Virginia Tech shootings of 2007 were one of the deadliest mass-shooting incidents in United States history. On April 16, 2007, a student gunman killed 32 people and wounded a number of others at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia , a Southern State of the United States. The gunman, identified as 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho, took his own life following the shooting rampage. News of the shooting quickly received worldwide attention. The incident sparked debates about crime prevention, mental illness , and the wide availability of deadly weapons in the United States.
The shootings.
According to police reports, a man shot and killed a student and a resident adviser at Ambler Johnston Hall—a dormitory on the Virginia Tech campus—at about 7:15 a.m. on April 16. Police officials who began an investigation assumed that the shooting was an isolated incident—possibly a case of domestic violence involving a victim’s jealous boyfriend. Virginia State Police stopped the boyfriend’s vehicle at about 9:30 a.m. and questioned him before determining that he was unlikely to have been involved in the shootings.
At about 9:40 a.m., gunshots rang out at the Norris Hall engineering building across the campus. A shooter, wearing an ammunition vest and carrying two semiautomatic handguns , walked into classrooms and began shooting students and teachers. The shooter had secured three of the building’s exit doors with chains, presumably to prevent escapes and hamper rescue efforts. Police entered the building at about 9:50 a.m. The shooter shot and killed himself before police could confront him. He had killed 30 people in the building—25 fellow students and 5 teachers. Seventeen students survived gunshot wounds, and several others suffered injuries while fleeing the gunman.
Police investigation.
Police officials identified the shooter as Seung-Hui Cho, an English major at the university. Cho had been born in South Korea and moved with his family to the United States when he was a child. Cho’s family told investigators that he had long been affected by mental illness and received extensive treatment. Medical records revealed that Cho had been hospitalized in 2005 after expressing suicidal thoughts. Acquaintances described him as frequently quiet and withdrawn. Fellow students described Cho’s writings as “disturbing” and his behavior as “intimidating.”
According to police reports, Cho appeared to have planned the shootings for months. In February 2007, he purchased a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol online and picked it up at a pawn shop in Blacksburg. The following month, Cho bought a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun at a gun shop in Roanoke, Virginia. He practiced shooting at a firing range near the university campus.
At about 9 a.m., less than two hours after Cho shot and killed two people at the Virginia Tech dormitory, he mailed a package containing 27 video recordings, dozens of photographs, and a 1,800-word manifesto (public declaration of intentions) to NBC News in New York City. In the material, Cho expressed anger toward wealthy students and religion, and he blamed unnamed people for the massacre that would occur. Cho then returned to the campus and began his shooting rampage at Norris Hall.
Later developments.
Two weeks after the shootings, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine issued an executive order prohibiting the purchase of firearms by anyone who had been directed to receive court-ordered mental health treatment. In August, Governor Kaine released a report on the Virginia Tech shootings. The report, entitled “Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech,” detailed the events of the shootings, commemorated the lives of those who were killed, and recommended improvements to campus security and mental health systems. The report also detailed Cho’s mental health history and discussed Virginia mental health laws as they pertained to a patient’s right to privacy and the dangers some individuals may present to a community.
