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April 17, 2007
Tragedy at Va. Tech
A gunman’s violent spree through the Virginia Tech campus on Monday morning ended in the killing of 32 — many of them students, some in classrooms, others in a dormitory — setting a new gruesome bar as the worst mass shooting in American history.
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- Professor’s Got a Gun, June 25, 2007
The events unfolded amid a spectacle of confusion, contradictory directives and frenzied rumors. The initial shooting, at the West Ambler Johnston dorm after 7 a.m., resulted in two deaths. Over two hours later, a gunman entered Norris Hall, an academic building, and killed 30 more people, many of whom were in a single German class. Whether the two incidents are related is still being investigated, but some outlets have reported that police consider a single gunman, who also apparently killed himself, to be the perpetrator of both.
Witnesses have described the shooter as an man in his 20s wearing a “Boy Scout type outfit.” “I saw bullets hit people’s body,” one student in the German class told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times. “There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out, I don’t know, maybe from shock from the pain. But I was one of only four that made it out of that classroom. The rest were dead or injured.” Newspapers in the state have posted terrifying photos and video of the day’s events.
The gunman — who this morning was described as an Asian male who lived in a Virginia Tech dormitory — reportedly took pains to ensure that no one could escape Norris Hall by chaining the entrance doors shut, according to the student paper. Witnesses also said that it looked like the shooter was looking for someone specific before opening fire. Names of victims have not been released. But some family members of victims have started to talk to reporters and so some of the killed are known, among them Virginia Tech students and faculty members. According to various newspaper reports, the latter group included Christopher J. Bishop, who was teaching that ill fated German class and who is described as a popular and caring professor; Liviu Librescu, an Israeli engineering lecturer whose students e-mailed his family members that he had blocked the gunman’s way and likely saved their lives; and G.V. Loganathan, an engineering lecturer who has won several teaching awards and whose apparent death has attracted wide coverage in his native India.
“The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. I want to extend my deepest, sincerest and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims which include students,” President Charles Steger said in a statement. With classes tomorrow canceled, the university will hold a convocation at 2 p.m. at the Cassell Coliseum and an 8 p.m. candlelight vigil. Other universities have expressed sympathy and offered support, with the University of Virginia organizing a vigil in Charlottesville for tonight, and the College of William and Mary having held one Monday night.
What happened between the two shooting incidents has already become the focus of serious scrutiny. Administrators from the university did not lock down the campus after the initial killings because they did not consider the possibility of a second attack, said Steger. At a news conference, he was repeatedly questioned about that decision as well as the delay in canceling classes.
“It’s pretty obvious when a crisis begins; it’s not so obvious when a crisis ends, because there are so many variables,” noted Ann H. Franke, a lawyer and president of Wise Results, which advises colleges on risk management.
The Associated Press quoted Steger as saying that “we had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur.... We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it.”
The early hour of the first killings, combined with uncertainty over the suitable course of action, meant that a warning wasn’t sent out to students until many had already left for morning classes. The likelihood of a lone gunman also raises questions about how he was able to move from one end of the campus to the other once police already knew a killer might be on the loose.
“It’s ridiculous ... that he was able to get a mile without being noticed or apprehended,” said Jessica Tubbs of Security on Campus, a nonprofit organization that advocates for increased crime reporting and security awareness on college campuses.
No campus could ever be fully prepared for the sort of full-scale assault suffered by students and faculty on Monday. But Virginia Tech hasn’t been a stranger to dangerous on-campus situations — just last August, an escaped inmate ignited fears of a gunman on the premises — and that has invited more criticism for the current response. “They should have been better prepared,” Tubbs said. “The bottom line is that the first e-mail didn’t go out until two hours after the first shooting.”
But others cautioned that it would be wise to be skeptical of any overly critical evaluations of the university’s response at this point.
“Everyone would like there to be an answer: ‘If we did a, b and c, this would never happen,’ but that’s impossible,” said Kelly McCann, president of Kroll Security Group, which works with educational institutions, corporations, military and the government on risk mitigation. By their nature, college campuses are open environments, for cultural reasons and even safety reasons, McCann said, citing, for instance, fire code stipulations requiring easy exit paths.
“Was the ball dropped from the first shooting to the second? I think that’s an unfair leap,” McCann said. He pointed out that if there were no witnesses to the first shooting, and if the assailant then concealed the weapon before walking to the second shooting location, it would have been hard for authorities to pinpoint him as the suspect.
