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Update: Further information on the murder at the Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown By Larry Hincker BLACKSBURG, Va., January 22, 2009 -- Virginia Tech Police have confirmed the name of the female graduate student murdered yesterday evening in the university's Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown. She was Xin Yang, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, China. She had just arrived at Virginia Tech Jan. 8 to begin her studies in accounting in the Pamplin College of Business. She was a resident of the Graduate Life Center. Yang was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant on the first...

When Virginia Tech authorities arrived Wednesday night at a cafe inside the Graduate Life Center, they found a decapitated female victim who had arrived on campus just two weeks ago and a young man they have now charged with killing her.

No details yet. Alert sent to all students: VT Police have confirmed a murder in the Graduate Life Center. A suspect is in custody. Stay where you are and stay vigilant. Stay away for GLC. 8:16pm

RICHMOND, Jan. 13 -- The Virginia State Crime Commission on Tuesday declined to endorse closing the so-called gun show loophole in Virginia law, heightening uncertainty about the prospects of success in the General Assembly. The deadlocked vote -- taken before a large crowd that included gun owners, at least one survivor of the Virginia Tech shootings and friends and relatives of other massacre victims -- highlighted an enduring split between country and city that transcends party affiliation in Virginia. Two key commission members bucked their parties' habitual views of gun control measures. The commission's chairman, Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax),...

SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Violence on college campuses is a growing concern among students, and some say it's time to take protection into their own hands -- by carrying guns. Mike Guzman, a senior at Texas State University-San Marcos, is among 30,000 members of Students For Concealed Carry on Campus, a group dedicated to a nationwide effort to make it legal for students to carry concealed handguns on campus, San Antonio television news station KSAT reported. "It's a tool that we're allowed to use across the street in larger society, so why not on campus?" Guzman said. Concealed handguns may...

For the first time since 1964, Democrats actually have a chance of winning Virginia's 13 electoral votes. Barack Obama is up 4.8% according to the Real Clear Politics average, and according to Nate Silver, Virginia could be one of this election's decisive swing states. And, in a state with 161 colleges and 483,159 students, the predominantly Democratic youth vote could play a huge role in tipping the election Obama's way. But there's a hold-up: Virginia's local laws make it exceedingly difficult for students to register in their college towns. Indeed, though other states like Idaho and Tennessee also make student...

With 41 percent of Tech's traveling roster having never played a college football game, the Hokies' opener against East Carolina this Saturday could be a tough match-up. "We're dressing 10 true freshmen and 15 redshirt freshmen," Virginia Tech head football coach Frank Beamer said. "It's a little bit scary ... We lost a couple kids from last year, but we are very impressed with our freshman class." That is not to say Tech has no veterans on the team, but with only a few at each position, the freshmen will need to step up quickly in order to fend off...

A registrar drew fire for pointing out possible effects of students' registering to vote. A Montgomery County official's attempt to outline state elections law for thousands of Virginia Tech students this week prompted a swift reaction from Barack Obama campaign officials, who worried the statement could have a "chilling effect" on a massive registration effort now under way. Montgomery County Registrar Randy Wertz said he wrote the news release, distributed through the county's Web site, amid concerns that the hundreds of Tech students registering to vote using their Blacksburg addresses would essentially change their permanent address. That, he wrote, could...

Whitewater - Freshmen at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater have always spent their first few days on campus learning college survival - how to join the karate club, cheer like a Warhawk and find English 101. But this year’s orientation added a grim new lesson: how to take out a campus shooter with a book or a backpack. The school is one of about 500 around the country that have purchased “Shots Fired on Campus,” a new video training program with tactics for surviving a mass-casualty shooting. It’s the latest strategy for college officials who are preparing for the worst in...

A chapter of a national gun advocacy group that supports allowing students to carry weapons to class may open at Florida Atlantic University this fall. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus was created after the April 2007 shootings on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va., where 32 people and gunman Cho Seung-Hui died. About the organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus promotes its cause with several initiatives, including the 'empty holster protest,' where students, faculty and staff who support allowing guns on campus wear holsters to school. Group leaders said 3,800 students nationwide participated in April's event....

Opportunity is knocking, Clemson. You better capitalize now because the path to an ACC crown may never be this smooth again. The Tigers are the storyline of the 2008 season in the ACC. While they’ve got the league’s best quarterback, Cullen Harper, and as much talent as anyone in the conference, the rest of the ACC is down. Way down. Florida State and Miami remain weak facsimiles of the programs that used to collect crowns faster than anyone else in the country. Boston College was built for last year. Georgia Tech and Virginia are about to undergo some serious growing...

