32 dead in school shooting

scojones

At least 30 people were fatally shot Monday on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, police said, according to WDBJ. CNN working to confirm.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html

Terrible.

Ruu_Old

Terrible loss, think they have updated the site now.

ED: Fox say 22 dead, 21 wounded and gunman dead also, went from room to room firing at students. Conflicting reports at the minute.

scojones

They showed the video on CNN. Shocking stuff.

dr.bollocko

Fairly shocking alright. Only saw this at about half five. does anyone know what time it actually happened at?

scojones

It happened at 7.45am local time. One of the videos on CNN is some amateur footage and you can hear the gun shots. Scary.

Ruu_Old

One of the students told Fox that the gunman was looking for his girlfriend and then started lining people up. Absolutely crazy. It happened in a couple of the dorm buildings.
They are saying that the gunman is dead but there are pictures of the police arresting someone with his face to the ground.

phantom_lord

just read about this on another site, pretty awful stuff.

county

shocking stuff

Dave D

There were also 2 bomb scares in the last few weeks. They say he went into a classroom and none of the students came out alive
shocking stuff

scojones

They showed the full length of that video now. You can hear over 30 gunshots going off. Then there is silence for about 10 seconds and there's one last shot, at this stage the guy recording it is alot closer to the building. Can only guess that last shot was the guy killing himself.

Jello

Shocking, that's a huge number dead..

Crap.One of the americans wh lived across from me last semester went to Uni there.:(

projectmayhem

damn videogames and rock music...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

damn you bin laden!

DaBreno

Bodycount now at 29(estimate by rte reporter). shocking stuff, even for America.

How long til they find GTA or Mariyln Manson all over his room? (Computer games will take a bollocking over this )

m83

Projectmayhem and Mordeth show some decorum please. I don't think people are reading this thread for a larf.

Mossy Monk

For sure. It will have nothing to do with this persons mentality.

Ghost Train

Awful

Dave D

Reports now say the death count is now 32

LizardKing

31 Dead according to Sky News - Terrible tragedy , brings Americas gun policy back to the fore and will probably be a big issue in the upcoming presidential candidate race for the next election after G.W.B leaves office.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

scojones

I really hope Sky News have gotten the figure wrong. I've been watching CNN since it started, they still say 22 dead and 29 injured.

Dave D

Some of the news reports say he was looking for his girlfriend and then he just started shooting people. Fox news say it 32 people dead with 29 injured they also say the toll may rise eitherway this is a tragic event

besty

Jesus, terrible stuff. Again, gun policy has to be revisited to help curb future tragedies like this.

InFront

One more to the list
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4371403.stm

Hard to understand what motivates someone to do that.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

besty wrote:

Jesus, terrible stuff. Again, gun policy has to be revisited to help curb future tragedies like this.

yep, schools and uni's in america are classed as 'gun free zones' which means students with registered guns aren't allowed carry them on campus, and security guards aren't allowed them either.. had there been a well armed security force at this campus (or even at columbine, or any of the other shootings) it is quite likely the death toll would have been far lower.
but no, guns are evil.. we gotta protect children from guns. so let's completely remove guns from their area and leave them vulnerable to attack from nutters like this chap.


al jazeera just had a criminal profiler on for a few minutes, after about three sentences she started blaming video games and television and that was just about the only point she brought up, other than them feeling disenfranchised.

mother of pearl.. you'd swear there was no violence on the planet before Doom II

Dampsquid

Another Michael Moore documentary in the making

mike65

Jesus, terrible stuff. Again, gun policy has to be revisited to help curb future tragedies like this.

No chance of that, cos in part the NRA are right - "guns don't kill, people kill". btw I'm not a gun nut and would sooner the NRA had zero power but there you go. The issue is why people think they'll find solutions at the end of barrel.

Mike.

1huge1

damn thats messed up

patrickolee

Tell me why I don't like Mondays

BlitzKrieg

yep, schools and uni's in america are classed as 'gun free zones' which means students with registered guns aren't allowed carry them on campus, and security guards aren't allowed them either.. had there been a well armed security force at this campus.

whats the point of tight gun control on school grounds when its laxed outside the grounds? Its not as if someone is going to buy the gun in the school/university?

Voodu Child

mike65 wrote:

No chance of that, cos in part the NRA are right - "guns don't kill, people kill"

Are they f*ck....what a load of codswallop. People kill people, but guns help them kill lots of people.

If someone is f*cked up enough to want to go on a rampage, fair enough, they could probably do it with a kitchen knife, but there's no doubt that access to firearms, ammunition & magazines contributed to the magnitude of loss here.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

it makes it look like politicians are making an effort to solve the problem, while leaving them with plenty of free time to spend playing golf, beating up hookers or whatever else.

it's a public relations effort, not much else.

InFront

Mordeth wrote:

mother of pearl.. you'd swear there was no violence on the planet before Doom II

Doom I then?

Binomate

But it's still ok to allow guns to be sold on every street corner in America because their constitution was based on the right to arms... Well done.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

voodoo_child wrote:

Are they f*ck....what a load of codswallop. People kill people, but guns help them kill lots of people.

If someone is f*cked up enough to want to go on a rampage, fair enough, they could probably do it with a kitchen knife, but there's no doubt that access to firearms, ammunition & magazines contributed to the magnitude of loss here.

yes and no, if there were well armed/trained security guards on campus or if the regular students were permitted to carry firearms one of them could have taken this guy out before he got to victim 5, six, thirty two.


more guns, not less would have saved lives here. The problem in virginia was there were only two guns, and both of them were in the hands of the maniac.

