My statement on Virginia Tech shootings.........

CNN has offically reported, 33 dead (including the gunman) and 29 wounded.

It's just so unbelievable. Honestly, what is the world coming to. Everytime a school shooting happens, someone says we need to make harsher gun laws and stricter regulations but it hasn't happened yet. And it needs to - fast. Columbine wasn't enough..? The Montreal Massacre wasn't enough..? The Dawson shooting wasn't enough..? It's just inconceivable how things like this are still happening.

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
 
It saddens me that some people think the only way to get their point across about what is troubling them is to go to a school and start shooting and killing. How can someone not see the warning signs that something is seriously wrong with that student or person? It is indeed sad that so many had to go through literal hell before we notice that something wasnt right in the begining. We as a nation will never learn.
 
Well they said that this guy had just been dumped by his girlfriend, so I'm betting that had a huge barring on his actions. Some people are just loners, some people don't have friends, some people don't like talking to their families. This is a selfish act no doubt, of somebody who is not very mentally tough, but I'm not blaming anyone but him for this.
 
I don't care what happened to this guy, what he did was selfish and unspeakable, and I also don't care what the gun law says, the law everywhere is that it's illegal to kill, and this is what this man did. I blame only him but hope that the government takes serious action. I wish the best to the families affected by this tragedy and offer them my prayers and condolences.
 
Thank you all for all your prayers. I live in Southwest Virginia, only about an hour and a half from Blacksburg, and a lot of students from our area go to Virginia Tech. We're still waiting to hear where the students were from, and almost everyone in our area knows someone at Tech. Some of our friends have a son who teaches there, and he was really shaken up about everything. It's a sad time for everyone involved and the entirety of Virginia really needs everyone's thoughts and prayers over the coming days. Even though I went to Tennessee and we're huge rivals with Tech, it's times like these that we pull together as a community. It's a sad day to be a Virginian, a sad day indeed.
 
First, my condolences to friends and family of the victims of those horrible horrible massacre. My thoughts and prayers and with you and I just hope i could offer more.

I'm just...I'm in shock. How could we let this happen? We've not moved up in security AT ALL ANYWHERE since Columbine. Its just horrifying! And it just hits home. I mean, this could happen at any campus anywhere and there really is no way to stop it or prevent it or anything.
 
HoratioAndMe, you're absolutely correct...it could happen at any campus. I've taught at three colleges now, at UT as a teaching assistant and at two smaller campuses. None of them had security in the buildings we were in...the lecture halls didn't even have locks on the door. In fact, the only building I was regularly in that had security was the library, and that was sketchy sometimes on the weekends. I think that's part of what upsets me so much is knowing how easy it could be any time I'm teaching. And now, doing my student teaching at a middle school, my first thought is about protecting my students.

What upsets me are these reporters who apparently know nothing about academic life. I was really upset listening to the reporters grill VT's president and their police chief this afternoon. How do you warn 20,000+ students about impending doom within a few minutes? There's just no way you can guarantee that everyone will be safe, and this is a time to offer healing and condolences, not be mean and try to stir up more trouble for a university that's hurting.
 
This poem is dedicated to the victims and their families of this horrific tradegy.

May your journey be light and free,
As you travel to the faraway lands,
Where pain and fear are not known,
Beside the sunny slopes and quiet streams.
You walk the rainbow of freedom now,
Meet the ones who've gone before you,
To the serene calm of eternal waters.
Your flame died far too early, my friend,
As you were so cruelly taken away.
Every night I will gaze upwards,
At the newborn stars in the velvet sky.
Your honour now shines down upon me,
Standing there for all eternity.
My soul aches at the very thought
Of you no longer beside me,
But I shall keep you locked away
In a secret place in my heart.
Sleep now, my love, sleep in peace,
Your mem'ry will live on
Throughout all seasons and time.
 
It's so scary. I mean 32 (is that correct?) people killed is ridicuolous. I mean school is supposed to be a somewhat secure place. Than something like this happens so easily. It's just crazy.
 
it just amazes me how people think the only way out of a situation is to harm others. and the fact that after all of this, there is still quite a lax policy on gun control. and not just in america either. the canadian government (quite silently might i add) just extended the time limit on registration of long guns by another year. i agree with allstar, new gun laws do need to come into effect. its not right that the general public can get their hands on what u consider to be weapons that should only be used by the military, or high police organizations (fbi, SWAT, etc.)

as soon as i got home from my exam this morning, i heard about the shootings. its scary, i am a college student myself (al beit a much smaller college than Virginia Tech) but the thought of something like that happening is just awful. my thoughts and prayers are with all the families and friends of staff and students at Virginia Tech.
 
I can't believe when I heard this. It never ceases to amaze (Not in a good way, either) me what people will do.

And then he has the wits to go and kill himself, because he can't deal with all the lives' he's ruined?

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this, and more so.
 
Beyond horrific.. the world has gone more nuts than I thought possible.. I can't even watch this. :( this can happen anywhere anytime, to anyone! people with guns, and out of control :mad: unbeliveable, sympathy and love to the families!!
 
My sympathies go out to everyone affected by this horrible act. It'll be 8 years next week that our school shooting occured.. and we're still feeling the effects. I still can't even understand why people do these unbelievably horrible things. My prayers of sympathy and love go out to the victims and their families.
 
Chiming in!

Death toll was 33, last I heard. 2 people were murdered in the dorms. A few hours later, another 30 were killed at Norris Hall at Tech. Then, the killer shot himself in the face, and what makes identification even more difficult is the fact that he was not carrying any identification. He, however, did have two handguns and lots of ammunition according to student reports.

The emails alerting students to the unfortunate events on campus went out two hours after the first attack. School officials believed it was an isolated incident, a domestic affair (the first two deaths), and did not think anything further would happen. That particular dorm was put on lock-down, but I think a lot of students were mad they weren't informed that SOMETHING had gone down on their campus.

I really don't think the news media is trying to be mean in asking questions about the alert system. I think they're trying to understand what happened here and see if there could be a better way of alerting students in the future to help prevent this sort of thing. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, as they say, but I don't think anyone is trying to be "mean."

It's been a rough day. I work in a newsroom, and I have friends at tech (one of which is an engineering student who I was calling crazily all day until I heard back). This is a horrific day, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. We should all pray for the victims and their families. You can't just wipe things like this away and go about your business. This kind of thing affects LIVES, and that's what we all have to focus on.

Mothers don't have their sons tonight. Boyfriends lost their girlfriends. Best friends will no longer talk over coffee. I'm going to be praying for all these victims, tonight. I hope you guys'll do the same.
 
I can't ever see the law on 'the right to bare arms' in the US will ever change, at least not in our lifetime. Although I do believe that the process you have to go through to own a gun is shockingly easy in the US, especially compared to here. They do background checks on your background checks in the UK.

Making the laws more stringent won't stop the physcos and whackos of this world. If you want to get a gun, you'll get a gun.

I think the president has already ruled out any changes of consitution regarding the right to own firearms.

Gun lobbiests will not go down without a fight. They will argue that owning a firearm can protect you from incidents like yesterday.

The debate will go on, but you will never irradicate gun violence no matter what the law :rolleyes:

What did upset me this morning though was the reaction to how the Virginia police responded to the 1st incident and how they didn't prevent the 2nd incident because they chose not to 'lockdown' I heard a report this morning stating the Virginia Tech authories/police had 'blood on their hands' :eek:

How can anyone predict what happened yesterday :eek: I'm sure the authorities took the best steps they thought was nesercary. Like someone said an evacutation of 26,000 people isn't a 30 second job :rolleyes:
 
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