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

[BurbankKarl]

You can be sure AQ is taking notes on the response of this...

[OrangeDaisy]

I keep reading and cannot figure out what an “RA” is.

Resident Assistant. It is a student who lives in the dormintory and assists with administrative functions and day to day issues that come up in the dorm. Normally an RA is paid by the university, but would not be the same as the dorm manager or Dorm Mother as they were called in the olden days.

[null and void]

Wolf said he was from a “Well-Known Middle-Eastern Family" ~ tcrlaf

You’re kidding right? ~ AliVeritas

The bin Laden's?

[GovernmentShrinker]

It’s not a high school. You can’t just throw a switch and lock all the doors. There’s thousands of students flowing on and off campus every hour . . . To the campus cops and the Blacksburg PD, they had a domestic dispute and murder on their hands at 8:00 am.

Understood. They can't instantly ensure that everyone gets the word and is following instructions. But the first emergency call came in at 7:15 and it was over two hours before university officials sent out a broadcast e-mail advising students of the situation. The shooter was still at large and unidentified. Obviously, university officials had no way of knowing a large-scale massacre would follow, but they did know an armed violent criminal was on the loose in the area after shooting 2 people in a dorm. If only to prevent wild rumors from taking hold, there should have been a notification much, much sooner.

I suspect the post-crisis analysis is going to find that the handful of people who were officially authorized to put out such messages were busy attending to what had already occurred, and nobody else was willing to take the initiative to get a message out without official authorization. There's something to be said for not jumping the gun on official channels unless it's absolutely clear that all hell has broken loose (which it wasn't before the second round of shootings started), but it seems to me there must have been quite a few people in a position to contact the authorized decision-makers by cell phone or Blackberry and suggest that it was time to get a brief message out, and give a draft text of it for approval -- e.g. secretaries to the President, deans, head of campus security, etc.

[mware]

Just announced Gonzales testimony tomorrow before Congress has been cancelled.

After all can't have his testimony on a day when the media is not going to be paying attention.

[tpaine]

...Flashback to Jan 2006...
Gun bill gets shot down by panel HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.
House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.
The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bills defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, needs to rake Gary Fink and the General Assembly over the coals, and get his bill passed.

[evangmlw]

Final straw here! I will be headed down to the Sheriff’s Department immediately after dinner for finger-printing. Concealed weapons permit application.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

An Asian with a towel-like object wrapped around his face?

[Dante3]

I doubt the university will be found at fault. It is a huge campus. And this was an unpredictable act. So far the reports indicate that the only one at fault is the gunman.

Of course one never knows. I read - also on another thread here in FR - about this guy who sued the University of Michigan after his daughter Courtney was found dead from a drug overdose. He argued that even though there was no evidence that his daughter climbed out of a window, that must have happened and the university has to pay because they chose that particular window design. He won $100,000.

[streetpreacher]

That’s not how the media will report it. Prayers for all.

[AliVeritas]

Hindrichs? You don’t wanna know... talk about coverup.

[meg88]

That’s what I’m worried about.

[higgmeister]

I see, yes he is out of here.

I didn't punch him out either but I will not cry over toasted calamari.

Such a nihilistic little myopic cyclops. Hardly fit for kitty litter.

[DvdMom]

He isn’t the shooter . He is a reporter for the Virginia School Newspaper . The V Tech Editor said he’s is a reporter for the school newspaper & was released .

[relee]

Any idiot would have had armed personel at each and every building on campus as soon as it was realized that the perp got away after the first two murdered bodies were discovered.

What if they had eyewitnesses reporting the gunman drove off the campus at a high rate of speed?

[rwfromkansas]

This was “terrorism,” but not terrorism with a capital T.

I really can’t see this being some Al Queda plot or something.

[The KG9 Kid]

I have two burning questions that I desperately need answers for from anyone willing to help:

1. Was Charles Whitman a Vietnam veteran?

2. What is an "RA" in a college dormitory?

[Hacksaw]

Hillary, Feinstein, Schumer, Kennedy, Boxer, Feingold, and others will be all over this in the Senate

Yep. Look for them to do their blood dance any hour now. It's sad we even have have to consider this happening, but you know damn well these people are going to use the deaths as political fodder.

[DCBryan1]

You can be sure AQ is taking notes on the response of this...

Amen. AQA (Al Queda in America) is thinking, "Man, all those defenseless Infidels in one spot and cops too afraid to fight back! Allah is Fubar!"