Sarfraz Manzoor

The first reports about the identity of the person responsible for the massacre at Virginia Tech was that he was an Asian man. That meant that for a few hours I was steeling myself for the possibility that the killer was a Muslim. So when it was finally revealed that the perpetrator was in fact South Korean I have to admit to feeling a huge sense of relief. The 32 deaths have of course prompted the inevitable and predictable waves of shock and sadness and as usual the question of the availablility of guns will be briefly discussed and discarded. The most intriguing aspect to this latest killing is that it is a rather morbid illustration of an immigrant integrating into American society. School massacres are- alongside westerns and jazz music- uniquely American; usually the teenage screw-ups who decide to blow away their classmates because a girl once rejected them are white Americans. By loading himself with ammo and blasting his way through college Cho Seung-hui was behaving like a demented lunatic but he was also demonstrating that he had thoroughly integrated into the culture of his adopted home nation.
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