Lunar Threads

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6560685.stm

20 people dead, 28 injured.

I can't comment. I still don't know what to say.

Do we know anyone at VA Tech? KF

I saw it at work. Death toll is over 30 now, and about as many injured. Worst school shooting in US history according to the news report I saw.

What I don't understand is how the gunman fired in the dorms, then 2 hours later, class is still going on and he shoots again. You would think there would be something in place to cancel classes and put the school in lockdown immediately after this happened.

33 dead, many injured, and is classified as the worst U.S. shooting in history.

I have so many mixed feelings and questions. How was the man able to kill so many over a 3 hour time span? Why wheren't the police able to stop a single man in that time? Why did it take 11 minutes to send a warning to students and staff since it first started? Why did they not evacuate all 26,000 students even when they thought it was a domestic dispute that they thought involved two people?

And why the hell was he able to go into a classroom and shoot everyone without anyone trying to stop the man?

The radio host of the on-campus radio station stated that the gunman may have locked himself in a single German classroom and did his damage there rather than moving around the campus like the Columbine Shooters

Well, he shot two people dead in a dorm, then two hours later moved into a different building on the campus and then supposedly "chained" the doors shut to the German class and then shot everyone.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18138327/?GT1=9246 (A bit of a load time)

According to this, the guy ran a muck from almost one end to another on college grounds for about 5 hours. I don't get why so long. Maybe he hid for so long or changed clothes to strike again?

5 hours? More like two. The other three hours in that link are unsubstantiated or the response to it.

It defies explanation. I don't know what to say, other than it's terrible, and I feel sorry for those that died... those that lived... those that witnessed. More than most people will experience in their lives.

As for all the delays, the communication problems and so on... 11 minutes isn't a bad turn-around time for sending out a warning, considering that they have to establish exactly what happened, and exactly what needs to be done. Campuses are pretty large places, and a lockdown is a large action to undertake when it involves 26,000 students spread out that much. If they had reason to believe it was an isolated incident and they were wrong... it's unfortunate that others died as a result.

It does make me wonder about safety precautions here. Generally the police are good about getting warnings out, but then it isn't quite as urgent. It's easy to feel safe at first, but it seems harder to be safe, and ... I wonder how hard it is to regain that feeling when it's been so shattered.

I guess it's good that my college has a police department there on campus. I think it should be mandatory to have a small police kiosk within the vicinity of most educational areas. It works in Sim City. Cops need the work to stop the boredom and kids need the oppression and protection to properly develop there rebellious angst.

I feel it is my civic duty to remain Jenner and make jokes about this. I refuse to let this travesty affect me.

Beyond that, :/ I dunno what else to say about this...

Sonic# wrote: As for all the delays, the communication problems and so on... 11 minutes isn't a bad turn-around time for sending out a warning, considering that they have to establish exactly what happened, and exactly what needs to be done.

Yes, but the e-mail was basically a "There was a domestic shooting, police are investigating" but it was barely longer than that and offered no real details other than what I just said. Not exactly something that should have taken 11 minutes to send out.

...everyone should really wait until media reports have been confirmed before conferring judgments.

None of us were there, so none of us right now have the right to make any judgment on how the police or the rest of the campus responded. Beyond that, the reports coming out now are sketchy and contradictory. If you wait, there'll be more consistency. Besides that, VA Tech is like a small city (it's pretty much the whole of Blacksburg); locking it down is like locking down an entire town when there's a shooting at one end.

Give them the benefit of the doubt for now, at least until media reports start giving some consistency. KF

For no reason what so ever the news will cover this for probably about a month, droning on and beating the subject like a dead horse, when it is totally unneeded. So we should get all the coverage soon. This whole affair is monotonous and stupid. It was a Crazed guy, a very useless and retarded crazed guy who went out and shot a whole F**** load of people. The thing that pisses me off is that the dumb guy offed himself. I hate people like that. And no one stopped him probably from fear if they knew about it, or they just didn't know so they wouldn't try.

And a man is able to do that much damage in that time because he is human. We are a self destructive race, and a very vindictive and malicious one at that. Some people are evil, usually evil people are fairly (book) smart also. They can get a lot done with some planning.

Sonic# wrote:5 hours? More like two. The other three hours in that link are unsubstantiated or the response to it.

Sorry, I meant to say in total time.

I just came back from a wedding in Spain yesterday to see this. Let me tell you, it's a shock. Being a college student, this is really disturbing. I wonder what the consequences on campus security will be.

My hear does go out to those involved.

Well Kiz is certainly right about one thing, and it is one thing that I do give the benifit of the doubt to the college, is that the college is what, 26,000 students and the entire campus is freaking huge (from what I've seen so far map wise.)

Still, I'm curious to see the conclusive reports one the whole warning ordeal. Personally, I would send out a warning and attempt to lock down some of the classes even if it was a puppy that got smacked with a BB gun.

Now we're gonna have to listen to jack tompson bash video games for the next month or two.

exigence wrote:Now we're gonna have to listen to jack tompson bash video games for the next month or two.

Well... we were going to have to do that anyway, in all fairness to Jack. Now he's just going to be louder and on more networks.

Okay, the shooter made a tape and sent it to NBC between the first and second shootings, and it's being shown all over the news now.

Is it me, or is this NOT a good idea? He's getting exactly what he wanted. His rampage has given him a platform on which he can make whatever statement he wants and the world will listen to him.

Maybe it's just me, but perhapes we SHOULD listen. It's probably because we didn't listen in the first place that drove him to this extreme.

But this sends the message that anyone can get whatever message they want out if they make a violent enough display beforehand. Really, I don't think this is a good thing.

ilovemyguitar wrote:But this sends the message that anyone can get whatever message they want out if they make a violent enough display beforehand. Really, I don't think this is a good thing.

It's the media's job to show what's newsworthy. Plus, he could've just uploaded it to youtube and everyone would've seen it anyway.