VA - Virginia Tech Shooting, 32 murdered, 23 injured, 16 April 2007

[SadieMae]

Sounds that way. If it turns out to be true. I think the chances of coincidence (two shooters, unrelated) would be astronomical.

And VERY frightening!

 

[Marthatex]

Campus cops are usually the bottom of the cop barrel. At my university, the cops are a joke. If something like this happened, they might wet their pants.
And, that may explain why the VT CP made that stupid decision after the first shooting that the killer had left campus. How did they know that FOR SURE? They didn't. The inepititude is obvious. A lot of students died because of the mishandling of the earlier incident. Someone is going to be in deep doo doo after this is all sorted out. VT is already trying to spin the whole thing to make them look good.

I agree with Mabel when she said in an earlier post that she cringed when she heard the media saying this was the worst mass killing ever in the US because some fool might want to up the ante. Kind of like the Guiness Book of mass killing.

Face it everyone; our society is sick. And sad.

It's not the worst mass killing - remember Oklahoma City bombing? Even O'Reilly said it wrong (shockers); it is the worst mass SHOOTING incident in our country. Or perhaps campus shooting; I'm not sure. Charles Whitman would be second.

I agree; even the Larry King headline was "Worst Campus Shooting in History", or some such. Is there a contest?

There are going to be LAWSUITS big time. To think they'd had bomb threats for two weeks! Then no way to warn students, no effort after first shooting to protect the rest of campus, no SIREN or BLARE, or protocal for behavior in an emergency. Two hours to put a policeman or FBI in front and back of every building. Unbelievable incompetence IMO.

What happened to Homeland Security in that town? Was there any? When people start mulling over what happened here they're going to say -ARE WE STILL NOT PREPARED for terrorists or any other crisis???? Amazing.

Dr. Phil was actually really good on Larry King; he said "this should be a huge wake-up call; WE LIVE IN A DIFFERENT ERA now.

 

[SadieMae]

Perspective.

When we think about the immensity of 33 deaths, and how many people, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and schoolmates this affects, then we can better understand what is going on in Iraq, where only this many deaths, in any given day, would be considered a better day.

Military Fatalities: By Month
Jan03 --- ---Jan04 52 ---Jan05 127 --1Jan06 64 ---Jan07 86
Feb03 --- ---Feb04 23 ---Feb05 66 ---Feb06 58 ---Feb07 84
Mar03 92 --- Mar04 52 ---Mar05 39 ---Mar06 33 ---Mar07 82
Apr03 80 ---Apr04 140 ---Apr05 52 ---Apr06 82 --- Apr07 69 (thru 4-16-07)
May03 41 ---May04 84 ---May05 88 --May06 79 --May07
Jun03 36 --- Jun04 50 ---Jun05 83 ---Jun06 63 ---Jun07
Jul03 49 ---- Jul04 58 ---Jul05 58 ---Jul06 46 ---Jul07
Aug03 43 --- Aug04 85 ---Aug05 85 ---Aug06 66 ---Aug07
Sep03 33 --- Sep04 77 ---Sep05 52 --- Sep06 77 ---Sep07
Oct03 47 --- Oct04 110 ---Oct05 99 --- Oct06 110 ---Oct07
Nov03 110 --Nov04 141 ---Nov05 86 ---Nov06 78 ---Nov07
Dec03 48 --- Dec04 76 ---Dec05 68 --- Dec06 115 ---Dec07

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Jan-06 779 --- Jan-07 1802
Feb-06 846 --- Feb-07 1531
Mar-06 1092---Mar-07 1889
April-06 1009-- April-07 594 (thru 4-16-07)
May-06 1119 --- May-07
June-06 870 ---June-07
July-06 1280 ---July-07
Aug-062966 ---Aug-07
Sept-063539 ---Sept-07
Oct-061539 ---Oct-07
Nov-061864 ---Nov-07
Dec-061752 ---Dec-07

http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

I truly have sympathy for the lost lives of our military and their families. But these men and women know they are in circumstances where they could lose their life. They voluntarily signed to put their lives on the line for our country. I cannot compare the shock and horror of what happened in VA to what's going on in Iraq. It's something that can be predicted and expected every day in Iraq, not on a college campus. At least in Iraq, they are armed. These students were totally defenseless!!!

 

[hallowedbe]

The biggest excuse VT is using is the size of the campus. Boffo! These kids would NEVER have died if Campus Security, in their great wisdom, had not THOUGHT the shooter left campus. HELLO...who saw the shooter? and knew it was him leaving? The VT pres should not have listenened to these so called cops. 32 kids are dead because they, for whatever reason, blew it. As Martha says, LAWSUITS will be stacking up soon.

