Shooting at Virginia Tech (1 Viewer)

[Christ Reynolds]

31 people have been killed in two shootings at Virginia Tech. Horrible.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/...r=HOME_2686709

CJ

 

[Bryan X]

I was listening to one girl tell how her friend was one of four in a classroom that didn't get killed. The friend played dead on the classroom floor. Damn, how much would that fuck you up for life.

 

[Brian D H]

I don't have much commentary right now - maybe later. I attended Virginia Tech for 5 years - this is really... I'm out of words.

 

[SethH]

I just graduated from VT in May 2006 (and in 2004). I have several friends there and thankfully all those who I am close to are accounted for. It is a very sad day for the Virginia Tech community and for the country as a whole.

The rumors I have heard from campus are that this is a domestic (boyfriend/girlfriend) situation. It will be interesting to see if they can determine the true motive.

 

[Scott L]

Sis goes there, switchboards were jammed up all day so no cell service. I kept in contact with her on aim most of the day which was a relief.

She said everyone is really just depressed and shocked. Many are heading home.

 

[Bryan X]

Glad to hear your sister is OK.

 

[bobbyg2]

Damn wacko...

If he was crazy enough to do that, they should have put him in a mental institution a while ago...

 

[Christ Reynolds]

I'm glad the shooter is dead, too bad he took lives before his own. This is devastating.

The initial link said it was a boyfriend/girlfriend incident, at least it did when I posted it.

CJ

 

[bobbyg2]

Seems that way. He wanted to know where his girlfreind was, I hope he didn't find her.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as that. Although there are some instances where this is so, in many cases there's no reason to suspect anything is wrong until someone snaps. The problem is that with modern technology, when someone does snap they can do one Hell of a lot of damage before they are stopped (and please, nobody derail this into a tedious gun law rant). In addition, even if it turns out that they were showing abberrant behaviour, it is surprisingly difficult to get someone incarcerated.

Whether the person in this case could have been stopped by early psychiatric intervention has yet to be determined. However, it said in the UK press that there was not a shut down of the university after the first shooting (the guy shot at least one person in a dorm and then shot students in a classroom about two hours later). If that is an accurate report, then I think that is something that needs to be addressed.

One other thing. Has anyone else noted how nearly all mass shootings are done by males?

 

[Brian Perry]

Why is it taking so long to ID the shooter?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Two ideas: first, it isn't always immediately obvious who are the victims and who is the killer. Nobody wants to brand an innocent victim as the killer, even briefly. Second, the media reports I've read say that he was 'Asian' which as far as the white media is concerned, covers anyone from Japan to Pakistan. If it turns out the guy was from a Muslim country I'll bet that they want to have all bases covered before releasing the information, just to cut down on the inevitable knee-jerk response from some of our more excitable news media.

A quick dumb Brit question - do I assume that a student 'dorm' is the same as one of our halls of residence? I.e. individual bedrooms with desk and a couple of chairs, and shared laundry, shower and kitchen facilities?

 

[Holadem]

In the US, in the context of race, "asian" strictly means "far eastern descent", i.e., chinese and the like, unlike in the UK where the term apparently covers a broader (and more accurate) racial background.

--
H

 

[andrew markworthy]

Holadem, thanks for this info. The news report I was citing was from a British agency, so my original interpretation might still hold true. Unless of course they were copying directly from an American source and not making the correction.

All of which is secondary to the point, I guess. Regardless of who did it and why, it can make little difference to what the bereaved and injured are feeling at the moment.

 

[RobertR]

He's been identified:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3048108&page=2

 

[Haggai]

Yes, your assumption is correct.

 

[Holadem]

I strongly mislike this "Student on a Visa" characterization which has spread through the headlines in the last couple of hours. The guy is a Permanent Resident of the US, and has been here since 1992 (when he was 8 years old).

He isn't here "on a visa" (a term which implies a temporary stay) any more than say, Peter Jennings (a Canadian citizen till a few years ago) was for most of his career.

The expression "Student on a Visa", beside being flatout innacurate because it suggest a "Foreign Student" status (a temporary status with limited rights), might conjure up uncomfortable echoes of 9/11 in people's mind I would think.

--
H

 

[Mark Giles]

Does anyone know what the killers "note" said yet?

 

[BrettB]

"America sucks, fat & happy, rich, greedy degenerates"... IOW it's your fault.

 

[andrew markworthy]

If one is going to go out on a killing spree and then commit suicide, one could at least have the decency to leave behind a note that's syntactically correct.

[EDIT] Have just read that he was an English major ...

What is especially tragic about this killing is not only have the lives of immediate families and loved ones been affected, but potentially thousands of others. For example amongst those killed was a leading researcher on cerebral palsy. What life changing discoveries might be denied because this person decided to go on a killing spree?