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  • MONDAY APRIL 16 2007 1:00 PM

Virginia Tech Shooting



Thirty three people are dead today at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia after a lone gunman opened fire on students. Reuters is reporting that at least two dozen others have been injured.

Officials say this is the deadliest school shooting in US history.

According to CNN:

"Some victims were shot in a classroom," university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
[...]
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university President Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The killings mark the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, surpassing attacks at Columbine High School in 1999 and at the University of Texas in 1966.

One person was killed and others were wounded at multiple locations inside a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., Flinchum said. Two hours later, another shooting at Norris Hall -- the engineering science and mechanics building -- resulted in multiple casualties, the university reported.

The first reported shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a coed dormitory that houses 895 students. The dormitory, one of the largest residence halls on the 2,600-acre campus, is located near the drill field and stadium.
[...]
The reporter said there were "lots of students running around, going crazy, and the police officers were trying to settle everyone down and keep everything under control," according to Steele.

 

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xfinitex

xfinitex

East Lansing, MI
August 2005

APR 16, 2007 02:41 PM

I don't really know what to say to this.
I'm sad.

wendigo

wendigo

Houston, TX
March 2005

APR 16, 2007 02:44 PM

I can't believe the school didn't use its outdoor alert system to notify students...especially when TWO hours passed between each shooting incident. And after introducing a ban to guns on campus! Thats what gun control gets you. That is a massive failure on the schools part, there will be no way to ever compensate the families and friends of those lost.

Gillionaire

Gillionaire

Manchester, NH
February 2007

APR 16, 2007 02:46 PM

I always feel so ashamed when things like this happen. People dying for no good reason. And the aftermath of events like this, the circus of blame that always follows doesn't really help any wounds heal.

CourtneyKills

CourtneyKills

Keyport, NJ
March 2004

APR 16, 2007 02:54 PM

wendigo said:
I can't believe the school didn't use its outdoor alert system to notify students...especially when TWO hours passed between each shooting incident. And after introducing a ban to guns on campus! Thats what gun control gets you. That is a massive failure on the schools part, there will be no way to ever compensate the families and friends of those lost.



this is tragic, but are you putting the blame on the school and gun control? thats a load of shit. the school is no more at fault than the rest of society. and what do you mean by compensation? the gunman is dead there will be no justice are you supporting the idea of monetary compensation for the victims family at some point? that of course you know will bring them back! it sucks but shitty things happen its called life.

emotedcreations

emotedcreations

Germany
July 2006

APR 16, 2007 02:56 PM

Cause they thought it was isolated (that may not be the right response, but that's your answer to why).

hor

hor

I'm lost
June 2005

APR 16, 2007 02:59 PM


I keep hearing everyone on the news say how "shocking" this is.

Sad. Depressing. Shitty. Awful. Tragic. Yes.

Shocking?? Not shocking.

People killing other people is about the least shocking thing ever.

Fucking world.

Puke.



xfinitex

xfinitex

East Lansing, MI
August 2005

APR 16, 2007 03:01 PM

Gillionaire said:
I always feel so ashamed when things like this happen. People dying for no good reason. And the aftermath of events like this, the circus of blame that always follows doesn't really help any wounds heal.



I agree. The media circus right now is ridiculous. Its an extreme tragedy, but the news networks (I'm currently watching CNN) seem to, at least to me, be trivializing it somewhat by having shows such as: What impact will this have on the debate over gun control?, the history of school shootings, Comparing US school violence to other school violence, etc.

I don't really know what to say. I know its important to cover these things, but I feel like we should focus more on whats happening right now, and work on healing those wounds. Terrible tragedy.

AtomicCherry

AtomicCherry

Canada
October 2002

APR 16, 2007 03:21 PM

The campus of this college is twice the size of my hometown. The authorities originally thought that the first killings were an isolated incident. If a couple of people were murdered in my town, they wouldn't shut down the town or sound an alarm. The police would start investigating. The authorities in this case (from what we know at this point) had no reason to believe that the gunman would have stuck around, thus no reason to sound an alarm. Every channel on television is in the process of blaming the school, saying that all the students should have been warned, or evacuated, or whatever. But they had no way of knowing what a tragic day this was going to become. Don't blame the school; blame the guy who took the lives of those 32 people.

