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From
April 22, 2007
American psycho
When Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, the horrific slaughter revealed not only the poisons lurking in popular culture but the crisis of young males in a feminised society, says Sarah Baxter
Just before 5am on Monday, April 16, Cho Seung-hui got out of bed and walked to his computer. Perhaps he fiddled with his rambling 1,800-word self-portrait of a killer as the insults and grievances that he had been nursing for years coursed through his head.
High on his list were his classmates from Westfield high school, who jeered at him to “go back to China” without bothering to check his nationality. Two of them — who happened to attend Virginia Tech — were going to pay later that day. Then there were the college girls who reported him to the police for stalking and got him carted off to mental hospital after he sent them shy love messages full of yearning.
“By a name, I know not how to tell who I am,” he had written to one of them. He understood literature, he could have thought, while they didn’t have the brains to recognise that he was quoting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Spurned by them, he had to make do with a fantasy girlfriend, a supermodel who called him “Spanky”.
On the way to the bathroom Cho bumped into his roommate Karan Grewal. As usual, Cho didn’t try to speak to him or even nod hello. He swallowed his antidepressants, put on his contact lenses and applied his spot cream. As he picked up his weapons, a Glock 9mm pistol and Walther P22 handgun, and twisted back his black baseball cap, he clearly did not want to be remembered as the kid with acne.
Watching just a few minutes of the rambling manifesto of paranoia answers the question which the US has asked itself for three days: why did he do it?
At 7.15am, campus police were alerted to a shooting at West Ambler Johnston residential hall, a two-minute walk from Cho’s own hall. Witnesses heard screams and the eerie “pop pop” of a semi-automatic weapon before finding the bodies of a young man and a young woman sprawled on the floor in the hallway between the men’s and women’s dorms.
The dead girl was Emily Hilscher, 19. Perhaps there was something about her that reminded Cho of another girl he had fancied — the one he had sneaked into the women’s dorm to see but, as a roommate recalled, “When he looked into her eyes, he saw promiscuity”.
Was Ryan Clark, 22, her boyfriend? Cho didn’t know but he shot him anyway. Deprived of sex himself, he regarded those who were getting it with malevolence. “All your debaucheries weren’t enough . . . to fulfil your hedonistic needs,” he had ranted on his pre- prepared “martyrdom” video.
He went back to his room and recorded one last QuickTime video clip. It was 7.24am, according to his computer log. “This is it. This is where it ends. End of the road. What a life it was. Some life,” he said agitatedly.
But Cho wasn’t finished yet. He still had more scores to settle and fame to seek. He downloaded 28 video clips onto a DVD, which showed him posing with his weapons like the star of a Quentin Tarantino film or Lara Croft, and set out for the post office, past the police cars that had arrived outside the dorm. By the time he arrived it was 8.45am.
It was tax-filing day in America, but as a student he didn’t pay any. The queue in the post office surprised him, though he waited his turn patiently as he rehearsed his next acts of violence in his mind. He posted his multimedia manifesto to NBC News, went back to his room, grabbed his weapons and set out for more killing.
This time he would target professors as well as students. He walked across the campus to the teaching block at Norris Hall, where he chained the front doors so nobody could escape. He may have remembered some lines from Mr Brownstone, a play he had written: “He gave me a D, when I only forgot to turn in two homeworks.”
As he gunned down Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a French lecturer, science professor Kevin Granata and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, he may have thought again of the professor in his play who “ass-raped us all — isn’t that what teachers do?
“I wanna watch him bleed, the way he watched us bleed”. Now he was fulfilling his own prophecy.
As for the students, they could forget his sympathy. He fired at them again and again, scattering their flesh across the floor. Most of his victims, girls and boys, were shot three times. Sometimes he would return to check whom he had killed and who was merely playing dead. His face was blank, but his emotions were seething.
As he said in his video, “You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats, Your gold necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs . . . You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing.”
The baby-faced Cho was 23, an adult by most people’s reckoning. In any other era it is doubtful he would have thought of himself as a boy or described his fellow students at Virginia Tech as “brats”. Trapped in the perpetual adolescence of the student, he has become a new monstrous poster child for boys who would rather kill themselves and others than grow up.
Camille Paglia, professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and author of Sexual Personae, believes Cho is emblematic of the crisis of masculinity in America. “Women have difficulty understanding the mix of male sexual aggression with egotism and the ecstasy of self-immolation,” she says. Or to quote Martin Amis on that other killer, Fred West: he became “addicted to the moment where impotence becomes prepotence”.
Cho swallowed his medicine, but it failed to stop him carrying out the biggest mass murder by a lone gunman in American history. By the time he turned his gun on himself, 32 students and teachers were dead — more than twice the number killed by the Columbine high school students in 1999.
Colin Goddard, 21, whose father is British, was one of the last students to be shot before Cho killed himself. He remembers the horror he felt as Cho entered his lecture room at Virginia Tech and began firing calmly and methodically at the class. “He had on boots, dark pants and a white shirt. He just started walking down the rows of desks, shooting people multiple times. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t demand anything. He was just shooting.”
The scene at Virginia Tech was hellish. Some students managed to save themselves by jumping from the windows, but those left behind died without knowing what Cho’s grievance was or why they were being punished for his rage.
Yet in death and murder, the silent Cho found his voice, railing at the perceived ills of society and slights to his deranged ego. From the blunt message he posted on a college web forum warning, “I’m going to kill people at Va Tech”, to the mountainous last testament of writings, photographs and video clips sent to NBC, rarely has a killer been as loquacious or left so much evidence of his twisted mind.
“That’s got to be more than he’s spoken, ever,” one surprised graduate student said. “I thought, ‘Well, he does talk’.”
Cho’s parents were hospitalised by shock when they heard of the killings, but some relatives have begun to speak out. Cho’s sister Sun Kyong-Cho said: “This is someone I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn’t know this person.” But in Seoul some family members described Cho as alienated even as a child. After watching the videos of him posing with his weapons, his furious 82-year-old grandfather said, “Son of a bitch. It served him right he died with his victims.”
Kim Hyang-Im, Cho’s mother, was the second of five children, who was obliged to look after the younger members of her family. At 29 she was still unmarried. Fearful that she would become an old maid, her parents fixed her up on a blind date with Cho Sun Tae, 10 years her senior. “Her husband was very serious and quiet and careful with money. He was not very friendly to his mother-in-law and father-in-law,” Cho’s 85-year-old aunt recalled.
Cho’s father scraped together enough money to buy a second-hand bookstore in South Korea, where they lived in a cheap, rented apartment. When relatives invited them to America, they were thrilled at the chance to “provide a better education”, the grandfather said.
The family was already worried about Cho, then eight years old. Soon after arriving in America he was diagnosed with autism. “He was very quiet and only followed his mother and father around but never showed any feelings or emotions,” his great-aunt said. His parents were too poor and busy trying to scrape a new life together to get specialist help for Cho.
They opened a dry-cleaning business, like many Korean immigrants, and moved to a two-storey cream town house in Centerville, Virginia, just outside Washington. In fulfilment of her parents’ dream, Cho’s sister went to Princeton University and now works as a contractor for the US State Department on the reconstruction of Iraq.
Cho chose to study English in at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, a sprawling residential college in the distant Blue Ridge Mountains. It is hard to fathom his rage at the “trust fund” brats with golden necklaces, vodka and cognac and “everything you wanted”, when among his victims were many immigrants like himself, who were proud of making their way in America.
But this carefully manicured campus — home to 26,000 students who called themselves Hokies — was no place for a social misfit. Even Cho used to wear the uniform of the mini-city: an orange or maroon T-shirt or sweatshirt with a baseball cap. Paglia, who has taught in American universities for 35 years, describes America’s residential campuses as vast “islands of green and slack conformity where a strange benevolent and tyrannical paternalism has taken over. It’s like a resort atmosphere”.
Paglia believes the school Cho attended would have been no better equipped to deal with frustrated young males. “There is nothing happening educationally in these boring prisons that are fondly called suburban high schools. They are saturated with a false humanitarianism, which is especially damaging for boys.
“Young men have enormous energy. There was a time when they could run away, hop on a freighter, go to a factory and earn money, do something with their hands. Now there is this snobbery of the upper-middle-class professional. Everyone has to be a lawyer or paper pusher.”
Cho is a classic example of “someone who felt he was a loser in the cruel social rat race”, Paglia says. The pervasive hook-up culture at college, where girls are prepared to sleep with boys they barely know or fancy, can be a source of seething resentment and alienation for those who are left out.
