Foxnews Alert: Gunman on VA Tech campus

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Thinking about that bang, I wonder if it was a shotgun being used by police to get into the building if the doors were indeed locked and chained shut.
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Yea that would make sence, especially if the doors are glass like the others pictured.
 
Something I found at falfiles:

TheJokker said:
here is something interesting; a letter to the editor of the roanoke times by a virgina tech graduate student in august of 2006 arguing for the need to allow permitted students to carry their concealed weapons on campus:

Unarmed and vulnerable

Bradford B. Wiles

Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.

On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."

Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.

It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.

Please realize that I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia, and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.

I had entrusted my safety, and the safety of others to the police. In light of this, there are a few things I wish to point out.

First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.

Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.

Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.

Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.

That feeling of helplessness has been difficult to reconcile because I knew I would have been safer with a proper means to defend myself.

I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."

The policy that forbids students who are legally licensed to carry in Virginia needs to be changed.

I am qualified and capable of carrying a concealed handgun and urge you to work with me to allow my most basic right of self-defense, and eliminate my entrusting my safety and the safety of my classmates to the government.

This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.
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Thinking about that bang, I wonder if it was a shotgun being used by police to get into the building if the doors were indeed locked and chained shut.
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I'm pretty sure that's the case. When they arrived at Norris Hall they found the front doors locked (apparently chained closed by the shooter). The VT spokesman said they breached the door within 1 minute, so I'm sure they blasted their way thru the door.
 
Police Chief seems to be saying that dead shooter is not the same person they were looking for in the first shooting. He's not saying whether they are connected or not yet, waiting for ballistics evidence.
 
I'm getting the feeling from the news conference that the reason the responding police could not enter the building was because of the campus lock down procedure.

That and there is a hint that there might be another suspect at large.

Let the spin begin.


Incredible.
 
One of the other interns on my team just graduated from VT two years ago and has a younger sister there. Her cellphone was ringing all day with her calling her sorority sisters and her sisters calling her to keep everyone advised of what was going on. She commented several times that she was having problems reaching people due to all circuits being busy.

I wonder how many calls for help were prevented due to Blackburg's cell system being overloaded.

One important thing to note: When the cell system is overloaded (rapid busy tone), usually text messages will still work.

Kharn
 
There is a cell phone cam video on CNN. Hard to tell what is firing, but it could very well be a pistol, but at the end of the video there is a much louder shot, maybe a 12ga. I wonder if that was the perp or if it was a shot fired by police.
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Texas,

If it is the same video that I saw, if you'll watch the portion of the screen where the LEO's are...you will see them run up to the door and then creep back. If you watch where they first went up to, you'll see a flash and some little pieces of debris. Looks to me like maybe that was an explosive door charge, but I could be run (it has happened before.) Could have also very well been a shotgun blast.

That could explain the louder "shot" you and I heard.
 
Letter to my State Representative

This is the text (with identifying info retracted, of course) of a letter I've just sent to my representative. I'll be sending the same request to my state senator.

Dear Representative,

I was appalled, as I'm sure you were also, to hear of the shootings today in Blacksburg, VA. My first concern is for the students, faculty and employees and the families of the dead and wounded. My second, however, lies closer to home.

My husband is a university employee, a librarian at "A University in Pennsylvania". He is licensed by the State of Pennsylvania to carry a concealed weapon; however, if he carries that weapon onto campus, he is in danger of losing his job. One student or university employee with a weapon could have dramatically minimized the total number of dead at Virginia Tech - but a bill introduced in Virginia in 2006 to specifically permit carrying a concealed weapon regardless of university policies (HB 1572, January 2006) was killed in subcommittee.

I urge you to work with fellow state legislature members to develop and pass a bill that would allow students, faculty and employees of all colleges and universities in Pennsylvania who are legal holders of concealed-carry licenses to carry their weapons on campus without fear of expulsion or firing.

I know that you are a supporter of the right to keep and bear arms in Pennsylvania, and I appreciate all that you do to ensure that this right remains available to us. I would like to share with you a few quotes on the defeat of VA HB 1572 from Larry Hincker, Assistant President of Virginia Tech.

"The writer would have us believe that a university campus, with tens of thousands of young people, is safer with everyone packing heat. Imagine the continual fear of students in that scenario. We've seen that fear here, and we don't want to see it again."

"I think it's fair to say that we believe guns don't belong in the classroom. In an academic environment, we believe you should be free from fear."

"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."

Very few people, if any, could conceive of such an event as the Virginia Tech shootings happening. I am quite sure that Mr. Hincker is as upset as the rest of us at today's events. We concealed carry license holders hope and pray that we will never have to draw our weapons in defense of ourselves or others. However, as much as I hope my husband and I never have to draw our weapons, I hope even more that I will never get a phone call from a police officer or hospital worker telling me that my life has changed forever. I hope I will never have to say, "If only he could have had his gun."

