Free Republic

Hampton Sen. Mamie Locke is at the forefront now of an expected wave of legislation aimed at firearms. Expect grieving parents to talk about their slain children as they plead for stricter gun controls. Expect passionate Second Amendment loyalists to argue that a legally armed professor could have halted the Virginia Tech massacre. In all, expect heated discussions and passionate debates about firearms when state lawmakers return to Richmond next week. "We could see a record number of gun bills," said Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group. "There should be a lot more...

W. Gerald Massengill chaired the Virginia Tech Review Panel that minutely probed the April 16 shootings in Blacksburg. Mr. Massengill is also the former superintendent of the Virginia State Police. Thus, when he comes out in favor of ending the exemption on background checks in the sale or trade of firearms by unlicensed dealers, his is a voice that carries much resonance. We understand that. Nonetheless, we adjudge Mr. Massengill guilty of over-reaction, of throwing babies out with the bathwater. The horrific crimes of Seung-Hui Cho had absolutely nothing to do with the sale, purchase, or exchange of firearms at...

JOHN Travolta blames school shootings sprees on mind-altering prescription drugs rather than poor gun control. The Pulp Fiction star claimed: “If you analyse most of the school shootings, it’s not gun control. “It is psychotropic drugs at the bottom of it.” Yet the most recent US school atrocity involved Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui, who was NOT on medication when he gunned down 32 people two months ago. Travolta, 53, added: “I don’t want to create controversy. I’ve an opinion.” Travolta follows the Scientology religion like actor Tom Cruise, who faced a backlash in 2005 when he criticised anti-depressant drugs.

U.S. Panel Reports on Va. Tech; House Passes Gun-Control Bill Authorities' abilities to identify potentially dangerous mentally ill people are crippled across the nation by the same kinds of conflicts in privacy laws that prevented state officials from being able to intervene before Seung Hui Cho went on his rampage at Virginia Tech, according to a federal report commissioned after the Blacksburg shootings that was presented to President Bush yesterday. Because school administrators, doctors and police officials rarely share information about students and others who have mental illnesses, troubled people don't get the counseling they need, and authorities are often...

Criminals are opportunistic. They prefer to hunt victims they believe can’t fight back. They’ll watch out for police officers and security guards. They’ll size up bystanders and check for security cameras. Society does a good job of counting the number of crimes they commit. But those are easier numbers to get than the number of crimes that didn’t happen because a criminal worried that a potential victim was armed and dangerous - to the criminal. The April 16 massacre of 32 Virginia Tech students and teachers has renewed the debate over weapons on campus. Virginia law allows colleges to prohibit...

Student was deemed dangerously mentally ill 2 years before Va. rampage Seung Hui Cho never received the treatment ordered by a judge who declared him dangerously mentally ill less than two years before his rampage at Virginia Tech, law enforcement officials said, exposing flaws in Virginia's labyrinthine mental health system, including confusion about the law, spotty enforcement and inadequate funding. Neither the court, the university nor community services officials followed up on the judge's order, according to dozens of interviews. Cho never got the treatment, according to authorities who have seen his medical files. And although state law says the...

Three of most widely-covered recent news narratives revolve around the same fundamental issue: the failure of bureaucratic institutions to meet challenges involving their basic missions. The British Navy, a force that embodies the term "legendary", was taken by surprise and humiliated by a militia in speedboats. Virginia Tech proved itself, despite years of warnings, unable to provide the minimal level of security necessary for the safety of its faculty and student body. The war on terror, worst of all, is hobbled by bureaucratic strictures and habits of mind. What these problems have in common - apart from being disasters of...

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18 — Cho Seung-Hui rarely spoke to his own dormitory roommate. His teachers were so disturbed by some of his writing that they referred him to counseling. And when Mr. Cho finally and horrifyingly came to the world’s attention on Monday, he did so after writing a note that bitterly lashed out at his fellow students for what he deemed their moral decay. Mr. Cho’s eruption of violence, in which 32 victims and himself were killed on the Virginia Tech campus here in a rampage of gunfire, was never directly signaled by his actions or words, several...

Cho Seung-Hui's murderous rampage – during which he killed 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech – is prompting research into gun laws, resident aliens and graphically violent writings. Investigators also may want to check his medicine cabinet, because psychiatric drugs have been linked to hundreds of violent episodes, including most of the school shootings in the last two decades.  The New York Times has reported the killer was on a prescription medication, and authorities have said he was confined briefly several years ago for a mental episode. They also have confirmed that the "prescription drugs" found among his...