--edit

doom II was *so* much more realistic than doom1, it was almost as if you were really dodging huge fireballs and killing giant mechanical spiders.

Raskolnikov

InFront wrote:

Doom I then?

It's a moot point. If you want violence in the media you can go back to WW2 and watch the propaganda films of Uncle Sam and the Boys mowing down wave after wave of filthy, dirty, evil Germans.

mike65

voodoo_child wrote:

Are they f*ck....what a load of codswallop. People kill people, but guns help them kill lots of people.

If someone is f*cked up enough to want to go on a rampage, fair enough, they could probably do it with a kitchen knife, but there's no doubt that access to firearms, ammunition & magazines contributed to the magnitude of loss here.

One dead or a hundred, its still the ROOT CAUSE that needs tackling and that as much a 'culture' as 'gun culture' is.

Mr Angry who is he? Whats his beef and why his inadequate character?

Mike.

Hard Larry

Scary stuff alright....

on a side note has anyone else noticed the amount of obese cops in Virginia?

patrickolee

InFront wrote:

Doom I then?

Wolfenstein perhaps.

Manic Moran

Mordeth wrote:

yep, schools and uni's in america are classed as 'gun free zones' which means students with registered guns aren't allowed carry them on campus, and security guards aren't allowed them either.. had there been a well armed security force at this campus (or even at columbine, or any of the other shootings) it is quite likely the death toll would have been far lower.
but no, guns are evil.. we gotta protect children from guns. so let's completely remove guns from their area and leave them vulnerable to attack from nutters like this chap.

Some slight inaccuracies there:

Not all universities are gun-free zones. It's an issue of the state legislature and the establishment's personal choice. For example, Utah State permits students to be armed. Compare also the shooting in 2002 on a Virginian law school campus, where the shooter was contained by armed students. Campus police are almost invariably armed, I don't know of any campus cops who aren't.

will probably be a big issue in the upcoming presidential candidate race for the next election after G.W.B leaves office

It already is. I wouldn't expect people outside of the US to be following it, but HR.1022 is causing quite a ruckus in the shooting community. It's a piece of legislation proposed and sponsored exclusively by Coast Democrats, and is probably the most draconian piece of gun control legislation ever tabled in the US. Mid-West/Southern Democrats (Who tend to like guns) are begging the Coasties to drop the gun control issue as it's a proven vote-loser, and the Republicans are using it as a rallying cry "See! They lied! The Democrats DO want to take your guns away." Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is currently headed by the Coast Democrats, so their principles are the ones associated with the Dems as a whole.
Check out the HR1022 thread on Democraticunderground's gun subforum.

Fortunately, no knee-jerk legislation has a chance of passing the current US Congress. Indeed, the various legislatures, both state and federal, are currently loosening some of the restrictions. Less than ten states are now anything other than 'Shall issue concealed weapons permits' (as opposed to 'may issue', or 'shall not issue'), there have been a numer of states passing 'Stand your ground' laws, which basically means that you no longer have any duty to retreat if you are somewhere you have every legal right to be, and after Katrina, a number of legislatures, followed by Congress passed legislation prohibiting the confiscation of firearms in a state of emergency, as if there's a breakdown in law and order, your best form of defense isn't calling 9-1-1, it's being able to defend yourself!

NTM

MooseJam

it's a pity theres never a camera around for these shootings, I'd love to see one go down

InFront

mike65 wrote:

One dead or a hundred, its still the ROOT CAUSE that needs tackling and that as much a 'culture' as 'gun culture' is.

That may be the answer in other forms of terrorism, but I don't think it is here.
You'll never fix all of the Mr Angrys with guns, there will always be nutters. Making them want to change isn't the first step imo; take Mr Angry's gun from him first, and then make him change if you can.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

there's plenty of videos on the net of people being shot if that's what you're after

MooseJam

yeah i've seen them they're mostly Iraqi's being shot, american collage kids would be a nice change

Boston

MooseJam wrote:

yeah i've seen them they're mostly Iraqi's being shot, american collage kids would be a nice change

Hmm, for a guy who on like he's 20th account here, you sure like to talk a lot of crap.

Spyral

more guns, not less would have saved lives here. The problem in virginia was there were only two guns, and both of them were in the hands of the maniac.

I actually agree, would they feel so cocky and ballsy knowing everyone else could cap them ?

patrickolee

I've never seen a 'collage kid'... is that one made up of bits of other kids? :eek:

Pigman II

patrickolee wrote:

I've never seen a 'collage kid'... is that one made up of bits of other kids? :eek:

No but they're usually faily pasty.

Vokes

Shocking stuff

Also...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/6561335.stm

I'm from University College Dublin and now on exchange in Virginia Tech. A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable. Find it hard to believe that 20 people can really be dead. Sitting in dorms right now, waiting for further news. People starting to be released, seems worst may be over.
Nicola, Ireland /Blacksburg, VA

Her first day! :eek:

projectmayhem

m83 wrote:

Projectmayhem and Mordeth show some decorum please. I don't think people are reading this thread for a larf.

can't speak for mordeth, but the comment wasn't a "larf", but more a comment on what we should expect from the media, laced in sarcasm.