Shooting at Virginia Tech (1 Viewer)

[Chris Lockwood]

> 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.

White media? Let's not get racist here. "Asian" means "of or from Asia", and Asia does extend from the countries you mentioned- actually further, since most of the Middle East is in Asia.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Chris, I didn't mean it in this context (though I can see how it could be interpreted that way). Please ignore my comments - they categorically *weren't* intended to be racist, and apologies for any offence caused.

 

[ThomasC]

I don't think the note has been revealed yet, and I think Brett was making a generalized note.

 

[mazersteven]

Where did this statement come from?

 

[BrettB]

"You caused me to do this"

Is anyone really surprised?

 

[Chris]

It is too bad this could not have been stopped, in almost any way before it escalated this far.

 

[Holadem]

Um. Yeah. Please. Let's not go there.

--
H

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The perp, like most criminals, is very stupid. Serial numbers on guns are not etched in, but rather stamped into the metal. The stresses from the stamping extend deep into the metal. Filing it off doesn't help: you can still read the serial number with proper photographic techniques.

 

[KurtEP]

I suppose this gives you some insight to his mental state, though. Why would you bother filing off serial numbers if you were planning to kill yourself? It looks like this may have ended up far beyond where he initially wanted it to go.

 

[Andrew Grall]

Agreed. This could so easily turn into an argument for either increased gun control or everyone should have guns.

I have my own feeling on this, but it doesn't belong here.

 

[Chris]

Sorry, was busy discussing this elsewhere, HTF was acting wonky everytime I tried to post.. didn't think that would go. Comment removed

 

[Mark Giles]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266460,00.html


Now parents want to fire the VT President and Campus police chief....

 

[MarkMel]

32 people died. Someone's head will roll whether or not it's rightly so.

 

[TravisR]

Yep, it's not like there's some type of playbook on how to handle a situation like that but someone's getting fired over it.

 

[SethH]

I really hope nobody gets fired over this. The university president is very good and while he may not have done everything right, I believe he acted completely rationally given the situation. I also believe it is rational to assume that because the shooter was a campus resident he most likely would have started killing people in his dorm if campus had been locked down. Same result but different victims.

 

[Mark Giles]

Yep, with 27k people in the area, plus the fact that he walked a mile to get to the ENG building, shows that it was just a matter of who would be his next targets. A crowd of students going home or leaving their classes may have resulted in additional bloodshed. A no-win in this situation.

I suppose if they locked the classroom doors, instructed everyone to stay away from the windows and doors, instilled an immediate curfew and had police spread out to question anyone still roaming around..... well, like you said...you now have Cho in his dorm with several other students.....

Another option could have been to e-mail all departments with a description of Cho. And to notify campus police immediately if he is seen. And to assume he is armed and dangerous. But I'm not sure if they knew for certain who he was before the second shooting. I remember reading that he was of Asian decent, but that was about it.

 

[Carlo_M]

What an awful tragedy, my thoughts and prayers to those victims, their families and friends.

One thing I could not stand yesterday was CNN's attempt to play the Blame Game. It's a sad commentary that the people who were nearest to the tragedy (the students/staff/faculty interviewed by CNN) were more professional than the news reporters who were hellbent on blaming campus security, police, administration for perceived faults. One student even went as far as to say "we are not blaming anyone but the shooter, this is a time of mourning for us." And the reporter said, "but there were over 2 hours between shootings..." trying to egg them on.

News reporters: You are there to report the news, not create or sensationalize it. Or to incite a riot/revolt.

Having lived, attended and worked at a major university for sixteen years now, there is no way [short of a major catastrophe that is obvious to all like a natural disaster] that an entire campus can get shut down that quickly, especially since there are a myriad of people in transit. That early in the morning, a lot of people don't even check email. Furthermore, from reports it sounds like the police thought they had an act of domestic violence (shooting the "girlfriend" and the R.A. in the dorm), and those rarely escalate into shooting sprees. I honestly don't see what they could have done differently that would have made sense without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight (which the reporters have in abundance).

Sorry just had to get that off my chest. This is a horrible, senseless tragedy, but let's put off the blame game until the bodies are interred and the grief has lessened with time. Instead they seemed to be savoring the word "massacre" every time they said it, and could tell that they were getting major TV face time in light of this disaster. My opinion of the press has never been lower than it was yesterday.

 

[SethH]

I was pleased to see that during the convocation yesterday afternoon the student body showed their support for President Steger despite what the media has tried to do. At the very beginning of the service, when they announced Steger's name and he stood up to walk to the podium the entire arena gave him a standing ovation before he ever said a word. I hope that gesture was enough to save his job and shut the media up.

 

[JohnS]

It was announced on Fox & Friends today that the one church organization that pickets at funerals( I forgot the church name) made a statement and said they will be picketing at as many VT campus funerals as possible...just sick

 

[mazersteven]

There is a playbook, and they do train for events like this.