OT: Another shooting at Virginia Tech

Wondo

1 dead and possibley 20 or more shot

My two neices are down there!

kcballboy

Reports are confirming that 20 are dead.

That's scary to think about Wondo. I hope your neices are ok.

22 dead, including the shooter

Wondo

<< <i>Reports are confirming that 20 are dead.

That's scary to think about Wondo. I hope your neices are ok. >>




Thanks. I just talked to my sister-in-law. The freshman lives in the dorm next door. She is fine and her sister, who dropped her off this morning, is safely on her way back to PA.

stown

What a shame.

scooter729

CNN is now saying 21 dead and possibly another 20 people shot. So scary. God bless....

Stingray

God be with their families!!

mikeschmidt

How sad and utterly tragic...

shambo2000

I'm a former VT employee and live in the local area. Local media are reporting 22 dead including the shooter. Atleast 20 more are injured. The scarry thing is that there was one shooting in residence hall at about 7:15 this morning and classes weren't canceled. About two hours later there was a shooting in a classroom where most of the fatalities occured. The police believe there was only one shooter. If anyone needs updated information feel free to pm me, I'll be watching the local live coverage.

Shannon
shambo2000

Brian48

Body count is up to 32 according to this store http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266310,00.html.

What the hell happened here?

Wondo

The first shooting occurred about 7:15 - that's when the 911 call came in. My niece arrived on campus next to that dorm at 8:15. The University apparantly allowed classes to continue and the general population was unaware of a gunman. He struck again two hours later in a class room.

shambo2000

Local media is still reporting 22 dead and 29 injured in local hospitals. Four of the 29 are critical and in surgery. Atleast one of the injuries is a broken leg when a student jumped out of a second floor window to flee the shooter. There are reports of students jumping from fourth floor windows but they are uncomfirmed.

Stingray

Rumour (hate those) have it that he was lining students up and asking them where his girlfriend was and when they did not know he shot them. I hope that this is not true!!

shambo2000

Local media now reporting 31 deaths and that number has been confirmed by the Associated Press. Holy Cow!

julen23

wutz the deal?

$5k per bullet would solve all these gun-violence BS.

rock is a genius

julen

storm888

"$5k per bullet would solve all these gun-violence..."

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

Identifying and locking up psycho-criminals seems
to be a more equitable and viable solution.

A few armed civilians at the scene this morning
would likely have led to a different outcome.

Wondo

From students on campus: After the initial shooting, the University advised them by email that there was an incident and that they should be careful.

Amazing

Gonblott

That school doesn't have any security or metal detectors?

Brian48

It's a college campus, not an inner city public school. I wouldn't be surprised if very few colleges have this level of security. I know mine didn't and still don't.

Ahmanfan

I go to Mizzou and it would have been just as easy here for a gunman to do what he did at VT. Metal detectors in dorms/classroom buildings? nope.

pandrews

<< <i>A few armed civilians at the scene this morning
would likely have led to a different outcome. >>



Absolutely.

shambo2000

VT is a public university with roughly 25,000 students. The campus is huge and accessable by the public. The university has a large police force and the town of Blacksburg has a police force capable of being on the campus in minutes, probably seconds. There's no way this could have been prepared for but from reports the response by local authorities was swift.

larryallen73

Can happen ANYwhere. My buddy got his masters at V-tech and I visited him there. Blacksburg seemed like a nice sleepy town to me.

Wondo

A large college campus is like a small city with many access roads in and out of the property. There is no way to "secure" its borders, because it really doesn't have any. Security comes from within by the campus police department. It's not unlike your town of 25,000 people.

originalisbest

College campuses as a rule are very open places where people feel free to be on the common grounds, make their way to and from classes, etc. This unfortunately could conceivably happen at any such place. You can't always expect someone to be armed and in the right place at the right time - but I certainly wish that had been the case here. Or even better, if whomever the shooter turns out to be - perhaps if someone had identified beforehand that he was acting suspiciously. But who knows if the shooter even had been, there may have been no sign.

Agree with wondo that a lockdown procedure should have been much better executed than what seems to have been the case. If nothing else a review of better procedures will hopefully help minimize or stop other tragedies before they happen.

Terrible, and my thoughts are with the VT people and their families...

BobaFett72

It's a large sprawling campus, no way to have "metal detectors" completely unrealistic.

What is mind boggling is the delay from the first shooting, to the second and the inability to locate and stop the gunmen in between.

p.s.
I'm also glad the folks here in Sports/Mem. forum can discuss this without getting their panties in a bunch.

I posted the same info on the coin forum and the thought police are crying foul.

There IS life away from the computer, glad the folks over recognize that world events sometimes take precedence over smooth edged dollar coins.

goose3

No kidding Boba....I think a few of them got full fledged Wedgies.

storm888

Lawsuits and BIG settlements are on the horizon.

The problem, it appears, VT is about to have
springs from their nearly three-hour failure
to lock that place down as tight as a drum
after this AM's first "incident."

The cops thought they were investigating the
aftermath of an isolated event, while the real
horror began to unfold just 300+ yards away.

The thing went from 1 dead to 30+ dead,
when, plaintiffs will argue, it did not have to.

ALL such large campuses need to be policed
by private cops at ALL times. The ratio of cops
to students needs to be HIGH. Higher tuition
is a small price to pay for improved security.

shambo2000

FBI and ATF are confirming that the shooter was a young asian male with atleast two handguns. They haven't confirmed if he was a student or not.

The shooter was found dead in the basement of the building where the second shootings took place of self inflicted wounds.

The biggest question within the local media seems to be what happend in the two hours between the two shootings?

earlycalguy

I heard on the initial shooting the paramedics were called because 2 people had fallen off their bunk beds. they didn't know it was a shooting until the paramedics arrived and saw bullet holes. that report said 2 initially shot, not one person.

maybe the initial victim was the killers current boyfriend?

