POINTING THE FINGER
Problems with gun laws shouldn�t center around law-abiding dealers and owners
BY HEIDI HARRIS

Heidi Harris hosts �The Heidi Harris Show� weekday mornings, 8 to 10 a.m., on NewsTalk 720 KDWN in Las Vegas. Visit her website www.heidiharris.com. Other stories by Heidi Harris

The Virginia Tech nightmare was a tragedy on many levels, but within a few days every possible angle had been discussed. So, the reporters on scene were practically clawing the dirt trying to come up with any shred of a new perspective. 

Whenever a gun is used for any nefarious purpose, the gun control advocates practically salivate. They�ll never admit the obvious fact that if even one of the victims had been able to have a gun on campus, the number of Virginia Tech casualties would have been reduced. 

The owner of an internet gun business in Green Bay, Wisconsin, was interviewed on several shows and properly apologetic for the misuse of a weapon he�d sold. 

I was wondering if any local television stations were planning to interview the car dealer who sold a car to a Las Vegas man who then used the vehicle to mow down an innocent woman as she walked on the sidewalk. Why isn�t that connection ever made? 

Naturally, the real issue is left out. The obvious mental illness of Seung-Hui Cho is the only issue that should concern anyone. In December 2005, he was determined to be �mentally ill and in need of hospitalization,� and presenting �an imminent danger to self or others.� That same year, he was temporarily detained. The next day, a special justice, Paul M. Barnett, sentenced him to outpatient treatment, which was virtually unmonitored. Therefore, even though all the warnings signs were present, there was nothing on Cho�s record to prevent him from buying a gun. I�m still waiting for a comment from Barnett.

I�m glad there are laws and procedures to prevent abuse through involuntary commitment, but I do expect judges to have more common sense. I�ve had some personal experience with this. A younger relative of mine started writing dark, creepy notes and stories when he was 10 or 11 years old. He became increasingly withdrawn and paranoid as he reached his teen years. When his parents bought a larger house with a complete basement suite for him, he was too afraid to sleep down there. He said he heard voices. Luckily, he was raised by gentle, loving parents, and was never violent with any people or pets. He was always outwardly compliant, but he was clearly disturbed. 

By the time he was 19, he�d wrecked several cars, luckily hurting no one but himself. In retrospect, they were probably weak suicide attempts. Throughout this process, he managed to get an M.A. in art. Shortly after college graduation, he tried to hang himself in a hotel lobby bathroom while on vacation with his parents. His father noticed he was in there too long, and cut him down in time. Although the doctor tells his parents he�s psychotic and needs to be committed, his parents insist on taking him back to L.A., where they live, hoping to get him into treatment. 

The doctor should have insisted he be locked up, but there�s only so much a doctor can do if parents don�t want to face reality. As it turned out, they were unable to get him into inpatient treatment, and could not force him (now 25) to take his medication. All they could do was keep an eye on him at home, and go to counseling. He wound up hanging himself in his closet, while his mother was in another room. She devoted her life to him, but could not save him. By the grace of God, he took no one else with him. 

I don�t know what the lesson is here, except that in our family�s case, the hole in our hearts is for only one person. We�ll never really know what went on in the Cho household, or how much denial his parents were in. We�ll never know if inpatient treatment would have cured or merely postponed Cho�s massacre. What we do know is that if we�re going to point fingers, they shouldn't be aimed at law-abiding gun dealers.