“Young women now seem to want to behave like men and have sex without commitment. The signals they are giving are very confusing, and rage and humiliation build up in boys who are spurned again and again.”
The sex, Paglia argues, “is everywhere but it is not erotic”, as can be seen by the sad spectacle of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears flashing their lack of underwear during a night on the town. “It’s not even titillating. It’s banal and debasing.”
The former Virginia Tech student who posted two of Cho’s hate-filled plays on the internet recalls that Cho fitted the “exact stereotype of what one would typically think of as a ‘school shooter’ — a loner, obsessed with violence and with serious personal problems”. But the plays show he was preoccupied not just with girls but with paedophilia and sodomy.
In Richard McBeef, a drama about child abuse, a stepson rants, “I will not be molested by an aging, balding, overweight pedophile [sic]stepdad named Dick”, before threatening to shove the television remote control “up his ass”. It concludes: “I hate him. Must kill Dick. Must kill Dick. Dick must die. Kill Dick.”
Dr James Gilligan, a former prison psychiatrist who teaches at New York University, believes that misogyny and homophobia are a central component of the make-up of violent criminals, who often fear they have homosexual tendencies.
“An underlying factor that is virtually always present is a feeling that one has to prove one’s manhood and the way to do that, to gain respect, is to commit a violent act,” he says. “It is tremendously tempting to use violence as a means of trying to shore up one’s sense of masculine self-esteem.”
It is not simply an American phenomenon. In Cho’s video manifesto, there are unmistakable echoes of the home-made martyrdom videos of the young male jihadists circulating on the internet.
Cho began working out in the gym weeks before the killings, and the video pictures sent to NBC reveal a bolder, more muscled character than the images of the shy young student released when his name was first identified.
Dressed to kill in black and tan, Cho borrowed the vocabulary as well as the iconography of Islamic fundamentalist suicide bombers by hailing Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold — the two teen killers at Columbine — as “martyrs” of the same vengeful cult of death.
On his arm Cho had etched in red ink the nom de guerre Ismail Ax, a possible reference to the son whom Ibrahim (or Abraham) prepared to sacrifice in the Koran, sparking a torrent of speculation on the internet about his religious motives.
Others suggested that the student of literature was merely thinking about an American novel called Ishmael about a young boy growing up outside Washington, just as he did. But Cho was also explicitly drawn to Christian symbolism and its own veneration of martyrdom.
“Do you know what it feels to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement?” he railed on video. “You have never felt a single ounce of pain in your whole lives. You have vandalised my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience.”
Political scientist Francis Fukuyama believes the common denominator between the terrorist suicide bomber and the suicidal mass murderer is their sexual frustration and gender. “It really is young men between 15 and 30 who are responsible the vast majority of crimes, although it is politically incorrect to say this too loudly,” he says.
Suicide bombers and the Virginia Tech killer, Fukuyama suggests, “fall into the same demographic of young males, a lot of whom are unemployed, without a clear place in the social hierarchy. These guys have the most to gain and the least to lose by martyrdom”. And often, he adds, they are upset about girls “whose attention they can’t get”.
Fukuyama believes that Cho’s case is “fairly unique” but “the maleness is important”. In his essay Identity and Migration, published by Prospect last February, he writes that radical Islamism should be understood in the context of identity politics.
“We have seen this problem before in the extremist politics of the 20th century, among the young people who became anarchists, Bolsheviks, fascists or members of the Baader-Meinhof gang.” It is not specifically tied to radical Islam, he insists.
Yet Cho’s ethnicity may have prevented the university authorities from intervening in his life, Paglia suggests. Voicing a theme that conservative talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh have taken up with gusto, she wonders whether political correctness about his background and culture may have led them to make excuses for him.
“He was Korean and so people were hesitant to declare he was abnormal in American terms,” she says. It is no accident, she believes, that the two female lecturers who were most suspicious of his behaviour were themselves not white.
One professor, Nikki Giovanni, known as the “princess of black poetry”, was the first to raise the alarm about Cho’s writing. It did not feature hardcore violence; but it was weird. “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to rip your heart out’,” she said. “It’s that, ‘Your bra is torn and I’m looking at your flesh’.” When female students said they were scared of him, she wanted him out of her class.
Giovanni reported her concerns to Lucinda Roy, a British professor of literature who was then head of the department. She was so disturbed by Cho that she contacted the university police and went on to give him individual lessons — after devising a code word which, if ever used, would be a signal to her assistant to call security.
“You seem so lonely,” she told him. “Do you have any friends?”
“I am lonely,” Cho replied. “I don’t have any friends.”
The lone gunman is a familiar figure in American mythology. “In American culture you always have the rough-edged loner, the anti- establishment figure which goes all the way back to the silent films and westerns and continues through Humphrey Bogart, James Dean and Marlon Brando,” says Paglia.
In Cho’s case, there were echoes of Taxi Driver, the story of a stalker. The promiscuity that Cho saw in women was “a huge warning sign”, Paglia believes. “You want them, you want the status of being seen with them, you’re driven towards them and at the same time they are contaminated, they are dirty. That’s exactly the mentality of the stalker and assassin played by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. There is an apocalyptic impulse to destroy everything and to purify the world.”
In a twist to the debate on masculinity, some commentators have complained that the terrified Virginia Tech students were no Rambos when it came to defending themselves. John Derbyshire, a right-wing British writer based in America, wondered, “Why didn’t anyone rush the guy? Yes, I know it is easy to say these things, but didn’t the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything?” — a reference to the passengers fighting back in the 9/11 hijacked plane.
The columnist Mark Steyn took up the theme with an essay on the “culture of passivity” that is overtaking America. In his view, students are becoming so infantilised that they have lost their capacity to take responsibility.
“In a horrible world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself and others,” he believes. “It is a poor reflection on us that in those critical first seconds where one has to make a decision, only an elderly Holocaust survivor understood instinctively the obligation to act.”
Librescu, 75, forced his body against the door to prevent Cho storming his classroom, gaining time for some of his students to escape. He was shot dead. But there were younger heroes, too, such as Derek O’Dell, who was shot in the arm but managed to wedge his foot in the door and prevent Cho from re-entering the classroom.
Another student, realising that a friend was playing dead, was said to have deliberately drawn Cho’s attention to himself as the gunman searched the room for survivors — and sacrificed his own life.
“When someone opens the door of a classroom and begins firing with a semi-automatic weapon, there is no fighting back possible,” says Paglia. “All of this happened too fast for the young men or young women to rush the shooter and bring him down.”
Paglia is a defender of the constitutional right to bear arms in America. She is troubled, however, by the ease with which Cho bought his weapons. “The problem is not hunting guns but these semi-automatic weapons. He could not have cut down that many people so quickly or with such brutal efficiency without them. They have no use except for commandos, swat teams and paramilitary organisations.
“This is part of the plague that has come with the drug culture in the inner cities,” she says. “Cho’s use of semi-automatic weapons can ultimately be traced back to gangsta rap. It is a fabrication of urban life which is sold to teenagers trapped in the utterly sterile shopping-mall culture of the American suburbs.”
“Throughout most of human history men have been armed, but with swords not guns,” Paglia observes. As the weapons grow more deadly, even a solitary “boy” can commit the worst massacre in American history. This is the 19th such scenario in the past decade. Unfortunately it is unlikely to be the last.
I think everybody involved in this affair should look to see if things couldn't have been averted.Obviously the drugs didn't work,guns not so easy to obtain for students with known problems,the teachers were not an asset to him inasmuch
as that I read that he may well have been denied majoring
due to verbal bullying,not one male student would help him out by taking him under the wing and it is said that,had he been Brad Pitt the female force would have been falling all over him from carrying out the same actions.Come on America,the world needs you and my country certainly needs you to take a lead .One or two noticeable hacks are now asking why we should not authorise guns since in a few enclaves of my country there is gang warfare and it will spread.
There should be no argument ,guns should be allowed in the states but people should be more wary of young men who look like they are going to crack.There were plenty of signs
in Cho's case.We should all be responsible for each other.
michael savell, eastbourne, England
I think that this boy had alot of mental problems and his family should have seen it before he started killing people. they should of gotten him some kind of mental help.
Theresa, Louisvillw, Kentucky
Cho was never LOVED. By anyone.
Mike, Glenhaven,
I don't fully agree with the piece, but I'm exasperated by constant feminist allusions to 'patriarchy' and 'misogyny' when in fact fatherless boys who grow up in more 'sensitive' environments men are MORE likely to commit serious crime.
