I think college campuses should hire more security guards and install more security systems. Although this may be controversial, I think colleges should also begin performing thourough background checks on individuals before they admit them as students. I believe that Virginia Tech could have arrested Cho Seung-Hui after the first incident in the dormitory before he went on to Norris Hall. This tragedy caused a senseless loss of life. I think the gunman’s parents should be held responsible for his actions. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims at this time.

I watched it unfold on television.  It is a tragedy that this could happen.  The response from yesterdays convocation said it all.  The students applauded the president of the university.  The police and the president of the university did what they thought was right in the amount of time they had to work with and based on the evidence of the first crime.  No one knew that another shooting was about to take place.  Getting the message out about the first crime does take time.  This incident is hard on everyone.  The shooter’s parents must be feeling pretty low at this point.  The shooter was 23 and at that age old enough to take the blame himself.  There is no need to blame the parents unless there is evidence they had something to do with the shootings.  If anything, people need to reach out to the shooter’s family and the families of the victims.

I understand the need to hold somebody accountable for this and I know he’s dead, but we can’t blame other people for the actions of an adult, regardless of whether or not they’re his parents.  If they had a son with cerebral palsey or cancer or autism, we would have compassion for what they must be going through.  They had a child who was obviously mentally ill, and they probably didn’t make him that way.  They are Korean.  They probably encouraged martial arts for defense, which teaches self-control and striking back only when struck first and with the least amount of force necessary to protect your own life and provide a means of escape.  These aren’t people who encourage gun-play.  I’m not sure, but I don’t even think hand-guns are legal in South Korea.  He learned that here, from us, not there, from them.  Sometimes we need to look a little more closely at our own back-yard.  His parents wouldn’t have encouraged him to arm himself.  The Commonwealth of Virginia did by not having any boundaries.  He had been commited to a mental institution two years earlier.  He couldn’t have bought a gun in most states, including this one.