Deadly shooting at US university

[pikatore]

Deadly shooting at US university

At least 22 people have been killed and 21 more injured after a gunman went on the rampage at the campus of Virginia Tech university in Virginia, US. Police say there were two separate shooting incidents - one at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a student dormitory, and Norris Hall, an engineering building. The incidents were about two hours apart. Police say they believe there was one gunman and that he is dead. The state university in the town of Blacksburg is home to 26,000 students. "We have a ballpark figure on fatalities. It's at least 20 fatalities," Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said.

What. The.

0_o

I'm having second thoughts about that US exchange program...

[Duke1985]

I just saw that on the news, at this point I think all we can say is what the hell.

[gr8fuldaniel]

ABC just reported 29 dead

[Duke1985]

One guy shoots nearly 50 people, thats got to be some kind of record.

[Jason]

32 dead so far. It's officially the largest shooting rampage in US history.
The BBC has live online video coverage if you're interested.

[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

[Osborn F Enready]

A sad day in Virginia, and thank you for the jarring perspective Jose, now is a time when it should be reflected on.

My condolances as well to anyone involved or knowing people involved.

[sevendogs]

Is it another case in favor of need of some reasonable gun control inour country?

[gw120]

After the first shooting the cops should have closed down the school. Assuming it was the same gunner they could have prevented 30 deaths.

[Fangrim]

Quote by: gw120 After the first shooting the cops should have closed down the school. Assuming it was the same gunner they could have prevented 30 deaths.

Apparently they thought it was an "isolated incident" before the 2nd shooting.

On a side note, our school was terrified the few days before spring break because of threats what "blood will reign" at our school on that Thursday of the week. Really scary...lots of security.

[Milton Bradley]

Quote by: sevendogs Is it another case in favor of need of some reasonable gun control inour country?

No, it's another example that you can never defend people against those who are willing to die for their cause.

[Jason]

Quote by: sevendogs Is it another case in favor of need of some reasonable gun control inour country?

Absolutely not.

See: Alcohol prohibition
See: War on drugs
See: Abstinence education

None of them work. The best policies are harm reduction measures, not bans.

Also, by no means am I advocating widespread gun possession, but I guarantee if 50% of students at the college owned a gun, the death toll would have been only a fraction of what it is.

[Zeebadee]

It's surprising that the same people that say "The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging" in some threads are the same people that claim the answer to these types of random shootings is "more guns".

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: gw120 After the first shooting the cops should have closed down the school.

I agree.

The rampage happened 2.5 hours after the 1st incident.

If somebody gets murdered on campus .... class is dismissed. Period.

Assuming it was the same gunner they could have prevented 30 deaths.

There were 2 shooters.

One committed suicide; the other was arrested.

Deadly shooting at Virginia Tech - On Deadline - USATODAY.com Update at 11:10 a.m. ET: The Associated Press says police have arrested a suspected gunman. WSLS-TV has the following details on its website: Virginia Tech officials say two incidents on campus today. One shooting occured [sic] between 7:30 and 7:15 AM at West Ambler Johnston Dorm. A second happend [sic] at 10 AM, no location was given at this time.

Where are campus police? Something stinks. I think we will learn later, the 2nd gunman was a cover-up for the first.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: Zeebadee It's surprising that the same people that say "The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging" in some threads are the same people that claim the answer to these types of random shootings is "more guns".

It seems like the only other folks with guns... that could have stopped them.... were out for donuts.

In fairness I suppose they had plenty of paperwork from the first incident that morning.

If there were more guns around... the shooter could have been stopped sooner.

The count is 33 now.

[Pooeypants]

Quote by: Jason Absolutely not. See: Alcohol prohibition See: War on drugs See: Abstinence education None of them work. The best policies are harm reduction measures, not bans. Also, by no means am I advocating widespread gun possession, but I guarantee if 50% of students at the college owned a gun, the death toll would have been only a fraction of what it is.

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

[gr8fuldaniel]

According to this there was only one shooter.
They thought he had left campus.
... retards.

SacBee BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) 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."

[Pooeypants]

To be fair, I don't think there are protocols for "When a student goes crazy and has a rampage around campus with hang gun shooting everyone".

[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?

[CoffeeSaint]

Quote by: Pooeypants To be fair, I don't think there are protocols for "When a student goes crazy and has a rampage around campus with hang gun shooting everyone".

No, but the comments made above to the effect that school should have been closed are correct, IMO. Even if you don't have a protocol ready to go (which they should have, considering the students already knew how to lock down), that should have been immediate: two people were killed, the gunman is at large; clear the campus until the killer is found. Isn't that what we do when we have a similar case in any other public venue? Close the building/business as a crime scene? Why wasn't that done here?