In the end, the responders face a tricky question with no easy answer, said Franke, of Wise Results: “How much can you immediately infer from what you know already?”
And on that score, institutions of higher learning have relatively little on which to base their responses. Until now, the most visible such incidents on a college campus were the infamous tower shootings at the University of Texas in 1966, which left 16 dead.
“Obviously, I think that it’s a tragedy and it comes as a bit of a surprise because there really hasn’t been a school shooting of this magnitude in many years,” said Joseph Gasper, a Ph.D. student in sociology at Johns Hopkins University who teaches a course on school violence to undergraduates. “We really haven’t had very many serious school shootings on college campuses.”
School shootings are far more common at middle and high schools, despite the fact that they’re more closed environments, Gasper said — a fact he attributed to social dynamics.
“Campuses are safer than society at large, but they’re not immunized from potential violent activity,” said Sheldon E. Steinbach, a lawyer in the higher education practice at the Washington firm Dow Lohnes. “The vulnerability of a university, which is an open environment, to violent acts of any kind is high,” he said — pointing out, for example, that after Sept. 11, American and British government officials identified universities as potential targets.
“This is certainly an event that will change the way campus security and campus safety are looked at throughout the country,” Tubbs said.
— Andy Guess and Elizabeth Redden
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Comments
Out of respect
Everyone is wondering if the university leaders should have closed the campus and cancelled after the shooting out a concern for safety. I ask: Why not close the campus and cancel classes out of respect for the dead? At the very least, a double-murder on campus seems like it should warrant notifying the university campus through campus radio and email. But something that brutal and tragic should also cause administrators to pause and say, “After a tragic event like this we should pause and mourn for our murdered students.”
Utterly Sad, at 7:05 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Thinking About Yesterday ... And Yesterday
I sent the following message to some friends yesterday, along with a map of the Drill Field section of the Virginia Tech campus ...
http://198.82.160.236/where_we_are/maps/documents/vt_main_map.pdf
I included a few photos of buildings.
“Dear Friends:
Needless to say, the massacre at Virginia Tech today was shocking ... startling ... horrific ... I don’t know what else to say. I got my Ph.D. in Statistics from Tech (Sandy Hall is #101), and I taught in the Mathematics Department there for seven years (McBryde Hall is #151). The massacre of 29 students and the place where the murderer committed suicide is Norris Hall (#132). This picture is but a very small piece of the campus, and Ambler-Johnson, the dorm where he murdered two other students is not in this picture ... but it is a block or so behind Sandy Hall.
I was glued to the tv today, and every shot of the campus was completely familiar.
It is interesting that back in the day, I often (I mean three or four days a week) worked in McBryde with several of the Ph.D. math students (mostly with my friend, *** *****) from somewhere between 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. up until 3 a.m. or later. Then home for a few hours of shut-eye and back again at 8 a.m. to teach a calculus class.
Needless to say, in those days we just came and went into classroom and faculty office buildings at every hour of the day or night and without restriction. Sometimes, in the midst of a difficult problem, we’d take a break and do three or four laps around the drill field. As far as I knew, no one ever had a concern about safety.
Of course students were not allowed to keep firearms in their dorm rooms, but a large number of students were hunters, and I was told by my students that many kept their hunting equipment – including rifles and shotguns – in their rooms.
Times have changed ... some for the better, some for worse ... but hardly anything is worse than what happened at Virginia Tech today.”
RWH, at 8:10 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Virginia Tech Shootings
My heart goes out to everyone touched by the tragic events of Monday, April 16th at Virginia Tech. As a former college president and former Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth, I know Tech....it’s spirit, it’s student centeredness, it’s sense of family.
I suppose second guessing the actions of the administration is normal, especially in this day of age of instant feedback and gratification; however, having been in charge of a major instituion during the 911 tragedy, I know how difficult it is to gather information, decipher fact from fiction, and still be responsive to such a large number of students. I can only hope that people will be patient as details unfold.
I will keep everyone associated with Virginia Tech in my prayers and ask everyone else to do the same.
Belle Wheelan, President at SACS, at 8:35 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Virginia Tech gun violence
We are all shocked but none should be surprised at the multiple gun murders at Virginia Tech. Until this nation takes a hard look at tightening gun laws and reining in the inappropriate power of the National Rifle Association, we will continue to see events like this. No one can strangle 30 people in half an hour, or even stab that many. No, it takes guns to kill that many people in such a short period of time. The NRA has the blood of every one of those students and faculty on their collective hands.