Society is not the only arena. Humiliating personal exchanges and a lonesome upbringing clearly fuelled his rage, and in the emotional realm women young and old alike simply seem more surefooted. Difficulty in reading emotions and a tendency to oversimplify complex situations are a defining mark of the male sex, and autism is constantly referred to as the 'extreme male brain'.
Add that to the fact that testosterone, eight to twenty times more present in men than in women is a powerful agitator and it's no wonder that so many young men in this age of the deflated male role model go off the rails. An excuse? No, an explaination. But fem-fascists dismiss everything that comes from a man's mouth, unless he's degrading his own sex. They love that.
Dion, Liverpool, England
The basketball cap militarization of US society certainly played a role.
Not just feminism....
ant, london,
Feminim is the American way to destroy family values on a global scale. Afro-Americans have been the firts to experience this onslaught.
ant, london,
Oh wow! "Soceity is too feminized". But then why should I listen to you when you're just part of your own problem? After all, since you are a WOMAN, you're obviously feminine, so how can I listen to you? SO since you're obviously wrong, being a girl and all, I will keep allowing 'feminization' until females finally get the equality they deserve and which they don't have.
Do us all a favor and get a sex change.
Matthew, Newark,
I agree with Angela, LA, CA. Many people put on prescription drugs for mental illness end up worse. If they can't metabolise these drugs because of their genotype, e.g. "Poor metabolisers", impulsive violent thoughts and actions can and do follow. I hope the investigators examine the drug levels in Cho at autopsy and genotype his DNA. Maybe indiscriminate use of SSRI's and antipsychotic drugs is the reason why there are so many high school shootings in America and I hope U.K won't follow. Drug companies manufacture these drugs for profit and often do not test them enough or in some cases deliberately hold back information which highlights the dangers of their products. There is evidence that these drugs are no more effective than placebo. It is too easy to give someone a pill than to give them the care and attention they need at difficult times in their lives. American pro-gun lobbyists argue that it is not the gun that kills but the person.
Jan , Battle, East Sussex UK
"Feminised society"? Excuse me, half the population is female, and it's time that that was accepted as normal. It's not feminisation, it's equality.
Interesting that - again - it's pointed out that the girls are promiscuous, but does anyone have a problem with the fact that boys are equally promiscuous, and this has always been accepted as normal and even good?
This man was a nutcase, obviously, but 'feminisation' of culture is not to blame, but our innately misogynistic culture (which sorely needs to be 'feminised').
Tom, Berlin,
So women are to blame for this? All because some boy couldn't get laid? Please.
This column is downright degrading and nothing more than an excuse for the author to make excuses for the killer.
*Women* werent to blame for his mental state. Nothing was going to stop him kill.
And yet again, music is being blamed. When really, it's the bloody constitution with the gun laws unchanged. But no government will change them because it would lose them a lot of voters.
Obviously, this author is sad that today's society has become feminist. She wants to be back in a patriachal society where men rule all. Blame the wome, it's the easiest thing to do.
Honestly, this makes me sick. How can you make excuses for this guy? it's disgusting and disrespectful.
Lauren, Oxford, UK
Umm....this article is rather disturbing. I disagree that feminism holds any blame for Cho's actions. If we are going to put Cho's personal responsibility aside and if a culture is to be blamed, it is the anti-feminist culture that is rooted in patriarchy, sexism, and violence.
Lara H, Springdale, AR
Blah ... blah ... blah ...
Has anyone thought that the guy might just be a nut case? What is all this psycho-babble anyway? The man is, after all, dead; so there's really no way of knowing what was going on in his addled brain. Can't we just leave it at that? Do we have to psychoanalyze this matter to death?
Richard Boyle, San Francisco, CA
Oh, please. Serial killers and mass murderers have had issues with the opposite sex long before women's suffrage and lib came about. In a case in which blame has been placed on our bullies, our schools, our teachers, our gun laws, our country's founding ideals - a "feminized society" isn't high on the list.
Polly, Front Royal, Virginia
The Second Amendment was deliberately written in such a manner to protect an individual right to bear arms. The "well regulated militia" part of the amendment was inserted to make sure that the individual was well versed in the use of his weapon of choice and was prepared to use his arms in defense of his land against enemies foreign and domestic. At the time, standing armies all over the world had single shot pistols and muskets for long guns. That said, all able bodied men, 17-45 had to have the same pistols and long guns and had to know how to properly use them. These men were the militia, the army of defense of our land. The US government wasn’t meant to have an army to chase overseas knight errands. Unfortunately, the US federal government now has a professional army and at the same time, our society has removed much of the personal responsibility men had in not only defending our land, but in every adult responsibility; To be reduced to almost a child like existence.
Leonidas, Sparta, USA / Georgia
Great article!
I was at a bar/restaurant in Tokyo last Friday with my girlfriend. After dinner we went out to the bar area next to the window. As the night got later, the "young" ex-pats started to show up. Packs of American bankers and professionals. All dressed the same in groups of 4 to 6 guys, and probably between the ages of 26-32.
I commented to my girlfriend about how strange it was to see grown men congregate and act like frat boys at their ages.
After reading this article that night flashed into my mind.
Are we, America, becoming a nation of boys?
I guess if one was to analyze our leadership they would conclude that we are a nation of "frat boys," don't you think?
Henry Miller, Big Sur, California
Cho didn't send "shy love messages". He leaned under tables in class to take pictures up girls' skirts. The idea that feminism, or the women who commited the unpardonable sin of sleeping with people other than him, can be held responsible for his inability to deal with his problems and feelings in a non-sociopathic way is utterly disgusting and sloppy journalism.
Laura, Oxford, UK
This column is offensive, simplistic, and little more than an opportunity for Camille Paglia to run at the mouth. The sympathetic speculation over what was going through Cho's head as he moved between his killings is particularly appalling.
Nate Martin, Takoma Park, MD,
Those who would give up their civil rights for temporary safety deserve neither rights or safety. Why is it when something like this happens there is always someone that wants to regulate or outlaw the instrument or type of instrument used? Wouldn't it have been better to help the individual involved before this happened, before the problem came to a boiing point, especially when there were signs and people were concerned with this individuals behavior? The whole key, in my opinion, is that we need to be more involved with other people. We, as a society are so self absorbed and selfish that we don't pay attention to the geeks and freaks. We, as a society with our selfishness and our greed and our self absortion are creating this problem and trying to find every other excuse to blame this type of thing on rather than where the blame really belongs, in each of our hearts.
Gary, Osage,
This could have happened anywhere, and James Wilton, Orange County, CA, USA's post dead accurate.
Russ Smith, Jacksonville, FL. USA
In response to my post, Mike in Raleigh wrote, "You're not an ex-gun owner. For if you were you'd know that the ONLY laws that have helped reduce crime have been concealed carry laws."
So merely owning a gun imparts knowledge about laws and their effects on crime rates. Fascinating.
I did not write that I'm an ex-gun owner. I wrote "ex-NRA," and I did it to encourage other gun control advocates not to back down from a gun nut. Does Mike think that no NRA man is ever taken alive and dragged off by us evil anti-gunners?
Note that in this year's U.S. federal appeals court decision overturning the DC handgun ban, the majority opinion stated that "reasonable restrictions" on firearms are still quite permissible. Mentioned were gun registration, background checks, and mandatory training. The last two amount to a de facto license.
Even when two judges rule in the NRA's favor, they still support the NRA's worst nightmare (after bans), registration and licensing. Hilarious!
Harry, Andrews, TX
Interesting premise...the infantilism of young men at the hands of a sterile feminized culture. Unfortunately it just doesn't wash. First, the option to strike out on ones own and work with one's hands still exists. It just does not exist within the constraints of middle to upper class - and that has always been the case. This is nothing new.
Also, chicks have always ruled in the dating game. That is also not new.
Here is whats new. The average young man has to learn to deal with rejection. Historically this has been done within the context of a group of guys. The rigors of dating have been offset by male-bonding.
His teacher nailed it. This dude had no friends...and to the degree that this kind of solitude is becoming ubiquitous across the board, its a problem. I see a lot of men like this. They are not only unable to get the girl, they can't sustain a friendship with a guy. No wonder they snap.
Erich, Minneapolis, MN
A Brit stated:
"Its time for the NRA to harden up and call these deaths what they really think they are - collateral damage.
As long as the hunters right to kill is valued higher than the innocent's right to live the cycle of violence will escalate."
