Update! More than 20 dead in Virginia Tech shootings

[Caladan 19]

I can't believe the shootings were two hours apart and the second one couldn't have been prevented. So sad.

It's pissing me off that they knew there was a shooting, that the gunman escaped, and they didn't bother to tell anyone until the second round of shooting started because it was 'just a domestic violence shooting.'

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm not really surprised about the delay. Unfortunately it seems to take an incident like this (or indeed 9/11) to really illustrate the inefficiency and general incompetence that surrounds a lot of disaster/emergency planning.

[Peggy 1]

Very sad

[Heracles 417]

I'm not really surprised about the delay. Unfortunately it seems to take an incident like this (or indeed 9/11) to really illustrate the inefficiency and general incompetence that surrounds a lot of disaster/emergency planning.

They are located in the country, what sort of split second response do people seriously expect. Should of, could of, would off.. I think under the circumstances they did the best they could.

There are so many people out there saying, "well they should have contacted everyone sooner or locked down the campus". Okay geniuses, you tell me how a 'school', not FEMA, is supposed to notify 26,000 people of a threat they know very little about. Let alone lock down a 2600 acre campus..

People should be asking the real question as to what causes someone to carry out stuff like this in this country? What is the catalyst?? The average person has to stop looking for scape goats to blame in order to help them sleep at night..

If tragedies like this can can occur in a renowned school in the mountains of Virginia, I don't know where we are safe in the US..

Edited April 17, 2007 by Infidel

[Otto 83]

I'm not really surprised about the delay. Unfortunately it seems to take an incident like this (or indeed 9/11) to really illustrate the inefficiency and general incompetence that surrounds a lot of disaster/emergency planning.

They are located in the country, what sort of split second response do people seriously expect. Should of, could of, would off.. I think under the circumstances they did the best they could.

There are so many people out there saying, "well they should have contacted everyone sooner or locked down the campus". Okay geniuses, you tell me how a 'school', not FEMA, is supposed to notify 26,000 people of a threat they know very little about. Let alone lock down a 2600 acre campus..

People should be asking the real question as to what causes someone to carry out stuff like this in this country? What is the catalyst?? The average person has to stop looking for scape goats to blame in order to help them sleep at night..

If tragedies like this can can occur in a renowned school in the mountains of Virginia, I don't know where we are safe in the US..

Here in Austin (University of Texas), they just recently installed disaster-warning systems (sirens, public-address, etc)..only about two weeks ago for something just like this...guess thats how they should have contacted everyone (not saying VT should have, but if they had a system)...I think it's still too early to know what exactly happened today..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

There will always be scapegoats because no-one can satisfactorily explain what creates the sort of pyschology that would lead someone to do this kind of thing - regardless 'how' they go about doing it. Hence the blame often falls on the "usual suspects" (videogames, violent movies and the like) simply because its easy, convenient and doesn't require people to ask difficult questions. Questions that in all honesty can't really be answered.

Still, considering that this is far from a precedent in this country, it makes you wonder how government and private institutions have responded to the likes of Columbine - as random and meaningless as the act itself is, its clearly far from a freak occurrence.

Edited April 17, 2007 by erekose

[Caladan 19]

It's hard to say, Infidel. Earlier this year, though, VT was able to make a decision to cancel classes on the first day because someone *thought* they sighted an escaped con at the student center.

You don't have to put the campus under martial law, but if two of your students are dead in a dorm and the gunman is missing, it doesn't seem that it requires much to think that it shouldn't be business as usual on campus. It's not hard to decide to suspend morning classes.

[Otto 83]

Now they're reporting the shooter as: A 24 y/old Chinese student here on a student visa...

[Heracles 417]

You don't have to put the campus under martial law, but if two of your students are dead in a dorm and the gunman is missing, it doesn't seem that it requires much to think that it shouldn't be business as usual on campus. It's not hard to decide to suspend morning classes.

The thing is they had no way of knowing where the gunman was. In such circumstances people are usually told, by police, to stay indoors. The police where on campus trying to figure out what happened. No one would have guessed that this person would have walked half a mile and taken out a classroom.

[Otto 83]

You don't have to put the campus under martial law, but if two of your students are dead in a dorm and the gunman is missing, it doesn't seem that it requires much to think that it shouldn't be business as usual on campus. It's not hard to decide to suspend morning classes.

The thing is they had no way of knowing where the gunman was. In such circumstances people are usually told, by police, to stay indoors. The police where on campus trying to figure out what happened. No one would have guessed that this person would have walked half a mile and taken out a classroom.

Don't they put grammar/high-schools on lockdown (meaning doors locked, no one in or out) when things happen near by? Maybe this is something universities should consider now...

[Heracles 417]

Now they're reporting the shooter as: A 24 y/old Chinese student here on a student visa...

Wow. A similar but not as deadly incident occurred in Australia a few years back involving an international Asian student..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting

[Otto 83]

Now they're reporting the shooter as: A 24 y/old Chinese student here on a student visa...

Wow. A similar but not as deadly incident occurred in Australia a few years back involving an international Asian student..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting

I only pointed that report out because it made me wonder what ramifications (if any) might result in the visa-world...

Edited April 17, 2007 by Karin und Otto

[DeadPoolX 9]

Here in Austin (University of Texas), they just recently installed disaster-warning systems (sirens, public-address, etc)..only about two weeks ago for something just like this...guess thats how they should have contacted everyone (not saying VT should have, but if they had a system)...I think it's still too early to know what exactly happened today..

Interestingly enough, up until this disaster, the worst campus shooting in U.S. history was the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas at Austin. I believe the gunman -- UT student and former Marine Charles Whitman -- climbed the clock tower there and opened fire, killing about 16 students. I'm glad to see that UT has been attempting to impliment tougher controls on events on like these. All schools, regardless of their nature, should do the same.

Now they're reporting the shooter as: A 24 y/old Chinese student here on a student visa...

I hope that's not true. If it is true, I can't imagine the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that'll sweep the nation and how those in DC will respond in order to placate their constituents. Even if this guy is an illegal immigrant, that's still not much better. In the mind of the average American (this includes the lawmakers), there's very little difference between "legal" and "illegal" when it comes to word "immigrant." If the shooter of the worst mass-murder in U.S. history was indeed here on a student visa, then ALL visas will likely be looked at differently and immigrants in general will be given a tougher time.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Absolutely horrific.

I know it's a bit morbid, but I'm certainly not trying to be...but I just can't get it out of my mind how those poor families are feeling tonight while I'm tucked up all warm and cozy with my son sleeping peacefully upstairs and my husband here beside me. Makes me feel *so* very lucky and so heartbroken for them.