Shocked but Not Surprised, Radford University, at 8:50 am EDT on April 17, 2007
let’s not use this to hurt other students
Hopefully these sad events will not be used as an excuse to peer into the private lives of students that might be a little different. It would be a sadder day for the country if school administrators now attempt to “help” many students by branding them mentally ill, regardless of whether they committed a crime or not.
Once a student is branded mentally ill, and/or kicked off campus, their lives are ruined, which, in my mind, is a terrible tragedy.
Who am I kidding? Of course that will happen.
Larry, at 9:15 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Texas tower sniper
I think that for those of us who remember the Texas tower shooter (my husband was a registered graduate student there, and the fiance of one of his closest friends was killed by the Texas tower sniper), it is the incident we go back to because it was when the unthinkable became the possible.
Further, comparison in suffering is pointless. I’m glad my friend at Virginia Tech is alive; I wish everyone else were, too.
Judith, at 9:15 am EDT on April 17, 2007
I was wondering how long it would take...
...for someone to blame the evil NRA for yesterday’s hoorible events.
About 18 months ago VT’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. As a result, VT effectively created a 2600 acre victim zone.
We would call VT a soft target in my world. Bad guys, terrorists, and other assorted evil-doers like nothing more than a soft target. They understand, even if we don’t, that only law-abiding people will comply with rules that prohibit the means to defend oneself. They know that it’s much easier to accomplish their criminal purpose when there’s little probability that they will encounter an armed citizen. They prefer their victims unarmed.
In January of 2006 Virginia House Bill 1572 was squelched in committee. 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.”
At that time Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said, “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.”
I wonder if they feel safe now.
Kevin, at 10:35 am EDT on April 17, 2007
And they’re off!
A mere hours after the murders occured, I was reading indelicate commentary in the press agitating for more gun laws...
Didn’t they notice that guns are not allowed on campus at Virginia Tech? Sure, they’ll say, but if guns were outlawed everywhere, the killer couldn’t have obtained one. In other words, they want to make guns as rare as illicit drugs. Ha.
On the other hand, allowing concealed carry permits on campus could have saved lives, or even made the killer think twice.
Samwise, at 10:40 am EDT on April 17, 2007
To the Virginia Tech community, my heart goes out to all. One can never fully understand when a tragedy such as this occurs. I will keep you all in my prayers.
Melissa, at 10:40 am EDT on April 17, 2007
poor target
To target the NRA for this horrific situatation is ridiculous. Individuals with criminal intent will find access/means to fulfill their schemes.
B, at 10:40 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Massacre at TECH.
This is a very sad and tragic event. My heart goes out to everyone’s family and the entire “HOCKIE” community. Please people “DO NOT” mention gun control anymore; no gun has ever shot someone without a human behind the trigger. Do not turn this tragedy into a political ANTI-GUN slandering propaganda. Have some dignity and respect the mourners.
May God Bless all Americans.
M.S.M
Phoenix,AZ, at 10:50 am EDT on April 17, 2007
My prayers are with all
I have worked on a college campus for my entire adult life, I have seen students come and go and watched them all grow and have had a fondness for each and every one of them. My heart goes out to all those at VT, to the families of the fallen, to the students who now have to regain faith in the system to protect them, to the faculty and staff who have to heal and be healed, and to the administrators. Having been in the Student Affairs division, I know when tragedy strikes there are always questions about how it could have been handled better, but you simply can not plan for everything even if you want to. So now is the time to pick up the pieces, put lives back together as best we can, and remember the ones lost. Now is not the time to point fingers, place blame, or be devisive.
Martin, at 10:50 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Wondering
As someone who has spent many years on campuses, and many years in law enforcement (not at the same time), I remain stunned by the non-response of the university to a double homicide with a shooter on the loose. Is this so common that it would not bring forth extraordinary procedures to ensure student safety?
Four things immediately came to mind — (1) few suspects are quite as dangerous as people who have killed for “domestic reasons” — they have now “lost everything” and are suicidal and all too often take down others along the way. (2) No crime situation is “under control” until the person with the gun is apprehended. (3) “Business as usual” (that is, classes going on) far too often takes precedence on US campuses over student safety — this most often occurs in winter weather when commuting students lives are threatened by administrative decisions, but this may have been another instance. (4) VT, one of highest tech campuses in the nation, could have instantly notified the student body and faculty to secure themselves. No, email would not have reached everyone instantly, but it would have reached enough people that almost everyone would have known within a half hour — that is, an hour before the second shooting began. Everyone except the TV pundits knows this.
