Shots fired at Virginia Tech (AP: 33 dead, 15 wounded)

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=248 ^

[LexHoskin]

Gunman on Campus; Stay inside your building, away from windows; Shooting incident at West Ambler Johnston Hall

[Quix]

I think you’re quite right.

Government Shrinker . . . guess that’s not a psychiatrist role you’re talking about? LOL.

[bray]

Terrorist mole??

Pray for W and Va Tech

[archy]

I think the guy may have been on the run for awhile going room to room shooting.

In one of the on-line news phone interviews with one of the wounded, one of the surviving witnesses said the shooter opened the classroom door, emptied the magazine, and then slammed the door.

In another, he reportedly lined his victims up in a row, then went down the line executing them.

[Lazamataz]

He was carrying no cell phone, no ID, his fingerprints brought up nothing, and he shot himself in the face, thus disfiguring himself.

I'm leanin' towards the Jihadist Scenario more and more.....

[oblomov]

Whatever it was, slack could have fixed it.

[Publius Valerius]

OK, now the "no prints on file" thing is really curious. If he is a student, don't they give prints on their ID's? No birth certificate on file anywhere with prints? If he is NOT an American citizen, wouldn't his prints have been on file through immigration?

I don't think it is weird at all. If he isn't a criminal, why would he be fingerprinted? At least in my state, you don't get fingerprinted at birth and you don't get fingerprinted when you go to school.

My whole life, I was never fingerprinted until I took the bar exam. I don't think it's unusual at all for a person not to have fingerprints on file with the government. Why would they? Why would you want that?

[KoRn]

" Other than a post on this thread, I have heard no mention of a "vest"...."

The post I was replying to was the first time I had heard anything about a vest. This could be a case of runaway speculation and gossip.

[DCPatriot]

DC Channel 4 (NBC) said this just in... police have not ID’d the shooter, are having difficulty, can’t get fingerprints (that’s what the head said, but I think he meant no prints on file anywhere), had no ID on himself, and was not carrying a cellphone.

Doesn't compute. If you can show me Uda and Qusay's bloodied faces...show me this guy's.

[GenuineChocolateFace]

“Gun Nut” faction? That certainly shows where YOU stand. What about “Speech Nuts”? “Assembly Nuts”? Why not just say “Constitutional Rights Nuts”? Or is it only “Nuts” when it deals with guns?

[meg88]

those families may just shut VT down financally with negligence lawsuits

[oceanview]

that’s the first question.

answer: “the first shooting was an isolated incident”.

how did they know?

[JenB]

Well, a lot of recent college grads still get drunk and party. Maybe we shouldn’t let people own guns, or vote, or drive cars, or own property, until they’re 30. They should be settled by then, right?

The point is, if we’ve decided that X is the age of adulthood in our society, all rights of adulthood should be granted at that age. Otherwise you’ve just created a bunch of second class citizens. And as long as you want people that age to volunteer for the armed services and defend your freedoms, don’t try to take theirs away.

Stricter gun laws could not have prevented this tragedy - criminals always get their hands on weapons. Always. More people carrying guns might have.

[CedarDave]

Very slow FR.

2 dead in first shooting.
31 dead in second shooting.
no ID on shooter.
List of dead not released until next of kin notified.

[Moose4]

Putting a school the size of Virginia Tech into “lockdown” isn’t that easy. 25,000+ students, thousands of which are commuting in from off-campus, a couple of hundred buildings, and easy wide-open access from dozens of points around Blacksburg. How do you lock that down? I went to a school that was considerably smaller (James Madison University, up the road from VT in Harrisonburg) and even so, 20 years ago when I was there, we had over 10,000 students, 100 buildings, a couple of dozen parking lots, maybe eight full-time campus cops, and absolutely no facility to lock anything down.

If he shot the two people in West AJ at 7:15, he could probably get out of the dorm and fade into the woodwork with ease. Tech’s big, and crowded. And if nobody knows who this guy is now, seven hours after the fact, there’s no way anybody knew to look for him earlier this morning when he walked into Norris Hall and started shooting.

}:-)4

[Deo volente]

Press conference from the university right now.

“Thirty-one people dead, including the gunman, at the second shooting site...no identity yet on the gunman, he carried no ID...attempting to ascertain his identity...investigation continuing on whether there was any connection between the first and second shootings...”

[Oliver Optic]

If it was him, I'd like to give him a piece of my mind. I was a frightened 9 year old that spent most of that night in a damp cellar. :)

'Twas a memorable night for me, too ... waiting it out under a bed in Huntsville, AL.

[jdm]

VT is at fault. Ask WHY no lockdown until second shooting with 2 hours and a killer on the loose.

Not to mention the recent bomb threats (the most recent being about 72 hours ago). You'd think they'd have been more on their toes.

[Black Guy who is a Republican]

Haven’t read the details yet. Rush was saying that the guy was “looking for his girlfriend” or some such thing. And that he lined them up and shot them...? Is that true?

Or was that all speculation?

[Velveeta]

Scares me too.
I was watching a show on OKC just yesterday and was dreading the 19th.

[chile]

You must be joking. What a silly statement.