Virginia Tech Massacre
Read the new on this earlier and after much deliberation I’ve decided to drop in my two cents.
(sourced from the Sydney morning herald)
A gunman massacred 32 people at a US university, quarrelling with and slaying his girlfriend before calmly gunning down students and then taking his own life in the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.
The gunman first killed his girlfriend after an argument in a student dormitory and then killed a dormitory supervisor, a fellow student said.
Over two hours later, looking serious but calm and without uttering a word, the man stormed classrooms and massacred 30 more students before turning the gun on himself.
Now US police and university authorities are under pressure to explain how he apparently evaded detection for two hours before opening fire again less than a kilometre away at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school.
The man, whom police have not identified, killed himself in a classroom.
Police said he appeared to have used chains to lock the doors and prevent terrified victims from escaping the building.
Fifteen people were wounded, including those shot and students hurt jumping from windows in a desperate attempt to flee the gunfire.
Many students expressed anger that they were not warned of any danger until more than two hours after the first attack at a dormitory, and then only in an email from the university.
“I don’t even know if any of my friends were killed, because it was so hard to get in touch with anyone last night,”
Said Brittany Jones, a 19-year-old Tech student from Urbanna, Virginia, early on Tuesday morning.
Timeline of events (wikipedia)
Monday, April 2
* A bomb threat to Torgersen Hall is called in by an anonymous caller. There is no evidence that this bomb threat is related to the April 16 massacre.
Friday, April 13
* Bomb threats are called in to Torgersen, Durham, and Whittemore halls. Police believe this, and the threat on April 2, may have been an attempt by the gunman to test campus security response.
Monday, April 16
* 7:15 a.m.: A 9-1-1 emergency call to Virginia Tech Police reports a shooting at West Ambler Johnston Hall, leaving one person dead and one at least injured.Another person later died.
* 8:00 a.m.: Classes begin.
* 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.(approx.): Shooter opens fire in classroom in Norris Hall, an engineering building.
* 9:26 a.m.: Emails go out to campus staff and faculty saying there has been a shooting on campus.
* 9:45 a.m.: Students in the engineering building Norris Hall call police to report more shots have been fired.
* 9:55 a.m.: A third email announcing: “A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows” is sent to all Virginia Tech email addresses. Loudspeakers broadcast a similar message.
* 12:00 p.m.: At a press conference, authorities said there may have been more than 21 people killed and 28 injured.
* 2:30 p.m.: AP reports at least 31 killed, including gunman.
* 3:40 p.m.: Virginia Tech confirms 22 dead.
* 4:01 p.m.: President Bush speaks from the White House regarding the shooting.
* 4:40 p.m.: The school holds a press conference with updates on the day’s events.
* 4:42 p.m.: Virginia Tech confirms 33 dead including the shooter.
* 7:30 p.m.: Third press conference. A final confirmation that there have been 31 deaths at Norris Hall, including the gunman, identified as a South Korean student, Cho Seung-Hui.
This is disgusting, let us get this on the front page of every newspaper, on every channel of your tv, on the radio.. Let’s get this out there and make it well known to people that the police obviously made a huge blunder and now 30 other people are dead because of their ‘estimation’. Obviously there are no guidelines set in concrete for dealing with these types of incidents and yet they happen more and more every year. The fact a man can shoot 2 people and the police don’t immediately storm the building and tape it off not to mention guard the people inside it is an absolute joke.
It is a damn shame that Reb and Vodka’s (Dylan Klebold & Eric Harris) deaths are in vain as well as anybody else who has been involved in a school shooting and been wounded or killed. This isn’t a holly war people, this isn’t the work of terrorist this is the work of one individual pent up on rage and with the LEGAL means to a firearm.
The media and parents are not the people to blame, it’s about time everyone wakes up it is the individual behind the gun and the accessibility to that gun. Having a ‘right’ to protect yourself is one thing but having so much ease of access to a firearm is a completely different story. We might not be able to solve this issue completely but we can damn well save a few more innocent lives at the expense of more stringent gun laws. I might not be an American and maybe it’s not my place to say anything but you might recall Australia had a shooting of the same magnitude in Port Arthur and as a result
Under federal government co-ordination all states and territories of Australia banned and heavily restricted the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading shotguns and pump-action shotguns, together with a considerable tightening of other gun laws.
Yes we tightened the laws and made guns LESS accessible… Why? Because it’s common bloody sense. Ever heard much in the way of kids bringing grenades to schools? No I hear you say, might that be because GRENADES ARENT on the fucking shelves of local stores!
My thoughts go out to all those who lost someone in the massacre whether it be a brother, sister, class mate, friend, son, daughter my thoughts rest with you all. I am sorry for your loss and if I have offended you in some way I do sincerely apologise.
Write to congress, cross-post this entry, stick up posters on your walls but by any means DO NOT let the lives of those lost be in vain. It is time for citizens to put their foot down and say “no more” we can make a difference but only together.