Eight years ago, working in an IT department on a campus, we upgraded our campus alert system in the wake of Columbine. The people who lead that effort had come to us from Virginia Tech. I kept thinking about this as the day unfolded.
Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 10:51 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Virginia Tech gun violence
“Until this nation takes a hard look at tightening gun laws”
Here we go again. The bodies are not even cold and this tragic incident is being used for crass political purposes. Shame on you.
How about we grieve with the family and friends of the victims for now. There will be time enough when the facts are brought to light to begin to discuss what, if anything, can be done to prevent future incidents of this type.
John L, at 10:55 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Thinkable
Judith,
The sad truth is that this kind of event is completele “thinkable.” We’ve seen enough violent rampages like this not to be surprised anymore — shocked, yes.
Think on this: Two people are killed on a campus early in the morning as the day is beginning.
Don’t you think that most places would at the very least have canceled classes, if not done much much more?
Never mind that the killer was still on the loose.
Remarks that it would have been hard to alert everyone are nonsensical. Gates can’t be closed? Buildings locked? No snow-emergency plans?
The mind boggles.
Jack, at 10:56 am EDT on April 17, 2007
A talking point for the NRA?
For anyone to suggest that looser gun laws would have protected anyone on the VT campus is equally ridiculous, B et al. Virginia already has some of the slackest gun laws and largest loopholes in the nation, much to what should be our shame. For this to be an instantly manipulated political soundbite for either side, pro or anti-gun, is disgusting. No one who lived through yesterday’s carnage will ever be the same. The 33 families who lost children, spouses, parents and the countless who lost friends and co-workers deserve better than fear-mongering and misplaced blame to further anyone’s agenda.
G, at 11:30 am EDT on April 17, 2007
Cal State Fullerton shootings 1976
In 1976 I was a student at Cal State University in Fullerton, Calif. when a gunman shot and killed 7 staff members and wounded 2. See story on Ch. 7 website: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5216593
It’s so sad that this story has been repeated so many more times since 1976 in other universities and even in high schools and elementary schools. In 1976, and yesterday, I had the same question in my mind — what if the guy had had a knife instead of a gun? He might have done some harm or killed one person, but it’s unlikely that so many would have been killed. The sad truth is that people using guns kill more people.
My prayers are with all of the victims, families, students and staff on the campus of Virginia Tech during this difficult and tragic time.
former Titan, at 12:05 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
First, let me say I am shocked and saddened by the events at Virginia Tech. It’s hard to imagine the hurt and pain felt by family, friends, and the community at large.
In reference to the argument about gun control, I agree that people kill people, guns by themselves do not kill anyone. I also agree that this is not the time to argue a political point.
With that said, I am a former college administator and head of a non profit organization located in Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia led the country in homicides last year with 406 and currently leads the country in homicides this year with 115.
Many people in Philadelphia, myself included have been arguring, no in fact begging for stricter gun control laws.
The fact is, too many people are dying. People are dying on our nation college campuses, people are dying in the ghettos of our major cities, people are dying in middle and high schools, too many people are dying.
As we pray for the victims at Virgina Tech, and as I pray for the several people who will be murdered in Philadelphia today, let’s all pray for constructive dialogue, shared solutions, and compassion.
Ralph, at 12:25 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
These Guys Have Their Priorities Right
I have spent the past two days trying to share the grief of the Virginia Tech community. Then I came upon the posts of Kevin (who has apparently been counting the minutes until some misguided VPI mourner would mention the fact that the 32 individuals were shot with easily obtainable handguns), Samwise (who assures us that lives would have been saved if only everyone on campus had been legally armed), and B (who suggests you shouldn’t mention this massacre and the NRA in the same sentence).
I’m sorry to say, I agree with these gentlemen and will not rest until it is mandatory for every “qualified” America between the ages of 18 and 70 to be licensed and be required to carry a handgun.
For women, I recommend the Beretta 92F (9mm), a semi-automatic, open-slide design with a double-action trigger that holds fifteen rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber (it has replaced the old Colt.45 as the firearm of choice for the military).
http://standeyo.com/News_Files/Firearms/Firearms_4women.html
For men, there is the Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic, single action, 9mm pistol with a quite ample 13-cartridge clip.