WASHINGTON -- Students for Concealed Carry on Campus held its first national meeting last friday. The group hopes to convince state legislatures to allow guns onto college campuses. Meanwhile, another group, Students for Gun Free Schools, founded in opposition to SCCC, is working to make sure this doesn't happen. Elilta Habtu joined Students for Gun Free Schools this spring. She was shot twice in the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech. The shooting has led her to become an activist for gun control. "The answer is not to arm yourself," she said. "It's better to prevent tragedies like that from occuring......

Cox Washington Bureau Washington —- The idea of giving college students the right to carry concealed weapons on campus may seem counterintuitive after last year's Virginia Tech massacre. But the proposal is deadly serious, said young men and women from colleges across the country who attended the first Students for Concealed Carry on Campus National Conference on Friday. Their movement was galvanized by the 2007 shootings, said Michael Guzman, president of the group and a senior at Texas State University. The issue is not keeping guns out of the hands of college students, he said, but whether properly licensed students...

A Virginia Tech employee shot himself in a room off the Cassell Coliseum arena on Saturday afternoon, officials said. Tech police responded to the incident at 2:15 p.m., and the man was flown to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, police Chief Wendell Flinchum said. Officials declined to identify the man, and his condition is unknown. Although officials said the shooting posed no threat to the campus community, Flinchum said police notified the public by e-mail using part of an alert system put in place after the April 16, 2007, shootings.

The senator's bill says a 'mentally defective' vet can buy a gun unless a judge finds him dangerous. WASHINGTON - Since a severely mentally ill student went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech last year, killing 32 people before turning a gun on himself, Congress and several states have worked to tighten rules on who can legally purchase a firearm. But a push by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina would prevent the federal veterans agency from adding the names of veterans declared "mentally defective" to a background check database unless the agency goes through the judicial system....

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. today announced that its 40Gb/s InfiniBand technology interconnects the new 29TFlops computer systems research cluster at the Center for High-End Computing Systems (CHECS) within the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 40Gb/s InfiniBand was introduced in June 2008 and this compute cluster showcases the quick industry acceptance and adoption compared to other high speed interconnect technologies. Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand technology provides the necessary scalability and performance for the CHECS research activities and will be the foundation for the development of next generation, power-aware high-end computing resources. “Mellanox continues to lead the high-performance computing and enterprise data center...

This past Tuesday a University student, Cassie LeBlanc, was robbed while getting into her car after leaving the library around 9:30 p.m. The robber forced her against her car and asked for her wallet, then he discovered there was no cash. He decided he didn't want it, but after seeing text books on the front seat, the thief decided to take those instead. I was very glad to hear LeBlanc was alright, but a very important question came to mind: What if she had a firearm to defend herself? Would this incident have happened? My answer is probably not. The...

READING, WRITING, WEAPONS Texas students join a nationwide movement for the right to bear arms while at college BLANCO — Cameron Schober, a 22-year-old Texas State University student, aimed his semi-automatic pistol at the outline of a man's torso just as a gust of wind blew down the target. "Everybody hold up!" hollered instructor Mike Cox. As six other shooters lowered their weapons, Schober scrambled to brace the cardboard target at a makeshift range on a deserted Hill Country ranch. Schober and fellow student Bill Downs were among 13 people who recently completed Cox's shooting proficiency and eight-hour classroom course,...

On Evil Bethany Stotts, June 23, 2008 Is evil the result of human choice or manufactured by social circumstances? Professor Philip Zimbardo, known for his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, opted for the latter explanation at a recent CATO book forum. Zimbardo told the audience that he believes Lucifer was expelled from heaven not for sinning, but for disobeying an authority figure. “It’s really a story about what happens when you challenge authority—you go to hell,” said the Stanford University professor. The author of The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo believes that any person has the capacity for terrible deeds, torture,...

U.S. District Judge F. Bradford Stillman this morning ruled that the College must turn over the names of 20 students suspected of downloading music illegally to the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA plans to sue the students for copyright infringement after they allegedly downloaded music on peer-to-peer music sharing programs such as Limewire. 7 students have already settled independently, paying between $3,000 and $5,000 each. The suit had previously been denied by U.S. District Judge Walter D. Kelley Jr. Kelley recently retired, and the RIAA asked Stillman to overturn his ruling. According to RIAA lawyer Katheryn Coggon, the...

