by Jeffrey Herf

Here are three more steps readers of the Open University can take in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre. 1. If Federal law had been enforced in Virginia, the killer would not have been able to purchase those two handguns. Faculty, students, and staff at colleges and universities and parents of students attending them should ask their administration--deans, provosts, and presidents-- how their institution complies with the federal laws that prohibit people who have been diagnosed as mentally ill from purchasing or possessing guns. They should ask if the institution's counseling centers and security services carry out a gun purchase check if they have judged someone to be mentally unstable and a danger to the community. Some universities and colleges already do so. As the Virginia Tech massacre indicated some states, such as Virginia, and some universities, such as Virginia Tech, appear not to have done so in this case. Ask administrators what they do if a student, faculty, or staff person judged to be mentally unstable is found to have purchased or to be in the possession of firearms. 2. NBC's decision to broadcast the murderer's video does for psychotic killers in the United States what Al Jazeera does for the psychotic killers of Al Qaeda: it gives them the publicity that they seek. As many, including "ProfsA&J" in their comment rightly note, giving lunatics what they seek contains the obvious danger that other unbalanced individuals will be tempted to repeat the awful deed in hopes of posthumous fame. So, though it may be a small gesture, we can stop watching the news on NBC. For the same reasons, newspapers should not have published the sickening photo of the killer in his rambo pose. 3. When discussing this or similar incidents, do not mention the killer's name in print. Instead evoke the names of those he killed and injured.