Federal Officials: At Least 32 Dead After Virginia Tech University Shooting

As I said before - buying guns in candy stores...

AFP

The shooting immediately renewed concern over school security and access to guns that was rekindled last year by a rash of shootings. The state of Virginia has some of the weakest gun licensing requirements in the country, the New York Times said in a Tuesday editorial.

It saw in the carnage "another horrifying reminder that some of the gravest dangers Americans face come from killers at home armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to obtain."

Yes ineeded - FRIGHTENINGLY easy to obtain.

Furthermore;

Campus killings may restart gun violence debate

Advocates of wider gun controls said the availability of guns in the United States had made it easier for people to commit murder everywhere, including in schools and colleges.

"What have we done as a nation in the 8 years since Columbine about this problem? We compound the trade of the day by our failure to deal with the proliferation of guns in our country," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Helmke said that since Columbine, which happened eight years ago this week, there had been no new legislation on control of guns and he said a ban on assault weapons was allowed to expire in September 2004.

a facegroup made up of a 1000 students from Virginia Tech have called for the college administration not to be blamed for what happened yesterday.

FOXNews said that one teacher held a door shut so his students could jump out a window. this teacher gave his life to save his students. he was repeatedly shot while holding the door.

been confirmed.

was a student of Asian origin. possible the two shootings could be seperate. waiting for ballistic results.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair has spoken on this. He said;

"On behalf of the British people, we send to the American people and the families are thoughts and prayers and our deepest sympathy"

Originally posted by infinite
FOXNews said that one teacher held a door shut so his students could jump out a window. this teacher gave his life to save his students. he was repeatedly shot while holding the door.

I salute him.
A real hero...

Originally posted by infinite
FOXNews said that one teacher held a door shut so his students could jump out a window. this teacher gave his life to save his students. he was repeatedly shot while holding the door.

Always gives me goose bumps when I hear stories about ordinary people turning into heroes, cowboying up to save others with no regard for their own life.

This was unavoidable and tragic. Campus security, administration, the local police, etc... could not have stopped this before it happend and unless you want SWAT teams stationed at universities on stand by to react....then there's really no other way to respond to a situation like this within a favorable time frame.

My prayers go out to the families and victims.

Originally posted by SportyMB
Always gives me goose bumps when I hear stories about ordinary people turning into heroes, cowboying up to save others with no regard for their own life.

It gets me teary-eyed.. And I am teary-eyed now..
I'm sitting over 12000km away from all this and it still makes me teary-eyed..

The best humanity has to offer standing up against the worst..
There is hope for us all yet.


[edit on 17-4-2007 by Daedalus3]

This is a Psy-Op! More mind controlled MK-Ultra sleeper agents. Let loose to enrage the American public and tighten gun regulations.
Please America don't let this happen. You'll need the weapons when your government turns on you!

Its a sad event for everyone across the world.
When an environment, like a educational facility, is subject to extreme violence it really does send shockwaves to our hearts.

Originally posted by teleonaut
First and foremost: my deepest sympathies to the departed, their familes, and their friends.

Originally posted by grover
Well I am glad you are so macho to think carrying a gun makes you safe. It doesn't.

Not intending to infer that I know your life experiences, but to convey my own: actually having another human being put a gun in your face will change your perspective on not having one.

While nothing totally makes a person safe, you must admit that there are quite a few situations in which having a gun most definitely makes you safer, if nothing else. It's not about being macho, it's about keeping an even playing field.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by teleonaut]

I was surrounded once buy a dozen armed Kansas state troopers with all their weaponry drawn and not just pointed at me, but pressed against my body and scull, and I have had a gun drawn on me in my own place once as well. In both cases, if I had had a gun the situation could have very well escalated. As it is maintaining a cool head got me out of both unscathed and unarrested. The fact is guns do not make you safer, while they may very well level the playing field they actually increase the odds of someone getting shot.

This might sound dumb, but how about gun screening before being allowed into a university zone? Not only 1 screening station but maybe 100 screen stations. People need job's lets make some use out of them. And at thesame time keep our guns.

Look at airports, there is gun screening there. Why not do the same for institutions like schools?

The only argument against this would be bottlenecking. But I have alaready suggested the use of multiple screening area's where poeple can go if one line is to long or crowded. People will get in easily that way adn keep everyoen in the zone safe.

Originally posted by asala
The killer is thought to be a young Asian man who walked in carry weapons, or some time of vest that held them,



[edit on 16-4-2007 by asala]

Did he look like an arab..a muslin?

was he a raghead?


oh no this is a terrorist attack....RUN FOR THE HILLS....

batten down the hatches....

introduce the super ULTRA patriot act....


people calm down... its only a hundred people...

566000 americans die from cancer every year...

3000 die from bathtub drowning.

it's some silly students who probably ostracised the shooter and he got his revenge on them all.

