20 People Shot Dead on Virginia Tech Campus

[The Central Scrutinizer]

OK, this is the tenth page. Is anyone else starting to get worried about Claus?

A classic!

 

[Katana]

Jeez, I guess with the exception of the possibly a girlfriend; whom he shot.

But still he lived in a dorm... its hard to avoid contact with people in that sort of situation. His neighbors didn't even know him?

That's what it sounds like. I'll admit that I don't think that I have seen that stated outright. There was mention of how the police had interviewed people living in his dorm and could find no one who knew him. The story went on to say that students live in suites each with rooms for six students and how even suite-mates can remain essentially strangers to each other. So I made an inference, but it sounds like he really kept to himself.

True about the girlfriend. Ok. So there's one.

 

[William Parcher]

The alternative would have been to surround the building, send in a robot (in case there were explosives), possibly send in a canine and when he didn't return (FINALLY) breech the building hours later. In the meantime, there could potentially have been a dead student for every round the attacker brought with him.

That last statement takes on new meaning if other students are armed within the school. In this case, the gunman could acquire new weapons and ammo as he progresses through his shooting spree.

 

[Katana]

Now it's being reported that a note referring to the recent bomb threats was found near his body.

 

[fuelair]

But how often does this happen? If it is say 6 or 7 years, then fewer people die in total with the restriction. And as nationaly these things are less than 6 or 7 years, you would not be lowering the death rate by doing such a thing.

I also do not quite get why unarmed means that they can't do anything to defend themselves, and must meakly line up to be shot, but armed they will resist?

Why does a gun change someones behavior so much? Is it true then that guns turn Pussies into Real Men? that seems like an extreem position.

Bad point - a gun is useful because you can use it faster than you can throw rocks , edged weapons or impact otherwise an assailant. Guns may turn a bully into a bigger bully - but normally not, they may turn a worm into a psycho, but a person who uses them properly, has practiced carefully with them, has gone through the legal process to obtain them and obtain a license to carry them is not going to change because of it - except for being slightly more careful with his clothes (concealed MEANS concealed -at least in Florida). For the line up to be shot, you would have to ask victims - I suspect, and I mean NO offense by it, that they have never really understood that A)there is evil in the world and B)it can strike anyone and C)how easy it really is for that to happen.
My behavior when I am carrying, by the by is exactly the same as when I am not - there is no personality or rationality change in a normal trained person. A gun is a tool.

 

[Katana]

Some more about the shooter:

In Centreville, a suburb of Washington where Cho’s family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse, people who knew Cho concurred that he kept to himself.

“He was very quiet, always by himself,” said Abdul Shash, a neighbor. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him. He described the family as quiet.

Rod Wells, a postal worker, said that characterization of Cho did not fit the man’s parents, who, he described as “always polite, always kind to me, very quiet, always smiling. Just sweet, sweet people.”

“I talk to particularly everybody here,” Wells told NBC News. “So I guess nobody had any intimation that he was like that. I don’t think the parents did, because they were quite the opposite.”

Link

Well, found a mailman knew him.

I wonder if anyone has talked with his parents. I can't imagine learning that it was your son who did this horrible thing.

The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing identified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.

Investigators believe Cho at some point had been taking medication for depression, the newspaper reported.

Link

 

[ponderingturtle]

Bad point - a gun is useful because you can use it faster than you can throw rocks , edged weapons or impact otherwise an assailant. Guns may turn a bully into a bigger bully - but normally not, they may turn a worm into a psycho, but a person who uses them properly, has practiced carefully with them, has gone through the legal process to obtain them and obtain a license to carry them is not going to change because of it - except for being slightly more careful with his clothes (concealed MEANS concealed -at least in Florida). For the line up to be shot, you would have to ask victims - I suspect, and I mean NO offense by it, that they have never really understood that A)there is evil in the world and B)it can strike anyone and C)how easy it really is for that to happen.
My behavior when I am carrying, by the by is exactly the same as when I am not - there is no personality or rationality change in a normal trained person. A gun is a tool.

Then why are the people here thinking that having a gun would have made the victims decide to resist so much more readily?

Hence the idea of that a gun turns a pussy into a Real Man(tm)

 

[LawnOven]

That's what it sounds like. I'll admit that I don't think that I have seen that stated outright. There was mention of how the police had interviewed people living in his dorm and could find no one who knew him. The story went on to say that students live in suites each with rooms for six students and how even suite-mates can remain essentially strangers to each other. So I made an inference, but it sounds like he really kept to himself.

True about the girlfriend. Ok. So there's one.

Man... close to the end of the semester, senior, no friends, fought with his girlfriend. I wonder if she actually was his girlfriend. It is hard for me to believe that someone whom "no one knew" would have a girlfriend. Don't let anyone tell you that mental health isn't important, haha. I wonder if he was having doubts about the future; he must have been in a very dark place. Too bad he couldn't have just shot himself.

 

[BPSCG]

That last statement takes on new meaning if other students are armed within the school. In this case, the gunman could acquire new weapons and ammo as he progresses through his shooting spree.

