Deadly shooting at US university

[gr8fuldaniel]

If...

Police Chief Flinchum stated at the press conference that contrary to earlier reports no arrests had been made.

then, how come....

An unidentified man is arrested. It is unclear what role he played in the shooting. Sources in University Relations told the student newspaper there may have been two arrests

Same article has 2 people shot in 1st incident....

Tonight Virginia Tech chief of police Wendall Flinchum confirmed that two people were killed at West Ambler and 31 at Norris Hall, including the gunman.

All above quotes

My heart goes out to the friends and family of the victims.

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: DEEJ85 This seems to be an increasingly occurring trend that is starting to be a real problem. It seems to me that the two main factors that cause this to happen, are the perpetrators willingness/eagerness to do such an action and the guns which they seem to be doing it with. Now even if you miraculously manage to keep guns out of all the people who are likely to do this, They still have the motive. If you take away guns people will purchase them illegally. If they cannot get a gun, they will end up using a knife, baseball bat or even bombs. If someone wants to commit this crime, they will find a way to do so. It also seems that every gunman that commits this crime has no concern for self preservation. They seem to kill indiscriminately with no specific motive and often will kill themselves or let themselves get killed by police. So it seems to me that in order to put a stop to these crimes we have to stop the people and not the guns. Also seeing as how most of these crimes result in suicide, I assume that this irrational behavior is a result from mental illness or depression. We often hear the phrase " It is a call for help" Could this be a possibility? If someone is hurting emotionally or mentally they may do something outragious in order to get attention and help. Often suicidal people will call the police or tell someone of their plan. Why would they do this if they want to commit suicide? could something so innocuous or vague sounding be the cause of such behavior?

I don't think this is something that can be fixed, or eliminated. Even if we somehow eliminated all guns from society, that wouldn't have stopped McVeigh, and so it wouldn't stop someone else who has the same intention: kill as many people as possible and then die.

I don't know how we deal with this kind of thing.

[Slevin57]

I live in Virginia myself, and my friend goes to Virginia Tech.

Just to give you a 1st hand report.. He was walking to the building, heard shots ring out. The police, sheriff and SWAT team stormed the building. The sheriif's fired their shotguns before entering the building.

....

I think this is an appropriate time for condolences to Virginia Tech, the students, and certainly the students that were killed. Now is not the time for inferences to other political issues.

It's sad that these events happen. We can only be thankful that they are very rare occurances.

I think this is a prime example of a term someone coined in another topic.. "outburst violence"

It's hard for us to grasp how a simple domestic dispute between a guy and his girlfriend could turn into 33 dead students and more injured.

[Zeebadee]

Quote by: DEEJ85 Now even if you miraculously manage to keep guns out of all the people who are likely to do this, They still have the motive. If you take away guns people will purchase them illegally. If they cannot get a gun, they will end up using a knife, baseball bat or even bombs. If someone wants to commit this crime, they will find a way to do so.

This is simply nonsense. Tell me how someone could kill 33 people and injure another 29 or so with a baseball bat.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: Slevin57 The sheriif's fired their shotguns before entering the building.

I wonder if any students died from shotgun wounds?

I wonder if the first pair to die were a murder suicide and the rest were all a trigger happy frenzy of a police state theater.

My condolences to those affected.
Big Brother deserves suspicion

edit to add:
Att Gen Gonzalez got a postponement because of this.
They will kill to get their way. Thats just the way they roll.

[Chaossaber314]

Quote by: Jose For a bit of perspective, imagine this happening five to ten times a day every day, Welcome to Iraq! my condolences to all families involved

This is neither the time nor the place.

Quote by: Gr8fulDaniel I wonder if any students died from shotgun wounds? I wonder if the first pair to die were a murder suicide and the rest were all a trigger happy frenzy of a police state theater.

Do you have any real evidence to back up this claim or are you just speculating nonsense?

[Zinkovich]

Jack Thompson was just on Fox News blaming the shooting on videogames before any information has been released, and Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps has already said he's protesting the funeral of these students(VT provides benefits to same-sex and unmarried couples).

The sad thing is that I feel Phelps and Thompson won't be the end of this. We're going to see a lot of exploitation from numerous fanatics and pundits to get publicity in the next couple of days, I reckon.

[DEEJ85]

Quote by: Zeebadee This is simply nonsense. Tell me how someone could kill 33 people and injure another 29 or so with a baseball bat.

well obviously not the same outcome would be reached, But someone who wants to hurt as many people as possible could do considerable damage to a crowded campus with a baseball bat or even a knife. Guns are just the easiest method.

also what about bombs? Improvised explosive devices seem to be relatively easy to make.

[Slevin57]

Quote by: gr8fuldaniel I wonder if any students died from shotgun wounds? I wonder if the first pair to die were a murder suicide and the rest were all a trigger happy frenzy of a police state theater. My condolences to those affected. Big Brother deserves suspicion edit to add: Att Gen Gonzalez got a postponement because of this. They will kill to get their way. Thats just the way they roll.