The 2nd Amendment isn't about hunting. I don't think 10% of gun owners hunt. I do not.
20th Century: 100 million killed by their own governments after being disarmed. Nuff said.
Mike
Mike, Raleigh, NC
From reading some of the comments posted i have an uneasy feeling about the majority of Americans who are defending the right to carry guns even after 32 innocent people were killed by a 23 year old student with handguns that should really only be used by trained Law enforcement specialists.
These people are delusional if they think that their arguemnets are justifiable. Such as Jesse's from Minneapolis who seems to be dwelling on the technicalities of the handguns used as opposed to the fact that these handguns should not be available to the general public.
Arguemnents that suggest guns prevent crimes are also laughable. 2 million is a figure someone has put forward as the number of crimes prevented by the public use of guns. Has that person considered the number of crimes committed because of the almost free availability of guns to the US public? I'm sure the repost would be that there are strict gun ownership laws etc. but clearly not strict enough!
Grow up America.
Mayur, London,
Anabella, Chicago, USA - i'm guessing your a feminest who seems to have a lot of built up hatred towards the male of the species. Maybe some of the points raised in this article apply to you? Yet you fail hugely on the fact that you're blaming a particular part to society. Everything works together in society, everyone plays their part, like or not, we are all cogs in an even bigger machine. SO, it would be wise not to point the finger of blame, and rather look at why such failings are happening, and what can and is being done to correct these problems.
The question i would have in relation to Cho is, where did it start? What led him down the path to the point in killing innocent people? Was it feeling alienated in a country he didn't know, was it being teased by fellow pupils at school because he was different, was it because he didn't live up to the achivements of his sister, which depending on the family can bring some shame? who knows, but don't be simplistic with your views
simon, lincoln,
For those that say the 2nd amendment is outdated, only applies to hunting, or that the framers didn't expect automatic weapons to exist, you miss the true purpose.
The intent of the 2nd amendment is self protection and independence. An armed populace is not easy to invade if you are a foreign entity, and difficult to contol if you are domestic. The second amendment was not written just so we could repel foreign invaders. It is necessary if we have to defend ourselves from our government. All governments fail. Often before they do, they become severely oppressive. The United States is much like the Roman Empire, already on the decline. Its size and the power of the state will eventually cause collapse.
England is already a totalitarian state, with cameras everywhere. Big brother IS watchning. Individual rights are not respected, because they need not be.
Mike R, California, USA
We as a society are forcing our children to conform to a norm that is only possible for a small percentage of them to meet. They are the beautiful, the outgoing and the aggressive. They know how to get the things they want. Cho never would be one of them. He did not fit into our model of normal and his beautiful peers did let him forget this. He was forced to acknowledge that he would never be one of them with every turn he made. We judged him to be less than and he forced us to hear his pain.
We watch the commentators speak about him as a madman; the talking heads that have never felt the pain of not being one of the chosen few. They have always fit the model of what they tell us what we should be. They cannot see the art of the artist. They only see pain of the victims because they were like them. They say over and over again, ”They were good kids”.
Chris, Fort Smith,
What about the chain and lock he used to barricade the doors. Shouldn't there be a law regarding the sales and possessing such items?
habman, Lansing, MI
...Did anyone report his illness to his parents?...
He was suspended in junior high for making a hit list of students he wanted to kill. His parents were notified. Check out Greta's Fox news show on Sunday night. Cho has had problems his entire life. There were several people aware of it including school officals, but what could they have done? You can't lock someone up for what you think they might do.
John, MO, USA
The drivel about semi-automatic weapons is ludicrous. As if a pistol which fires once at each pull of the trigger is somehow more insidious than any other, such as a revolver, only goes to show ignorance or an agenda. Better that some students were carrrying concealed to meet force with force.
Phil W, Atlanta, GA
I think Mrs/Ms Paglia is on to something. I believe that people sould be able to purchase guns/ bear arms. Having said that I think there needs to be some attention to what Mayor Bloomberg is saying about unscruplous people who deal in arms and flood inner city and rural communities with guns. But we know how interprising the white man can be, did'nt whites sale guns to Indians also!
Mosi Bundu, Spartanburg, SC
As Chris Rock once said, "What ever happened to 'Crazy'?" Many people are abused, neglected, have trouble adapting, and are you kidding me....getting laid...! The guy was simply crazy.
Tony, New York, New York
Hopefully we will one day have a society where:
Medication is not the only solution for the unhappy.
Artist will be cherished for their uniqueness.
Normal will mean that you are being yourself.
Pain is accepted as a part of life.
Shooters use paint to paint pictures.
Chris, Fort Smith,
Paglia has no idea what she's talking about when she says she supports the constitutional right to bear arms. It has nothing whatsoever to do with hunting. What?! Are people going to carry around hunting rifles to defend themselves? Guns didn't arrive with the drug culture. Swords were the most efficient means of self-defense then, guns are today. She's a professor of spouting her liberal, feminized agenda. What does she know of humanity?
Wiglaf Wintersturm, Grand Rapids, Mi, USA
The premise is interesting but it doesn't seem to fit here. Males in america are still expected to bottle up and not show their emotions. A healthy tear is still frowned upon. Explosions of anger are all too common for many males who are trained out of being in touch with their emotions. Society here for the large part still idolizes the emotionally incomplete and out of touch male. Trying to fit into that society to this day causes a wide variety of aggressive behavior in attempts to fit the role...Machismo... As evidenced by the amount of aggression in many of these comments, a lot of men are emotionally unstable creatures that still fill their role in a MASCULINE society.
On the issue of guns, law or no law it does not matter. They are here. If you care to explore the larger picture, it's like nuclear weapons for countries. Countries with the tool are very hesitant to start conflict with other countries with it. However if you don't have it, you're fair game. It's action, not word
Dredloh, San Diego, CA
Ah, I now understand that living in a feminist society which has so emasculated men to deny them the traditional outlet to aggressive masculinity of 'hopping on a freighter, going to a factory and earning money, doing something with their hands...] has left we men with the only masculine alternative: a murderous rampage.
Hmmm, on second thoughts, that is absolute twaddle.
This is the sort of pseudo-intellectual drivel I remember reading when I had a bout myopia in choosing Criminology as an option in my undergraduate Law days.
The intellectual traditions of Feminism/Sociology/Criminology et al seem to ignore the doctrines of individual responsibility and common sense spectacularly well as is demonstrated by this awful piece of ill-reasoned writing by Ms. Baxter.
Mr. Seung-hui's being far from compos mentis, the failure of the mental health authorities to deal with this problem and the ready availability of weapons to such a deranged person are more relevant than feminism!
Daniel, Belfast,
As a British ex-pat now living in Texas (since 2000) I can definitely say that I feel much safer in Texas than in the UK. In the UK you literally have to nail everything down otherwise it will get stolen. You need locking wheel nuts and a removable car stereo. In Texas, you don't.
It's amusing to see so many anti-American anti-gun comments from UK readers and so many pro-gun comments from US readers. It seems to me that there's a lot of UK readers who are using this tragedy to "bash" the US and its culture just because they don't like Bush or because they've been watching too much BBC lately. Please, unless you've actually lived in both countries for any period of time (like me), you really don't have a clue nor are in a position to "throw mud" at the other side just to further your agenda.
All I know is, having lived in both countries, that I feel safer in Texas than in the UK. To me, that is the only fact I need worry about.
NickT, San Antonio, Texas
All the discussion about the control of inanimate objects is non-essential to the phenomenon which occurred at VT.
Cho, isolated by his apparent high functioning autism, is analogous to an alcoholic truck driver, who without the intervention of a traffic officer or a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous, smashes his fully loaded eighteen wheeler into a school bus. The size of the truck, the fact that it was registered and licensed, it's cargo, possibly flammable, and that the alcoholic had a driver's permit were irrelevant to the catastrophe.
The key failures involve the human element in the event that transpired. Whatever the clinical specifics turn out to be, Cho's meltdown and its consequences occurred due to a lack of sufficient intervention by the living, not controls on the inanimate. A last resort in the intervention possibilities would have been an armed citizen. Last resorts are usually the worst option. It's hard to stop a speeding, fully loaded truck!
Jan, Bullmuda, WA
Most countries have topics which are precious to them, about which they seem incapable of having a calm conversation. They are based on conviction, "historic rights" and generally "marmite logic" - you either believe, or don't believe, and there is no middle ground. Any discussion degenerates into ad hominem attacks. Outsiders cannot understand why the topic is just so difficult, as the answer may seem obvious.
