As someone who has previously had a series of posts dedicated to serial killers, it seems appropriate I should have something to say about the recent murders at Virginia Tech. I would like to mark a difference between being a serial killer and a mass murderer, but I guess really the difference is only a matter of detail. Either way the act is reprehensible.

I think on some levels, one can begin to understand the mindset of what drives someone to murder. We've all felt isolated, ostracised and angry at some time in our lives -- some of us seek professional help if they have violent fantasies (either about themselves or others), and some people I guess just pick it up and run with it. There are other questions to be asked, what makes a sociopath, is one born without empathy or is it something you learn. I don't really have any answers for this.

What's bothering me most is I felt sure that previously the media had some kind of policy regarding this sort of thing not to publicise it, like with suicide bombs -- because this kind of attention and notoriety is just what the killer wants. He was undoubtedly inspired more by previous "school shootings" than by any number of horror films -- he called the Columbine killers "martyrs", a word also commonly used by suicide bombers. They see the fame, the days or weeks of headlines, the speculation, the eventual movie spin-offs -- and they want a part of that for themselves. The fact that the killer made a video and sent it to the media shows what he wanted most of all was the attention.

All I see coming out of this will be more inspiration for disturbed young men -- a new benchmark, a new "record" to break, a club to be a part of. But it sells papers -- the stories, the speculation, the new angles -- it keeps the ratings up.

There is also the gun control debate. Should the killer have been easily able to buy guns almost whenever he wanted? Could it have been averted if like in England you can't just buy a gun in Wal-Mart? There is the argument he illegally had the guns on campus -- which suddenly reminds me of a cute Mormon girl I knew back in Utah. She was upset that she couldn't have her guns in the dorms, and I remember her telling me excitedly about the gun show she was going to and how she was going to get a new gun... But yes, if guns had been allowed on campus, could the tragedy have been averted? I don't think that's the point, I don't think it's a matter of gun control or the right to bear arms -- which is only slightly less absurd than the right to arm bears. The point should be more "how can this behaviour be prevented in the future?" rather than "how can we stop homicidal gunmen when they are on a hate-fuelled rampage?"

To my mind, not airing their "martyrdom" videos on national television is a good start. If you can't be on the news for being nice to people, for a homemade video telling the world how much you appreciate the people in your life, then you shouldn't get the attention for being a vicious brat, either.