I've been watching this unfold since 10:30 AM (EST) this morning.
AP said 22 dead last I looked at the TV.
www.wtopnews.com/?nid=600&sid=1116589
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BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.
After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed and classes canceled through Tuesday.
"There's just a lot of commotion. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on," said student Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm where shooting took place.
Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode's resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.
"They had us under lockdown," Kanode said. "They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again."
"We're all locked in our dorms surfing the Internet trying to figure out what's going on," Kanode said.
Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, "We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible."
It was second time in less than a year that the 26,000-student campus was shut because of a shooting.
In August 2006, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff's deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus. The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.
Meeeeerrrf...my oldest brother went to VA Tech for a little bit, joined the Air Force, and plans on going back when he's done with the UAF. My other brother goes to Radford, which is just down the road from Tech. He's called my Mom about this a couple times now, the first was right after I told her about the one shooting that was initially reported.
The girlfriend of my mother's friend's son said she was walking to a class when she heard gunshots. >___>;
Damn. I wake up to find this. I hope the campus will be able to heal.
And once again, the gunman cheats justice. Bastard.
Considering how open college campuses are, it's doesn't happen more often. Wonderful way to start a day.
The death toll is up to 30 now, 31 including the gunman.
Radford is going to hold classes today anyway. =|
31 dead....jeez
Ugh. This whole thing was just senseless. What is the point of all this violence?! D=
What worries me more is that by the time I started college last year and heard all these news like this one, I started to feel physically sick because of these unexpected attacks. I sympathise with the victim's friends, families and colleagues dearly.
31... that's a lot of people when talking about students. 
Jumped to 33
i just watched a news report on it.
why on earth they let classes run as usual and didn't bother to warn the entire campus is beyond me. they said that some students only heard about it when they checked their e-mail.
i'm sorry america, but your right to own guns is just.. argh.
I'm just speachless.
That is so crazy that I don't even want to think about it.
I'm sorry, Becca? I heard they locked down the whole campus.
A cousin of mine goes there... I hope he's alright.
This is sick. Real sick. Was the shooter a student?
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i'm sorry america, but your right to own guns is just.. argh.
It's a good thing that university was a gun-free zone.
...wait.
SX, look at the report:
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"They had us under lockdown," Kanode said. "They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again."
Becca is probably referring to a time period between 7 and 10 AM.
Even after both shootings, Radford's classes still remained in session. These schools are a little less than 20 miles apart, and the student bodies are very close to each other.
This is really weird for me. Virginia Tech is in the middle of nowhere, and it's hard to imagine something like that happening there, especially when it's so familiar to me.
EDIT: They don't know yet if the shooter was a student.
i'm sorry america, but your right to own guns is just.. argh.
Any fool with fifty bucks can go to any downtown or slum in any major American city and score a gun. Seeing as though the shooter's weaponry is still unidentified(to my knowledge), I'd say we can all take a breather before defecating on the bill of rights.
Christ. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to be in the building while this happened. It disgusts (but doesn't surprise) me that assholes like Fred Phelps and that ambulance-chasing Jack Thompson are so quick to jump on this tragedy just to get people's attention and harbor some stupid f**king agenda. From what I hear, Fox News had Jackoff on their show and presented him as some sort of expert on school shootings, and let him talk out of his ass even though no one had any real clue as to what the motive was. This f**ker insulted the victims of the shooting with his garbage.
It must also suck that, from now on, Virginia Tech is going to be known as Columbine II. That's got to be great for the surviving students, doesn't it? Never again will they be able to talk about their college without getting something like "Oh, you mean that place where all those kids got shot?" in response.
Please don't start a gun control debate, Ultra.
I heard about this soon after I got home from school. It kind of scares me hearing about this, since I'm going to be going to a big college in about four months. It's practically on the other side of the state from where I live.
I hope they find the second shooter, I'm assuming there were two of them from what I heard on NBC, and bring him to justice.
Disgusting. Simply disgusting.
The killer was a person who was upset at his girlfriend. They had a fight earlier and then he shot people just because they didn't know where she was.
Senseless. What do we live in Iraq now? No. So why the heck is it happening here. As far as i'm concerned, anyone that completely disregards innocent lives like that deserves an eternity is hell, and im sure they'll get it. And all over a girlfriend you say? Is this emo thing going too far? Don't blame it on the video games, because as far as im concerned games give people a place to vent instead of doing what that shooter did.
It's just horrid, and there really isnt anything else to say about it.
"Is this emo thing going too far?"
Please tell me this was a joke. : I'm going to assume it is, as if it wasn't then you're being almost as bad as JT: blaming music or a genre thereof for inciting violent is no different from blaming video games or any other entertainment medium. While I can concede that in certain instances behaviour like this can be triggered by things that are designed to entertain, quite frankly if somebody's gonna up and shoot a whole bunch of kids that's a problem with the individual and possibly his upbringing before anything else.