In the UK this conversations about immigration tend to go this way (other topics included Northern Ireland and whether or not Margaret Thatcher was a 'good thing'). In Spain, conversations about why its wrong from the UK to have Gibraltar but fine for Spain to have Ceuta are much the same. In the Middle East, it is the situation of the Palestinans.
For the USA, this topic is guns. I have never seen a calm an rational debate about guns in the US, and I doubt I ever will.
Ed, London, UK
system failed (his case) twice: 1st the psychiatric institutions/framework, and 2nd the drugs he took, Lubox. Both designed to keep him free, but with little recognition/disregard of/respect for our freedoms.
And third, the pacification of VT students, by decree: a plan to lay down and die or run, rather than resist and overcome.
Jorge, Portland,
regul8tr, Charlotte, NC, USA, you must be joking. Charles Whitman and Oswald were both trained marines. Julian Knight (Australian mass shooter from 20 years ago) had also trained in an army military college. Attendance at a military college, in the US or elsewhere, does nothing to prevent these problems. The colleges harbour just as many psychos as the general population
Paul JM, Melbourne, Vic
"He was about as American as Christian Bale" -Adam, Virginia, USA
For us non-Americans, what does that mean?
Pete, Cov,"
Pete - by the simile he used I assume Adam is implying that Cho wasn't American; Christian Bale was born in Pembrokeshire, UK.
Although what Cho's nationality has to do with anything is a mystery to me. Delusional killer = delusional killer, regardless of where they were born. Arguing nationality is pure semantics, and pathetic in the face of the death of 32 innocent people.
Nicky Butler, London, UK
Guns are a problem in the United States, perpetuated by the popular media and a political ideology that doesn't recognize meaningful human rights.
As an American PhD candidate in Higher Education who grew up in Maryland, near Virginia, I am apalled by much of this article. I spent last summer at Lancaster University which reinforced, from an outside perspective, why I prefer other cultures over the United States I have grown up in.
You seem to romanticize the actions and character of a very sick, narcissistic, individual. Portraying the British department head as positive fails to acknowledge that she SHOULD have done more to get this mentall unwell student help.
There is so much that should be done to change culture in order to avoid a repeat of such a grotesque tragedy, but writing articles like this is most certainly not one of them.
Lyndsay, Denver, CO, USA
"Really? I had no idea that Christian had lived in the US for fifteen years since the age of 8 and is a naturalised US citizen. "
Actually, Cho was NOT a naturalised US citizen. He was a permanent resident. There is a difference.
Alicia Amos, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Dan, Hampton , UK;
He wasn't a naturalized US citizen. Learn to read. And why do you care? Do you need to have him fully American to fullfill your anti-american POV?
3rdMan, Manhattan,
As noted by another reader earlier you have a bit of an inaccuracy in your article. The two women who attended Westfield High School were 5 years behind Cho and could not have known him or taunted him during their years there. It is a terrible thing to link them to him in such a way when they were like all of the other victims, innocent, and in the wrong place at the wrong time. That highschool was very large and no doubt many of it's former students were in classes at VT that day.
Alicia Amos, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Has anyone noticed that this sort of incident hasn't happened at a military institution? I attended a military college, where every student, Instructor and Staff member were armed. I was trained at some length on how and when to use my sidearm. I don't particularly look forward to ending another human life, but if it comes down to defending my life, or a third party, then I will take action as necessary. The VT shooter had no concept of that reality.
regul8tr, Charlotte, NC, USA
“Young women now seem to want to behave like men and have sex without commitment. The signals they are giving are very confusing, and rage and humiliation build up in boys who are spurned again and again.”
I'd better expect to get shot next time I or one of my friends refuses unwanted sexual advances, eh?
Poor Cho. If only he'd had the luck to be born into a society where women aren't allowed to behave like men and indulge their impulses. Cherchez la femme, I always say.
Well done, The Times, for giving such weight to the ramblings of a semi-literate pop psychologist.
Bobbie, London, UK
I am reasonably ambivalent about the right to own a gun, but I have always had a bit of an issue with the 2nd Ammendmant being used for its justification. If as was allegedly intended, US citizens were given the right because standing armies, foreign and domestic, were not to be trusted, surely an extrapolation of that argument would mean that citizens should be allowed to hold any weapon in use by the US or other army: nuclear bombs, tanks, fighter aircraft, war ships etc.
Sipu, Retreat,
Mike from Raleigh ... if you are so anti-European, why are you reading and posting comments on a European newspaper?
LC, London,
One of the largest mass shootings before this was a crowded roadside cafe in Texas. If they didnt have a gun handy in Texas, what makes you think your rhetoric about students being allowed to carry on campus would have resulted in anything different? This is what the media has done to you, convinced you that life is a Die Hard movie.
Its amusing how these gun obsessed people turn their hobbies and interests into some kind of comic book "Ill save the world" speech at every opportunity. Even Captain America would be embarrassed by the 4th grade rhetoric they employ. Every bubba becomes a minuteman circa 1776 when he buys a gun, its soooo boring to listen to them.
watchyoutalkinbout, st pete, FL
It was not a tragedy. It was a horrific, heinous crime that was meticulously premeditated and planned...it was a slow motion suicide bombing.
And of course the terrorist, ignored all the gun laws..lied on his federal form, carried them, took them into a "gun free" campus, brandished them, discharged them,...all those crimes were committed before any human was struck with a projectile.
Laws do not deter criminals.
arthur, Leominster, MA
>>An increasingly feminised society and the fact that there is a lack of male role models within the home. Denchanter, London,
I really take issue with this comment. Feminised society? So it's OUR fault he went on the rampage? I understand the argument that men can have issues with their masculinity, but that is THEIR fault and no one else's. You sound like the Australian newspaper who gleefully declared that the girl shot dead in Norriss Hall was responsible for starting the massacre!
Joanna, Somerset,
You know what? This article is crap. Do you guys ever check your facts?
John, MO, USA
Nonsense heading. 'males in a feminised society'. That's utterly incorrect. Cho didn't do this because the society he lives in is 'feminised' Is that society even 'feminised'? No. What a ridiculous heading,and therefoe I am choosing to not even read the article. The title blames women for what Cho did now then? This paper The Times online, has now disgusted me twice in one day, one article and/or heading after another, being anti-women.
L Jackson, GREAT YARMOUTH, Norfolk
To me, Cho's sending of Shakespearean love notes to clueless women reminds me of Huxley's Savage reciting Shakespeare to a similarly clueless Lennina. Tragically for all, whereas in fiction the Savage merely took his own life, Cho savagely took many lives with him.
We live in what is becoming a sad, brave new world.
CJK, Milwaukee, WI
Sarah Baxter I don't remember reading any of your work before. On reading the above piece I will look out for you. It's a brilliant thought provoking article.
You have actually attempted to look at the underlined issues which may even be used to explain the reasons for the rise of youth gun crime in the UK.
An increasingly feminised society and the fact that there is a lack of male role models within the home. This may leave young men with a crisis of confidenc forcing them to seek out masculine suplements, guns, knives and even the ownership of dangerous dogs.
I know this strays a tad from your article but I've grown bored of reading the rants from trigger happy Americans.
Denchanter, London,
"He was about as American as Christian Bale" -Adam, Virginia, USA
Really? I had no idea that Christian had lived in the US for fifteen years since the age of 8 and is a naturalised US citizen.
Dan, Hampton , UK
To pete in Cov ... Christian Bale is the Non American actor who played the "American Psycho " , in the film of the same name . Apparently he's from Haverfordwest !
Benzo, Nr Chelmsford , England
1st of all to say we live in a feminised society is the second dumbest thing I've ever heard. 2nd,
if you have a problem with people having guns, don't look at them as if they are criminals, most of them have them for no other reason than to protect themselves from other peoples children with knives who's parents didn't have time to show them right from wrong. lets be for real here. men not supporting children women are left with the responsibility and then she is paid 50 -75 cents to the dollar a male makes but he doesn't have the financial burden of a child, she works 2 jobs to support child with no time left to teach the child...smart men they cut off their nose to spite their face and then to make matters worse
men more and more blame their behavior on being a male
other than because they are an idiot
"I have to look at porn...I'm a guy" and these are male childrens role models and you say this is a feminised society?
