Please. If America is going to snivel (again) about the coverage of the VT killer perhaps you should do what I've done for the past few days. Change the channel. Some of us are tired of it while others are fascinated. I'm fascinated by the amount of whining going on because the right to free press and free speech is being questioned. I love my country and the liberties we used to have.

please let the family have closure and back off with constant reminder of that awful day you are just making him a ##### PERSON please have some compasion

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all at VT.
Yes, I'm tired of the excess coverage given to the killer. The press and all of us need to label the SOB for what he is - A COWARD. It's time to show his image only with COWARD boldly stamped across his face.
Talk about sending a message to copy cats!!
Saddened but mad in CT

The pictures of the victims is what should be broadcasted. It puts a face on where our prayers should be for the families. I agree not to show the killers insane ramblings. It seems to glorify his actions.

Mentally Defective

First I would like to extend my deepest apologies to the families of the victims. We just buried my mother in law Tuesday.

I am outraged that the name “Mentally Defective” is being smeared all over the airwaves. Are you purposely provoking the “Mentally Ill”?

These people already feel that they are not “normal”. And as a whole we the “Mentally Perfect” have forever shunned speaking about, learning about, reaching out to or providing acquit treatment for the Mentally Ill.

Just last week here in Michigan a Bi Polar man walked into his last place of employment and shot several people and killed one.

This employer knew that he had attempted suicide several times in the past two years; his wife had left him two weeks prior, he had financial problems and was struggling to keep himself together. So, the day before Good Friday, they fired their Defective employee. Knowing that he was mentally ill.

Why not get that man to a mental hospital, give him a leave of absence and with hope that when he had recovered they would reevaluate his returning?

Let's call a spade a spade. When is ABC going to start reporting accurately. The laws are in place to prevent the wrong people from getting their hands on firearms. Instead, in this case, everyone was trying to be "sensitive" and protect this moron. He should have been put into an institution. There were several opportunities to avert this in the years leading up to this tragedy. The judge, university police, and administration failed the student body of Virginia Tech.

I would hope that common decency would prevail regarding publication of the movies left by the offender in the VT murders. News media are probably afraid that they will be scooped by their competitors but I think that news managers should realize the story is still compelling wo the film/movies left by the killer. Isn't the publicity what he was looking for?

Why is it so shocking that this "mentally ill" person was permitted to buy guns? Our health system is so archaic and backwards that victims are denied their rights and go unnoticed until AFTER such a tragedy. This comes from first-hand knowledge. As an adult survivor of a paranoid schizophrenic, bi-polar, alcoholic parent, my family lived in hell for 3 decades. The health system's "revolving door" gave her ample rights to abuse so many for so long- unspeakable things- in all forms of imaginable horrors. She was always savvy enough to know that, when in-patient, she knew she could get out if she "played their game", yet would refuse counseling, meds, etc., upon release, no matter how we pleaded. BLAME? The archaic, backwards system that buried their head in the sand and denied this maniac's victims the right to live their precious lives. It is time someone steps up to fix this bloody mess they call a "health system"- the facility that released this mental case without ANY follow up nor notification of local and federal authorities should hang their heads in SHAME. It is a downright LIE to claim there is no $ available to set up a system for the mentally unstable, "imminent danger" cases to be released "ROR" when their is plenty cash in the coffers to fly, wine, dine, and otherwise waste away tax-payers $. My heart aches for all the victims. My mind asks "WHY?" - why did the family not seek help, why, again, did that damn facility deem this being "an imminent danger", yet not detain him? This is sickening. May God be with all those who now suffer, may He also PLEASE guiode those in authority to STEP UP, take responsiblity, make a change, before more victims are tallied.

The world needs to know how to watch and reach out to the mentally ill. It is a disease that is here to stay. Some newspapers say Cho was autistic, not just depressed. There is much to learn from this tragedy. First lesson, gun controls pls. Second, the mentally ill is seldom violent to others, mainly only to themselves. Third, stop the media circus.

Its time to get on with it I think both sides of thr dtory need to be told.

