario, but until you've been suddenly startled by a crazed gunman with a .22 up your butt, you won't ever know how you'll react.

Furthermore, fighting fire with more fire is never the answer.

Still Not Amused

First of all, Stop trying to use this shooting to further the whole "Gun law" crusade ! It wouldn't have mattered anyway ! This kid was intent on ending the lives of as many students as he could regardless of the outcome ! You all heard the guy that sold him his weapon, He didn't look, Or act suspiciously . He didn't have a criminal record, He waited the required [30]day period for his weapons . It just sad that this was something that was in the making from a longtime in this kids world . Unfortunately, You have people in this world that can't seem to fit in and use that hatred of others as a vehicle for their twisted deeds . You can't weed them out of society and you can't really identify them in the general public . It could have been a co worker, The driver that always seemed a little off at times, Anybody . You can semanticize this particular case "Every way till Sunday", & you will still come to the same conclusion .

HAM

Ham: I wouldn't want you on my jury. don't you know you can only use that in regards to a crime committed. What you want is pre-crime. and sadly, only Tom Cruise can do that in a science fiction movie called "minority report" directed by steven spielberg. And guess what? that system too was flawed. Dude, I hope you aren't a teacher or a person of influence over more impressionable youths.

[73] Posted by: Jojo | April 18, 2007 5:22 PM

_____________________________________________

I hope that you have more time in life to become a clear thinker. No wonder we have problems in the world. People like you think that everyone acts or "snaps" out of the blue. Most good deed and bad deeds are premeditated.

That is why we have terms like: "Criminal Intent;" "Premeditated Murder;" "Acting in Concert;" "Criminal Minds" The act is not serperate from the act. Yes if you are "studying" and making plans with thoughts of killing your boss then you are a person with "Criminal Tendancies." "Criminal intentions." If you obsess on the the idea you will become your thoughts which are criminalistic. Of course we can not put you in jail for thinking it. But we can put you in jail if you talk about it out loud. We can have you executed if you go through with your thoughts.

I rest my case. The offense rests!!!!!

'sif

Maybe... **Maybe** if a couple of the kids were strapped, it wouldve saved lives that day. But the rest of the time, when they're doing whippets in the quad, and stumbling around campus getting pissed that someone looked funny, having a gun is more likely to do more harm than good..

realist

You gun-nutz are bizarre. "If you burned a building down you could kill 30 people" or "if you drove a car through a crowded plaza you oculd kill 30 people". Fawk, you people are dense. Maybe if the stars were all aligned and your killhappy karma was shining that day could you use these methods to kill dozens. However, REALITY dictates that using a gun to do it is MUCH EASIER.

Where are all these gun nutzos posting from? Its like the NRA fan club is reading gothamist.

PJ

It's 2007, you savages. If I was in charge we'd totally ban guns. Ok maybe some permits for hunting.. but hunting only. Fuck the 2nd Amendment. How do we even know that the framers weren't specifically talking about states militias? I doubt they'd be thrilled with automatic weapons being available to most anyone who tries head enough to get one. Ban guns. But it'll never happen because this country is barbaric and full of gun-totin' yahoo dipshits.

gimme

i wonder what his ipod playlist is

piyawan

Hi,

Great blog!

I like the office view!

If you have time, please submit the view to my new blog: www.viewfromoffice.com and in return I’ll include a link to your blog!

Thanks!

NoDragon

If other students have guns, then this won't happen ?

How would you know if the other gun owners won't join him in a killing spree ?

Gun makers didn't play video games

The current young kids do, and

want it to happen in Real life.

What's more exciting than playing the game for real ?

cho cho charlie

The post office clerk put the time of mailing at 9:01 AM. Can you imagine if he went to a NYC post office? he'll be there all morning and he may go postal at the postal office and forget about his original mission.

smitty

He was really mentally ill. Pretty sad. His videos are rambling and don't make much sense.

jojo

I find it offensive and irresponsible that the media is posting the final video of the VT killer. I'm actually really disgusted by their irresonsible coverage and greed. The publicity of this video and the infamy being granted to this individual may likely inspire "copycat" killers who want the notoriety and fame.

Why is (the media) giving the killer a platform? Instead of publicizing their last words and creating a cult of notoriety, the media should condemn and shun them. I feel that NBC is exploiting this tragedy for profit and greed at the expense of the innocent victims who have lost their lives.

It turns out that NBC was sent the killers last testimonial tape and instead of turning it over the original evidence to authourities to ask what they should do in regards to the greater good of society they turned over a copy to the police and at the same time released it through all their media outlets insuring that they would not get scooped on irrecoverable evidence and in case the police told them not to release it they wouldn't be liable as they released it at the same time they gave it to authorities cause you know the police would advise them not to release this material at all. The other networks just followed suit and now you've got crazy creepy guy infesting the minds of impressionable young troubled youths who are probably glorifying him in their minds. It turns out Cho was inspired by the "martyr" deaths of the columbine guys. Who will Cho inspire? nice going NBC. You've turned into Foxnews. I'm gonna stop watching these guys too.

rtd2101

People on the left put too much of the blame for crime and misery on guns. Simply banning guns won't end violence, poverty, and hopelessness in the inner city, BUT it would certainly make some things marginally better.

Too many people on the right refuse to admit this last point. Face it, righties and NRA freaks, if it was more difficult to get a gun, things like THIS would not happen, not to this extent. Stop being so ideological and admit that easy access to guns FACILITATED this tragedy, not CAUSED, but FACILITATED.

Does that mean we should ban most guns? Perhaps. But we also have to remember that banning guns won't solve everything...

In fact, if we really want to reduce crime, legalizing drugs would go a lot further than banning guns. Much of the violence in cities is over business-related disputes (territory, control of supply chains, etc.) and violence is one of the only way to solve business disputes in the drug economy today. Regulation and legalization would help...