Anabella, Chicago, USA
"God given right..." for the truly religious, they know this doesn't extend to the ownership of anything intended to kill! He said "turn the other cheek", so how can you use His name to condone this? Anyway, that's not my point. You can argue the 2nd amendement till you're blue in the face. What saddens me is the belief that we should live in a society where we are afraid of each other! If everyone is armed, then everyone is deterred! I read on this website, on this very same debate (albeit different article) a person posted "A society that arms itself in fear of society, is no society at all" whoever posted this is IMHO a very very wise man (or woman). I'm not saying we should all be passive, I'm the 1st to stand up for what I believe, but the focus seems to be on gun control, it should be on the issues that society perpetuates. Cho's "resentment of society "planted the seeds of his actions, accompanied by his "non-value attached to human life". These should be addressed!!
julian, Bromley, UK
"And the groups you named are non-sequiturs. Nice touch tossing in the Jews though. You still think, like Soros, that they cause the problems? "
I was being SARCASTIC, exaggerating and satirising the way that some right-wingers think that everyone is conspiring against them. Of course those groups are not conspiring (well, maybe the communists...)
I can't speak for the rest of the American media, but we can get Fox News on satellite TV here, and what I've seen is about as centrist as Benito Mussolini. It just seems that if you think that everyone is left-wing, it is more likely that your views are quite extreme.
Come on, is it really that bad? Does every media outlet in the US have a left-wing bias? Surely there have got to be some right-of-centre newspapers? Is the US media really that different from the rest of the world?
LB, southport,
Its time for the NRA to harden up and call these deaths what they really think they are - collateral damage.
As long as the hunters right to kill is valued higher than the innocent's right to live the cycle of violence will escalate.
Steven, London, United Kingdom
This event is a tragedy regardless of what country it occurred in. It seems lots of people want to rush to judgment and blame many things and many people but there is only one person to blame and that is Cho. All the rest of this noise is simply media generated hype designed to drive ratings so advertisers will pay to showcase their goods and services in the media. Banning guns will not stop gun violence anymore than handing them out to everyone. Background checks designed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous or ill people only work when said people try to acquire them through legal means. There are no guarantees or absolutes in life. All that is left is individual choice which is what freedom is all about. My choice is to own guns so if needed I can protect myself and those that I love. All the rest of this is just noise that will be in the forefront until the next sensational story comes along. God Bless America and God Save the Queen.
James Wilton, Orange County, CA, USA
in America children are Not given guns to play with , in fact they can,t even have a picture of a gun without getting in trouble . GUNS are instruments of freedom in the hands of the lawful. The victims at Va. Tech were men and woman , not children. Danny Boy
Danny, Bel Air,
"The stats are only skewed by hoplophobes."
Apart from the incredible naivete of that comment (no-one has anything to gain from making guns seem like a worse than they are, but plenty of retailers, manufacturers and gun clubs have something to gain from making them seem like a good thing to own), you fail to see the difference between fearing weapons per se, and fearing weapons being sold to in the supermarket to anyone with an ID, with very few background checks. If there were tests for gun ownership to make sure people know what they are doing, as with driving tests, fewer people would have a problem with it.
""A fear of weapons is a sign of emotional ans sexual insecurity." Sigmund Freud."
Very mature, questioning the other person's sexual prowess/inclination.
We could ask why some men want to have guns so much (anyone who has read Freud knows what they symbolise!), and whether they own them to make up for a little something.
Or we could just stop acting like 13-year-olds
LB, southport,
Someone in Texas wrote:
"So essentially no students or professors will be good with a handgun when a murderer strikes".
Have you any data? I have data refuting you.
"More concealed handguns is not the answer".
Have you any data? I have data refuting you,
"We must repeal the 2nd Amendment, ban semiautos, and impose registration and licensing. Then limit ammo purchases"
I feel very sorry for you.
"I'm ex-NRA, grateful to the anti-gunner who cared enough to whip my sorry pro-gun hide".
You're not an ex-gun owner. For if you were you'd know that the ONLY laws that have helped reduce crime have been concealed carry laws. Nice try.
Mike
Mike, Raleigh, NC
"He was about as American as Christian Bale" -Adam, Virginia, USA
For us non-Americans, what does that mean?
Pete, Cov,
If children are given guns to play with someone will get hurt. Whatever happened to common sense?
Janet Menage, Rugby, UK
"They are certainly not widely marxist. Perhaps it is YOUR sources which have the agenda."
Sorry, but since you don't live in America you have no idea of what our press is like. And the groups you named are non-sequiturs. Nice touch tossing in the Jews though. You still think, like Soros, that they cause the problems?
John Lott has researched stories in the press . They widely leave out guns that are used to prevent/stop crines.
The American press [not talk radio] has no conservative outlet. FOX moved to the middle and the rest are totally unaware of reality and live in a socialist world similar to the one forced upon Brits. You should have headed F.A. Hayek and "The Road to Serfdom".
Don't take it from me. Tom Wolfe [Bonfire of the Vanities] recently reported on being at a large media gathering and he said they resoundingly have no idea what being an American is like in their own nation. They root against America and think they are annointed in some fashion.
Mike
Mike, Raleigh, NC
"This is why the Asians developed all the martial arts based on farm implements" -KR, Hamilton, Ma
I didnt know swords, spears and javelins were 'farm implements'.
Pete, Cov,
"Studies have been done and the press in America virtually refuses to report on a crime stopped by a gun as they have widely become socialist/marxist. "
Yes, I suppose that the atheists, communists, homosexuals, liberals and Jews have joined forces to spread propaganda that will take away Americans' right to bring guns to school.
When you think that media outlets are forming a conspiracy, you should start questioning your sanity. Some have a left wing bias, some have a right wing bias, and some are towards the middle. They are certainly not widely marxist.
Perhaps it is YOUR sources which have the agenda.
Lb, southport,
[Cho attacked students who rarely consider owning a gun, they should not be forced to take part in an arms race because you want to own a semi automatic weapon. Semi automatic weapons are meant for the mass murder of humans, support by gun enthusiasts only reflects their delusional love of weapons, and their constant fear of people like themselves. The second amendment, like the support of slavery 200 years ago, is aged and useless. Statistics quoted by either side are never referenced and always skewed.]
The stats are only skewed by hoplophobes.
"A fear of weapons is a sign of emotional ans sexual insecurity." Sigmund Freud.
Now who's delusional?
Johnny Jones, Kentwood, La. USA
[The 2nd amendment is a draconian and archaic law meant to protect citizens in a bygone era which needed such protectionist measures.]
Then how about we just ditch the whole Bill Of Rights?
After all, it's an "archaic" law also.
In this day and age is there any real possibility that the American government will try to limit speech?
Or attempt to arrest people with no probable cause, and no warrant?"
Or, consider quartering soldiers in private homes?
Institute cruel and unusual punishments?
Nah.
(sarc off)
Johnny Jones, Kentwood, La. USA
"You don't know what you're talking about. Armed citizens stop/prevent about 2 million crimes a year."
Well, I find it very unlikely that so many crimes that require such intervention are even attempted; if they are you must have a trully dystopian society. There is less crime over here and we do not have guns. What is your source for this amazing power of guns to solve crime? The NRA, a gun retailer (whose existence depends upon people believing this)? And what kind crimes are these? Children playing trick or treat? People walking their dogs without a lead?
I have always wondered: do American postmen deliver the post into a box by the street because they would be shot if they went to go to the front door?
LB, Southport,
I have a question.
Here and on other media, supporters of the 2nd ammendment say that the right of Americans to bear arms comes "from God", and God has given them the "right to protect" themselves.
Can you please explain how do you know that God wants for Christians (and Muslims or others, for that matter) in the US to carry a weapon in order to kill someone and "defend themselves"?
Bali, Olympia, WA
what exactly is a feminised society? for crying out loud, a madman goes on a murderous rampage and somehow we manage to find a way to blame females? Women suffer the most violence ,physical,sexual,emotional and social and yet we don't hear of them going about shooting innocent people left,right and centre. It was not a 'feminised' society that made Cho do what he did...it was Cho who made Cho do what he did.Full stop! It's just ridiculous to try and blame (again!) women for a man's actions.Unlike so many men think,just because you fancy some girl,doesn't mean she's obligated to fancy you back,and stalking her won't help you getting her one bit. Most men have faced rejection from women at least once in their lives,as have women from men;what would the world be like if we all decided to go and shoot dead 32 people just because rejection is so hard to deal with sometimes?
louis smythe-silva, sintra, portugal
Before guns, when men were armed "but with swords, not guns", tyrannical rulers would ban the swords. This is why the Asians developed all the martial arts based on farm implements. Much easier to impose your will on others when they're unarmed.