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/Number1.htm
Check them out, and I’m certain you’ll agree with Kevin, Samwise, and B that gun ownership will make this a much safer world.
Frizbane Manley, at 1:20 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
Guns on Campus
I notice a few here commented on the need for students to be armed.
Shame on you! This is not a arms issue but one of numerous unnecessary murders by a person who was a wack job. The families and faculity don’t need to hear politics but need our prays.
Remember this was a student who lived on campus who owned 2 -9 mm automatic guns and not a citizen of the US and should not been allowed even a bullet by law.
By law at all hospitals,judicial facilities and colleges hand guns are not allowed. So what we have here are people on this commentary that are suggesting that we have 18-19 years old to walk around campuses with side arms. We all know how mature students are after a long weekend drunk or as in this case —breakup with a girlfriend or after winning a national championship. Students never get upset by a professor giving one a low or failure grade.
This is a sad commentary on society when the solution is to give a green light to our youth to pull a gun any time one is threaten.
If this was such a great solution with a mad man then we could walk away from Iraq next week and never fear another suicide bombing. After all guns don’t kill people!——People kill people, right.
There is no simple solution when one is willing to end one’s life for in fact they would love to be put down.
Al, Energy Manager at University of Connecticut, at 1:22 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
Mass Communicating
The problem of mass communication is more complex than some people are giving credit. The system that students (and faculty/staff) would use during a “snow emergency", as brought up in a previous comment, relies on people seeking out that information. We check to see if school is closed when the weather is bad, not wait to be notified. Mass emails are only effective if a) they are actually read and in this case read early and often and b)the system is certain it has the most current email address available. How many students are still using the email address that they listed as freshman when first registering? The same applies to IM’s and screen names. Could schools use some kind of massive phone system? Again, in regards to students, how many of them lose their cell phones in a given year (or month, or week)? How many of them answer or even hear the phone ringing at 8am? Should we put an intercom system or television broadcast capabilities in every room in every building on every single campus? The logisitics, cost and maintenance of that is truly mind boggling. Even a system like this would run the risk of losing effectiveness. Either it would be used to the point that not enough people pay attention to it, or it would be a very expensive dust collector. Perhaps we need to expand our crisis team preparations to include a building “captain” in each building (and multiple backup “captains")who can be contacted quickly in emergencies to physically be responsible for implementing what ever the crisis calls for (evacuation, lock down, etc.). Even this would require a major investment in time, preparation, and practice. If, in the case of VT, there are approximately 100 buildings someone still needs to effectively and quickly contact at least 100 people and most likely more. No surprise that there are no easy answers.
Carrie, at 1:22 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
I find it ironic that many see the need for citizens to be armed with concealed handguns in order to protect themselves from the rest of the citizenry, which is also armed with concealed handguns. Is it just me, or does this seem to be the chicken and the egg on a much grander (and far more tragic scale)?
I find it extremely irresponsible to suggest to the campus of Virginia Tech, or any other campus, that the solution to this problem is for there to be MORE guns in the hands of MORE people.
Geoff, at 2:05 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
G, former Titan, AI, and the sarcastic Mr. Frizbane Manley,
It is really beyond me to understand how you could think that anti-gun laws could prevent determined killers like yesterday’s from achieving their objectives. The Virginia Tech gun ban does nothing but assure people like him of a successful killing spree. Armed civilians prevent millions of crimes every year without firing a shot, yet idealist college administrators are determined to prevent those in their care from defending themselves. Ask them how safe they feel today under their failed gun ban.
Nobody suggests that every citizen should carry a gun regardless of their skill or comfort with one, so stop putting words into my mouth. It would only have taken one...
Samwise, at 2:05 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
I’m always amazed when my second amendment right is considered a debatable “political point.” The killings at VT are the direct result of too much “gun control.” All guns were, in fact, effectively ‘controlled’ by VT’s victim zone policies, with the exception of the guns used by the bad guy. Bad guys don’t play by the rules and never will.
I’m aware of the situation in Philadelphia and other cities. A close look at the facts reveals that the majority of these murders are drug-related. But because the hand-wringing politicians have no real solutions to the real problems, they go after what they consider to be easy targets – lawful gun owners. It makes for good press and gives the public a general ‘feeling’ that something is being done about crime.
