Some people will say anything if they think they are anonymous.
Someone seriously should do a study on this. The worst of people seems to come out in April. Other data points: MLK’s assassination and the Rodney King riots.
Again, what about the pressures on the Columbine, Jonesboro, and Oregon shooters? What’s going on with White teenaged boys? Let’s not go down this road. Plenty of students have high expectations from their parents from all races. Anyway, this is probably best suited for another thread.
The Washington Post is having a live online discussion about this at 3pm:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/04/16/DI2007041600763.html
There’s absolutely no indication it applies to this circumstance. This thread isn’t about gun control or medications or video games or religion (was he OMG a MUSLIM???) or anything other than the complete awfulness of a mass shooting. Why the F does every thread have to be hijacked?
Lord IP, I’m glad you are safe. I hope all your friends are too.
From the site I linked above
I’ll wager most of them were wearing shoes, too. Let’s not ignore the obvious footwear correlation.
-VT, who took SSRIs for 10 years and stopped cold turkey (twice) without committing a single, let alone mass murder
The above link is also saying 32 fatalities. :eek:
Wait.
Perhaps because conversations are dynamic and aren’t always linear. And as I said, I didn’t intend to hijack, but Christ, look at your recent history here. It’s just an observation.
I won’t be apologist or anything, I was more going for the second part as a mere contributory reason.
Agreed. I think part of the reason that this sort of hijacking happens is because people are so desperate to find some reason to rationalize why in hell (which, if it exists, is certainly where he is) somebody would do something this terrible.
As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t any excuse, ever, for something this heinous.
AP is reporting 30 dead now 
An eyewitness named Trey just called into MSNBC. He was in a classroom where the gunman appeared. The gunman shot the teacher, and the students got on the ground. The gunman started to shoot people in the classroom for about one minute. Two students (Trey and another classmate) barred the door with their feet after the gunman left. Then the gunman returned and shot through the door 5-6 times, but amazingly hit no-one. The gunman then left. The student then helped others in the class.
The gunmen didn’t say a word during the shooting. He looked serious, not angry.
The number will probably continue to climb for a day or so as people succomb to their injuries.
enigm4tic, I think you nailed it. We’re trying to make sense of this tragedy, but things like depression, narcissism, and rage are fairly well distributed across the population, I’d imagine. But sometimes these events are simply unexplainable.
Again, such a tragedy, and prayers and good thoughts to Lord… and the Hokie family.
What a terrible tragedy. I’m glad you are ok, Lord Il Palazzo, and I hope the same is true for your friends.
Tech is notorious about not canceling classes for anything. It looks like this time it came back to bite them hard.
Another student named Lauren called in to MSNBC. The story around campus was that this morning, the suspect and his girlfriend were arguing. The RA on the fourth floor went to break up the fight and was shot (not clear if the girlfriend was shot first). The gunman then apparently went to class and shot people there.
Lord Il Palazzo, so glad you’re safe of course. Is the campus still under lockdown outside the engineering building or are you free to leave or… what’s going on?
MSNBC is now reporting 31 dead, including the gunman.
I. . . I seriously can’t think of anything to say. I have essentially been sitting at my desk starring at my computer screen since I first caught the story two hours ago. I am trying to comprehend this, but I just can’t.
So far reports from the people I know indicate that they’re ok.
Guess I can sort of start breathing some sighs of relief on that count anyways.