http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html
CNN’s saying 22 are dead, AP’s putting it at 31. Between this, the shooting last semester, and the bomb threats, things sound pretty rough there.
A good friend of mine got a call in class today :\
CNN’s now reporting 33 dead including the gun man. There are reports of people jumping out of windows in Norris Hall where 30 people were killed… thats wild.
Why? How fucking pointless…
Yeah, the death toll has gone up form this morning. I think the bigger issue is how the school handled the issue. Like the gunman sht upthe dorm and then TWO FUCKING HOURS later shot up a class. I mean, if there is any sort of shooting, police should be all over and the school should probably be closed for the day, or days. The shooting at the class room shouldn’t have even been allowe to happen. I understand that the school thought that the dorm shooting was a domestic issue and that the shooter left, but that is still no excuse to not close the school. The school’s response and handling of the incident was horrible.
Infonick, keep in mind it’s finals time. Shutting down the school for what clearly appeared to be a passion fueled isolated incident around this time would have put a real dent in academia. Not to mention that the shootings occured about 3/4 of a mile apart, 2 hours is more than enough time to get across campus. If I had been an officer on the scene of the first shooting I would have quickly decided that was there to be any more violence it would have either already occured or was about to happen shortly.
You can’t blame this on the school. There’s really no way to - they were relying entirely on the discretion of the police. I’m sure nay, positive, they would have shut the school down had the police told them that more violence was even plausible.
It was still a shooting at the school, the school should have closed. A shooting is a pretty big thing. Besides, since you say it was finals, the students probably would have a harder time concentrating because of the finals and even then, only closing it for a day won’t through everything out of whack. I wouldn’t have expected anymore violence either, but I would have closed off the area to start investigating. Besides, how come it took so long for the police to respond and why weren’t they able to get there shortly after the first shooting started and get the guy then? It isn’t like the shooter shot a guy and ran off, he shot several people.
EDIT: I also put more on the school since I’m sure the first police to respond would be the campus police, which is headed by the school.
This is truely a sad thing.
It’s a shame it is so easy for people to get guns in America, if it weren’t some things like this may never have happened. Oh well my heart goes out for the families of those who died in this.
As one would expect, Jack Thompson jumped on this story in record time…
But he’s not the only one. Dr. Phil is even jumping on the videogame blame game.
Looks like gun control people will use their bodies as a stepping stone.
edit: not to say gun control should be lax.
Well, anybody with a brain knows that Dr. Phil is a quack, and that Jack Thompson should be disbarred. Unfortunately for us all, most people just aren’t very bright.
A shooting is a big thing, and perhaps the school should have been closed - however that would not have limited the amount of people out and about campus. The school did send out immediate memos via the network server to stay indoors, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Also, the two shootings were in different buildings on different sides of the campus - so closing off the first crime scene and the surrounding area is futile. As I mentioned, Norris Hall is something like 3/4 of a mile away from the first shooting. And as a matter of fact it is like the shooter shot a two people and ran off. That’s exactly what happened.
and friends.
Yeah, it’s not like you can walk into a Wal*Mart and walk out fully loaded 20 minutes later. Regardless, if someone wants to get a firearm bad enough there’s more then enough illegal ways to do so.
I heard about this in school today, not sure what to say, but I hope the people who know the ones who got shot will be alright.
My god. >_>
I didn’t say to clsoe the scene, I said to close the school. I said it should have been closed since a shooting is a big enough thing that the distance isn’t quite as important. Also, by closing the school for the day, it limits the people in the area. Also, the story I read yesterday says that the school only sent out an e-mail notice to students 2 hours after the first shooting (pretty much as the second one started).
You still haven’t justified the horriblely slow reaction time to the first shooting.
We’re talking about a university, not a high school. Many of those students and staff live there. (The first shooting was at a dorm.) What would you have them do - run around town until the university manages to track them down and tell them everything’s okay?
I was talking and thinking about a university. I guess east coast colleges are a lot different from west coast ones. Over here, there are dorms and people use them, but not the bulk of the student population. Besides, they could have called the day off and people could have gone out and done other things, relax, go to a library and study, do what ever for a couple of hours. However, I’ll admit that I was thinking from a perspective of not many people staying in the dorms.
EDIT: Hell, if there is any suspected danger, they close my school and it is not a high school.
good point but that doesnt change the fact that this case was definitely mishandled. if people dying in the dormitory is a “normal” thing that doesnt raise any cause for alarm then thats pretty sad imo