In reality crime continues to rise as guns are removed from lawful citizens. Here’s an idea – let’s enforce the laws that are already on the books. Let’s go after the bad guys and put them away. Let’s take back our streets from the thugs and quit coddling them as if they matter. And then let’s revisit the family. Let’s figure out what happened to our societal fabric in the last four decades.
Kevin, at 3:20 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
where’s john lott?
Can’t wait for the right-wingers to start trotting out Lott’s discredited scholarship. Let me conjure a potential title for an article soon to appear in National Review......Hmmmmmmmmm.....How about “Unarmed Students at Mercy of Gunman"?
Thom, at 3:20 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
Mass Communication
Carrie:
I am not sure where you work and/or study, but I honestly have met very few students in the past five years who do not check their school email every day. It is how professors communicate, often how a big part of courses are detailed, and it is how students communicate. Plus, as I said, you need not reach every student, student’s will communicate via mouth to uninformed students.
Plus, remember VT not only has email, they have thousands of networked computers — all of which could have displayed messages, and they have a television station, and they have a radio station. I am interested in the mobile text-messaging system Princeton installed last year, but even without that, we are long past the “town crier” and megaphone days.
Ira Socol, Michigan State University, at 4:02 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
No easy answers
Maybe the reason discussions such as this so quickly devolve into political talking points is that is too difficult to accept the horrible reality that when someone like the shooter at VT has zero regard for human life, including his own, there is very little that can be done to stop him. It would be nice to think that we could control guns effectively enough to prevent something like this from ever happening again, but all it takes is one gun falling into the wrong hands. More laughable still is the notion that “students packin’ heat” would somehow have solved the problem. We all have our little Clint Eastwood fantasy in which we’re the hero who saves the day with one clean shot. But as Clint famously put it, “are you feeling lucky?” Maybe in the heat of the moment you do get off that perfect shot, but maybe you don’t. I’m not much of a gun guy, but something tells me no matter how many times you’ve been to the shooting range, when people are screaming and bleeding and running for the exits that shot is not such a sure thing. So let’s say you miss and the gunman runs into the hall and you and a few of your gun-totin’ buddies pursue him into a running fire fight. The halls quickly fill with smoke, there are terrified students running for cover, and now another quickly assembled student militia enters the fray from another wing of the building, but they have no idea who the good guys are—no one is wearing a uniform—they are so pumped up with adrenaline, however, that when they see you with gun in hand they start firing in your direction. Crazy? Tell that to the FBI agents who shot one of their own the other day. So let’s not pretend that it’s not a gamble. Sure, in a best-case scenario, lives might have been saved, but it’s also possible that many, many more would have been lost. There are no easy answers in the face of a tragedy like this.
cacambo, at 4:55 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
skills in communication
Guns: for or against Guns Kill People Kill
Comments here are all filled with ideas to consider. First, sure, classes could have been canceled quicker... but we are all human and who could have ever anticipated this?! I think officials did the best they could with facts they had. Individuals drive and are bused to school every winter knowing a snow storm is on it’s way. They get to school and work, only to find out that business will be closed for the day at 12 noon. Rarely are decisions made in minutes. Apparently we knew about 911, but were we able to warn the American public? Nope.
MY last words, Americans and People around the world need to be ARMED with better people relations, the ability to communicate with others more effectively, and the ability to know if they are troubled there are safe places to go to move beyond troubling times.
VT is in my thoughts.
shannon, residence life, at 5:15 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
This is in response to Frizbane Manley, sarcastic or otherwise.
I believe it has been hinted at above that college age students, and certainly not 18 yr olds across the board, would end up being “qualified.”
That would leave predominantly faculty and staff as “qualified,” and then, as you may be suggesting, unless they were compelled to carry, they might object and abstain on ideological grounds.
This could perhaps be tied (inappropriately or not) into the now seemingly uncontrollable dissemination of a “let kids be kids” philosophy of raising up the next generation of society (cf. drinking age, responsibility, et al.).
On the “problem” of discussing politics, gun control, social policy, whatever: there are certain forums for public discourse where, at least immediately following moments such as this, condolences free from commentary are strictly called for. However, as the top of my browser window says “Jobs, News and VIEWS for All of Higher Education,” this may not be such a place.
That said, tones of admonition and “I told you so’s” are UNcalled for. While it seems to me that the “gun control” discussion can’t avoid an admonitory tone if only by juxtaposition (though the rhetoric, such as “victim zone,” also helps), an event such as this will of course bring up the issue of gun control, as an UNcontrolled gun was involved.