Yeah, that's a plausible scenario...

Gunman: "I'm out of ammo. Can I have your gun? I still need to shoot some people."
Future Victim: "Sure, here ya go."
Gunman: "Thanks." BLAM!
Future Victim: "Gurgle..."

Two questions:

1. What are you smoking?
2. Where can I get some?

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

Yeah, that's a plausible scenario...

I believe the idea is the shooter could kill someone and take their gun and ammo, because all you have to do is walk over their corpse, and any useful items they are carrying will be automatically added to your inventory with an audible clicking sound.

 

[LawnOven]

...the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.

Now that makes more sense.

 

[Katana]

Man... close to the end of the semester, senior, no friends, fought with his girlfriend. I wonder if she actually was his girlfriend. It is hard for me to believe that someone whom "no one knew" would have a girlfriend. Don't let anyone tell you that mental health isn't important, haha. I wonder if he was having doubts about the future; he must have been in a very dark place. Too bad he couldn't have just shot himself.

Too true.

As for the supposed girlfriend, perhaps it was her unwillingness to become his girlfriend that set him off given the reports of his recent stalking behavior?

 

[William Parcher]

Yeah, that's a plausible scenario...

Gunman: "I'm out of ammo. Can I have your gun? I still need to shoot some people."
Future Victim: "Sure, here ya go."
Gunman: "Thanks." BLAM!
Future Victim: "Gurgle..."

Two questions:

1. What are you smoking?
2. Where can I get some?

I don't think you understand what I was suggesting.

If students at VT are "packing heat", the gunman might search the bodies of his victims for guns/ammo that he could use himself on other students. In this situation, he might not be limited to the ordinance that he brought with him.

If he gets into a shoot-out with another student and wins - he knows for sure that there is a gun lying next to the dead student he just killed.

 

[Mephisto]

I believe the idea is the shooter could kill someone and take their gun and ammo, because all you have to do is walk over their corpse, and any useful items they are carrying will be automatically added to your inventory with an audible clicking sound.

*LOL*

But you have to keep returning to the chest as your personal inventory is limited by the amount of things you can carry.

Gunman Let me have your gun and your ammo.

Future Victim: You can have my gun when you pry my cold, dead . . .

BLAM!

Gunman: Thanks.

 

[LawnOven]

Too true.

As for the supposed girlfriend, perhaps it was her unwillingness to become his girlfriend that set him off given the reports of his recent stalking behavior?

Yes it is much easier to picture the loner shooter in a situation where he becomes violent at the refusal of his advances. Like he was giving her one last chance...

Maybe she had a boyfriend too; and that's the person the police actually caught, based on the advice of witnesses.

Very disturbing.

 

[Katana]

Yes it is much easier to picture the loner shooter in a situation where he becomes violent at the refusal of his advances. Like he was giving her one last chance...

Maybe she had a boyfriend too; and that's the person the police actually caught, based on the advice of witnesses.

Very disturbing.

Indeed.

 

[BPSCG]

If students at VT are "packing heat", the gunman might search the bodies of his victims for guns/ammo that he could use himself on other students. In this situation, he might not be limited to the ordinance that he brought with him.

If students at VT are "packing heat," the gunman's first awareness of this fact would likely be when he hears a sharp noise behind him followed by what feels like a hammer to the back of his spine, followed by difficulty breathing. Unless his first shots happen to take out all the people who are packing.

 

[William Parcher]

If the gunman already anticipates armed students, his tactics would probably be different. Taking a hostage along for the spree might change things.

The gunman might also be able to use the chaos to their advantage by acting like "just another fearful pistol-packing student", instead of the killer.

 

[BPSCG]

What's the point of this?

Katie Couric, the CBS News anchor, was on her way to Blacksburg. From there, she anchored an expanded one-hour edition of "CBS Evening News," turning a borrowed campus office into a kind of salon and turning the program into a talk show, with various guests -- including students who witnessed some of the violence -- dropping by to be interviewed.

The guests included Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, who went from his talk with Couric to a chat with [Brian] Williams, by then anchoring "NBC Nightly News" from another location on or near the campus.

Though ABC publicists boasted that anchor Gibson covered the western part of Virginia "earlier in his career," he didn't make it to Blacksburg for last night's broadcast. He does plan to anchor tonight's program from the campus.

What purpose does it serve to have the talking permed-and-coiffed heads who read the news to us read the news from Blacksburg?

Hurricane season is coming. Watch for commercials for your favorite talking head to tell you what a great reporter s/he is, as you observe that s/he doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain.

 

[BPSCG]

If the gunman already anticipates armed students, his tactics would probably be different. Taking a hostage along for the spree might change things.

The gunman might also be able to use the chaos to their advantage by acting like "just another fearful pistol-packing student", instead of the killer.

Yeah, you can come up with all kinds of scenarios, including, "Gunman sees the error of his ways when he hallucinates a vision of Jesus," but what actually happened was that 32 defenseless people were murdered.