No...they were making sure the shot guns were loaded. They would not want the first shot to let them know the gun didn't work while facing another armed person.

Also, In events like this the news tends to come out very very quickly. Facts are misinterpreted and alot of false news come out. Over the next few days things will be cleared up.

One of the problems of shootings like this is that you can't really let anyone out of the building. You have no way to identify the shooter yourself among people streaming out. They may have arrested someone who attempted to flee the building just to get out. They did have the building's secure. At 12:30 PM they had begun clearing all of the buildings on campus.

Aside from the fact that picture is taken in broad daylight with the sun shining. It was cloudy with flurries at Tech today.

[pahl]

It has to really suck to be the girlfriend that broke up with him now... even though she obviously is not to blame for this, just imagine.

Quote: Chaossaber314 Quote by: Jose For a bit of perspective, imagine this happening five to ten times a day every day, Welcome to Iraq! my condolences to all families involved This is neither the time nor the place.

No, it is the time and the place. I think its important to point that out now, when people are feeling sadness for these poor students and their families so that they realize that people in iraq, and other places, are more then numbers.

[Chaossaber314]

It's an entirely different and unrelated situation and to use this tragedy to make a political point is ghoulish at best.

[Osborn F Enready]

pahl said: No, it is the time and the place. I think its important to point that out now, when people are feeling sadness for these poor students and their families so that they realize that people in iraq, and other places, are more then numbers.

I agree.

[Jason]

Quote by: Pooeypants How many school shootings have there been in the UK in the past decade? (Just playing the devil's advocate)

No idea. But it's not relevant. My point is that the quantity of students killed per incident could be reduced, not the number of incidents.

[Chris the Chees]

Quote by: Jason No idea. But it's not relevant. My point is that the quantity of students killed per incident could be reduced, not the number of incidents.

The answer is none.

And of course incidents like this could be reduced if not eliminated. Remove the ability to easily aquire guns and you remove the threat of random spree shootings.

[The Decider]

Quote by: Chaossaber314 It's an entirely different and unrelated situation and to use this tragedy to make a political point is ghoulish at best.

The whole gun control debate was already under discussion prior to the Iraq comment. Iraq has no gun control and similar atrocities every week; hence the relevance. Why didn't you play thread police at the first mention of politics on this thread? Or do only certain political topics meet with your approval?

[The Decider]

Quote by: Jason My point is that the quantity of students killed per incident could be reduced, not the number of incidents.

But Poopeypants does make a valid point about the absence of these types of senseless mass killings in the UK, or elsewhere in the First World. I can only remember two or three cases outside of the US over the past decade; one in New Zealand and a couple in Australia; Canada had one too. Why does America suffer this kind of mass violence with such regularity? Columbine. Arizona. Kentucky. San Diego. Etc. Etc. Etc. And now Virginia Tech. The problem impacts high schools, colleges, and also work places. "Going Postal" is a uniquely American form of homicidal psychosis, so named for a spate of Post Office shooting sprees. Something about America encourages these events. What is it?

[fushigi]

The BBC article just mentioned the shooter was male, Asian, just under six feet tall. People's Daily reported this:

It is not immediately known if there is any Chinese students among the killed or wounded. U.S. media said there are a total of over 2,000 international students in the Virginia Tech and about half are from India and China.

If the shooter turns out to be a Chinese exchange student, this incident's going to have serious repercussions for my friends looking to get visas.

And that's just nonsense.

[fushigi]

More.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has declared a state of emergency.

Is this really necessary?

[The Decider]

Quote by: fushigi The BBC article just mentioned the shooter was male, Asian, just under six feet tall. People's Daily reported this:If the shooter turns out to be a Chinese exchange student, this incident's going to have serious repercussions for my friends looking to get visas. And that's just nonsense.

Doubtful. If the shooter had been a foreign Muslim, especially an Arab, then you'd see the predictable backlash. Americans won't hold Chinese students accountable for the actions of a single deranged psychopath. If anything, I think many Americans will be relieved that this time it wasn't the usual angry white male.

[fushigi]

Quote by: The Decider Doubtful. If the shooter had been a foreign Muslim, especially an Arab, then you'd see the predictable backlash. Americans won't hold Chinese students accountable for the actions of a single deranged psychopath. If anything, I think many Americans will be relieved that this time it wasn't the usual angry white male.

Only time will tell. I think it's foolish to believe that this event won't be used as a political football to push forward any of our representatives' current policies.

Already, some 30-40% of Chinese visa applications are rejected in pursuit of protectionist measures to "save American jobs." I'm certain the rhetoric will come supporting tougher measures against issuing foreign visas from this - if not directly from the mouths of officials, from their xenophobic lobbyist groups.

You can be sure I'll post it when it comes.



Do you really think this image won't motivate anti-immigrationists to mount their soapboxes? Just wait until we get photos of the "Boy Scout" Chinese guy who did this (if he turns out to be Chinese after all).