Virginia Tech Massacre
| Virginia Tech shooting | |
|---|---|
The candlelight vigil on the night of April 17,
taken in front of Burruss Hall. |
|
| Location | Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Coordinates |
37°13′23″N 80°25′16″W / 37.2231°N 80.4211°W (Ambler Johnston Hall) 37°13′46″N 80°25′23″W / 37.2294°N 80.4231°W (Norris Hall) |
| Date | April 16, 2007 c. 7:15 a.m. – 9:51 a.m. (EDT) |
| Target | Students and staff at Virginia Tech |
|
Attack type
|
School shooting, mass murder, murder–suicide |
| Weapons | |
| Deaths | 33 (including the perpetrator) |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
23 (17 by gunfire) |
| Perpetrator | Seung-Hui Cho |
| Defenders | Liviu Librescu, Kevin Granata, Derek O'Dell, and Zach Petkewicz |
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Part of a series of articles on the Virginia Tech shooting |
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| Related articles |
Coordinates: 37°13′37″N 80°25′19″W / 37.227°N 80.422°W
The Virginia Tech shooting, also known as the Virginia Tech massacre, occurred on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks (another six people were injured escaping from classroom windows), approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide. The attack is the second deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history.
The attacks received international media coverage and drew widespread criticism of U.S. gun culture. It sparked intense debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, the perpetrator's state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. Television news organizations that aired portions of the killer's multimedia manifesto were criticized by victims' families, Virginia law enforcement officials, and the American Psychiatric Association.
Cho had previously been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. During much of his middle school and high school years, he received therapy and special education support. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Because of federal privacy laws, Virginia Tech was unaware of Cho's previous diagnosis or the accommodations he had been granted at school. In 2005, Cho was accused of stalking two female students. After an investigation, a Virginia special justice declared Cho mentally ill and ordered him to attend treatment; however, because he was not institutionalized, he was still allowed to purchase guns. The shooting prompted the state of Virginia to close legal loopholes that had previously allowed individuals adjudicated as mentally unsound to purchase handguns without detection by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). It also led to passage of the only major federal gun control measure in the U.S. since the year 1994. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.
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Wikipedia