VT Killer Was Institutionalized, Was Still Able To Get A Gun
Sure, there may have been a time when faced with a tragedy like the one in Virginia, we would have put political ideology and blamemongering aside for collective mourning. But, as WorstPresidentEver loves to say, 9-11 changed everything, when right after the attack, blaming liberals for being pussies and Muslims everywhere for not going on their knees and begging for forgiveness was all en vogue. So, if we must point fingers, we must point them at the forces that have allowed former mental patients easy access to handguns:
April 18, 2007 — A court found that Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was "mentally ill" and potentially dangerous. Then it let him go.In December 2005 — more than a year before Monday's mass shootings — a district court in Montgomery County, Va., ruled that Cho presented "an imminent danger to self or others." That was the necessary criterion for a detention order, so that Cho, who had been accused of stalking by two female schoolmates, could be evaluated by a state doctor and ordered to undergo outpatient care.
. . .Police obtained the 2005 detention order from a local magistrate after it was determined by a state-certified employee that Cho's apparent mental state met the threshold for the temporary detention order.
Under Virginia law, "A magistrate has the authority to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment.
Wendell Flinchum, the chief of the Virginia Tech police department, said that it's common for university police to work with state-affiliated mental health facilities instead of on-campus counseling because it is easier to obtain a detention order."We normally go through access [appealing to the state's legal system for help] because they have the power to commit people if they need to be committed," Flinchum said at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Cho was taken to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Va., a private facility that can take 162 inpatients, according to court documents.
Other news reports said that a form Seung-Hui filled contained a section asking if he received any involuntary psychiatric help. He put down "no" and no background check was done. Simple as that, easy as pie.