Updated:At Least 33 Dead in Va. Tech Shooting

[Big C]

me getting interviewed

Videos, News Videos, Top Story Videos, Headline News Videos & More | Reuters.com

im the first one interviewed in this vid

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I've never really bought into the whole, "if only more people had more guns we could solve the problems caused by people having guns" argument. It sounds a lot like circular logic. Moreover, although the NRA hates to admit it, the police almost always oppose laws to effect such ideas.

But, I'm not so concerned about how to solve the gun problem. I'm just more upset for all the victims and their families.

Yes, we all should be. However, there IS an issue to address after a period to honor the lost and greive for them so a copycat crime doesn't happen, which is always a concern with school shootings. (was a problem after Columbine)

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by Buster

Yes, we all should be. However, there IS an issue to address after a period to honor the lost and greive for them so a copycat crime doesn't happen, which is always a concern with school shootings. (was a problem after Columbine)

I'm fine with discussing the issue, but I don't want to upset anyone who has a special connection to the event or the victims. It would seem kind of strange (at least to me) to get into a debate about the merits of gun ownership, gun laws, etc. when some people may be grieving.

[724Skinsfan]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I've never really bought into the whole, "if only more people had more guns we could solve the problems caused by people having guns" argument. It sounds a lot like circular logic. Moreover, although the NRA hates to admit it, the police almost always oppose laws to effect such ideas.

But, I'm not so concerned about how to solve the gun problem. I'm just more upset for all the victims and their families.

I agree.

[Hog1]

We have a rare thing in this country. It's Freedom. Something most of the world knows nothing about. As long as we don't get crazy, we can do whatever we want. No hassles. No check points. No illegal searches. No "disappearing citizens" without explanation. The down side of that has been demonstrated several times in the last few years. We saw it again yesterday at the campus of Virginia tech.
NO amount of police, security, Crisis planning, Govt intervention, listening devices, etc will GUARANTEE this (and things like it) cannot happen again.
The question is, HOW MUCH are we willing to give up to try?
How much of our PRECIOUS freedom are we willing to sacrifice to safeguard against what COULD happen.
Not to plagiarize Schneed, but do we really want to live our lives around the 1%????

[Monkeydad]

Food for thought:

"...nobody seems to be aware that there have been incidents in which firearms played a key role in stopping school violence.

Perhaps the most significant was the Jan. 16, 2002 shooting spree at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA. A Nigerian student named Peter Odighizuwa went on a rampage, gunning down six people, three of them fatally, before other students stopped him. The media appears to have deliberately omitted the fact that two of those students, Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges, were armed. (legal conceal-and-carry guns)

Teenage gunman Luke Woodham, who perpetrated the 1997 school shooting at a high school in Pearl, MS, was also brought to an abrupt halt at gunpoint.

This time, assistant principal Joel Myrick, retrieved a .45-caliber handgun from his car, parked off campus, and held the youth at gunpoint until police arrived. Again, the major media ignored Myrick’s heroism with a gun."

Source: GunWeek.com

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. And the 0.0000001% is probably more accurate.

It seems REALLY cold to say given that it JUST happened this morning, but this is a freak thing. The odds of you sitting in class minding your own beezewax and getting shot by someone who's gone off the deep end are infinitesimally small. The fact that this rampage JUST happened does not change those odds.

Your odds of hitting the powerball, of getting struck by lightning, or of getting attacked by dogs on your way to lunch are probably similar in size.

I wouldn't make any policy decisions. Over the coming days, emotions will run high and people will point fingers, but nobody will be able to agree on who is to blame for this. And that's because there is nobody to blame except the guy who did it, and he's already dead. It's an unfortunate reality, you can't be everywhere at all times to stop evil every time it rears it's ugly head.

Unless you want to hand over a huge portion of your paycheck for total security.

I agree! It would be like mananging your money on the off chance you may win the lottery someday. It would just be dumb!

[Hog1]

Pierson Prioleau is a grad of Virginia Tech and will be on the Bram Weinstein show today (Triple X) to discuss events

[FRPLG]

I think a lot of people confuse gun control with gun non-existence. They are not the same thing. Gun control means law abiding citizens who could be reasonably responsible with guns are unable to carry guns while those who are evil enough to do something like this probably have no qualms about illegally obtaining guns. If gun control meant we could actually eliminate all guns in the entire country then I'd be all for it. Until we can figure that out I am wary of gun control beyond obvious reasonable measures like assault weapons bans. I have never undesrtood why anyone is opposed to that type of limited gun control.

[Monkeydad]

Originally Posted by Hog1

We have a rare thing in this country. It's Freedom. Something most of the world knows nothing about. As long as we don't get crazy, we can do whatever we want. No hassles. No check points. No illegal searches. No "disappearing citizens" without explanation. The down side of that has been demonstrated several times in the last few years. We saw it again yesterday at the campus of Virginia tech.
NO amount of police, security, Crisis planning, Govt intervention, listening devices, etc will GUARANTEE this (and things like it) cannot happen again.
The question is, HOW MUCH are we willing to give up to try?
How much of our PRECIOUS freedom are we willing to sacrifice to safeguard against what COULD happen.
Not to plagiarize Schneed, but do we really want to live our lives around the 1%????

Exactly.

What if the guy lit a can of gasoline and killed people...what, we ban cans of gas? Everyone must buy electric lawnmowers?

The gun did nothing wrong. It is an instrument for good used by a bad person, just as a car, a hammer, a chainsaw, ANYTHING else could be.