KR, Hamilton, Ma
Count the number of times that mental illness and violence crime are linked. Do your own studies, note each time the violent person in the news heard voices, talked to themselves aloud, had delusions or hallucinations.
Then factor in the use of psycho-active drugs, powerful chemicals that alter brain function, and have "only" 1% chance of negative side effects.
1% of the millions taking these drugs are a lot of people, and the illusion that drug treatment of the mentally ill makes them "normal" is simply wrong.
These factors account for far too many violent crimes.
Vern, New York, New York
"'When someone opens the door of a classroom and begins firing with a semi-automatic weapon, there is no fighting back possible,' says Paglia. 'All of this happened too fast for the young men or young women to rush the shooter and bring him down.'"
This is laughable. He had a 9mm handgun and a .22-caliber handgun. These are not unusually powerful weapons, and they cannot be fired rapidly enough to stop a swarm of people at close range (a semi-automatic gun fires one bullet for every pull of the trigger, but the shooter must also manage the recoil from each round).
If people are going to comment authoritatively about guns, they should learn a bit about them first. Hanguns do not make the ordinary person invinsible. If a few students had rushed at him, the death toll might have been four or five--not tens.
Jesse, Minneapolis, MN, USA
In America the right to bear arms is integral to who we are. People that choose to own handguns for their own personal safety with a license have every right to carry a weapon. However, it is illegal to have them on school campuses which ties the hands of responsible adults that may otherwise protect themselves and others with their licensed weapon. How different would this story have been if the heroic teacher Lebresciu the 75 year old holocaust survivor had had a handgun in his desk? I guarantee he would not have hesitated to protect his students with it. Outlawing guns woud only take guns away from law abiding responsible people, the only people with guns then would be outlaws and criminals. Men in America need to remember what it means to be men, (Think the WWII generation) Its difficult for some guys to find their place, its sad, but thats how it is today. God Bless the Families of the victims and all of the students and faculty.
Dennis, Olive Branch, Ms
"Is EVERYONE in the USA required (or at least expected) to have his handgun on his person AT ALL TIMES in order to guarantee protection against anyone else with a gun?"
First, there's no guarantee. Second, no. Guns don't need to actually be present to be a deterrent. Only the possibility of their presence needs to exist in order for them to deter crime.
As for crazies... I'll give a million dollars to the first guy that can figure out how to deter them.
Jeff, Woodland Hills, CA
I am a female who was studying for a graduate degree and staying alone in a city in Washington state, where it is relatively easy to get a CCW permit. My husband bought me a Lady Smith for my birthday since he would not be with me for my studies. A short time later, a too-friendly landlord tried to enter my apartment with his master key at 2:00 am, with a story about trying to protect me from someone trying to climb up the side of my building into my balcony window. The chain prevented him from coming in at will. When the door opend on the chain, I woke up and asked who was there. The landlord told me his story. I told him not to worry about me because I slept with a 38 under my pillow. He never tried to get in again. He was fired from the job shortly after, and not from my story about him. I never reported this potential crime being deterred, I guess I should have added my statistic to the long list of crimes prevented by law-abiding citizens with their legal handguns.
Anne, Keaau, Hawaii
He was about as American as Christian Bale.
Adam, Virginia, USA
There's a name for places where the military and police control all means of coercive force. (ie:guns)
That name is: Police State.
Johnny Jones, Kentwood, La. USA
Those decrying "semi-automatic" weapons just display their ignorance, probably thinking that these guns file multiple projectiles per trigger pull like a real machine gun. The "non-semi-automatic" handguns are called revolvers, which can be fired just as fast and reloaded as quickly as semis. The rifle equivalent is the bolt-action rifle, which is slower than a semi action, but proved sufficient for Lee Harvey Oswald, even shooting bullets that changed course in midair.
The second amendment is not about hunting, it is about maintaining the ultimate check and balance on government, an armed citizenry. As V says in V for Vendetta, the government should fear the people, not the people the government. But the USA has opted for a police state, so that issue is settled. For now.
Mike MacLeod, Mountain View, California, USA
I think the problem is that sexual satisfaction is too hard to achieve by less socially adjusted people, like Cho. If he'd had access to some "recreational" females without the stigma (or illegality) of using a prostitute, he might have been able to blow off some steam without hurting anyone.
Randy, Ashland, Virginia
You called him an American Psycho, he's actually Korean, for the record.
P. Carrasco, Upland, CA. USA
Great article, but a little long on speculation and short on substance. Interesting views and you have provided a lot of thinking material. Also, to all those saying he just should have been locked up earlier, in this specific case it appears he should have, but in reality it's much harder than that. When most people are found out to be killers it is usally a shock to those who knew them. It's easier said than done to just lock all the crazies up before they do harm. And blaming the supreme court for this? thats crazy.
Ohr Shottan, Sunnyvale, CA
Factual errors all over the place:
1. Semi-automatic weapons date back to the 1880's. The Broomhandle Mauser that Winston Churchill used at Omdurman was functionally equivalent to the Glock 19 that Psych-Cho used.
Technology that's nearly 130 years old is hardly the result of Gangsta Rap.
2. Taxi Driver was about, as screenwriter Schrader wrote, a guy driven insane by modern life who finds sanity by killing the right people, the pimps who exploit a 12 year old prostitute. Bickle doesn't want to sleep with the Jodie Foster character, but rescue the kid as her father. Big surprise the educated upper class slumming Cybil Shepherd character finds Bickle odious and crude.
3. Psych-Cho was a nut, but IMHO the lack of role for men in a feminized culture is a problem. More in the low marriage/birth rates than anything else IMHO.
Jim Rockford, Irvine, CA, USA
Cho attacked students who rarely consider owning a gun, they should not be forced to take part in an arms race because you want to own a semi automatic weapon. Semi automatic weapons are meant for the mass murder of humans, support by gun enthusiasts only reflects their delusional love of weapons, and their constant fear of people like themselves. The second amendment, like the support of slavery 200 years ago, is aged and useless. Statistics quoted by either side are never referenced and always skewed.
Jared, Lexington,
I find this article nearly as disturbing as the incident itself. First of all, it's people like the author--and this paper, that play a small part in creating incidents like this. Fear of crude labels and mass ignorance is one thing that often stops too many Americans from getting the help they need.
Let me ask this: If this was a story about a gay man man instead of a young man who was clearly suffering from some sort of mental illness--which is most often cause by a chemical imbalace in the brain--people don't just wake up one day and decide to be "crazy." If this was a gay man, would you label the article "American Fag?"
Sensationalizing a horrible tragedy with banal information is just...tragedy in itself.
Nancy, Adirondack Mtns. , USA NY
The stuffy intellectuals overseas can't even get their headlines right; Cho was not an American.
Mr. Guns, Utah, USA
Imagine if one of these bright young men or women that was killed at Virginia tech was allowed to and endorsed by government training to carry a firearm at school? I'd bet that half of these wonderful people would still be with us today. Strangely a year previous Virginia Tech defeated a motion to allow concealed carry on campus. In a politically correct world we disarm our citizens in the idea that it makes us civilized where in fact it makes us vulnerable to those that are disatisfied with society. If there was a police officer in every class would a madman attempt to do harm there? What if there were armed and highly trained students in every classroom? We can never get rid of guns on this earth but we can allow ourselves the means to defend ourselves. Being armed is not uncivilized, in these times it is just smart. I shed tears for the victims as I did when this happened at Dawson College up here. Truly tragic. Such minds lost.
Erik, Hamilton, Ontario
Mr. Dirk Bode of Hamburg, Germany, asked if the Holocaust could have happened if the people were armed.
In the 1930s the German communists were well armed. The Nazis slaughtered them to the last man, woman and child except for a handful left to rot in concentration camps. The Germans also wiped out the massively armed and fortified French army, not to mention a few hundred thousand well-armed Brits, Yanks and allies. The Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto had acquired guns and rifles. Few survived the Nazi siege.
Michael Caracappa, Charlotte, NC (USA)
The students should have been able to stop" the Mad Korean" , if we assume that he would use two seconds per victim (three shots), and two seconds to insert new clips(mags)into his autopistols.
But these where students in a feninized environment.
Worse is the case with the 15 Brit soldiers who did not defend themselves against the Persians...
Per, Oslo, Norway
...High on his list were his classmates from Westfield high school, who jeered at him to “go back to China” without bothering to check his nationality. Two of them — who happened to attend Virginia Tech — were going to pay later that day. ...