Dumb is not a good excuse.

 

[concernedperson]

I truly have sympathy for the lost lives of our military and their families. But these men and women know they are in circumstances where they could lose their life. They voluntarily signed to put their lives on the line for our country. I cannot compare the shock and horror of what happened in VA to what's going on in Iraq. It's something that can be predicted and expected every day in Iraq, not on a college campus. At least in Iraq, they are armed. These students were totally defenseless!!!

Of course we all support our troups and yes, they understand the peril. What happened today is a parents worse nightmare. Yes, our children are defenseless against murderers with weapons and child molesters who deem them a target.

Fox speculating that this 2nd shooting is terriorist inspired.Lord, I don't know as this is so uncertain. But if so this is a hole that needs to be filled.

 

[hipmamajen]

I don't know the situation at Virginia Tech. But I was teaching at UCLA during the Los Angeles riots and know from experience it isn't easy to "close" a large, college campus.

A large university may be bigger than many small cities. And we all remember how difficult it was to evacuate cities in the Gulf before a hurricane.

At UCLA, on the second day of the riots, "closing" meant about 60,000 of us hit the parking lots at the same time. It took 3 or 4 hours just to get out of each lot. Had there been a shooter on campus that day, he would have had 60,000 sitting targets.

I see, that makes sense.

 

[Marthatex]

I truly have sympathy for the lost lives of our military and their families. But these men and women know they are in circumstances where they could lose their life. They voluntarily signed to put their lives on the line for our country. I cannot compare the shock and horror of what happened in VA to what's going on in Iraq. It's something that can be predicted and expected every day in Iraq, not on a college campus. At least in Iraq, they are armed. These students were totally defenseless!!!

No, they are not voluntarily extended an extra three months, when they are already stressed out and exhausted from their tour.

No, some volunteered long ago and NEVER thought they would be in a guerilla war like this one. (National Guard?)

Buzz's point is that we are blaze about the deaths over there, though even more numerous - because we don't really see it "up close and personal', also because they've been at it so long we "predict" it, just as you said, we know it's going to keep on happening and we're just plain used to it.

If we were there, the sight of our people being literally "blown up" every day would bother us alot. It should bother us alot every day. And it doesn't because we don't see it like the drama we're seeing on TV today. We're practically "immune" to hearing about overseas deaths.

Yes, this is off topic but Buzz was trying to point something out; and it's a good point to think about. Some people will sit google-eyed watching the TV all night; but won't bat an eye any more about "50 dead in a suicide bomb"; "2 helicopters down". Our guys are innocent too, because they're blown up by bombs buried in the road that they just didn't see.

To our children growing up, sadly, violence everywhere is our way of life and what we see on TV every day. Violent videogames are a path to manhood, violent movies are fun and like someone said above, our whole society including our foreign policy is "a little off".

 

[reb]

yet another reason i am so glad i have not brought kids into this sick world... too many insane men and boys out there going on murderous rampages, killing innocent people. i would be terrified to send my kids to school OR college. at the rate we are going, it's going to start being one a day, or more.

 

[Amraann]

Does anyone know yet if this was one shooter or if it was 2 seperate instances??

I have been thinking about the Campus lockdown issue and I read what Nova said.
The police had no reason to think that there was anything more then a crime of passion after the first shooting.
I just don't think anyone could have predicted what happened later.

 

[concernedperson]

Does anyone know yet if this was one shooter or if it was 2 seperate instances??

I have been thinking about the Campus lockdown issue and I read what Nova said.
The police had no reason to think that there was anything more then a crime of passion after the first shooting.
I just don't think anyone could have predicted what happened later.

That is what it seems at this point. But, news is slowly leaking.

 

[fifi]

My sympathies are spread in many different directions.

Sorry Buzz, I misread your post and I retract my statement.

Post another count detailing Iraqi civilian casualties and I will repost giving some direction to my sympathies.

The perspective thing is still valid.

I hasten to add that I am shocked to my bones by what has happened.

 

[concernedperson]

Sorry Buzz, I misread your post and I retract my statement.

Post another count detailing Iraqi civilian casualties and I will repost giving some direction to my sympathies.

The perspective thing is still valid.

I hasten to add that I am shocked to my bones by what has happened.

I am not shocked but I am saddened. There is more to this story than a domestic abuse situation IMO. But we have to wait and see.