First of all I don't believe the media should bow to the feedback on this issue. There is a 'FIRST AMENDMENT', isn't there? Saying that, I don't think the media should have fired Don Imus, and yes, the MEDIA fired Don, regardless of how hurtful he was and on the other have Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on time and time again as if these individuals have some credibility.
The major media companies are hypocritical because of their agenda driven focus. It wasn't more than 4 hours after the rampage that gun bans were brought up, the repeal of the assualt weapons ban and how that has contributed to this, and on and on and on. And you guys see yourselves as so jounalists; intellectuals...it's so sad it borders laughable. How many times was the MANIAC refered to as the 'SHOOTER'
or the 'GUNMAN'. Talk about subliminal!! So you call this journalism? How about the idea that the news 'COMPANIES' don't want to show the American people the downing of the World Trade Centers...'TOO PAINFUL' for everyone...yet talk about how 'THE CHILDREN' and how will they cope with the vision of the 'GUNMAN' imbedded in their minds all the while showing him with pistols in his hands ranting like the maniac that he was. The ratings and the money and the propaganda tool is too valuable to pass on. It helps the effort to take the firearms from the citizens(because that will make us all safe)and promotes the ideals of a few.
The net effect of firearms is never revealed by evidence of the amount of negative reporting on firearms. It's in the news every day; murder here, murder there, rape with the use of a firearm, bank robbery with a gun. I challenge you out there that watch the news regularly to document the times that firearms are reported in a positive outcome in comparison to the reports that are negative.
I have no degree in journalism but as far as I can tell there aren't many that do.
Every one take care of you and yours.
Regards,
American Ron

If we are going to hear extensive reports about students such as this, I think we should take profile 10 students on campas that are doing great things.

"Cho's order would have been flagged under federal background check gun laws, but not in Virginia"

And that is a lie and he knew it when he said it. The federal law is the one that counts here. A state can not make the law less strict than the federal law.

/signed Ron Nehus' post

Every word rings true

this vt massacre woke america up from slumber.bring back God Almighty,the Bible,the prayer in every school of america.the 9-1-1 woke up america ..a few months later america went back to sleep again...and now it's awake again.churches nationwide will be filled again this sunday.america hasn't learned yet.

Maybe there's more to all this than people care to remember.
Consider watching this from the FDA advisory hearings of 1991.
Brought to you by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights

http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/19863

Ask yourself why NOBODY is allowed to carry a licensed gun into a venue where a high-ranking US public official is speaking. If 'guns don't kill people, and people kill people', then why would the Secret Service mind, for instance, if someone who has gone through the legal process to rightfully carry a handgun brings their gun with them to a speech by the president, or vice-present? The answer, my friends, is quite simple. The Secret Service KNOWS that guns are inherently dangerous. The question I have is, if that reasoning is good enough for the protection of a president, then why isn't it good enough for the American people? Why should all of us be exposed to every gun enthusiast who wants to own a gun when in fact that same gun enthusiast would be immediately arrested for even attempting to carry his gun near a high-ranking US official.

In reading through the extensive coverage of all facets of this tragic incident, two things stand out in my mind. Number one, the complete ignorance of the Judge involved, or just a complete failure to perform his duties in a professional manner. (becoming more and more prevalent). And the reliance on a "mental health professional". That in and of itself says volumes. There is no such thing as a "mental health professional". Mental health in this country is about one step above Voodoo practiced by many in the third world countries. "If we can't fix them, medicate them". That is why we have so many school children are walking around like Zombies, passed from grade to grade and sent out into the world with out even the most rudimentary skills.

Not take away from the victims and their families, just the next day over 170 people died in Iraq with 1 bomb....thats nearly 5 times the number at Virginia Tech....my point being all life is precious and we should feel the same equal amount of mourning and concern for life regardless if its here or there.

Aaron C -- very good point. The NRA goon-types and their false logic would have everyone believe that an armed population makes everyone safer. In fact, the opposite is true. Iraq is a prime example. The US military has several programs in place to CONFISCATE guns from the Iraqi public. The military knows what's up.

The common citizen should not be allowed to handle a gun off of their private property. A licensed gun owner cannot bring his gun into a venue where a high-ranking US official is speaking (as I described above). There's a very good reason for this -- guns in the hands of human beings are dangerous. Period. The US military understands this, the Secret Service understands this, everyone undersands this except the minority of conservative goons and their lobbysts at the NRA.

There should be one universal gun-free zone, and that is, everywhere except one's own private property.