This is incorrect. The two girls who went to Westfield high were five years younger than Cho. They did not attend Westfield at the same time as Cho. The above statement implies the two teased and taunted him and that's not the case.
Personally, I wonder why Cho chose the engineering building as the site for this rampage. Why didn't he choose a more familiar setting like the buidling where his own classes were held? And why did he let his suitmates live? He didn't kill anyone in his dorm. I find it strange he chose more unfamilar settings for his rampages.
Jackie Brown, St Louid , Mo. USA
Sorry to quote Kafka "It started as a normal day, all the natural laws were in force" If John Derbyshire whos brave words you refered to, was sitting in that classroom and had a gun pointed at his head, he might also be very suprised.
Instead of the handwringing about modern societies why not accept the obvious,
This man was a nutter, ultimately without consience and inexplicable.
My sympathies to the bereaved.
Frank H., London, England
This isn't the worst massacre in US history. Look to the past, where 70 people were killed at once with thrown dynamite.
Foobear, San Diego, CA
Big problems come with more hidden handguns:
1. Competence with one requires attending a shooting school and much practice. Few will do both.
2. As Dave Grossman writes in On Killing, most people will refuse to kill when the moment of truth comes.
3. Among the poorly trained and those not in full control of themselves, high-capacity semiautos tend to induce "spray-and-pray." It results in few hits on the intended target, even at close range. All those bullets go somewhere.
So essentially no students or professors will be good with a handgun when a murderer strikes.
More concealed handguns is not the answer. Several steps are needed, but the most important in the U.S. is to reduce the killing ability of any person.
We must repeal the 2nd Amendment, ban semiautos, and impose registration and licensing. Then limit ammo purchases.
I'm ex-NRA, grateful to the anti-gunner who cared enough to whip my sorry pro-gun hide.
Harry, Andrews, TX
Perhaps it is now time that the USA stop living in the days of 1776, and realise that the enemy is not abroad anymore and that there is no danger of invasion. The 2nd amendment is a draconian and archaic law meant to protect citizens in a bygone era which needed such protectionist measures. However, i think americans have got far more important issues to trouble over than an invasive govt. What about the excesses of a despondent and consumerist society, there has never been greater individual rights and freedom in modern civilised, and prosperous society. Worry about social alienation, and cultural abasistment or unfortunately liberalism will turn society into something totally different from what we wish. But, please excuse me for stating the obvious: one will defend oneself with a gun if one is attacked by one; conversly, one will protect oneself with the most effective deence available id est the most deadly and accurate. A gun is deadlier than a knife. More liberating and powerful
Dave, london,
More than the guns there is the killing atomization of society. The University respected diversity and privacy, and feared the ACLU lawsuit if it acted responsibly.
He was able to take photos of girls' underpants while they were wearing them, in living color and with impunity.
The school sent out an e-mail advising 'all is o.k.'
A week before the tragedy, the killer bought magazines for his Glock on E-bay, anonymously, one transaction among millions.
He had to buy his weapon face to face, There were fifteen long minutes before the approval came through. "O.K. to sell."
The clerk of the court that had declared the killer a danger to himself did not report it to authorities, or checked the wrong box on the form, or the task of reporting the news was out sourced to India and the import of a subtle intonation of voice was missed.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms was upheld; the sales completed and payment effected in time. The customer is always right
Don Martin, Woodside, New York, NY
Russell, Oxford, NJ USA wrote:
"As an American, I don't understand the gun control laws. People should be allowed hunting rifles, or even regular handguns if a good enough reason is give, but semi-automatics???? For what, shooting a herd of attacking deer????There's only 1 reason for these guns, & we just saw that reason in VA.."
Russel, having movd to NC 5 years ago from NJ I can say that you have been brainwashed, New Germany is an awful state where wherever you go, you and your loved ones are designated victims.
The 2nd Amendment isn't about hunting. I don't need to give my government a reason to own a gun, they have to give me a reason why they have taken my rights away. You have no rights. Sorry, but I know NJ laws.
Would you have wanted me to toss my .40 caliber with 12 rounds through a window to one of the students last week? Answering that question should start you on the road to figuring this out.
Mike in Raleigh
Mike, Raleigh, NC
The 2nd amendment has NOTHING to do with HUNTING! Let's get this straight, once and for all!!! I'm sick to death of pinheads always bringing up the 2nd amendment and hunting in the same sentence. If you actually have read the writings of our founders and framers, you would know for a fact that they distrusted standing armies, and the people, as in "We the People", were to have weapons that we could actually fight with, against tyranny, both foreign and domestic. You cannot fight against tyranny with 5 shot bolt-action rifles anymore. You have to have the same kind of weaponery to even stand a chance for freedom to survive.
I have been a law-abiding free citizen all my life, and I'm 43, and, for the record, I will never give up my firearms, EVER! I don't care if the gun-grabbers try to pass more restrictive gun laws, enough is enough. My rights are guaranteed by the Lord, as our Founding Fathers understood. And I'm staying free, now and until I die!
Gary, Fort Wan\,
Many of you non-Americans seem to think laws in books will protect you by there mere existence. You also seem to fear someone with a gun of whom you would not be afraid if she or he did not have one. I'd also like to point out that gun violence is on the increase in the UK to the point that many of your police are armed now.
Hello?
I'll never forget taking a Japanese client to a popular skeet and trap shooting range operated by a gun manufacturer. There were scores of shooting fields, and there were hundreds of people there, men, women, and children walking around carrying shotguns -- semi-automatic in many cases.
He stared in amazement. He had never in his life ever seen a real gun in civilian hands, and now he was surrounded by them.
We went into the clubhouse, and there were gun racks everywhere full of guns. There were people eating, drinking coffee, chatting as they waited for their number to be announced.
To be continued
Bill, New Canaan, CT
TomTom,
His age is about right for the last year at university. Maybe a year later than usually in America. Usually the graduate high school at 17 - 18, and assuming they finish university in four years 21 or 22.
Actually for a typical university graduate in the UK about right. A lot of UK students do a four degree now. Most UK students finish university at 18-19 (assuming no gap year), they would graduate at 22-23 assuming he does not take a gap year..
William, Richmond,
Padlia observes "Throughout most of human history men have been armed, but with swords not guns."
I say, true when only swords existed, but as time advanced the bad guys got guns and the good guys found themselves fighting bullets with swords. Many died. Taking a sword to a gunfight is stupid and suicide. In the words of US Ranger's 'kill 'em all and let God sort them out!"
Al
Al Barrs, Greenwood, Florida USA
In America everyone needs to carry something. Pepper spray or whatever. People think this kind of stuff only happens to others or it will not happen to them because they are somehow special. This kind of thinking needs to stop. The government is not going to protect us. We must protect ourselves and not by playing dead.
John G, SA, TX
Sally, it isn't really reporting they are doing, it's editorializing. There's a difference between the general purpose of a news report and an editorial. Pagalia is a columnist and as such gives her opinion on a matter. So it's okay that they speculated and gave their own insights into the event.
Hope that helps for your future reading.
Chad, Mesa,
Continued....
LB, Southport?
You don't know what you're talking about. Armed citizens stop/prevent about 2 million crimes a year.
-----------------
We went to the place where we could rent my client a gun, and the nice man fitted him with one. We bought some shells, and headed out with our instructor for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.
He told me that the place had the feel of a country club, and that is exactly right.
I'd like to remind some of you that the Second amendment is NOT about hunting rifles. It is about military weapons.
I'd also like to point out an inconvenient truth. Towns and cities with less restrictive gun laws have less crime. I was a cop for many years in Vermont which had no gun laws. None. There was little gun violence. Almost every house had guns, and everybody knew it.
Bill, New Canaan, CT
Any of you actually teach or work at a North American u. or college, or spent much time on campus lately?
Dan from CT hit the nail on the head. At my semi-tony private liberal arts college, easily 1/3 - 1/2 of the students are on psychotropic meds and under psychiactric care for depression, anxiety, ADD.. you name it. Add to that that the kids are drunk or high 3-4 nights a week. Now we should let the kids arm themselves? What planet are you on guys?
Statistically, with the number of troubled young men on school campuses and easy access to guns in this violence intoxicated country, you can only hope that there but for the grace of God goes your own classroom someday. And no, I'm lifelong libertarian, not some out in left field la-la land academic.
NJ prof, collegeville, NJ, USA
"Go back to China"? Does any one even believe that this was said to the killer in high school? This quote is nothing but a fallacious attempt to fit this traged