Black Day at Blacksburg

Was the wanton April 16, 2007 massacre of 32 people by a warped mind on the Virginia Tech campus an act of terrorism?

I say yes.

It was an act of terrorism by those who armed him. The gun lobby which has placed commercial interests above the consequences of easy availability of arms and ammunition to unstable characters like Seung-Hui Cho (and, for that matter, Dick Cheney) has 32 more deaths on its hands but does not care.

The placement of a weapon into the hands of an indiscriminate killer was compounded by the laxity of the police, who might have averted 30 of the 32 deaths had they managed to nab Cho in the interregnum between the two rounds of shooting.

Shades of Nithari, perhaps? The NOIDA police could have saved many children by acting in time on the complaints from parents in the early days of the serial killings.

Those charged with protecting the innocent from terrorism are as culpable as the terrorists if they are found wanting in their job.

Am I being too harsh?

Ask the family and loved ones of those who died at Blacksburg.