While waiting for the Supreme Court's decision in the Heller case to come down, check out this article by a gun control lawyer, who used to work for Brady Center against Handguns, saying "gun free" zones like in D.C. or at Virginia Tech aren't successful.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Before April 16, 2007, Marian Hammaren of Westtown, N.Y., thought she knew what she'd been put on the earth to do: to be Caitlin's mother, to guide and protect her. But 19-year-old Caitlin Hammaren, a sophomore at Virginia Tech majoring in French and international relations and an only child, did not survive the tragedy on campus that day and Marian Hammaren was left wondering: "What's my job now?" In a May 30 telephone interview with Catholic News Service, Hammaren described the dark times that followed the campus massacre that left her daughter and 32 other students and...

The UNM Police Department arrested student Kevin Boyar on Tuesday on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun onto a University establishment. Police said four guns were recovered from Boyar's parents' house, including an AK-47 assault-style rifle, and there is evidence he brought the weapons to his room in the Student Residence Center. Police Chief Kathy Guimond said the department received an anonymous tip at 11 a.m. that Boyar, 19, had guns in his room at the SRC. The informant said Boyar had made threats referring to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois, she said. Police obtained a search...

A year has passed since the tragic events at Virginia Tech, and there are some assumptions upon which gun control is based that require investigation. Chief among them is the misplaced feeling that banning firearms somehow eradicates them. When examining this notion, we can look for another example of a ban to give us a sense of the difference between banning and eradication. There are people in America known as illegal immigrants who are banned from being here. If the state cannot keep a person from coming into the country illegally, what possible hope does it have in banning a...

BATON ROUGE -- All college students 21 or older who have qualified for concealed handgun permits would be able to carry firearms to class and other parts of campus under a bill approved 11-3 by a House committee Thursday. The Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice sent to the House floor House Bill 199 by Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, its chairman. Wooton said he expects lengthy debate on the bill's merits when it hits the floor. The bill drew support from college students who say they feel unsafe and inadequately protected when leaving campus late at night. Student...

A representative from Students for Concealed Carry on Campus argued for a more sensible policy for carrying concealed handguns on college and university campuses at Walter Hall last night. “It’s hypocritical to say you can bring a gun into a 300-person movie theatre but not a 300-person lecture hall,” said Stephen Feltoon, Midwest regional director of SCCC. Feltoon, a 2007 graduate of Miami University of Ohio, spoke for a 40-person group as part of the SCCC’s weeklong protest of concealed carry laws across the nation that forbid concealed handguns on college campuses. The OU Second Amendment club — comprising about...

The owner of the Green Bay-based web site that sold guns a gun to the Virginia Tech shooter and gun accessories to the Northern Illinois University gunman plans to visit Virginia Tech on Thursday. Eric Thompson owns TGSCOM, the company that sold a gun to Seung-Hui Cho last year. Cho killed 32 students and staff at Virginia Tech's campus. Thompson announced Wednesday students invited him to campus to talk about concealed-carry laws. "What I'm really hoping to do is just lend a voice. Unfortunately, a set of coincidences and circumstances, I've been in the media, and I think with that...

The owner of an Internet-based firearms store that sold a gun to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho says he is now offering a discount for students who want to carry guns on campus to protect themselves. The company, TGSCOM Inc., also sold two 9mm Glock magazines to Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five people at Northern Illinois University earlier this year. The owner of TGSCOM, Eric Thompson, announced today that for the next two weeks he will sell firearms at cost in the hopes of targeting students who may be on a tight budget. Customers will have over 5,400 different kinds...

Ohio State University's ROTC cadets have ended the decades-long practice of combat training with mock rifles on the main campus because of public edginess in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, officials said. Since the decision was made a couple of weeks ago, tactical training with rubber replicas of an M-16 rifle has been moved indoors, or cadets have trained without rifles, said Navy Capt. Steven Noce, who heads the university's ROTC program. The tactical training, typically conducted around the ROTC building near Ohio Stadium, has generated a few calls to police from concerned people in the past year,...

The state has agreed to give 21 families of the Virginia Tech massacre $11 million in blood money to avoid lawsuits that would attempt to assign responsibility to anyone other than the lone nut job. This reflects the grievance-minded culture of the day and unscrupulous lawyers ever willing to sue businesses, institutions and private citizens over the flimsiest reasons. People are killed each day, each loss of life as painful as the next, none more financially worthy than the next, unless apparently you are related to one of the 32 dead and 24 wounded on the Blacksburg, Va., campus. Then...

