According to this
report which states
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Authorities found two three-page notes in his dorm room after the shootings. They weren't suicide notes and provided no clue about why he did what he did. Instead, they were expletive-filled rants against the rich and privileged, even naming people who he thought had kept him down, federal and state law enforcement sources said. Two government officials said he had been treated for mental health problems.
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it was illegal for him to honestly answer the questionaire and to purchase the firearms legally because one of the questions you have to answer specifically asks if you have ever been under a doctors care for psych/mental health reasons. If you have you are automatically denied, period, end of story. The article then goes on to erronously state on the next page
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.....He used his driver's license as identification and had no problem buying the guns because he was complying with Virginia law, which permits the purchase of one gun a month, investigators said.
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which may comply with Virginia law but he also must comply with federal law and part of complying with the federal law he must fill out the application/questionaire mentioned above that asks about 20 or so questions and when answered truthfully can cause one to be denied on the spot before your application is ever called into the BATF for the final approval.
For those that have never bought a gun before here's a little play by play that you have to do before you ever walk out of the store with your new firearm whether you buy it at a gunshop or one of the infamous gun shows that is always brought up by gun control advocates. {1} you decide what firearm you are purchasing and haggle the price until you are satisified {2} the dealer then hands you a state form and a federal form which you have to fill out {3} the dealer then looks over the federal form to make sure all your answers are what they should be, if not you are automatically denied on the spot {4} if you have answered the questions properly and everything is legit the dealer then makes a call to the BATF for final approval. The BATF then searches their database for any red flags and either denies, puts you on hold for further investigation and they have 10 days to complete this phase or you are approved and you can then leave the gun store or gun show with your new purchase. The forms are then sent to the state and federal authorities. The dealer keeps his copy of the forms forever, he can never destroy them because it is the record of the firearm he once had in his possession. He also has to keep a log of every single firearm that has ever come into his possession. His log, the serial numbers of the guns on his shelf, the paperwork of all the guns he has ever sold, the paperwork with your information and all the other pertinent details have to match or he loses his license. You don't just walk in and give the man a handful of money, show your drivers license and walk out with a newly purchased firearm, not legally anyway.
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Originally Posted by ubertuber
Just a note here, because I have personal experience in being a college administrator in the position to spot these kinds of things...
So much of what people are saying now is hindsight. The creative writing thing is relatively significant. The fact that he was a "loner"... Well, that's only significant after the fact. If we had tried to refer every kid who met the threshold this guy was at, you'd end up intervening with 5-10% of your population at one point or another. Of course, the social patterns combined with the school thing look significant, but you won't realistically have all the people who see these different facets in a position to compare notes, even at a smaller school. Some schools are uneasy about even attempting stuff like that in light of privacy concerns, which can lead to court cases. And most places are unable to MANDATE counseling. You can suggest it, but it nigh impossible to MAKE someone go. I became really adept at phrasing my suggestions so that they sounded like mandates without actually being so.
I guess what I'm getting at is that a lot of kids at school are (or go through periods of being) a little unstable. Since they internalize these instabilities, it's about impossible to know which way it's gonna go. So snap and sing hymns for 19 hours without stopping, some lock themselves in the shower and quote Shakespeare, some develop chronic psycho-somatic illnesses like seizures, some develop fixations on cleaning their homes with bleach while hording water bottles in their bedrooms, some try to kill themselves, and every once in a while one will go and try to hurt someone else. I've seen all of the above firsthand except for the last. The only truly reliable indicator that a person will try to hurt someone is a history of doing so.
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I hear what your saying Uber, hindsight is always 20/20 and its awful easy for us to quarterback from the confines of our easy chair.