Why did Seung Hui Cho buy dozens of rubber ducks before the shooting?

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I think he found them cute, or just wanted to use them in the bath. That's what I think.

I did not know this, I think I agree that it could have been an outbreak, maybe he did it irrationally and did not even think about what he was going to buy. Is very strange ...

I don't think he was psychotic. Mailing the package, blocking entrances to the builing, etc... His actions seem too organized for someone psychotic.

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Actually, from what I understand a behavior of    psychotic people is  impulsively buying large quantities of things or very expensive things.  I am not saying 100% that it is psychotic, but I think many things suggest that Cho could have been.  As mentioned above, not all psychotic people act in the same way, but I see in Cho a pre-eminent, as was also said, disconnection from reality, or false reality. Sorry if im wrong

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Mr Bubbless wrote:

margaflor wrote:

Actually, from what I understand a behavior of    psychotic people is  impulsively buying large quantities of things or very expensive things.  I am not saying 100% that it is psychotic, but I think many things suggest that Cho could have been.  As mentioned above, not all psychotic people act in the same way, but I see in Cho a pre-eminent, as was also said, disconnection from reality, or false reality. Sorry if im wrong

No you're pretty much spot on, from what I've heard, the attitudes towards Schizophrenia are similar to what we've seen with autism, seeing it as a spectrum of symptoms and diagnoses rather than a set disorder.

Ooh yes, I have heard about that, at first I thought that it only manifested itself in children but the more I investigated I read that the symptoms can be similar at any age.

Just an idea: Did he perhaps take the ducks to a gun range to use for target practice? Or at least planned to have done so?

margaflor wrote:

Actually, from what I understand a behavior of    psychotic people is  impulsively buying large quantities of things or very expensive things.  I am not saying 100% that it is psychotic, but I think many things suggest that Cho could have been.  As mentioned above, not all psychotic people act in the same way, but I see in Cho a pre-eminent, as was also said, disconnection from reality, or false reality. Sorry if im wrong

Not really. "Psychotic" just means experiencing delusions, hallucinations, seeing things that aren't there, hearing voices in your head etc.
So "psychotic" is not a single disorder, rather these are really symptoms present in many different individual disorders.

Compulsive purchases of weird objects is not something typically associated with psychotic episodes, but it can happen. Example:
"L.Ron Hubbard is communicating telepathically with me and he told me I need to buy this car, so I bought it"


So perhaps some of the weird  things Cho did were in fact linked to his delusions, but we just have no way of knowing for sure.

Sabratha wrote:

Just an idea: Did he perhaps take the ducks to a gun range to use for target practice? Or at least planned to have done so?

margaflor wrote:

Actually, from what I understand a behavior of    psychotic people is  impulsively buying large quantities of things or very expensive things.  I am not saying 100% that it is psychotic, but I think many things suggest that Cho could have been.  As mentioned above, not all psychotic people act in the same way, but I see in Cho a pre-eminent, as was also said, disconnection from reality, or false reality. Sorry if im wrong

Not really. "Psychotic" just means experiencing delusions, hallucinations, seeing things that aren't there, hearing voices in your head etc.
So "psychotic" is not a single disorder, rather these are really symptoms present in many different individual disorders.

Compulsive purchases of weird objects is not something typically associated with psychotic episodes, but it can happen. Example:
"L.Ron Hubbard is communicating telepathically with me and he told me I need to buy this car, so I bought it"


So perhaps some of the weird  things Cho did were in fact linked to his delusions, but we just have no way of knowing for sure.

Oooh thanks for explaining, if I think I was referring to "psychotic" wrong.  Like you said, I think it was introduced by disconnections from reality or delusions.  I also believe that this massive purchase of ducklings could have occurred due to some kind of disconnection from reality, although it is not known for sure.

margaflor wrote:

I also believe that this massive purchase of ducklings could have occurred due to some kind of disconnection from reality, although it is not known for sure.

My first idea was more mundane (cheap object for target practice), but it is entirely possible that he thought Jesus is telling him to buy them or something equally delusional. * shrug *

Sabratha wrote:

margaflor wrote:

I also believe that this massive purchase of ducklings could have occurred due to some kind of disconnection from reality, although it is not known for sure.

My first idea was more mundane (cheap object for target practice), but it is entirely possible that he thought Jesus is telling him to buy them or something equally delusional. * shrug *

My first thought was the same, but now that I think about it it wouldn't be strange to think it was a message from Jesus or something

margaflor wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

margaflor wrote:

I also believe that this massive purchase of ducklings could have occurred due to some kind of disconnection from reality, although it is not known for sure.

My first idea was more mundane (cheap object for target practice), but it is entirely possible that he thought Jesus is telling him to buy them or something equally delusional. * shrug *

My first thought was the same, but now that I think about it it wouldn't be strange to think it was a message from Jesus or something

Considering his obsession with comparing himself with Jesus, I wouldn't be surprised if he bought the ducks to sacrifice them to the great duck lord so he could enter heaven with them.

Mr Bubbless wrote:

margaflor wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

margaflor wrote:

I also believe that this massive purchase of ducklings could have occurred due to some kind of disconnection from reality, although it is not known for sure.

My first idea was more mundane (cheap object for target practice), but it is entirely possible that he thought Jesus is telling him to buy them or something equally delusional. * shrug *

My first thought was the same, but now that I think about it it wouldn't be strange to think it was a message from Jesus or something

Considering his obsession with comparing himself with Jesus, I wouldn't be surprised if he bought the ducks to sacrifice them to the great duck lord so he could enter heaven with them.

It would be an interesting version of the Last Supper but with ducklings

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Sabratha wrote:

Mr Bubbless wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if he bought the ducks to sacrifice them to the great duck lord so he could enter heaven with them.

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Now everything checks out. The ducks were behind Virginia tech, Cho was just one of his puppets to achieve world control.

Lol, love how you all sorted this out and came to the only logical conclusion.

But seriously, they may have has some meaning to him that we'll never understand. My thinking is maybe he saw people/society as rubber ducks. Like a version of that dreaded word 'sheeple'.

Maybe he thought it was funny?

Koltin wrote:

Maybe he thought it was funny?

If so he definitely had a strange sense of humour. Wouldn't suprise me considering all the other things he did before the shooting.