8 Responses to 'Virginia Tech Massacre'
(April 17th, 2007 at 5:34 pm)
There’s no excuse for what happened. I don’t care how large the university is or how difficult it would be to evacuate or get the word out to everyone–they had TWO HOURS before the second shooting, and all they could manage to do was send out an e-mail while 30 more people were being killed. Usually, the gunman doesn’t wait two hours, but they had more than enough time in this situation and still did nothing to protect their students. Instead, they told them to go ahead to class. Even if they didn’t have a proper safety procedure to follow for this particular situation, they could have, at the very least, suspended classes. Students should not have been entering campus and those who live there should have been on lockdown.
Let’s hope this motivates people to take safety procedures more seriously, be prepared, crack down on gun laws, and do whatever we can to stop this from happening again. It’s sad to think this week also marks the 8th anniversary of Columbine, and we’ve obviously shown very little progress since then.
(April 17th, 2007 at 11:07 pm)
There is an excuse for everything in life these days. If you’re a rapist, it’s okay because you were raped. If you’re a murderer, it’s okay because you’re on drugs. If you’re a wife beater, it’s okay because daddy beat up mummy in front of you every night. You can declare a war on terrorisim and hide your own terrorist acts. You can be cruel to a child or animal because they can’t fight back and blame it on being bullied as a kid.
The simple fact is, we as human beings KNOW right from wrong. Everyone is all to prepared to make excuses for things they do instead of taking responsibilities for their own actions. It IS NOT the parents fault. It IS NOT the medias fault. It’s not even the guns fault. The person at fault is the fucking retard holding the rifle. They see other people not being properly repremanded for their actions and think they can get away with it even though they know it’s the wrong thing to do.
People have become weak and pathetic.
The gun laws in the US are pathetic and need to be changed before some other moron gets the same idea in his head and even more lives are lost. Why does noone learn from this type of thing? Is it really that easy to turn your back and pretend it isn’t happening?
(April 18th, 2007 at 6:05 pm)
I am a university instructor and a singer/songwriter from California. For those directly afflicted by this catastrophic event, we carry the weight of your suffering.
This one’s going out to all family members, friends, and faculty who lost loved ones in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre:
Virginia’s Tears
Dr BLT
words and music by Dr BLT © 2007
http://www.drblt.net/music/VT.mp3
(April 19th, 2007 at 6:57 am)
Apparently when he’d previously been in a mental institute, since it was VOLUNTARY, it didn’t go on his records along with a whole lot of other stuff such as stalking complaints, which allowed him to easily purchase the guns.
(April 19th, 2007 at 11:46 am)
Lauren,
While I’d agree that the person holding the rifle should be held accountable from their actions, I also consider it incredibly naive to let society off the hook for playing their part in forming these people into “holders of rifles”. The fact is, the brain itself is such a complex piece of “machinery” which is not designed to handle the kind of lifestyle that the average westerner throws at it.
Consider that the average person spends their time processing information during there employment, then listens to the radio in their cars to and from work (more information to process), and then for “relaxation” onto the computer, TV, book, magazine etc (you guessed it, more information). Very few of us really “stop” anymore. And whatever happened to the eight hour day? It wasn’t long ago that Melbourne celebrated a public holiday, in memory of the day when we began to have “eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for fun” (Ha!!!). Stress was almost unheard of, in days of old. After all the only really “bad stuff” that we had to worry about, was what was going on in our own lives. Often I feel like asking myself “Why, oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?” when I consider how much access I have to current global affairs. Oh, to be in the day when people actually believed that their politicians were trustworthy. After all, it really makes no difference, to anything, knowing about their corruption.
Then there’s the issue of blaming the parents. Well consider this, if bad parenting makes no difference, then why worry at all about protecting children’s rights? If paedophilia doesn’t affect a child’s maturity into adulthood, then why not legalise it? Of course I am being facetious. The fact is, environmental factors have great affect on the development of personality. I have personally seen people affected for the better, when offered unconditional love, and for the worst through consistent disappointments over years. The sad thing is that to one person, a traumatic event would be considered nothing, but to another it is radically life altering. What’s sad about that is that often people of a more introverted personality, are left feeling that something is radically wrong with them, because things upset them, that don’t affect their more extroverted friends.
Then there is the consideration of mental illness. People who have never suffered from one cannot truly understand a life where one cannot properly control their actions and/or reactions: To be delusional, and believe something to be true, when it is mere fantasy. To be borderline and have to live in daily regret as you hurt the people that you love by uncontrollable outbursts of rage. To be dissociative and spend your life wondering what happened every time you blacked out. These are real conditions that are affected by neurochemistry, and there is a major lack of health professionals who are equipped, both emotionally and educationally to treat them. I have heard of one psychiatrist in Geelong who covers the whole area from Geelong to Portland, and everyday he has to decide who is the “least suicidal”, so that he can send them home, to make room for the next patient, due to lack of resourses.
The fact is, human nature has the tendency to demand justice, while at the same time expect mercy. When someone wrongs us, whether directly or, as in this case, when they affect our sense of security by acting out such a severe crime, we demand that they face swift judgement. But when we wrong another, we expect forgiveness and mercy. Fact is, when we commit wrong, the only thing we deserve is justice. We can demand nothing else but whatever penalty is due to us. However, if we have received mercy, which is undeserved, then we are obligated to show mercy. Otherwise our indignation will be a slap in the face to the one who let us off the hook.