No solutions from me however, sorry! Just more words into the void.
Mr. W x, Every “Qualified” Citizen, at 7:20 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
Appalachian State contrast
Does anyone recall the shootings at Appalachian State Law School about 5 years ago? Two students went back to their cars, got their guns, and stopped the shooter before he could get more ammunition. But, Appalachian State wasn’t a gun free school zone.
Eric Crampton, at 7:21 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
Good Point
Kevin,I agree with your opinion that we need to begin the process of taking back the streets, reclaiming the family, and the need for politicians to address these issues, however we do disagree on the point concerning gun control. I’m sure we can agree to disagree.
Many homicides in Philadelphia and other urban areas are a result of drug activity, and I don’t think this is the time or place to delve into my opinion on the reasoning behind some of this self destructive activities. However, please do not forget that many innoncent people are dying also. A couple examples are the ten year old boy shot in the head on the way to school and the five year old girl shot while riding in her mother’s car.
Once again, my heart goes out to the Virginia Tech family.
Ralph, at 10:46 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
This has too close to home in the Washington, DC area as many area students go there. It’s been difficult to watch the local news and in today’s papers.
Last night ABC News brought up previous US college shootings as a historical retrospect.
I wish I was back at either my undergrad or grad school alma maters for vigils.
Elisa, at 10:46 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
I find it amazing that people think the solution to this is more gun laws. Do we honestly think that if someone is willing to commit the crime of murder that he or she is going to let gun laws stop them?
Also, can we stop blaming the administration? I understand that we’re all frustrated and scared, but none of us know how we’d react in this situation until we are faced with it. I sincerely hope that none of us will ever have to find out how we’d react.
This terrible, terrible event is about to change our campuses forever. Now is not the time to argue about gun laws and who is to blame. Now is the time to support our colleagues and have some serious conversations with our students.
Take care of yourselves VT.
Kat, at 11:26 pm EDT on April 17, 2007
the deep stuff
the exchanges on this article have been very thoughtful and interesting. they raise for us all the hard questions about what our universities have become, what they are supposed to be, what we, as North American citizens (and yes, why wasn’t Montreal ever mentioned...?) expect of our educational system, and to what extent, if any, we need to give up on the idea of gun control and a society that can see itself beyond being either a hard or soft target. I mean no disprespect to the writer who talked about soft targets. It’s hard not to see the world in those terms.
I don’t know the answer to any of these questions, but I can see clearly that the university is ceasing to be a sanctuary from the world — if if ever was (and I think it was, at least for some), and that somehow, teachers of all kinds, have to in some way be mentally and physically prepared for — in the words of the tv series KUNG FU — “the unexpected.”
I suspect that to be a teacher requires now alot more than a good education and a desire to educate. It is interesting to me that the one teacher on the Blacksburg scene with some presence of mind, was the 75 year old Israeli lecturer, who, blocked the door with his body, and saved the lives of many of his students.
Should ever teacher be a peaceful warrior? Perhaps. Should teachers carry guns? I posted a satirical piece about that on my blog. I am attracted to that idea, as it repels me utterly. We want to think we have protection, and in a violent society, a gun provides that measure of safety as well as a comforting sense of being a lone ranger, a cowboy or girl, or even the heroes of the MATRIX spitting bullets at the bad guys.
And finally, we return to the killer-student himself. An English major yet. One wonders what he was reading, and what pressures might have contributed to his deadly decision. The Columbine kids committed their atrocities out of a profound sense of rage at their outsider positions. what about this student? a foreigner, an Asian in the south.
What is happening at the university that we all must needs fear for our lives? Plenty, and in the end, I think it may have less to do with guns than with us, and with what we are failing to see, and what we must somehow come to understand.
Stephanie Hammer, prof at UC Riverside, at 4:11 am EDT on April 18, 2007
I am horrified by the massacre at Virginia Tech. I send all of you at VT my deepest condolences, especially the families of the those who were killed. As a college instructor for over 20 years, I am especially saddened by the fact that VT did virtually nothing to protect its students, who had the right to be safe at their college.
Two weeks ago, at the architecture building on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, a woman named Rebecca Griego was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. Ever since she broke up with him he had stalked her and made death threats against her. She moved, changed her phone number and office, even got a restraining order against him. She went to the UW police to try to press charges (stalking is a crime in WA) but hey wouldn’t let her do that because the TRO had not been served on Jonathan Rowan, her ex-boyfriend.
