Another shootout(Virginia tech)

Terron On Campus- read the headline in ‘The Hindu’, as it went on to describe that an unidentified gunman(now identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a student), in a shootout at Virginia Tech, killed thirty-three people.(click here to read what New york times has to say.)

Whenever I read or hear something like this only one thing comes to my mind; it’s so easy to kill. Someone just needs to go berserk over some issue and there are n numbers of ways s/he can take it out on others. We all tend to vent our anger and frustration on others, but such enormous proportions! Thirty-three lives!! Lives that must’ve meant so much to so many people but which meant absolutely nothing to the one who took them all. Why? How? I ask, I usually try to put myself in someone else's shoes to answer such questions, but I completely fail to do that now, completely.

A few days after I first posted this, I came across an account of Cho by his classmate and some of the plays written by him. The NBC also received a 'Multimedia Manifesto' purported to be sent by him between the first and second killings. Cho's classmate remembers him as silent and violent an explosive combination, needless to say. He goes on to say that when he heard of the killings he thought it would be Cho.

In the manifesto their are some pics of Cho posing with the guns (possibly the ones used for killings) and a hammer, pics straight out of an action movie Oldboy. I don't know whether people really get inspired by those gory action movies, looks like they do. I am not saying that there weren't other reasons, a troubled childhood, rejection in love (We can only guess.), psychiatric disorders, ... but maybe, just maybe action movies also played a little role in inciting him. What I personally feel is if you see anything frequently you get used to it,and this goes for violence too. That does not mean that everyone who loves violent action movies would resort to such a heinous act. But then, some people are strong enough to resist the desire to destroy and some people just give in.