Virginia Tech Shooting: 33 Dead, 29 Injured
Published April 16, 2007
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions. The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
This was the reaction of Charles Steger, president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg (Virginia Tech), in southwest Virginia, after a gunman killed more than 30 people in a dorm and classroom at the college. At least 29 people are injured, some in critical condition.
The gunman, wearing a maroon hat and black leather jacket, said nothing as he fired shots. He had a 9-mm pistol and a 22-caliber handgun. Including the gunman, 31 people are believed dead. It is reported that the gunman killed himself. Twenty-nine people are being treated by local hospitals. The gunman has been described as a young Asian-American male.
The shooting started at co-ed residence hall, West Ambler Johnston Hall, about 7:15 a.m. ET. This hall houses 895 people. Two hours later, when the campus was still under lockdown, authorities received calls of more gunfire in classroom building Norris Hall. Norris is the engineering science and mechanics building.
The gunman tried to return after leaving a classroom, but was kept at bay by students blocking the door. One of the students reported that the gunman fired through the door but that no one was hit.
Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum said some, but not all of the dead were students, that one student in the dorm was killed, while others were killed in the classroom.
Federal investigators are doing ballistics work, although this is a local investigation.
In a brief statement, President Bush said, "Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning. ... Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech."
This is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Before today, the deadliest shooting was in 1991 in Killeen, Texas. George Hennard killed 23 people and then himself after driving his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria.
Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in the U.S. took place at the University of Texas in 1966. Charles Whitman killed 16 people from the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower. Police gunned him down. Whitman is the person about whom Harry Chapin sang in "Sniper," from the album Sniper and Other Love Songs.
Sources: MSNBC, CNN, and NBC affiliate WSLS-TV in Roanoke, Virginia
Diana (nee Gulick) Hartman is the Culture and Tastes Editor for Blogcritics.org. She is a freelance writer, mother of three, and a (Ret.) US Marine spouse. She is a Wichita, Kansas native, having also lived in the California desert, eastern North Carolina and Stuttgart, Germany. She currently resides in Oceanside, California. She is a contributing writer to Holiday Writes.
- Virginia Tech Shooting: 33 Dead, 29 Injured
- Published: April 16, 2007
- Type: News
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Crime and Court, Culture: Education, Culture: Society
- Writer: Diana Hartman
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Tragic. I'm not sure how anyone can stop this again in the future. Hmmm. Do we need students packing in the classroom like we do on airplanes now? God Bless Them All
The debate will begin again. Guns. No guns. I like no guns myself. You have guns, people get shot. No guns. No one gets shot. Seems simple enough.
Nay, nay say the gunsels. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. But don't guns make it much easier for people to kill people? Isn't pulling a trigger less personal than strangling someone? Could the Virginia Tech tragedy have happened if the killer had walked into the classroom with say, a bow and arrows, a knife, or a cudgel? Perhaps, but likely not on nearly the scale that having two guns and ample ammunition afforded him.
Some will suggest that it's the price we pay for freedom and our great tradition of having the ability to pump people full of holes if we choose.
Pretty heavy price, wouldn't you say?
Baritone
How Can One Be Filled With Such Hate?
to act upon anger, and not realize before it's too late?
What thoughts could have been going through your mind?
to provoke such violence, unto the blind?
we always think we're safe from hell.
as long as we believe in god,then it's to late to hear the school bell.
We all imagine dying in a peaceful way.
Until something horrendous takes place, and so we pray
What brings one to provoke such aweful actions?
and do they think about the worlds reaction?
Does he practive and plan with a gun and knife?
getting a high from taking anothers life?
you never think it'll happen to you...
And when it does it's hell on earth, but theres nothing you can do.
so for the poor lost souls filled with hate
please don't act upon anger before it's to late
and for those whose lives where taken
let us pray for their families, thou earth be shaken
Don't forget the ones who are broken and torn.
Because they are left to wallow and mourn.
The images and sounds will never sease.
So Join together and let us all in God pray Please.
A Poem for those in the Tragedy taken place, Monday April 16, 2007. God Bless You.
This is just so tragic and unnecessary. The worst aspect of this all was the long wait between the initial attack and the second wave. Why didn't someone act sooner to lockdown that campus? There needs to be an extensive look at what went wrong here because we can all learn from these tragic mistakes.
These senseless killings are becoming more common as the levels of stress and confusion increase within a society that has clearly lost it's way. You can easily dismiss this and chalk it up to a set of neurons gone haywire in a single young person's brain. You will hear comments like he was "troubled", "needed help". Some who may have known him casually will say all the "signs where there". But what are we really dealing with? Why is suicide not enough? He was supposedly on anti depressants according to one source. Why does a "troubled mind" also feel compelled to kill others along with themselves?
The only lesson really learned here is just how vulnerable we all are to the senseless acts of madmen. Whether those madmen are thousands of miles away in a foreign land pledged to some insane neanderthal religious beliefs, or an alienated person just "fed up" with the world around them walking next to you in a shopping mall or in an amusement park.
The sensationalism of TERROR is beginning to to extract an even bigger price in our society. It is becoming more and more the option for "going out in a blaze of glory" -- knowing that in "death" they will have "lived". Sick, twisted, but yet being reinforced in the media...
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Wow. Just wow.