Besides, emo's more about killing yourself over your girlfriend than killing other people.* 😛
*This is a joke before anyone goes off on me like I did on Fex.
According to the latest press conference, the gunman was a 22 year old senior, resident on campus.
It took over an hour to decide whether or not to warn students that there was a double murderer on campus after the first shooting, and <b>then</b> they used e-mail - which wouldn't have been checked by everyone at the time. There wasn't actually a lockdown put in place until ten minutes after the second lot of shootings started.
Jack Thompson needs to be set on fire. I just saw him on MSNBC, doing his usual 'exploit tragedy for personal gain' thing.
Jesus christ, Jack, at least wait until the freaking corpses get buried before you crap all over their memories with another one of your insipid publicity tours.
Meh, let that d---hole Jack guy say what he wants. No one'll listen to him. It's just a sleazy cover-up for the real reason why that killing happened - guns. America's government insults the value of each and every human's life by giving out cheap arms licenses to the very young and the very stupid.
This better change soon.
for the love of god don't make this a gun debate
i get annoyed whenever people try to make a scapegoat out of the government instead of pinning the blame on the @#%$ that actually did the shooting
as if he most certainly obtained those handguns legally
To hit on a few subjects here, dont blame guns or video games. The kid obviously had something big time wrong with him, and he since he had a green card and was a legal resident, probably got them legally.
Next, not that any has explicitly blamed it yet, but one the news today some idiot said "Well why didn't they lock up the campus". Every try locking down a city of over 20,000?
SX (5:32 pm): It isn't the government's fault, or video games, or emo music, or that his girlfriend left him. The kid obviously has psychological issues: a lot of college students find it hard, or even too hard, and a lot of them listen to emo music or play GTA. But do even .1% of GTA fans, or 'emos', or upset college students, or handgun owners resort to killing everyone? u.u
Here's some more info on the shooter. It's a Wiki article and it's only been about a day since the shooting, so I'm sure some of the info should be taken with a grain of salt. All I really know about him so far is that he's from Korea, he was a loner, his motive had something to do with his girlfriend, and he was a terrible playwright (his play was called Richard McBeef - I hear there are already plans to adapt it into a film). Does anyone else have more info?
he was studying english, that's the only additional info i can give after watching a news update.
i heard that they didn't lock down the school to begin with as after the first shooting they thought it was more of a domestic/personal affair (don't remember the exact phrasing) and the killer had long fled the area.
sorry, didn't mean to start a gun law debate back there.
Great, now everybody will irrationally hate/be afraid of South Korean Americans now.
After playing StarCraft for lo these 7 years, I fear the Koreans, too.
Obviously, his race is the key issue here.
Y'know. Just like every domestic issue in America.
I made the announcement at School yesterday morning concerning the whole tragedy. When I heard about it, I thought it was surreal that this became worse than Columbine.
Jack Thompson has just reached a new level of idiocy over this whole thing. Seriously. At the time, there were no clues whatsoever about the whole ordeal, yet he starts out by blaming video games? -_-
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Jack Thompson needs to be set on fire. I just saw him on MSNBC, doing his usual 'exploit tragedy for personal gain' thing.
God, what the hell is wrong with that man? Oh well, at least he's predictable.
The world is wicked. It corrupts people if they allow it. This guy was one of those statistics. =/
A gun debate is exactly what this should be.
There's been at least one a year of these in the US in the last decade, often more.
Do sane people really think anything other than the gun culture is to blame?
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Do sane people really think anything other than the gun culture is to blame?
Funny you should say that. You think this is strictly an "American problem", or the problem of one that values the right to keep and bear arms? Lookie.
Erfurt, Germany.
Cuers, France.
Gali, Abkhazia (Russia)
Paris.
You act surprised as though a psycopath killed people. Human history indicates that psychos have killed people before, and will continue to do so. Depriving people of the means to protect themselves (I mean, think about these gun control laws; would criminals care?) would only make them easier targets.
I mean, for crying out loud, Virginia Tech was a gun-free zone like many other universities. How does that promote security when a guy like Cho can just waltz around and have his way with people until the authorities arrive? The police won't always be there.
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The Cost of Hysteria Mounts
I just found out about the massacre at Virginia Tech.
The thing that makes me most angry is that the dead students were penned up like sheep for the slaughter, in a ridiculous "gun-free zone." A better phrase would be "self-defense-free zone," or maybe "danger-free zone for armed criminals."
Anyone who knew about Virginia Tech's deadly, stupid policy knew he could pick up a gun, walk into any dorm, and shoot freely until the police showed up. The amazing thing isn't that it happened; the amazing thing is that it doesn't happen once a month.
Here is what spokesman Larry Hinckman said in 2005, about Virginia Tech's ill-fated policy: "I think it's fair to say that we believe guns don't belong in the classroom. In an academic environment, we believe you should be free from fear."
I think we can see how well that policy worked out.
That quote came from a 2005 article about campus police disarming a student who had a carry permit. Too bad that student wasn't around today. Or maybe he was. Maybe he's among the dead, thanks to political correctness.