NARROWS, Va. (AP) -- Allen Neely eases his Chrysler Pacifica onto the bridge named in honor of Jarrett Lane, who grew up in this tiny town near the West Virginia state line. Mr. Lane, Mr. Neely says quietly, always wanted to build a bridge. Under the back seat are two pistols. Mr. Neely keeps them close these days. He and his construction crew were in Virginia Tech's Norris Hall a year ago this week when a mentally ill student went on a rampage, killing Jarrett Lane and 31 others. Since then, Mr. Neely feels safer if his guns are within...

On the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says it's still too easy for criminals to get guns. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, says not enough has changed since the worst campus shootings in the nation's history when 32 people, including the gunman died. ``Much more needs to be done. The bottom line is we make it too easy for dangerous people to get guns in this country. There really aren't very many restrictions on people's ability to get guns," Helmke said. ``A lot of times, folks think that...

On the anniversary of the Virginia Tech University shootings, Twin Cities citizens are joining more than 70 cities across the nation in events to remember the tragedy and to call on legislators to strengthen the Brady background check system. The demonstration will be a "lie-in" in front of the Capitol, where citizens will lie down in a group of 32 to commemorate the Virginia Tech victims and the 32 Americans murdered by gun every day. "Gun violence is devastating – and it is preventable," said Mary Lewis Grow, Vice President of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota and local event organizer....

Va. Tech families reach $11M settlement By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer 44 minutes ago ROANOKE, Va. - Families of the victims in the Virginia Tech shootings have reached a tentative $11 million settlement with the state, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Thursday. The deal is designed to prevent future lawsuits. Kaine said a "substantial majority" of families of victims of the Virginia Tech shootings agreed to the settlement. Peter Grenier and Douglas Fierberg, who represent 21 families, also confirmed the settlement but would not discuss its terms until final papers are drawn in a few days. Kaine spokesman Gordon...

The student government at Virginia Tech asked protesters to demonstrate on a day besides April 16. BLACKSBURG -- Gun-control advocates planning to protest April 16 on Virginia Tech's Drillfield said Tuesday that they hope to reach a compromise with the university that will allow them to protest without interfering with remembrance events. Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, said the group has been working with Tech students on the protest. It would involve a 32-person "lie-in" at noon April 16, the one-year anniversary of campus shootings that left 32 people dead plus the shooter. The...

Brady Campaign won't get permit for event on April 16 Virginia Tech said yesterday that it will not allow a national gun-control advocacy group to hold a campus demonstration on April 16 while the school commemorates last year's massacre. Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said neither the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence nor the co-sponsor of the planned demonstration, ProtestEasyGuns.com, had applied for an assembly permit, and even if they had, Tech only issues permits to student groups. Tech's position threw the Brady Campaign's plans into disarray yesterday: The noon demonstration at Tech was supposed to be the centerpiece of...

Barack Obama is embracing anti-gun policies in the run-up to a Democratic presidential debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. “I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. “I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.” These remarks break from Obama’s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control. While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.” Obama elaborated later that month in a political forum sponsored by ABC News and the Politico. He said: “I...

FREE REPUBLIC NASCAR THREAD Goody's Cool Orange 500 Welcome all to the Sprint Cup race atMartinsville Speedway (Click on the Pics, Graphics, & Links for related news & info.) Current Cup driver standings VT's Beamer Cool Orange Grand Marshal Virginia Tech’s Military Marching Bandwill Perform National Anthem for Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Fans In South Terrace Seats Will Get Martinsville Hotdogs Delivered Track Schedule for the Goody's Cool Orange 500/Kroger 250 Goody's Cool Orange 500 Entry List Qualifying: Friday 3/28 3:40 pm Sprint Cup Qualifying ~ SPEEDRace: Sunday 3/30 1:30 pm SPRINT Cup Race ~ FOX Speed's NASCAR Raceday...

They are crimes some say are becoming all too common: shootings on college campuses. Just Thursday in Texas police say a gunman shot 2 students near an off–campus dorm. Now, a new group popping up at schools across the country says it wants to take action and prevent these tragedies. The group is called "Students for Concealed Carry on Campus" or SCCC. You can find members at over 200 colleges, including the University of Nebraska and Hastings College. As their numbers continue to grow, they hope to convince state lawmakers that change is needed and that concealed weapons should be...

