Rampage at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.

Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.

He defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."

Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound of shots echoing through the stone classroom building.

The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half-mile away, authorities said.

Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed in the classroom building, including the gunman, police said.

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My condolences.

 

Yup. Sad.

 

What type of gun was it?

 

That's absolutely horrible. Notihng can be bad enough to call for those kinds of actions.

looks like you and the president have something in common. An abundance of sympathy.

 

Well I'm not the one responsible for US gun laws.

 

He used two 9mm pistols. And since this guy was a Chinese national here on a student visa, I really don't think he aquired them in a legal manner.

 

How the hell does someone get away with that. The two in the Dorm I can see, but the 30 innocent victims in the Classroom should not have been in harms way. That makes 30 avoidable deaths. Someone has some explaining to do...

 

There's something seriously wrong indeed. How on earth he was allowed to get away with even half that many kills is beyond me.

As an aside, most 9mms have a clip of 15 bullets, that means he didn't miss once.

 

It's a shame that the coward killed himself. Vermin like that deserve to suffer a long and painful death. It's also a shame that there wasn't an armed citizen there to stop him.

 

yes because a shootout between two untrained people would be so much better.

it saddens me to hear this, but with the US wierd views on guns its hardly a surprise anymore

 

Pretend you're a cop. Someone kills two people in a domestic setting (the dorm), then disappears. Do you assume the murderer will resurface in two hours and kill another 31 people?

Probably not. So you're not prepared when it happens.

Pretend you're an administrator. You learn two people were murdered at your school. Do you cancel classes? Do you evacuate the school? Do you lockdown the school? If you do, why - and how?

Bear in mind that there are 26,000 undergrads alone at the school. It is, for all intents and purposes, a town. A town of 30k doesn't lockdown when someone gets murdered, because in most cases double murders aren't followed a few hours later by killing sprees.

Also bear in mind that by the time admin had any idea people had been killed the first two classes were already in progress.

He wounded 20-odd more people than he killed. Clearly, he reloaded. Repeatedly.

Valid point. There'd almost certainly be blue-on-blue as a result of armed citizens stopping the guy on his own. If cops don't know when to stop shooting--and who not to shoot--you can bet Joe Student wouldn't, either.

 

and your reason for believing this is?

 

Yes that's an excellent idea. I can see it now 30 people without experience trying to gun down one man in a confined place.

You know what would even be more effective? Grenades!

JFC exactly what this situation needs, more guns.

The police clearly had no idea who the shooter was when they became aware of the next shootings, according to statements they told everyone to lie down or get shot. Now let us paint the same situation only with innocent people all having guns. I wonder what the police would have done then.

 

What will it take?

 

I'm getting a bit desensitised to school/university shootings. I've gone through the whole outrage/sadness thing over them far too many times by now for this to have much effect, which is pretty sad in itself.

It seems a pretty common theme in school shootings that it's not the police that stop them - but either the gunman committing suicide, or a student or teacher stopping them.

I know that there is at least one that was stopped by another student having a gun. I don't know which one and I'm not going through the list of school shootings looking for it, but it's definately there.

Is there any kind of minimum competency test which allows you to buy a gun in the US? Just curious seeing that you all seem to be assuming that everyone in the situation is going to be untrained...

I'm still really curious as to why people feel the urge to shoot up schools and universities. It's almost an American cultural thing now. If the underlying problem was focused on rather than 'OMG! Guns!' then maybe we'd be closer to solving it. I can't imagine that the underlying problem is just guns - that seems pretty silly. Guns are what they use to kill people, not what inspires them to go out and kill people.

 

taking away what they use to kill people would however help...

after saying this the NRA will of cause come along and claim that even if guns where illigal crimminels would still get them. and other silly pro-gun rants

 

Oh, it is truly terrible.

 

I find it very interesting reading the comments about a Chinese student here to study at one of our schools kills 32 inocent people with guns it is illegal for him to even have, read again, a criminal with 2 illegal , outlawed guns he is not alowed to have by law and it turnes into a rant about americans and our gun laws. Americans didn't do it, the guns were against the law, and 33 people are dead. This is my last post on the subject.