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Expert: Va. Tech Shootings Just the Beginning Dave Eberhart Shooter Cho Seung-Hui was moving through Norris Hall methodically firing his weapon as if he were playing a first-person shooter (FPS) video game, according to an analysis of evidence related to the Virginia Tech massacre. One of the world's foremost experts on the causes of violence, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who has seen confidential information stemming from the investigation, tells NewsMax in an exclusive interview that Cho was "deeply influenced by media violence." "His parents said so and his friends said so," the former West Point professor says of the Virginia Tech senior who murdered 32 people and then killed himself in a bloody April massacre on the Blacksburg, Va. campus. Grossman, a former Army Ranger, is the author of "Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence." Authorities invited Grossman to help analyze the evidence gathered in the aftermath of the rampage. One of Grossman's fellow experts, former police officer Frank Borelli, offered a detailed analysis of the case. Borelli is author of "American Thinking: Sustaining the Warrior Values That Made America Strong -- And Still Can." He has been carefully studying the tragic incident.
Story Continues Below Grossman forwarded an e-mail from Borelli, with Borelli's permission, stating: "Cho had limited experience with real guns, but had an astonishing hit ratio, rhythmic fire patterns, quick reloads -- and fired ‘tactically,' with three shots into nearly every student killed." Borelli suggests that intensive extensive FPS gaming experience helped Cho fire with devastating accuracy. "Just look at the simple numbers," Borelli continues. "One hundred and seventy rounds fired, with 32 dead and 25 wounded. Even if we take out the two victims from West Ambler Johnston … that's 55 casualties out of 170 shots. Scary…" Borelli cited an "anonymous reliable source" for the information that Cho fired three shots into nearly every victim. Some video games require the firing of multiple shots at each target. "The rest is quite obvious," Borelli wrote Grossman. "Even if [Cho] only hit each victim once, he had a 32 percent hit ratio, which is better than most cop shootings." Despite this surprising degree of accuracy, Cho also fired several shots into doors. "Many video games today do make a difference between cover and concealment, but some also allow players to destroy barriers by shooting them enough times," Borelli writes. "Where was he in his head?" Borelli has not responded to requests to speak with NewsMax directly regarding his findings. Grossman says violent video games are encouraging violence in real life. "Violence goes through four stages," he explains. "The first stage is fantasy. The second stage is planning. The third stage is implementation -- like preparation when you go and get ammo and you buy the gun. The final step is the actual execution." The inchoate crime can be stopped at any point in the process, says Grossman, but "ideally we stop it with the fantasying stage and say no, kids should not be doing this." Grossman says the video game industry is using the First Amendment to skirt regulation. "They claim that it's their constitutional First Amendment right to sell these sick videogames to kids," he says. "The First Amendment was never designed to protect the right to sell violent video games to children. By them wrapping themselves around the First Amendment, what they are doing is they are … degrading, debasing what the First Amendment was really meant to be," he says. "I hope that I am wrong and I pray that I am wrong, "Grossman adds, "when [Cho's] generation hits the workplace and they hit the public domain, they are going to make the … shootings that we have seen so far pale by comparison. We will reap what we sow for many generations to come." © NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.
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