We shouldn't make excuses for him like he wasn't hugged or we don't "treat" the mentally-derranged well enough. He made the decision to kill people. He and ONLY he is to blame. We shouldn't start firing the police chiefs and school administrators (although they did make mistakes) because of one psycho's decision to kill people. Also, we should not take away the freedoms guaranteed to every citizen by the 2nd Amendment because of a criminal. Taking away guns won't stop people like this, it will only make their job easier and more "successful". When the government takes away our ability to defend ourselves, it will make the task of stripping any andevery other freedom very easy.

[cpayne5]

The girl killed in the dorm (Emily) grew up in the same place Daseal & I did. I knew her and her older sister fairly well a few years back, but lost touch as we got older. My parents run a softball league out here and both sisters played. Their father helped coach. Good people. Very sad.

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Well, that's sorta the point I was making.

Anytime something like this happens you always hear the question being asked -- what if just one person had access to a firearm to defend him or herself?

I think it's a legitimate question.

I couldn't agree more. I don't want to start an argument in a thread about something so tragic but if this country encouraged RESPONSIBLE gun ownership, losers like this guy would feel a little less safe in randomly attacking the public. Had one kid or teacher in those rooms been carrying a firearm who's to say the number of dead and wounded wouldn't be reduced. People get scared when they think of others carrying weapons, and understandably so, but in a scenario where only the criminals carry guns, responsible citizens lose every time.

[BleedBurgundy]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

I've never really bought into the whole, "if only more people had more guns we could solve the problems caused by people having guns" argument. It sounds a lot like circular logic. Moreover, although the NRA hates to admit it, the police almost always oppose laws to effect such ideas.

But, I'm not so concerned about how to solve the gun problem. I'm just more upset for all the victims and their families.

Put like that, it is circular logic. Put like this, it's not: Guns are a reality. Because of their desire to take advantage of others and put themselves in a position of superiority, criminals will always have guns. Because of this fact, it is only responsible for a law abiding citizen to have an equal means of protecting his or herself from attack. Were we living in a vacuum that we could outlaw guns entirely and ensure that NO ONE had them, then yes I could completely agree with your point, absolutely. But it's too late for that now, there's millions of firearms in circulation and you have to act accordingly. Also... there's the 2nd amendment which is an entirely separate issue.

[RobH4413]

This is an except from an e-mail I received by a good friend of mine. He was the guy I was worried about initially (the engineering major) in the thread. I felt that his thoughts/feelings were something worth sharing to the board. He was in the building 100ft away from where the 2nd shooting took place.

The 5 people sat in one corner of our classroom by themselves. After sever tense moments, a friend and I approached the two girls who were crying, and we each began comforting them. I rubbed the girl’s back, had someone get her some water, and just began talking to her. After a few minutes she was able to start talking things out and eventually she was able to tell us what had happened. I will retell the girl’s story as it was engraved in my mind: She was in a classroom in Norris, seated near the door, when she heard gunshots fired in the hall. Her and the student next to her got up and peaked their heads out the door to see what the noise was. They saw the gunman, and he turned and saw them. He raised the gun and pointed it at them as he walked toward them. They quickly slammed the door shut and barricaded themselves in with desks. They stood at the door and held it shut along with a number of other students. The gunman attempted to enter, and when he couldn’t, he fired two rounds into the door—none of which penetrated completely through the door. (Later the business woman who was escorted into our room would show us a fragment of the bullet she had pulled from the door). The girl said she could hear him running through the halls firing rounds, reloading, and firing more. A while later, SWAT team members came into their classroom and began evacuating people out and bringing them to Randolph hall where I was held in lock down. As she was being escorted through the halls, she saw several dead bodies on the ground and blood throughout the halls.

The girl told me that when she saw the shooter, she saw his face. She saw that he was sad, and she told me that she actually felt sorry for him. This didn’t hit me right away, because at that time, everything was very chaotic. But after returning home later in the day and realizing the magnitude of this incident, I began to think about the girl’s story and how personal this really was. I realized that this girl literally starred down the barrel of a 9mm handgun, but she looked beyond it and saw the man holding it. She had mercy on this man as he was threatening her life with his very presence. For the rest of the day, the death toll climbed, and I kept thinking about the victims, their families, and how this would affect the world’s view of the school that I call my home. But still more, I thought about the gunman. This is a person who cracked. We have no idea what the motive was or even who this man is.

I want to say this; when the media releases the name of this man, say a prayer for him by name. Say a prayer for his family by name. Do not curse him, though you may curse this event. As Christians—as people—we are called to be merciful. I want to be as merciful as the girl I sat with in Randolph today. I know I will be filled with this inevitable feeling of anger, and maybe hatred toward this man when they announce his name, but I will put that aside, and I will ask God to bless the family that survives him. God loves this man as much as He loves the people he killed. So let us not pray for the 32 victims and the single gunman, instead let us pray for the 33 human souls that met God today.

Thank you for all of your prayers. I know a lot of you tried contacting me and were unable to get a hold of me because of the jammed cellular circuits, so I’m sorry if I have been unable to respond to all of you. I have been bombarded with voicemails, text messages, instant messages, emails, and facebook posts. I’m blessed to have so many people who are concerned about me, and I cherish that even more on a day like today.

Pray for Virginia Tech as a whole community. It is a beautiful place that has never seen anything like this before this year, and I can’t wait until we are all able to enjoy being out on the gorgeous campus without looking over our shoulders or starring down the suspicious person we see walking towards us. Pray that people, when they are done morning, are able to look past this tragedy and try to find the good that God has waiting for our campus.

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

I have been hearing some people on CNN saying that this tragedy was part of our National preception off violence because of TV and video games. They are saying that we need to change what we do, what we watch, and what we play. I am of the firm belief that this horrific incident has nothing to do with American culture and has more to do with a person committing a horrible and unforseeable act. My prayers and thoughts are with all families, students, and friends of those affected by this tragedy.