Shooting at VA Tech campus

[Glock17]

A shooter opened fire on VA Tech campus today.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266310,00.html

Thoughts and prayers out to everyone involved.

I've been through this. I was at Penn State when there was a shooting there too. It sucks.

I'm always curious to see how the media covers it, and then how the antis use it as ammo for their agenda.

[Agent Ronin]

Oh bloody hell, i got a relative attending VT right now


Another "Gun Free" zone shooting...

[Glock17]

Plus, it also shows you never know when something bad will go down, and why you should carry.

[greyhouse]

Plus, it also shows you never know when something bad will go down, and why you should carry.

Exactly. It also shows how ineffective these feel good measures are, such as "gun free" zones. In a campus of 25k, I'm sure some of these students have licenses to carry, but they are obviously not allowed to carry on campus. These citizens could have possibly stopped this tragedy, or reduced the casualties.

What is amazing is that this will be used as another excuse to call for more gun control. Maybe they should extend the "gun free zone" perimeter to 100 miles. That should fix the problem.

My sister actually goes to college in Roanoke and my brother is going to VA Tech this fall. My brother has an AK, but he won't be able to bring it because he is required to live in campus housing.

[axmdr40]

I have a close friend at VT and got scared because the news was reporting most of the casualties occured in an engineering building, and she is an engineering major. Just talked to her and she is safe. Thank God! These incidents really really make me rethink the campus carry situation.

I hate these things...

[greyhouse]

This is also interesting. I love this quote:

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

EDIT: This article was posted on drudgereport.com, so it's getting hammered:

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.

By Greg Esposito
381-1675

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, would not comment Monday because he was not part of the subcommittee that discussed the bill.

Most universities in Virginia require students and employees, other than police, to check their guns with police or campus security upon entering campus. The legislation was designed to prohibit public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."

The legislation allowed for exceptions for participants in athletic events, storage of guns in residence halls and military training programs.

Last spring a Virginia Tech student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit. Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.

In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.

[NineseveN]

22 dead now, 28 or more wounded.

Deadly shooting rampage at Va. college
By Mike Holtzclaw
Daily Press
Published April 16, 2007, 11:47 AM CDT

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- At least 22 Virginia Tech students are dead and many others have been injured in a pair of campus shootings this morning.

Initial reports said there was only one fatality, but at a noon news conference campus officials announced that there were more than 20, and more than two dozen others injured. At the news conference, the officials also said the gunman himself was dead, though earlier reports had him in police custody.

At least one local student, Denbigh Baptist graduate Matt Webster, was among those shot. According to family friends, Webster was shot in the arm while attending a class. The extent of his injuries was not known, but they are reportedly not life-threatening.

The assaults took place in the West Amblin Johnston Hall dormitory and the Norris Hall classroom building. None of the victims or suspects has been identified by police.

"Police have one shooter in custody, and as part of routine police procedure they continue to search for a second shooter," the university said in a written statement.

The first shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory with 895 students. The second shooting was at Norris Hall a short time later.

Steve Mehr, a Virginia Tech freshman from Tabb High School, said he knew something was wrong before he heard about the shooting.

"I was walking home from my 9 o'clock class and hearing sirens everywhere," he said. "I had no idea what it was about, but people were running to their dorms and the buildings were locked down, so you had to have your key card to get in If that's happening, you know something's going on."

Mehr described the campus as being in "a very hectic state."

He said he has a friend on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall, where the first shooting took place. As he spoke by phone from his fifth-floor dorm room in Pritchard Hall, he looked out the window and described heavily armed police officers on the grounds. At one point, he said he heard gunfire -- "a lot of gunfire" -- but he later said the officers appeared to be checking the area.

Brenden Hill of Newport News, who graduated from Virginia Tech in December and still lives just off campus, was still waiting for more information on the shootings, which prompted university officials to lock down the campus.

"The weather has been so bad out here that I don't know if a lot of students were out in the first place," Hill said. "The weird thing is that we've had some bomb threats the last couple of weeks, and everybody is a little frustrated with the Blacksburg Police Department. The campus police is usually pretty good about getting information out to us, but there's very limited information being distributed on this thing today."

On Friday, a bomb threat on campus forced the cancellation of classes in three buildings, and earlier this month the Torgerson Hall dormitory was evacuated after a bomb threat.

Hill, a football player who still works out on campus while preparing for the NFL draft, said he was planning to go to the athletic complex -- very close to West Amblin Johnston Hall -- later in the day.

"But everything is shut down right now," he said. "I'm worried about some of my teammates over there. I hope they're all OK."

[billamj]

22 dead now, 28 or more wounded.

The really assinine part here is that they are sticking to the one shooter theory. That makes absolutely no sense in this situation unless the students there are such sheep that they don't know enough to lock doors.

[NineseveN]

I am hearing information that the rampage lasted up to 2 hours. Like, WTF? Something isn't passing the smell test here.

[dmg1969]

This is exactly the kind of example I cite when people ask why I carry. You never know when or where some crazy S.O.B. is going to decide that today is the day he wants to kill a bunch of people. I may go down, but I'm sure as hell going to try to take you with me.

The first thing we think about when we hear about incidents such as these is the victims and their families. Sadly, the second thing we think about is how the antis are going to use this as ammunition in their fight for more gun control. News flash people...one or two armed citizens could have ended this tragedy much sooner than it did end.

Dave G.