Mental Meanderings

The REAL Crime - VA Tech

I've been hearing a lot about VA Tech, the college in the US where a student killed a lot of people. Now I admit I'm not completely up to speed with what happened. Australia is far removed and while we have the issue scattered on the news it's in highlighted snippets of scare-mongering rather than facts.

The scare-mongering is what has me concerned about this issue. Everyone seems to be completely focused on the shooter. His message is blast across the screen as if to highlight what a whack-job the boy is. He's cast off with stereotypes that alienate him from the rest of his peers.

What I see when I hear his video suicide note is a boy who has been tortured and tormented. To me it looks like a serious case of bullying gone wrong. This kid, quiet, reclusive, studious wrote to get the anxst out of his system. He was compartmentalized by the education system and cast out from the peer system of other students.

His final words seem to highlight the sense of victimization he felt at that school. It points at unnamed tormentors, rich kids because of the comment about their cars. To me it sounds like those kids had made his life hell. There comes a point when we can no longer turn a blind eye to our soul being crushed by the brutality of others.

Why isn't an eye on the 'victims'? He shot those kids for a reason. I think he probably aimed very specifically for the ones that hurt him. He went in knowing he would not live through it. He'd sacrificed his life and soul in the utter hopelessness of having it decimated by others. There is the element of revenge there but I wonder if perhaps he was saving others from the same torment too.

One side story I've heard is about the man who sold him the gun he used. The man says something along the lines of, "I did the right thing giving him a gun. If all those kids had guns that day there wouldn't have been a problem."

OMG SERIOUSLY??? We don't put cars in the hands of teenagers because they just can't handle the responsibility. Guns are something very few people could handle. These kids are in college, they're all under a great deal of stress. Most of them feel like their very lives hang on the result of their final year exams, on every test and paper leading up to that too. They're on low to no sleep and generally have shockingly bad diets.

You want to put guns into the hands of all of them? That would have meant more bullets would have been fired that day. Out of panic, or anger, or revenge, or even to end their own misery. Even if the bullets weren't aimed at anyone stray bullets would have lead to increased deaths.

If the 'murderer' had not been able to get a gun he would not have found it so easy to do so much harm in so little a time. He might have come to another solution. He might have been able to get the help he needed.

He doesn't sound any more mentally unstable then most of us. We all struggle with our demons, inside and out. He had a creative outlet and a good mind. Odds are, if he'd had more understanding, if he'd had a caring friend, if he'd been left alone by the bullies, he'd have grown into a talented writer, probably a best seller.

Is there any chance they'll highlight the actions of the people around him that lead to this? Or will everyone just focus on the fact that a 'murderer' is dead, his 'victims' are all automatically going to graduate with full honors, and any kid who expresses any form of unhappiness is a potential risk and should be locked up.

The truth is, it's bloody HARD! Growing up is a bitch and MOST of us have felt the hopelessness and depression that ravage those years. I've held a knife in my hands. Mostly I just wanted to end me because I thought I was worthless but trust me, in those moments when you're deciding how much you can stand the faces of every pain looks like a deserving target.

Why isn't this a message about bullying? Why isn't it a message about being nicer to each other? Why isn't it a message about knowing, understanding and loving each other?