A Catastrophic Cocktail Mixing Guns And Mental Illness

Darryian Shover Professor Harrington Eng 121 11 May 2015 A Catastrophic Cocktail: Mixing Guns and Mental Illness Imagine a scene of unimaginable terror: several college students are lined up against a wall and shot, sirens are blaring in the background, and people are seen crouching on floors in classrooms and dormitories in a futile attempt to escape the wrath of a crazed gunman, who also happens to be a fellow student. By mid-afternoon, even the sidewalks are stained with blood and the atmosphere is desolate and aberrantly quiet. Students gather in small groups, some crying while still others make an effort to console each other. Such was the scene on April 16th, 2007 on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia when Seung-Hui Cho went on a mass killing spree. In slightly under three hours, Cho managed to gun down thirty-three students and faculty members, injuring seventeen others in the process, before finally turning the gun on himself. It has been described as the deadliest shooting rampage in American history. F ederal law prohibits anyone who has been â€Å"adjudicated as a mental defective,† as well as those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, from buying a gun (Hauser 1). Thus, under said federal law, Cho should have been denied from buying a gun after a Virginia court declared him to be an â€Å"imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness† in late 2005 and sent him for psychiatric treatment (Hauser 1). â€Å"TheShow MoreRelated50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified (Gm) Foods14312 Words   |  58 Pagesbacteria contamination can arise. This is more than just possible, given the numerous (1600 or more) distinct microorganisms that can be found in a single teaspoon of soil. If that soil contamination remains permanently, the consequences can be catastrophic. Someday the public may blacklist precisely those farms that have once planted GM crops. No one has put up any warning signs on product packaging for farmers, including th ose who now own 1/4 of all agricultural tracks in the US. Furthermore, theRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesexperts do say that stream water will be safe if you boil it for a minute or two. Giardia is caused by protozoa which can’t live for long at high temperature. Other micro-organisms can survive this heating, but they usually won’t cause any human illness. The reason people use water-purification tablets instead of boiling is for convenience; using the tablets avoids all the extra time for the water to boil and then later to cool to drinking temperature. Now lets turn to the principles of logical