Virginia Polytechnic Institute

I am sorry for the Virginia Tech murders and suicide - for the victims, bystanders, and families of everyone involved - but I can't help wondering why this story in particular has gripped the headlines. (It seems that we lurched from the overblown Don Imus incident to this one.) Surely there are tragedies around the world every day that involve far greater numbers of lives lost.

One explanation, of course, is that we tend to be more touched the more we identify with the victims. Many of us have gone to college and enjoyed a sense of safety and community with likeminded students, in a setting that was both free of parental guidance and supervision and (at least in retrospect) free of real-life responsibilities. And many of us have met slightly disturbed loner types from time to time. So maybe the reaction is like the old chestnut:

X: "In other news, a plane crash has killed 300 people, including one American."
Y: "Poor guy."

There is another aspect to the impact of this particular incident, however. The story fits nicely into a pet theme of the media: A school rampage, with guns! Advocates for gun control love stories like this, for obvious reasons, even as they deplore the loss of life.

It is all very well and fine to advocate for gun control, and to sell newspapers, but there is a real downside to the obsessive coverage of school shootings - especially when there is such focus on the shooter and on the relative size/horror of this rampage vs. previous rampages.

Obsessive media coverage not only encourages imitation, it encourages the next sociopath to try to outdo his predecessors. A "nobody" can become a "somebody" (at least after his death) by shooting up a bunch of people; every statement, every encounter of the shooter will become news.

As reported by the New York Times, this shooter was very much aware of the imminent media coverage; he actually mailed photographs, a video, and some writings to NBC mid-rampage. He was also very much aware of his predecessors; in his "rambling statements" he "evoked the names of the killers in the Columbine High School shooting."

The murderer was media-savvy, and media-driven, but (as you would expect from someone so disturbed) not too bright. As the New York Times reported:

“[NBC] probably would have received the mail [from the killer] earlier had it not been that he had the wrong address and ZIP code,” said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News.

So he botched it up in every way, a loser to the end. All the more pity that he took 32 other people with him.

R.I.P.