How about you? Can you offer mercy to this young man? His parents? The police? George Bush? Osama Bin Laden??? Because, if not, are you prepared to accept whatever is due to you for all the things that you have gotten away with in this life?
Hmmmm….
(April 19th, 2007 at 11:36 pm)
Aaron the point you raise about the parents etc has yet to be proved. Sure Cho wrote about padeophilia in both his plays but this doesn’t mean for certain he was the victim of paedophilia…it’s probably likely but ‘innocent untill proven guilty’.
I can have mercy toward Cho and the police etc as i do for Reb and Vodka and any victims of a school shooting. The events in the lead up to the massacre pushed Cho to do what he did but I think lauren’s point is he was ultimately the one who snapped and decided to take action and as a result people died.
My point I was arguing, before i knew of the background regarding him stalking people and being a troubled kid etc is that he killed 2 people had time after to send a package to CNN and then afterward went onto kill 30 people…It could of been stopped after the first 2 if only the police had dealt with the siutation properly and while i can understand ‘to err is human’ this error cost 30 people their lives so as long as they are aware that they too played a part in this madness.. ill have mercy but blatantly looking at the parents and every ‘external’ influence is a cop out and is used to shift the blame…which Lauren agree’s lies with the gunman for pulling the trigger.
I just hope and prey that the lives of those lost aren’t in vain as Laur mentions..it’s 8 years on from columbine and it looks asthough we haven’t learnt a thing from it. How many more innocent people have to die before we handle the real issue?
(April 20th, 2007 at 9:27 pm)
The cops can share blame for taking no action when the first shooting occurred , ridiculously lenient US gun laws which allowed a mentally ill individual who had been declared a danger to himself and others to gain possession of a gun can share the blame.
However Cho Seung-Hui is to blame. He knew the difference between right and wrong but still he made the decision to pull that trigger and kill 32 innocent people.
http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/crime/school_violence/school_shootings.html
this link leads to a list of 63 school shootings that have occurred in the US and through out the world in the last 17 years. 63 SHOOTINGS and still the gun laws remain the same. Loadx asked how many more innocent people have to die before we tackle the real issue? if after 63 school shootings nothing has been done, the body count will forever rise.
my heart goes out to all the families and friends who lost loved ones in this Tragedy and i hope that we can learn from the horrible events that took place at Virginia tech so that another tragedy like this one can be avoided.
(April 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm)
loadx,
You may have noticed that I started my comment by agreeing that Cho “should be held accountable for (from was a typo :-)) his actions”. My statements weren’t intended to take away from anything that you guys said, as much as to highlight the “other side of the coin”, so to speak. Call it looking at the issue with a “both and”, rather than an “either/or”, mindset.
Neither was I trying to say that Cho had been molested. I was merely citing a real life way that a parent could contribute to a behavioural anomaly in their child. Fact is, much less than this is all that is required.
In the Bible we see warnings given both to the sinner, and to the one who inspires the sinner to sin. For example, we read in James 1:20 “the wrath of man doesn’t work the righteousness of God”, but then in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath”. Both the parent and the child are held accountable for the product of the child’s wrath.
It is common for us to demand justice, but proportionally difficult to desire mercy for the guilty, considering that mercy is letting the guilty off the hook, scott-free. To let the innocent off isn’t mercy, but merely the other side of justice. It can be a disturbing thing to see an obviously guilty party, declared “not guilty” when they have commit heinous acts. One only needs to consider seeing people like OJ Simpson, and Abu Bakur Bashir going free, after facing such heinous charges.
Again, I state that society must share the blame for such acts. Every dollar I spend on a violent movie, video game, music with violent lyrics, etc, creates an opportunity for the wrong mind to embrace it’s content. As a result, I am an accessory in whatever crime they commit. Every time I ignored the person who was hard to love, I have potentially pushed someone over the edge.
Interestingly, as I was discussing the last comment with our mutual friend, Muzcore, I mentioned the person that I had found to be the most difficult to love. This was a man who was mentally unstable. He had potential for violence, having stuck a female friend of mine when he locked himself into one of my parents’ cars, after we asked him to leave our house (long story, but let’s just say that their were children’s safety issues to consider at the time, after he had shown up unannounced). Our friend and I mused on the fact that this guy could easily have turned out to become a “Cho”, under the right circumstances.
Wouldn’t you know it, that the next day, my parents received phone call from this man, five years on, since the last time I spoke with him, and eight years since last seeing him. Now, I have extra factors to consider, before welcoming him back into my life, that weren’t in place when I first met him. Now I’m married, with two young children, then I was single. So now I have an excuse to ignore him, but fact is, there will always be an “excuse” available.
I guess the point I make is that the finger can be pointed, but what is the point (mind the pun)? After all, the only one that really was the power to affect anything, after being fingered, is ourselves.
Again, not trying to take away anything from any other comment, just making an observation.