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I’m watching the press conference. So the shooter did take his own life, and they aren’t sure if the two are related??? But he said they aren’t looking for another suspect??? How does that match up with the two shootings NOT being related??? And the first shooting appeared to be domestic in nature, but he didn’t think it was a girlfriend??? It’s so frustrating when they just don’t know and they’re trying to sort fact from exaggeration.
ABC is having a press conference that makes VTs actions seem a bit more reasonable. To wit, they felt that having a vast majority of students (including the massive number of students coming in to campus during the incident) would be safer in their classes. As pointed out above, it seemed like an isolated murder, there was no reason to suspect it was a prelude to a massacre.
Oh my god - a friend just called to tell me - watching the press conference now.
My thoughts are with families and friends. Only Mostly Dead I’m glad to hear your friends are ok.
Only Mostly Dead, I’m very happy to hear that your friends are alright.
I’m speaking from experience with my alma mater, which was plunked down in the middle of nowhere and if you were unlucky, you had to park in a flipping field. Downtown it definitely wasn’t. YMMV, I was just trying to come up with ideas for quick and easy lockdown procedures.
Yes, but there was also the flying lemur (that’s not a lemur, and doesn’t fly, it glides, and no one knows what it’s related to) and the lake with 850 species of siklids (sp?) and lake midges so numerous when they swarm it looks like smoke, and the world’s tallest waterfall, and the widest waterfall, and birds of paradise doing mating dances, and how the sounds of the jungle depends on the time of day (monkeys in the morning, insects in the afternoon, frogs at night) and…
I just noticed that - the total of dead people is going up as I was watching the CNN news. That really got to me - people are dying as I’m watching. Kids - college students. Not even old enough to drink legally in the States yet.
I have no idea how the VT campus is set up. Going forward, I think every campus needs to evaluate its own particular setup and come up with a way to handle emergencies like this.
Has it been confirmed that the shooter is the same guy who called in a bomb threat? I know that looks suspicious given the close timing to the shooting, but prank bomb threats are not all that unusual at colleges. Students call them in to get out of exams or major project deadlines pretty frequently (or did when I went to school). It is entirely possible that it’s a coincidence.
That’s probably a good idea, especially since the networks are likely to have wall-to-wall coverage of this all evening. I think watching too much of something like this can be unhealthy. On 9/11, I muted the TV and took a nap to escape the coverage, and my mother switched to the Game Show Network. (I’ve got The Departed on DVD at home, courtesy of Netflix, so I’ll watch that instead.)
But my thoughts are and will be with Lord Il Palazzo and other people there.
As I told catsix, we aren’t turning this thread into a debate on gun control. You’re welcome to start a thread in GD (or join an existing one if one’s already going), but this thread is not the place to be discussing what typically ends up being a fairly hot and contentious topic here on the SDMB.
I am utterly freaking out. This is where I grew up, my dad is an alumnus of Va Tech.
I just got off the phone with my cousin Robin, who works in Burruss Hall (the big castle-looking building they keep showing) right next door to the dorm where the first shootings happened. She was in her office and heard the shots, she saw victims carried out. She’s okay, though. Lord, I’m glad you’re okay too – I hope all your friends are fine.
I can’t stand the thought of that wonderful campus now being synonymous with so much death.
No, I was just making an ass out of you and Ming. The fact that the same building was used for both strikes me as an odd coincidence, though.
Cite please? I have lived in Virginia my entire life and I am not sure that you don’t need any type of registration or license to buy a gun. Are you saying you can walk into any gun store in VA, and get an automatic weapon without a background check, and not have to register it or have any type of permit to own it???
Have they mentioned at the press conference if they are anticipating the number of deaths to change? A few hours ago they said one, then twenty and some, now thirty and some. Obviously there may be people who succumb to their injuries, but are they sure they’ve found all victims?
Then the next scenario will be multiple shooters, and one or more will take aim at the countless numbers streaming out of class because of the air raid siren.
See the Pit thread where that point is debunked.
I believe that VT does have and did use an emergency PA system.
Hey, they’re my friends too :-p Lord Il Palazzo, I’m glad you spoke up to say you’re ok.
Seriously, as a teacher, I wonder where and when the next senseless school shooting will happen and I can only hope that I’m not there when it does. The story I read through one of these links which indicated the gunman walked into a classroom and shot the teacher first freakin’ scares me.