State reportedly offers $100,000 to forestall lawsuits over massacre RICHMOND, Va. - Families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre would receive $100,000 each under a settlement the state is proposing to prevent lawsuits, according to a victim's relative who received a copy of the proposal. Medical and counseling expenses would be provided to the families of the 32 killed and dozens of surviving victims, said the person, who asked Monday to remain anonymous because those involved were told not to discuss the settlement. Families would also have the opportunity to question the governor and university officials about the...

RICHMOND, Va. - A relative of a Virginia Tech shooting victim says the families of those killed would receive $100,000 each under a settlement designed to prevent lawsuits. ...

The Smithsonian Institution, beleaguered by questions over how much it pays its executives and how they spend the organization's money, said Saturday it has picked Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough as its new leader. Clough will become the 12th secretary of the world's largest museum and research complex on July 1, assuming control of an institution that has been in turmoil in the past year. Clough will usher in a new era, "bringing a unique combination of academic achievement, talent, leadership skills and experience in public service, science, management and development," Smithsonian board Chairman Roger Sant said in a...

Steve Barber knew his fictional essay about a suicidal student bent on murder would generate quite a buzz within his creative-writing class at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. It was the expulsion from school and the weekend spent locked up in a mental health ward for observation that caught the 23-year-old freshman and former U.S. Navy sailor off guard. The three guns that campus police later report finding in his car while parked in a school lot Feb. 29 didn’t help his cause either. “I never intended for him [the creative-writing professor] to feel threatened by it. I...

State Bill Would Allow Guns on Campus By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, The New York Times PHOENIX (March 5) - Horrified by recent campus shootings, a state lawmaker here has come up with a proposal in keeping with the Taurus .22-caliber pistol tucked in her purse: Get more guns on campus. The lawmaker, State Senator Karen S. Johnson, has sponsored a bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved last week, that would allow people with a concealed weapons permit — limited to those 21 and older here — to carry their firearms at public colleges and universities. Concealed weapons are generally...

The Virginia General Assembly voted Tuesday for the first major overhaul of the state's mental health system in three decades, largely in response to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. The House and Senate passed a package of bills designed to give families and courts greater flexibility in having people who are mentally ill involuntarily committed, among other changes.

This is not a good idea. My friends know that I possess a concealed-carry permit and own guns, and that I am a staunch defender of every law-abiding American’s 2nd Amendment rights, but the people who want permit-holders to carry guns on campus are not thinking clearly. First, let me say that both extremes are wrong: designating gun-free zones in areas like a college campus obviously does not work and invites disaster.

As Northern Illinois University restarts classes this week, one thing is clear: Six minutes proved too long. It took six minutes before the police were able to enter the classroom that horrible Thursday, and in that short time five people were murdered, 16 wounded. Six minutes is actually record-breaking speed for the police arriving at such an attack, but it was simply not fast enough. Still, the police were much faster than at the Virginia Tech attack last year. The previous Thursday, five people were killed in the city council chambers in Kirkwood, Mo. There was even a police officer...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- The senior at the University of Utah gets dressed and then decides which gun is easiest to conceal under his clothes. If he's wearing a T-shirt, he'll take a smaller, low-profile gun to class. If he's wearing a coat, he may carry a different weapon, he said. He started carrying a gun to class after the massacre at Virginia Tech, but the student says he's not part of the problem of campus shootings and could instead be part of a solution. Nick, who asked not to be fully identified so his fellow students wouldn't...

Four months after Peter Hamm, spokesperson for The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, verbally attacked the college-based, grassroots organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, telling a Fox News reporter, "You don't like the fact that you can't have a gun on your college campus? Drop out of school," he is stepping up the rhetoric. Not content with encouraging college students to forgo their educations rather than fight for a cause in which they believe, Mr. Hamm has resorted to baseless conspiracy theories and slander. In a February 19, 2008, interview with Anna Hipsley of Australia’s ABC News radio,...

Web Exclusive It was a sickeningly familiar scene. A student-gunman opened fire Thursday during a lecture at Northern Illinois University, killing five and wounding 15 before turning the gun on himself. The deadly spree was the fifth school shooting this week—and a traumatic reminder that for all the efforts to improve campus security nationwide since the massacre at Virginia Tech last year, students and faculty remain disturbingly vulnerable. A nonprofit organization called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus would like to change that. The group, whose 12,000 members nationwide include college students, faculty and parents, champions legislation that would allow...