Breaking news: VT Shooting

[ARinNC]

I agree with your point, in hind-sight, a few responsible, armed students could have stopped this incident before it escalated to where it did today. I know if I had been on campus and armed, I would have tried to help stop this guy, even if it cost me my life.

I do not understand why campus and local police in US cities train for NBC, terrorist threats, bomb threats, and other scenarios, yet they never seem to train for quick and effective reaction to campus shootings. In my opinion, every large campus should have an AD-HOC SWAT-type reaction team.

[Voodoochild]

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.
...
The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
...

Good job Larry and VT board you could have prevented a tragedy but instead left your people helpless.

[Buckaroo]

From the BBC webpage

At least 31 people have been killed and 10 injured after a gunman went on the rampage at the campus of Virginia Tech university in Virginia, US.

May the Lord comfort the families of the victims...

[John_Wayne777]

These were needless deaths.

University campuses are VERY easy targets, made even more so by the refusal to allow responsible citizens (be they faculty, staff, or students) to carry legally owned concealed weapons.

One man with two handguns is only an overwhelming force when confronting people who have neither the means nor will to resist.

[John_Wayne777]

I do not understand why campus and local police in US cities train for NBC, terrorist threats, bomb threats, and other scenarios, yet they never seem to train for quick and effective reaction to campus shootings. In my opinion, every large campus should have an AD-HOC SWAT-type reaction team.

...and the mere creation of it would face insurmountable challenges.

Firstly, the political fallout on the campus of having a SWAT style team with SWAT style weapons....

Campus police departments are poorly funded and are afterthoughts most of the time. Our local university police has no long arms and does not even issue soft body armor.

They aren't capable of fielding a SWAT team.

On a campus the size of Virginia Tech, there is no quick and effective response to an active shooter situation. You simply cannot react fast enough to save everyone.

In an environment with that high a density of available targets, there is little LE response can do to stop a homicidal maniac bent on killing people.

The single best way to stop a situation like this is to have armed citizens among the intended victims who shoot back to stop the threat.

[JLM]

News is reporting a 2 hour delay between the two seperate shootings. WTF, over?!!!

[John_Wayne777]

News is reporting a 2 hour delay between the two seperate shootings. WTF, over?!!!

From what I understand early this morning this superstar went into a dorm room and shot two people, reportedly a girlfriend type person and an RA.

He apparently left the dorm and police responded to the initial shooting and began to investigate.

Apparently they locked things down while investigating, and thought the threat was over, and released the lockdown.

Nobody knows any of this for sure, but it seems to me that the shooter did the feared thing and blended in with the crowd, and once the lockdown was over he was free to move again...which he used to get into the engineering building and kill a whole metric crap-ton of people.

I am hearing reports that he chained up the doors in the engineering building to prevent escape, that he lined people up and shot them execution style, etc.

Right now we don't know what the heck happened, but that big gap between the initial shooting and the second horrific shooting spree is going to be a source of much consternation to the VT authorities.

[UVvis]

This really does suck. I have several good friends at school there, and that teach there, I've spent a good deal of time in the area as well. I'm hoping all my friends there are fine, but I haven't heard from everyone yet, and don't expect them to be checking back right away.


Anyhow,
I'm fairly pissed off about this in general.

I hope one of the retarded political types realize something from this:

THERE WERE ALL KINDS OF LAWS IN PLACE TO KEEP THIS FROM HAPPENING! THE BAD GUY ELECTED NOT TO FOLLOW THOSE LAWS!

Laws only really give law enforcement folk the authority to stop people, and the courts the ability to lock people up. Aside from that, they aren't worth much.

And for gun rights sake, I hope this guy wasn't using a dangerous 'assault weapon' but rather something less dangerous. (yes, there is some sick sarcasm here)

And yes, I'm pissed.

[ARinNC]

Yes listen up lawmakers.
People who do things like this DON'T CARE ABOUT LAWS, PASSING MORE OF THEM DOES NOTHING TO STOP THINGS LIKE THIS FROM HAPPENING.
Take the money you will spend trying to pass more laws, and put it into GUN EDUCATION, LAW ENFORCEMENT, and TRAINING.

[graffex]

Thoughs and prayers go out to everyone involved in the madness that happened today.

From what I'm now hearing on the news:

33 people dead (including the shooter)
Gunman was a Male of Asian decent
Shooting was actually 2 shootings in seperate parts of the campus 2 hours apart

This is a perfect example on why people need to be armed when going about there everyday activites. Just think that if someone on campus was carrying they could have reacted to the threat and saved god knows how many lives. This really saddens me that shit like this continues to happen, and people and politicans continue to deny honest citizens right to carry firearms. When will this country learn