Virginia Polytechnic Institute Shooting
My heart goes out to the friends and family of the victims of the shooting at Virginia Tech. I cannot imagine what they are going through. Chris Matthews commented tonight that college is supposed to make up some of the best times of anyone’s life . It is sad to think that for many the school and their own college experiences will be marred by such a tragedy. Like other places where tragedies have taken place (Columbine High School, Kent State), Virginia Tech. will always be known as the place where 33 people were shot and killed.
Personally, my first thoughts on this are not about gun control, though I do support it and do not think we need access to the kinds of weapons or ammunition this student had, but to the mental health issues that lead to this. Cho Seung-Hui was a 23 year old English major and senior. He moved to the US from South Korea in 1992. The New York Times, and other news outlets, has reported that faculty expressed concerns about him and said that he 'troubled,' their concerns stemmed from violence in his writing and his behavior but neither by itself could be considered evidence of what he was going to do, though his letters threatening bombing the campus should have sent up red flags. It feels trite to call him a ‘loner’ and leave it at that. Sure most college students are too absorbed by their lives to notice or tend to the mental health needs of their peers but if his teachers noticed something, didn't one of them have a responsibility to do something? Say something to him or his parents? Remind him that he was not alone and that he had people there to help him if he needed it? Apparently not. Mental illness' stigma makes most people ignore it. According to the National Institute of Mental Health:
Mental disorders are common in the and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. When applied to the 2004 Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people. Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness. In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the and for ages 15-44. Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.
As we move toward socialized medicine, and you are kidding yourself if you think we are not (The states are pushing it now but it will be corporate America that makes it happen, this is the subject for another post but our industries pay a heavy cost – not just in dollars – by bearing the burden of providing health care to their employees, a burden not shared by companies in other countries where the government deals with it now.) we need to be careful to include mental illness in what is covered. The page cited above goes into the impact on society as a whole:
The burden of mental illness on health and productivity in the and throughout the world has long been underestimated. Data developed by the massive Global Burden of Disease study conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and , reveal that mental illness, including suicide, accounts for over 15 percent of the burden of disease in established market economies, such as the . This is more than the disease burden caused by all cancers.
If the number of commercials on TV are any indication depression is a major problem in the US . While writing this, several commercials have run about either the disease itself or the symptoms it causes so it must affect a lot of Americans. It is unfortunate that mental illness is seen as the fault of the sufferer, no one blames diabetics for their disease despite the fact that our own behavior can cause it more. Insurance companies will pay for its medications and supplies and doctors' visits but not all cover mental health visits. Until we divorce the one idea from the other, we will not address it and people will continue to suffer.
Granted, there is no way now to tell if this tragedy could have been prevented, or if any of the similar shootings in the country, by early intervention and treatment. It seems obvious that if had a waiting period for weapons and if Cho Seung-Hui had seen someone for whatever mental illness he had, maybe that would have prevented him from acquiring the weapons but he might have done something equally as devastating. Had he gone into a store and tried to purchase these guns and not been allowed to – or had been told to come back after a few days and a background check – that maybe a red flag would have been raised. In a post-9/11 world where our intelligence agencies could not connect (what now at least appear to be) flaming dots such as the 1993 WTC bombing Osama bin Laden orchestrated, the memo outlining his plans to attack the US from within using jet liners, VP Al Gore’s Reinventing Government report calling for the creation of a new department to deal with terrorism (yes, the Clinton Administration asked Congress to start a ‘Department of Homeland Security) and VP Gore’s recommendation that airport security be increased (back when no one wanted to fund it) – looking at these reminds me of when children used to ask their teachers if Africa and South America were ever connected – 9/11 seems inevitable. So if highly trained people whose job was to prevent attacks like 9/11 could miss the clues, the people who knew this ‘troubled’ student can be forgiven for not predicting this.
The US does not have a monopoly on mass violence, though our lax gun laws, extreme media coverage of such events (some countries, such as Canada do not allow them to be covered by the press) combined with our refusal to help those who are sick means this is not the last time we will read about an incident like this. Eight years ago it was . This week it was Virginia Tech. Next time it can be anywhere. First Lady Laura Bush said the shooting was ‘random’ and that statement is open to a lot of different interpretations. President Bush said he was not at the school to talk about gun control, though he did go out of his way to say how he still ‘supports the second amendment,’ but to do whatever he can to facilitate the healing there. He would not be the person I would ever turn to if I needed healing but I hope his visit does that.
Reading over this post, someone might get the idea that I have more sympathy for the shooter than his victims. Nothing could be farther from from the truth. ABC News ran a story with the headline, 'You Could Feel the Vibrations of Each Gunshot', again, I cannot imagine what these people experienced. One student commented, '
Memories of that gun now linger in one students' mind. "It won't go away. It won't," Walsh said. "If I close my eyes, it's there. I know exactly what it looks like, I know what kind it is. I know what it sounds like, I can't get it out." (from the story, if you have not read the story, please follow the link). I hope they all get the support and help they need to get through this trying time and will be able to move beyond it. For whatever this may be worth, the prayers and thoughts of the nation are with you and your families.
AlysonChadwick.com 