 

[scandi]

yet another reason i am so glad i have not brought kids into this sick world... too many insane men and boys out there going on murderous rampages, killing innocent people. i would be terrified to send my kids to school OR college. at the rate we are going, it's going to start being one a day, or more.

I see your point Reb, but you can't let the bad guys win by keeping the kids out who want a college education to be able to compete in a tightening job market out there. My grandaughter has her cap set to go to college and she needs that education.

 

[Marthatex]

yet another reason i am so glad i have not brought kids into this sick world... too many insane men and boys out there going on murderous rampages, killing innocent people. i would be terrified to send my kids to school OR college. at the rate we are going, it's going to start being one a day, or more.

Well, people could have said that in '66, when Whitman struck. I was there. We got over it after being in shock awhile, and went on. Young people are especially resilient.

40 years later, we're still moseying along, with a bunch of crazies but somehow most of us manage to raise pretty good kids and all. In general, hasn't violent crime actually gone down???? I think so. In the past year or two, though, we've seen a sharp rise again - especially murders.

Terrorism is a whole different ballgame. Obviously college campuses and many other schools are just not prepared. Where were the homeland security workers in that town? Where was preparedness? It does seem like they had alot of ambulances.

As Dr. Phil said tonight, this is a different ERA and we'd better wake up. College campuses need to be better prepared. What a shame for these poor parents. They will never get over it.

 

[JBean]

our radio is reporting he had a facebook page. Has anyone found it yet? I haven't had a chance to look.

 

[daphnec]

our radio is reporting he had a facebook page. Has anyone found it yet? I haven't had a chance to look.

Have they given his name yet?

 

[JBean]

Have they given his name yet?

They wouldn't give it on the radio. That's why I can't find it. Is it William something or is that wrong?

 

[Buzz Mills]

Whatever happened, this shooter went to the Engring bldg, definitely planning on killing a lot of people. To chain the doors closed like that indicates that he didn't want anyone to escape alive. Two guns with clips. I saw the interview with the one girl who said he re-entered her classroom multiple times, shooting until only four students, out of about 25, walked out of that classroom, the rest were all dead, or wounded.

 

[JBean]

Whatever happened, this shooter went to the Engring bldg, definitely planning on killing a lot of people. To chain the doors closed like that indicates that he didn't want anyone to escape alive. Two guns with clips. I saw the interview with the one girl who said he re-entered her classroom multiple times, shooting until only four students, out of about 25, walked out of that classroom, the rest were all dead, or wounded.

Did you hear about the group of kids in the classroom that blocked the door 20 seconds before he tried to get in their room? he went and shot the kids across the hall instead.

 

[pedinurse]

Perspective.

When we think about the immensity of 33 deaths, and how many people, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and schoolmates this affects, then we can better understand what is going on in Iraq, where only this many deaths, in any given day, would be considered a better day.

Military Fatalities: By Month
Jan03 --- ---Jan04 52 ---Jan05 127 --1Jan06 64 ---Jan07 86
Feb03 --- ---Feb04 23 ---Feb05 66 ---Feb06 58 ---Feb07 84
Mar03 92 --- Mar04 52 ---Mar05 39 ---Mar06 33 ---Mar07 82
Apr03 80 ---Apr04 140 ---Apr05 52 ---Apr06 82 --- Apr07 69 (thru 4-16-07)
May03 41 ---May04 84 ---May05 88 --May06 79 --May07
Jun03 36 --- Jun04 50 ---Jun05 83 ---Jun06 63 ---Jun07
Jul03 49 ---- Jul04 58 ---Jul05 58 ---Jul06 46 ---Jul07
Aug03 43 --- Aug04 85 ---Aug05 85 ---Aug06 66 ---Aug07
Sep03 33 --- Sep04 77 ---Sep05 52 --- Sep06 77 ---Sep07
Oct03 47 --- Oct04 110 ---Oct05 99 --- Oct06 110 ---Oct07
Nov03 110 --Nov04 141 ---Nov05 86 ---Nov06 78 ---Nov07
Dec03 48 --- Dec04 76 ---Dec05 68 --- Dec06 115 ---Dec07

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Jan-06 779 --- Jan-07 1802
Feb-06 846 --- Feb-07 1531
Mar-06 1092---Mar-07 1889
April-06 1009-- April-07 594 (thru 4-16-07)
May-06 1119 --- May-07
June-06 870 ---June-07
July-06 1280 ---July-07
Aug-062966 ---Aug-07
Sept-063539 ---Sept-07
Oct-061539 ---Oct-07
Nov-061864 ---Nov-07
Dec-061752 ---Dec-07

http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

OK - and the war has WHAT to do with this?