Brian48

A lot of sprinkled reports are coming in that this was a crime of passion of some sort. The shooter evidently had a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend at this school in which he was looking for.

shambo2000

Local media is reporting uncomfirmed accounts that the first shooting in the dorm was a male and female and the female may have been the girl friend of former girl friend of the shooter. One of the two was killed but no reports as to which. They are also reporting that the initial 911 call was for someone who had fallen out of a bunk.

Boopotts

<< <i>A lot of sprinkled reports are coming in that this was a crime of passion of some sort. The shooter evidently had a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend at this school in which he was looking for. >>



Brilliant. I know whenever a girl dumped me my first thought was to kill people completely unrelated to the break-up.

kcballboy

If the girlfriend did in fact survive, can you imagine having to live with the fact that your actions may have resulted in all this? Not to say that she's to blame at all, but I imagine there would be some guilt.

originalisbest

Whoever needs to feel guilty about this, I would say it certainly shouldn't be the ex-GF, though it's human nature to.

Brian48

I'd say she showed good sense in dumping the turd if that's what she did.

Gonblott

<< <i>It's a large sprawling campus, no way to have "metal detectors" completely unrealistic.

>>



Well now they should and MUST have them installed. Are you kidding me? The world isn't safe anymore and every precaution should be made.

Today even elementary schools have metal detectors along with security. And just to think growing up we came home late for dinner and never locked are doors and thought nothing of it.

kcballboy

Privatized self-defense is cheaper. Everyone gets their own gun.

originalisbest

gonblott, you're imagining a project whereby every building and open space everywhere will have metal detectors? Not feasible.

Gonblott

No but in main entrances and cameras all around the building.

cravetopps

<<<< you're imagining a project whereby every building and open space everywhere will have metal detectors? Not feasible. >>>

and where would this stop? Grocery Stores, Dept. Stores, Churches......

They had two hours to react and secure the campus. They failed. In fact, they appear to have been grossly negligent. How can you think a place is secure when you don't have the gunman in custody??

Private, armed campus police should be a given as well as a campus security plan that alerts everyone immediately whether they have access to email or not.

The State of Virginia is going to pay a dear price for this tragedy but nothing even close to the poor parents who will have to suffer through the rest of their lives with this incomprehensible loss.

GDM67

Guys, like Shannon, I'm very close to this campus. I didn't go to Tech but I've spent a lot of past time there. It's about a 10 minute drive from where I am right now. Can we please not turn this into a thread about guns and gun control?

Carew29

Nothing like the good ole(cowboy) days when everybody(at least the males) all carried. I can say for certian the number would not have have been that high.

pandrews

<< <i>Can we please not turn this into a thread about guns and gun control? >>



youre the first person to even mention the term "gun control".. so you probably just turned this thread into that very subject..

TNTonPMS

Yea, don't because it has nothing to do with guns or the lack of being able to control one .


It's more about locking up these sick individuals before they get a chance to walk into the schools .

We worry about safe guarding our country and our cities and our borders and we can't even keep our schools safe .

This is a big problem, because I suppose it would be extremely difficult to see something like this comming .

What an absolute catastrophe !

I couldn't live if my son never made it home from school .
I feel so bad for the parents of these kids .

calaban7

This is so sad. Think how many of these smart kids would be alive right now , if they had they the right to protect themself. To think that there are people out there that believe we are a better society by not allowing rational people the ability to protect themselves.

One of my sons is looking to attend there is the fall. He called me and asked if I had been listening to the news. I said yes. He then asked "if I still would let him go there ? " I told him , yes its a great school.

I hope this works out well for the school. I cannot even imagine what the parents of these murdered students must be going through. May GOD help us all on this dark day.

JackWESQ

Following up storm888's post regarding lawsuits and settlements, I just watched the press conference given by University police Chief Wendell Flinchum and all I could think was that Chief Flinchum was speaking as though he had already realized that the authorities had made a critical error in not shutting down the university after the first shooting around 7:15 a.m. Would shutting down the University after the first shooting have prevented the second shooting? Who knows?

But the real inquiry in the eyes of the law is whether reason would have dictated that the university be shut down. Perhaps this is one of those prime examples of what should or should not have happened, e.g. the second shooting around 9:50 a.m. should not have happened. For those other members of the bar, I see big settlements after getting past a demurrer and motion for summary judgment.

/s/ JackWESQ

storm888

ABC radio is reporting that the alleged shooter has
been tentatively IDd as a foreign national from China,
here on a student visa.

There are more than 2000 - that is almost 10% of the pop -
foreign students at VT; most all studying engineering.

Now, that brain-base will come under attack, and the whole
thing will get swamped in an immigration debate.

storm888

Now, the anti-gun gangs are all over my TV; every channel.

They are telling America that "guns caused this tragedy."

The talking heads seem to be very sympathetic.

Shocking.

grote15

My prayers are with all the families of these victims. Politicizing a tragic situation such as this, whether your pro-gun control or not, is inappropriate, IMO.

Wondo

I had two nieces on campus during the tragedy. One is a freshman, and the other delivered her back yesterday, dropped her off in front of the classroom in question at 8:15 am today, and returned to PA. The older one has served a hitch in Iraq as an MP and is due to return to that theatre this fall. It has been quite a day.

I will not expound on my political views in this forum, one, because I don't think it appropriate to cheapen the tragedy, and two, nothing can stop a madman who has no intention of escape.

Please pray (or do whatever you do) for these kids and there families. It has been a horrible day.

GDM67

<< <i> Politicizing a tragic situation such as this, whether your pro-gun control or not, is inappropriate, IMO. >>

Which was more or less my original point.