PSYCHOPATHS, TERRORISTS, AND US

April 30, 2007  

At first, I resisted suggestions that I write about the Virginia Tech shootings. As I watched the back-to-back television coverage of the story and read the news and opinion columns about it, I wondered if it were possible to say anything that had not already been said.

Now that it’s no longer a front-page, top-of-the-program story, perhaps it’s possible to look beyond this tragedy and the debates that took place in its aftermath, when it was covered 24/7 by the media, and reflect on what it means us as individuals. We know it’s only a matter of time till something similar happens again. It’s the world we live in. It’s part of a pattern.

What happens after such events also follows a pattern. First we experience shock and disbelief. Then friends and families and the nation as a whole grieve for and honor victims and heroes. Finally, politicians, pundits, and experts debate the same old issues until a new story dominates the media.

The most controversial issue, of course, is gun control. “If it just had not been possible for Cho Seung-Hui to buy a gun, this might not have happened.” To which someone on the other side responds, “If students could have carried concealed weapons on to the Virginia Tech campus, like Virginians off campus, someone might have shot Cho before he had a chance to murder so many people.”

Gun control is one of those issues for which there is little, if any, middle ground. For those who passionately oppose gun control, to allow any restrictions on firearms is a slippery slope that leads to the confiscation of all guns and the abrogation of the Second Amendment. For those who passionately support gun control, strict national laws on the purchase, registration, and use of firearms is the best way to prevent people like Cho from buying and using guns to murder people.

In any event, the politics of gun control in America isn’t likely to change any time soon. It’s a hot-button issue, and it will continue to be so for a long time to come. 

Another important issue debated in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings was the right to privacy. Cho had written, said, and done many things that that should have been clear danger signals, but authorities either didn’t now about them or didn’t act on them because of privacy considerations. 

Tension between our right to privacy and government intrusion into our lives is ever-present in a democratic society. We grudgingly yield to encroachments on our privacy at airport security checkpoints, but Americans staunchly resist government intrusion where we do not believe it is absolutely necessary. I expect we still will be debating how things might have been different if a school, a company, or a government office had known and acted on information about the next psychopathic killer’s prior behavior. 

There are a host of other issues. Discussions and debates about them likewise will continue while psychopaths who would do us harm plot and scheme and carry out their delusions. With each new barbaric crime, institutions will make changes in their security practices, and our security will incrementally improve, bearing in mind that it’s not just psychopaths we have to worry about.

In post 9/11 America, the first questions we ask ourselves when someone starts indiscriminately killing people is, is it a terrorist?  Terrorism experts tells us we are vulnerable to suicide-bomber attacks, like the people of Israel, Great Britain, Spain and other Middle Eastern and Asian countries have experienced. Former CIA Director George Tenet, in his new book, expresses puzzlement that al-Qaida has not sent “suicide bombers to cause chaos in half-dozen American shipping malls on any given day.” 

But whether it’s a psychopath or a terrorist, every time they succeed at killing a group people, it’s déjà vu all over again. Officials appoint commissions; commissions make recommendations (most actually are implemented), and we move on. We learn to live with new restrictions on our freedom like metal detectors and bag searches. We adapt.

We only have to look at a country like Israel to see how a people under constant threat of attack have adapted. I recently visited Israel. At first glance, life appeared quite normal. But there are the policemen in flak vests carrying automatic weapons, and there’s the wall built to keep out suicide bombers. The average Israeli’s situational awareness is chronically acute. They notice little things that Americans tend not to. They hire people to sit outside public places and watch for suicide bombers. If something’s not right, they know how to react. When a bomb goes off they react instinctively. They do their best to lead normal lives, but they know they live in a tough neighborhood, and they conduct themselves accordingly.

Innocent Israelis still die when a terrorist succeeds, but what you don’t hear about in the news or see on television are all the terrorist attacks that don’t succeed. The reason most don’t succeed is not just because they have good security practices and a well trained military and police forces. Many don’t succeed because of an alert, well informed population that knows how to protect themselves.

There is much our government can and must do to provide for our security. Federal, state, and local governments all are working to protect us from terrorists and better prevent and react to incidents like the one that occurred at Virginia Tech. But if history has taught us anything it’s that some determined psychopaths and terrorists will succeed in killing innocent people no matter what governments do. Like the Israelis, we can prevent many if not most, but not all assaults against us.

There are many lessons we can learn from the Virginia Tech massacre. As individuals we should pay particular attention to the stories of students and teachers whose behavior enabled them to save their own lives and the lives of others. Seventy-five-year-old Professor and Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, who blocked a door while others escaped, sacrificed his life for his students. Others survived because the reacted quickly and made the right decisions. You can say they were just lucky, but I don’t think luck is an adequate explanation.

You never know when you or someone you love will become the target of a psychopath or a terrorist. Sadly, however small the odds may be, they appear to be increasing. We all likely asked ourselves how we would react if we found ourselves in the Virginia Tech situation. It would be wise to give that thought more than passing consideration. If and when we find ourselves in such a life-or-death situation, how we behave could make all the difference.