I fear that gun-control advocates will use this tragedy as an opportunity to further erode our rights to legally protect ourselves. I ask you to continue to do all that you can to prevent this, and to work to allow our students, faculty and employees in Pennsylvania's institutions of higher education to defend themselves (and others who cannot) if the need should arise.

Thank you,
Pixel
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What sucks about these crazies is that there isn't much one can do to prevent them. They have no criminal background and often seem stable before they go postal. There's nothing legally you can do to pre-empt them. Background checks won't work unless it's on record that they have mental issues, and I don't know the privacy laws about that. Honestly I think gun dealers should be able to look up people's mental health records before they let them buy.
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There is a background check that covers mental illness. Anything more intrusive would allow politicians to start banning gun ownership for everyone who went to a shrink because they were depressed, or had marriage issues, or was misdiagnosed. Besides, who says this guy is crazy? Maybe he is just a bad person, why do we try to make excuses that someone must be "crazy" why cant people be BAD anymore. And what sucks about these "crazies" as you put it, isnt that they exist it is that they are not stopped by equally lethal force as soon as they draw their weapon to shoot. I bet if they had two colleges, one with many armed students, and one with NO armed students, the armed college would not be attacked...and after all, how crazy can someone be if they choose not to get shot back at?
 
From Fox News feedback:

"First, may I send my sincere condolences to your countrymen that have and are suffering after the horrific shootings at Virginia Tech. What most people outside of the U.S. can't understand though is that this is not the first, and it won't be the last — because of people's pathological love affair with firearms." — Gary (Cambridge, England)

:mad:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266425,00.html
 
What a sad, sad day for so many families, VA Tech, and the entire country. My thoughts and prayers are with all those touched by this terrible tragedy. The whole country is in shock, there is so much spin on TV, and everyone is overcome with emotion. It will take awhile to get all the facts and sort this out. All of my thoughts are based totally on emotion so my lips are zipped! My only question at the moment is why???????????
:what: I only hope people don't go crazy listening to out-of-control Rosie O'Donnell who will be on "The View" tomorrow. I firmly believe in the first ammendment, but so many celebs seem to have a tremendous power of persuasion I find very dangerous! :fire:
 
Why is it whenever something like this happens I get this mental image of people like "us" with our heads in our hands thinking about the consequences of the act while at the same time I imagine the Brady types doing high fives?
 
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families this day.

This incident diminishes us all, for our sorrow and outrage shall not die until we do.
 
The chief said "weapons are not allowed on campus".
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Apparantly nobody gave the gunman (or gunmen) the memo. Perhaps they tried to inform him of their no weapons policy through the same system they used to warn their students of possible life threatening danger.
 
Not sure if this has been mentioned, because I just got in from the Creek, and the van doesn't have a working radio... Saw a thing on the news this morning that there'd been a shooting, and their strategy was a lockdown... If the two events are not related, possibly the nutjob figured he'd have a lot of easy victims, and did a little locking down of his own.
 
It was stated that the perp chained several exterior doors and that some witnesses thought the SWAT/entry teams had to use explosives to enter the building. And if those "booms" of explosives occured on the same video with the gunshots, then the poster who asked what the LEOs were doing needs to revise his/her thinking, as apparently they were entering the building during the shooting.

I also saw a graphic at one point, on Fox I believe, which stated that the gunman was killed around 1pm. Anyone know if this is accurate? Or did the guy kill himself before then?
 
By the time the campus police made it to the scene of the second round of shootings, 33 people including the shooter were dead and 15 were injured. Yea, calling 911 is the best answer. :barf:
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070416/ts_alt_afp/uscrimeshootinggun_070416215712

The aricle says: "The law is broad enough to allow people to buy assault guns and magazines without limit such as AK-47s and Uzis, the Brady report points out on its website.

"Assault weapons are as easy to buy as hunting rifles," it says."


I never, ever hear these people saying that many hunting rifles are more powerful than Aks and especially UZIs (I only know of Uzis in 9mm).

Even though it is widely believed the VT gunman used handguns, the article dives right into the assault weapon nonsense.
 
"anybody think we're going to see some copycats around 4/20 time?"
I'll be pretty surprised if there's not another one within the next two weeks. Since this guy made headlines as the bloodiest shooting in US history, somebody's bound to try to 'do a better job'. :scrutiny:
 
regarding the video that i just saw for the first time on cnn...

if most of those shots were 9mm, then I'd say that the loud boom was a .223 that's the only thing that would make me say "woah." a 12 gauge is loud, but it's like it's not as earth-shaking as a high power rifle round. When you shoot an ar15 you feel it....when you shoot a 12 gauge it's loud, but it's just not the same.

Does this make sense? Could also have been a flash bang, I've never heard one of these in person, but I gather they're a 1/4 stick of dynamite. that would definitely make a guy go "wow".

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims this evening. I wish I could have been there or that these things never happened.
 
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