I've had to deal with stupid firearm policies. When I attended the University of Texas, my apartment lease said I couldn't have a gun in my home. Naturally, I paid no attention, keeping a Glock by the bed and going shooting whenever I felt like it. When I attended the University of Miami Law School, it was my understanding that guns were forbidden on campus. I don't know if I ever confirmed that, but I do know I didn't care. I had a gun in my glove compartment every time I parked in the law school lot.
If a nut had opened fire at my apartment complex or while I was within reach of my gun at UM, I would have had a chance of plugging him and ending a massacre. Unfortunately, there was nobody like me around at Virginia Tech this morning. No law-abiding, sane armed citizen in sight. Just a deranged criminal; the kind of person dumb policies and laws can never disarm.
We're already hearing the usual irrational, hysterical voices. "If only we had sensible gun control, this would never have happened. George Bush killed these students." In reality, gun control is what sealed their doom. This lunatic knew he could shoot until the police arrived. In a rational world, he would only have been able to shoot until a student or university employee produced a firearm.
You have to wonder how many people died before the first 911 call was placed. The beauty of privately owned guns is that they work while the cops are still across town. Government guns respond to shootings; privately owned guns prevent them.
Pray for the survivors. And pray that the public draws the right conclusion, rises up, and demands an end to reckless gun bans. The cost has already been too high; we shouldn't continue making payments.
Note: I regret posting this the same day the tragedy--no, that's the wrong word. The day the multiple murders occurred. I would have waited for a better time, but I noticed that the mainstream media, including the White House press corps, were already hammering the issue, so I thought the best thing was to go ahead and write.
A gun debate is exactly what this should be.
There's been at least one a year of these in the US in the last decade, often more.
Do sane people really think anything other than the gun culture is to blame?
Okay, so the fact this kid was obviously demented had nothing to do with it. Okay sure.
Guns don't kill people, I do.
~Tobe
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
-- L. Neil Smith
Ultra, you're dramatically and splendingly missing the point. Four isolated incidents across the rest of the entire world.
In the last decade in America there have been something like 12-15.
Your gun crime rate generally in proportion to the population is far higher than any other supposedly peaceful democracy.
Drop your stupid, crappy rightwing propaganda and actually try looking at the statistics.
It's. The. Gun. Culture.
Anyone claiming otherwise is living in a fantasy. Psychos may exist elsewhere, but they only kill 30 people if the country in which they live gives them the means to kill 30 people.
Your nonsensical babblings about gun-free zones are irrelevant.
Gun culture: A means by which cosy reactionaries hanging on like grim death to pieces of shiny metal have killed many of their own schoolchildren.
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Anyone claiming otherwise is living in a fantasy. Psychos may exist elsewhere, but they only kill 30 people if the country in which they live gives them the means to kill 30 people.
Do those psychos include dictators who disarm the populace so they can't be deposed by force?
Cause I think Europe has America beat in that regard.
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Gun culture: A means by which cosy reactionaries hanging on like grim death to pieces of shiny metal have killed many of their own schoolchildren.
Gun culture: Hated by dictators and tyrants throughout history.
On a side note...I find it amusing that liberals don't argue for the 2nd Amendment the same way they do for the other Constitutional amendments. If they treated RKBA the same way they treated free speech, they'd be arguing that a gun should be mandatory in every home.
You realise that arguing against Xagarath with the "protecting constitution" thing doesn't count, as he's British, right?
As for me.
I actually think disarming America is the most retarded idea in the universe. Gun crime is actually less in states where it's easier to obtain arms.
Disarming is alot more complicated than just not selling guns.
Gun trafficing is too rampant in America. If they banned guns and had people return all licensed weapons, then only the illegal ones will be out there.
"When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns"
It's a stupid idea.
There's no way of stopping these things besides paranoia and added security.
Basically, screwed both ways, but leaving it as it is causes alot less damage.
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You realise that arguing against Xagarath with the "protecting constitution" thing doesn't count, as he's British, right?
Which is why I said side note. More of a general observation, but I digress.
Ultra... I'm a card carrying donkey and I have no issues with guns. Provided people aren't retarded about them. I have two. Yes, because I live in a bad place one is in the desk, but if I have one of the kids over it goes to it's hiding place, and the clips to another.
~Tobe
Ultra, that article you posted is unwashed ass, and the writer would've shat himself before he ate bullets. Him and all the other wannabe-Rambo douchebags who post on the interwebs about how "they would've stopped him" and "concealed-carry on campus would've prevented this" and "why did nobody rush him I would've rushed him and killed him with my giant penis" and all that other bravado nonsense would've spent the massacre cowering in fear praying that they wouldn't be next.
Seriously, everyone trying to shill an agenda on the back of this TRAGEDY (yes, it's a tragedy) needs to just f*** right the hell off. Pro-gun, anti-gun, videogames, WHATEVER should go suck on a muffler