May the victims rest in peace. frown

MetaTag

MetaTag

United Kingdom
September 2002

APR 16, 2007 03:22 PM

elpuffy said:
I don't know why some people just snap like this. I mean, suicide is one thing, but killing as many other people as you can first just baffles me.



Our view of the world starts out focused inwards and egocentric. As we grow up we become aware of other peoples feelings and importance.

For some people, this change does not happen and some people are born without an ability for compassion. This is a negative aspect of the diversity from which we gain as a whole.

FUELEDbyFURY

FUELEDbyFURY

Collegeville, PA
January 2007

APR 16, 2007 03:23 PM

wendigo said:
I can't believe the school didn't use its outdoor alert system to notify students...especially when TWO hours passed between each shooting incident. And after introducing a ban to guns on campus! Thats what gun control gets you. That is a massive failure on the schools part, there will be no way to ever compensate the families and friends of those lost.



actually i talked to my friend who lives next to campus, she said they did use the system but she only heard it used once. it said "this is an emergency, please stay inside, there is a gunman on the loose". i couldnt hear it from my apartment, and from what i hear people also couldnt hear from inside campus buildings so it sounds like it needs to be improved.

Nihilism

Nihilism

Roanoke, VA
March 2006

APR 16, 2007 03:45 PM

Living 30 minutes away from it and having lots of people you knwo involved with Virginia Tech fucking sucks. They haven't released any names of casualties yet so I'm still tedious as to the fact of whether or not anyone I know has been shot.

Also, last I knew the police confirmed that the gunman committed suicide. It's weird that the guy just walked around somewhere for two hours before shooting up another area, though. Where were police in that time frame?

wendigo

wendigo

Houston, TX
March 2005

APR 16, 2007 03:47 PM

I'm glad to hear they tried to alert people in addition to the email.

wendigo

wendigo

Houston, TX
March 2005

APR 16, 2007 03:54 PM

CourtneyKills said:

wendigo said:
I can't believe the school didn't use its outdoor alert system to notify students...especially when TWO hours passed between each shooting incident. And after introducing a ban to guns on campus! Thats what gun control gets you. That is a massive failure on the schools part, there will be no way to ever compensate the families and friends of those lost.



this is tragic, but are you putting the blame on the school and gun control? thats a load of shit. the school is no more at fault than the rest of society. and what do you mean by compensation? the gunman is dead there will be no justice are you supporting the idea of monetary compensation for the victims family at some point? that of course you know will bring them back! it sucks but shitty things happen its called life.



Of course the blame is on the gunman, but if the school was negligent, then they will share some of that blame. I anticipate legal action against the school because families almost certainly will seek some sort of relief, punitive or otherwise. That just seems to be what happens. Assuming that does occur, and some form of compensation is imposed, it will of course not provide any satisfactory resolution for the families. Whether the school was negligent or not depends on the evidence and what courts rule. My first impression is that there is negligence here, but we will have to wait to know for sure.

Morrigan

Morrigan

SUICIDEGIRL

Sweden

APR 16, 2007 03:57 PM

wendigo said:
I'm glad to hear they tried to alert people in addition to the email.



Yeah but unfortunately the school made student stay in the classrooms thinking it would be the safest only the killer chained the doors and then had a field day shooting them off.

emotedcreations

emotedcreations

Germany
July 2006

APR 16, 2007 04:02 PM

xfinitex said:
The media circus right now is ridiculous. Its an extreme tragedy, but the news networks (I'm currently watching CNN) seem to, at least to me, be trivializing it somewhat by having shows such as: What impact will this have on the debate over gun control?, the history of school shootings, Comparing US school violence to other school violence, etc.

I don't think these issues are so bad. I'm sure people are wondering you know how bad it was in comparison to other issues. It's the fucking pseudo-scientists that get me the worse. You know the one's that are telling you what the motive is when we don't even know who the fucker is yet. The former are facts; the latter are some uninformed deutchebag's opinions.

Also, I just heard some girl say the dude had peeked into her class a couple times way before he entered the class and proceed to shoot up the classroom. It sounds like he might have been targeting individuals. That's total speculation though, I just thought it was interesting.

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