They are saying he was from China on a student visa and arrived in the USA on August 7th via San Francisco. If that is correct, he did not have the guns legally, as I believe visitors on student visas are not allowed to posess handguns in virtually all states - certainly not up here.
i was listening in on the press conference. i wonder if he was on facebook/myspace/blogspot, that'd probably be a good place to find some info on what may have driven him to do this.
I didn't see anything from what I looked up. But who knows.. I'll wait until the official PR comes out.
In retrospect it seems like the University f'd up(plus cops) with their handling of the incident. Obviously the guy was still on the loose and they failed to warn others. Plus, how does a guy on a student visa get a hold of semi-automatic weapons and tons of ammo? Is this type of artillery readily available so that anyone can get it illegally without any issues? It sound like the system has failed big time. I feel very sorry for the victims and basically everyone as this is yet another dark moment for mankind.
i should add that blacksburg is a pretty remote town. In fact a lot of the students take up shooting as a hobby including many of my friends. However VT police are pretty strict on their no guns on campus policy. Students who have guns and live on campus must keep their guns at the police station which is off campus. If found on campus with a gun, there are some major penalties.
Some misinfo. Now they're saying the kid was Korean and has been here since '92 and a legal permanent resident. Typical(in terms of mass murderer profile) angry, loner, type that had been expressing some bizarre behavior prior to the incident. Here's the pic. Image Unavailable, Please Login
its frightening just to look at the pic of someone who did all this. i still cant swallow what happened and i haven't even been directly affected. i'm just so upset for these parents.
I mean no disrespect. There is enough fog here. Nothing he may have had can be categorized as "artillery." As far as I know so far, he had a pistol, a self loading, semi-automatic subsonic weapon, as opposed to a revolver which is not a pistol. As an aside (the teacher in me) a pistol can be silenced; a revolver cannot. The more we know, the better prepared we are. BTW, any acquisition of an illegal weapon has issues. Best regards.
Apparently his English professor said his writing was alarming. I guess she never told university officials about it in the past. He had a receipt for a Glock in his backpack as well so they could probably trace where that one was purchased. The other may be from the same place. They said he lived in a dorm with 5 other people and they didn't know him that well. How the hell can you live with 5 other people and not hang out with them?
Easy. At most any college campus there are tons of these loner-type kids, some more strange than others. Many make it very clear that they don't want anything to do with other people (I think I read this fellow wouldn't even respond if you greeted him). While this is certainly odd, unfortunately it is not by any means uncommon among college students from what I have seen (and I lived in the "honors" dorms for a year. . .and the "smarter" these kids get, the more unusual these kids become.). You are the heated one, my friend.
According to this, I decipher that it may have been perfectly possible and legal for this guy to have purchased these weapons, if he was a legal permanent resident alien. Read it carefully and see if you come to the same conclusion. http://www.vsp.state.va.us/Firearms_VFTP.shtm
He did buy the guns legally apparently. There's a 30 day wait period so he bought the Glock first and then after the 30 days the 22mm. The waiting period gives these guys lots of time to plan and make sure they're doing the right thing committing these crimes.
that convocation service was very nice, the first step in what will sure be a long road to recover from this. the best moment from it, imo, was not the president's speech, not nikki giovanni's poem, but the students doing the hokie cheer.
In VA, it depends on the county where you try to make your purchase. Some have the 30 day, some just make a quick call to the State Police and you're on your way in less than 20 minutes. 21 years old, car registration, VA driver's license, and money. OK, buddy. Whaddaya tryin' to shoot? No s*it. Cash talks faster than smarts.
If you guys are interested in reading the plays he wrote: http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/
Surprise, surprise.....the 'writing was on the wall' on this guy, and nobody did anything until he snapped. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18155081/ Did this guy need to make a sign that says "I have serious issues"??? Looks like he did, but VT Admin dropped the ball.
Lets quit the petty finger-pointing. The guns didn't kill anyone here, the guy pulling the trigger did.
Le Serpent. Good to have you back. Like you, I'm sure, "apparently," can mean something very dangerous. I still have a problem understanding how a non-citizen buys a weapon legally. Be that as it may, rational is not in it. This fellow was out of his mind. Had it not been a gun, it would have been some other weapon. For my part, I am going to wait until the real facts are in.
It's spooky to think that there were students and faculty who identified him as a disturbed individual. It doesn't take a psychologist to recoginze people who are at risk of snapping. When I was going to Texas Tech, my next door neighbor at Gaston Hall was very strange. He would not respond when you said hello to him in the hallway, and at night it sounded like he was throwing furniture against the shared wall. He was my next door neighbor for part of the Fall Semester, and then he moved to another hall. From the first week he was my neighbor, my friends and I referred to him as "the crazy guy" and speculated that he wuld go postal one day. The following spring semester, he went crazy and attacked and repeatedly stabbed a student who was cooking dinner in a community kitchen, completely unprovoked. http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2002/04/22/CampusNews/Tech-Student.Now.Stable.After.Stabbing-1274223.shtml
