F-cking Shooting, 20 People Dead, A Mile From My Office

[Telionis]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html

I went to school there, that was my department (ESM), and now I work two maybe three miles from there. Furthermore, my Dad is a professor there, his office is 300 Norris hall, it's exactly over 200 and 202. The shooting happend in 205, one room down the hall. Thankfully, he wasn't at work at the time and the cops stopped him at the parking lot. But of my Dad's fellow professors got shot in the arm. F-cking crazy.

Furthermore, our business has a lab in Norris hall (basement). We only had one employee there at the time and she's fine (got evac'ed by the cops to a large refuge-camp like thing, where they held all the students). She's still in that place, as the cops search for extra gunmen.

F-cking weirded out. I grew up in and around Norris man, as a kid I would run through the halls and sh*t. I personally had many a class in Norris also (including the room where the shootings occured). I've slept through many a boring lecture in that room.

That's f*cking CRAZY. Now they're saying 20+ fatalities. Who the f*ck goes and shoots a class-full of fellow students??? Yes, he went into a class-room and just started shooting.

Right now I'm locked in my office (the offices border the campus)... again... Yes, again, just six months ago some crazy guy got loose from a local hospital and killed a cop and guard before he got recaptured. That makes two shootings in six months (one of them randomly targetted at innocent students). Before this year, the last time there was a shooting in a 50 mile radius was in 1997 or something (and it was a huge deal).

I'm moving down under dag nab it.

Edited 16/04/07 04:49 PM by Telionis

[GOLDIE]

Hi mate I just saw this on the net it is not good they are saying over 30 now.

Ian

[LTS60]

crazy stuff

[ZAP]

Yeah, watching it on Sunrise now. 32 dead and 28 wounded.

Just remember according to the NRA, people kill people, not guns.

A very sad day for the USA. Worst shooting ever.

Condolences to the families.

[Telionis]

We also had abnormal winds today also... like 30-40 mph gusts. I almost got knocked over in the parking lot. In fact, part of the wooden construction for a new building on campus (the wooden frame that concrete will be poured into) was torn apart damaged and pieces went flying from this abnormal wind.

The siginificance of the wind: today is the only day all year with winds that were too strong for helicopters to fly in. After overwelming the ERs of our local hospitals, the victims had to make the trip to the nearest city (Roanoke) - but since they couldn't fly, they had to be driven via highway (45 minutes even with a perfectly clear road versus less than 10 minutes by heli). Not sure how many died of wounds on the way. :(

I know for sure now that one of my favorite profs got shot in the face (he may survive though). Thank God my Dad wasn't teaching today.

[YPURV4]

frk me, im glad your old man wasnt there, but I feel so sad for every body else's familys.

Such a waste of life.

[mbjunior99]

What more can you say

[Telionis]

Yeah, watching it on Sunrise now. 32 dead and 28 wounded.

Just remember according to the NRA, people kill people, not guns.

A very sad day for the USA. Worst shooting ever.

Condolences to the families.

You can argue both sides of the NRA's point. I guess it would be ideal if there were no guns, period (full stop!?!), but there is absolutally no way to do that. No matter what laws are enacted now, the real criminals have guns today, and certainly won't give them up. It is not legal for anyone under 21 to have a pistol in Virginia, furthermore, no firearms of any kind are allowed on campus, regardless of whether you've got a license or not, (excluding the cops of course); but as one might imagine though, the killer (prepared to kill 30 people) didn't pay too much attention to the fact that he was also breaking gun control laws.

Short of some divine intervention, I can't imagine that all the guns could be removed from the hands of criminals. So that leaves good citizens with two terrible choices, "hope that it won't happen to them and if it does hope that the guy showes mercy," or "get over the bad taste of the very idea of carrying a gun and start doing so." I guess the choice is between having a shoot-out on campus or having a massacre; who can say for sure which is the lesser of two evils?

__________

What kind of gun control laws does Australia have?

In the US it varies by state, in Virginia any legal citizen 21 over with proper training (3 days worth) and registration (finger printing, back ground check, etc), can carry concealed pistol, except in designated areas (gov property, banks, schools, airports, bars / anywhere there is alcohol, etc.). Reports that automatic AK47s are legal in the US are completely fabricated (well, its possible for collectors, but will cost you $30k and the ATF will examine you so hard your butt will hurt).

On the other hand, in Greece, pistols are banned period (full stop!), even members of the military can't own one, much less walk around with one. In fact, my grandpa's best friend was the chief of the Greek army right after WW2 - president Eisenhower gave him a gold-plated Colt 1911 to thank him for Greece's service... when it got stolen 5 years ago (such a shame), the cops almost arrested this 90 year old ex-general for not having turned the pistol in upon his retirement.

Edited 16/04/07 08:31 PM by Telionis

[ZAP]

Yeah gun control is out of control in the USA. In Australia we do not see guns very often. They had a big drive to hand in unwanted guns and got many 100,000's handed in after the Port Arthur shooting where 35 people were killed by a single gunman with a AK47 back in the late 90's.

Pistols are only for cops and security guards, getting a gun license is difficult even for farmers and professional shooters. It makes for a much safer society.

I am very glad that your dad was not there for the shooting as it could have been a different post from you this morning, I hope your friends and teachers are ok.

[Telionis]

Yeah gun control is out of control in the USA. In Australia we do not see guns very often.

I'm not sure if it's out of control. The question is, what do you do now? If there was a law that said every one has to turn in their guns immediately... otherwise they'll be thrown in jail. What would happen? All the legitimate citizens would turn in their guns, and all the violent criminals... well they would not. So the law would effectively disarm all the law abiding citizens, while the guys that are causing all the problems would still be just as armed.

If you know the criminals will have guns, do you want to be at their mercy or would you prefer to have to fight them? Which is the lesser of two evils?