[BlackKusanagi]

Well seeing how I live in Maryland, this is kinda of a shock to me, and hearing about this all day kinda depresses the bejeezus out of me.  So my question is, your views on the subject?

[errant12345]

It is depressing.  My brother works at a restaurant on campus, so I called him as soon as I heard.  Thankfully, he's fine.  My dad knows some of the engineering faculty up there.  Infact, he was supposed to meet with one in a few days.

Nothing ever hit that close to home for me.  It made me feel sick.

[Lingster]

I frequently see server log entries from Blacksburg, VA, so hopefully all our members there are OK.

I'm pretty disgusted by the media coverage of this – especially the foreign media coverage.  The UK's "Indepedent" newspaper is using the attack as an indictment of American culture, etc.  Apparently the newspaper's deadline tonight was before law enforcement released info indicating that the perpetrator is a Chinese national in the U.S. on a visa.

So will the Independent run an editorial tomorrow apologizing for jumping the gun and indicating that the shooting is actually an indictment of Chinese culture?  Don't hold your breath.

[gblock01]

I haven't looked too much into the issue, but I know enough from hearsay. 33 people died, 32 murdered and 1 suicide (the killer). It is a terrible tragedy, worse than Columbine.

The thing that shocks me the most though is the apparent ineptitude of the police. From what I understand, there was a first shooting at a dorm, then once the police okayed everyone to go, there was another shooting by the same guy across campus a couple of hours later. And apparently this guy did everything with a handgun. A freaking handgun! I heard that he may have had two handguns, but still! That's one guy with one, possibly two handguns. With Columbine, there were two guys doing the shooting, WITH MACHINE GUNS, and the body count was half of this! How the hell did the police miss this!?

<tries to catch breath>

Ok. Regardless of how the situation compares to anything else, it is still a horrible tragedy.

[JimmyDimples]

I had just read about it this morning (Monday evening Eastern US time) when I surfed into the Drudge report.

I don't know what the Chinese press is making of it, because frankly, I've written it off as a tax deductible loss due to the censorship.  But the fact that the guy had a Shanghai-based visa was totally out of the blue for me.

I know I should say this is devastating, shocking, and something to solidify my resolve to make sure it doesn't happen again… but it just feels like the Domestic Tragedy of the Year.  It's par for the course on this sick, sad, wretched world we live in. 🙁

I'm stuck for what to do about it.  Really.

[Lingster]

Turns out he's not Chinese.  News this morning is that he's a South Korean national with permanent U.S. residency status.  When not in school he lived with his parents in Fairfax County.

[BlackKusanagi]

Yeah. This Korean guy…two pistols, with quick reloading skill…and all that. But youre right. The police kinda did act pretty stupid about this… First shots reported, and they didnt do anything until the second set… >_<

[Lingster]

Yeah. This Korean guy…two pistols, with quick reloading skill…and all that. But youre right. The police kinda did act pretty stupid about this… First shots reported, and they didnt do anything until the second set… >_<

In the U.S., about 11,000 people are murdered with a firearm each year (out of about 2.5 million total deaths).  So only a tiny fraction of deaths in the U.S. each year are murders, and spree killings make up a tiny piece of that 11,000.  So in defense of the cops, the odds are pretty small (thousands to one) that a killer is going to murder two people, then reload and massacre more people nearby.  It almost never happens, and it's probably not right to condemn someone for failing to act to prevent something that almost never happens.

[sacul]

since i am a student about to go into college and i have a friend that is going to VT, it hits me quite at home because of the issue of how safe are university campuses and sparked the whole debate on gun control again.  i also am concerned with another acqutainence becuase he has the killer's mindset in a way, and i really hope that he doesn't turn out that way

[BlackKusanagi]

Well, the real question is, will gun control laws really be reinforced now…or will there be more bans or what?

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