Finally, he shot and killed her at her place of work, and then killed himself. Every possible policy that might have protected Rebecca failed at the UW. The University of Washington is partially responsible for her death.
We at the UW in Seattle are still in shock from her death, which was termed “an isolated domestic violence incident” as the VT authorities originally characterized the dorm shootings at VT.
Just as at the UW, the VT authorities did everything wrong. How could they conclude that the “isolated domestic violence incident” meant that the shooter had left the campus? How could they not cancel classes?
Until we can get meaningful gun control, which will happen only when hell freezes over, all colleges and universities need to take steps to protect their students. We need heavy classroom doors that can be locked from the inside. Every K-12 classroom in the country has a phone which the teacher can use to report problems or be notified of problems. University and college classrooms need phones as well.
In this era of instant communication, it is outrageous that neither the University of Washington or Virginia Tech had any way to notify the campus community of dangers.
Domestic violence is always minimized, even when it involves multiple murders. The UW should be ashamed for its inadequate response to death theats against one of its employees. VT authorities should be even more ashamed of assuming that the shooter had left the campus and for its failure to cancel classes.
Your community must be in deep shock. I have a small inkling what you may feel like, since we just had a murder/suicide on our campus. The whole world is grieving with your campus community. You are in my thoughts and prayers. May you find a way to get past this terrible tragedy.
Susan Helf University of WashingtonSeattle, WA
Susan Helf, Lecturer at University of Washington, Seattle, at 4:11 am EDT on April 18, 2007
Question Marks...
“This didn’t have to happen", Cho Seung-Hui said, after brutally murdering thirty-two people at Virginia Tech University.
And this terrible tragedy of sons, daughters, mothers and fathers didn’t have to happen, if we’d only listened.
But we never listen.
We never listen to those that are different from us- the outcasts, the lonely, the homeless, the ones that are unspoken for. We don’t try to understand. We shun them and put them out of our minds because of our fear that we will become like them.
And these people become more and more lonely and alienated in their isolation.
Words like “creep", “deranged misfit” and “psycho” devalue this killer’s humanity so we don’t have to face how similar he is to us. Cries of “how could he have been stopped” are uttered by media quick to sensationalize and gain market share, when the words “how could he have been listened to” are never considered.
Because we don’t want to listen.
We don’t want to hear about loneliness and alienation when we’re all so busy with our lives, making money and making friends. And the unpopular, the ones that don’t fit in, the lonely ones are ignored or made fun of because we don’t care to understand anything about them.
As a boy, Cho Seung-Hui “was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness” (Associated Press). When he started college, according to the Guardian, “his mother took his dormitory mates to one side to explain about her son’s unusual character and implored them to help.”
And he clearly needed help, devaluing himself so much that he called himself “Question Mark".
There are more “Question Marks” out there. There are millions of them. And if we don’t listen to them, they will follow the same path again and again, because people are not connecting. We are becoming more and more disconnected from each other, creating more and more “Question Marks” every day.
Most “Question Marks” don’t become murderers. Some just kill themselves. Most harm no one and live just as we do, needing antidepressants to appear what we call “normal". They may be someone you know, someone you love.
This “Question Mark” was once a little boy, who cried, and smiled and loved, He wanted to fit in just like you and I. But that desire to fit in transformed itself into anger towards a society that shunned and ignored him.
How many more times will we shun and ignore the one that doesn’t fit in, the one in the corner, the one that’s different? When all we have to do is listen, before it’s too late.
But we won’t.
Thirty-two human beings who did not know Cho Seung-Hui were murdered.
They were sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, with dreams of futures that will never come and children that will never be born. The thirty-two leave behind people that love them. People that are now scarred for life by this horrible day of death.
To most of us that have not been directly involved, this tragedy will become a memory and fade like all the others that came before.
And the “Question Marks” will appear with more frequency, again and again, because we don’t listen.
We never do.
———————-
X: THC, at 5:10 pm EDT on April 22, 2007
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Montreal?
I don’t know why, all the discussions of past campus attacks, the 1989 Montreal shootings — in which fourteen students died — aren’t mentioned? It’s a much more analogous case to the Va. Tech case than the Texas shootings, at least based on what we currently know.
I know the answer, of course: it didn’t happen in the US. Just North America.
Jonathan Dresner, at 6:10 am EDT on April 17, 2007