THE MESSAGE THESE SHOOTINGS GIVE YOU :-


dont ostracise people...DONT SHUT THEM OUT.THIS WILL MAKE THEM CRAZY AND MAD WITH HATRED...

THEY MAY COME BACK AND SHOOT YOU DEAD DEAD REMEMBER THAT YOU SMUG SELF SATISFIED PEOPLE.


240040 get killed by FDA APPROVED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS...this is never mentioned on Fox"News".

[edit on 17-4-2007 by esecallum]

I think that people are not asking the right questions.

First of all, why does anyone that is just "looking to shoot his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend have so much ammunition"?....

Why did he shoot so many people if "he was just after his ex-girlfriend and new boyfriend"?

This crime does not fit the "jealous ex-boyfriend' claim. I might be wrong but to me it just doesn't sound right.

This person, whoever he was, had in mind killing as many people as he could before he was cornered. This does not sound like a "person who was just looking to get his ex-girlfriend and new boyfriend, he was there to kill as many people as he could."

Some of the speculation going on here is just plain absurd. There are a handful on here who are like me within miles of the place, and while we don't know everything about what happened on our local media has been covering this nonstop without the faux news or drudge spin on it. It is not a psych ops action, it is not the Chinese, the Arabs or terrorists in general... it is some mentally disturbed person, who can be very methodical in their madness. There is a possiblity that it is two separate incidents but I seriously doubt it. I see two possible sennerios.

(1) The story about the kid and his girlfriend is true and that after he killed her and the RA decided to go out in a blaze of glory so he went home, stocked up and went back out which would account for the time delay between the two shootings.

(2) (and this is the one I consider most likely) It is the end of the semester, the pressure is very high especially in the engineering dept. It has not been officially said that the guy was not a student... I think he was an engineering student (or a failed, or fearing failure, applicant) who cracked under the pressure, started out by killing his girl friend (or ex) and the RA who tried to intervene, then laid low until he could make it to Norris hall (which was obviously his real goal) where he chained (at least some of) the doors and began to shoot randomly, which is what the students have been reporting.

Speculation is important but there have been some pretty wild ones especially concerning that guy on livejournal and for the most part they have been counter productive.

Lets stick to the facts and to the most likely events... not wild foreign conspirecies and the like. Next thing you know it some kook will be posting that it was aliens.

Australian news sources are reporting the following:

33 Dead.
1 Shooter over 2 incidents. The staff/police apparently only warned people via e-mail and only cancelled classes 2 hours later when the next attack began. Someone was quoted as saying 'heads will roll' over the warning procedures.
The shooter used 2 9mm handguns and reloaded multiple times and ended by killing himself.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by seenitall]

Originally posted by Souljah
As I said before - buying guns in candy stores...

I really do have to wonder why some people are still trying to use an event like this one to clamp down on American's rights to bear arms....

Like another member said, put gun/knife screening stations in schools, don't try to use events like this to "take away the guns of all Americans because of a crazy killer"....

Yea.. And some people are just plain pyschotic.
no denying that..
The problem is that the means to vent their frustrations are easily available.

Nobody is trying to take anything aways from cancer deaths et all..

Point is.. why do you need a gun?
Do defend yourself from marauding pyscho?
How does a gun dealer distinguish between the two?
Is that self protection worth a massacre like this?
No civilian needs to bear arms..


[edit on 17-4-2007 by Daedalus3]

Originally posted by seenitall
Australian news sources are reporting the following:

33 Dead.
1 Shooter over 2 incidents. The staff/police apparently only warned people via e-mail and only cancelled classes 2 hours later when the next attack began. Someone was quoted as saying 'heads will roll' over the warning procedures.
The shooter used 2 9mm handguns and reloaded multiple times and ended my killing himself.

It is very possible the police thought the killer was done in the first attack.

Noone knew exactly what the killer was going to do next.

We have the benefit of "insight is 20/20" right now because the events already happened. But the police had no idea what the intentions of the shooter were like.

It is also possible that the police thought if they would have announced in loudspeakers that there was a killer on the loose the shooter would barricade himself and take hostages with him, which is apparently what they were trying to avoid, hence not letting the shooter know the police was after him.

The killer wasn't aware that the police was after him, which a regular criminal would just go on with his business of trying to get away without attracting much attention. But the fact is the shooter didn't have any intentions of leaving the school after shooting his ex-girlfriend and new boyfriend, if he ever did shoot them.

He was there to kill as many people as he could. Which again leads me to believe this was a hate crime.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by Muaddib]

Perhaps he just didn't like Monday's like the guy in Austin. There is a Bob Geldof song there somewhere I am sure.

I'm not attacking the police, merely stating the facts.

I know that if any shooting happened over here evacuation sirens would be goin full bore... Not e-mails.

The article also mentioned the killer walking from classroom to classroom..........

It didn't sound as if there was any protection for the people in that were in that block.

Personally I think it could have been handled better from what I have heard, but I'm sure dealing with such situations is a difficult business.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by seenitall]