Crossroads at Virginia Tech

When Seung-Hui Cho raised his weapons and delivered the bullets that would claim the lives of 32 innocent people at Virginia Tech, it is likely that he may have been thinking about the gigantic spotlight that would soon be illuminating his deed. After all he sent plenty of advanced coverage to news sources to make certain that his persona would be immortalized by television coverage. What he probably didn't think too much about was that after the fact the spotlight he created would very quickly move from him to shine on several key confrontational issues that loom over our country. But indeed in the aftermath of this horror show the attention of America has shifted from consideration of the violent acts of a troubled young man to a fuller investigation of the direction our nation must now embrace. To determine that direction means looking at several of the crossroads revealed at the crossroads at Virgina Tech.

Mental Health Designations One of the immediate questions raised after the killings in Blacksburg naturally was the very generalized "How could this have happened?" This was quickly refined to, "How could someone with obvious mental health issues be able to buy a gun and ammunition." Certainly if the people who sold Cho his weapon and ammunition had any idea of what his intentions were or what he might be capable of there would have been no sale. The spotlight falls on a larger question: Why didn't a gigantic red flag appear when a man with mental health problems tried to purchase a gun?