Virginia Tech shooting leaves 33 dead, could it have been prevented?

This is going to be short, as I will compile a more elaborate post later about this. The questions I have are:
Why didn’t they lock down the campus after the first shooting?
Why did everyone flee instead of trying to do something? Anything?
Why didn’t anyone fight back?
Why was everyone scared of a single gunman?

Have we raised our children to fear instead of protect themselves?

Story from Yahoo! News:

BLACKSBURG, Va. – A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.

Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

“We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur,” he said.

He defended the university’s handling of the tragedy, saying: “We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it.”

Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman’s name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound of shots echoing through the stone classroom building.

The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half-mile away, authorities said.

Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed in the classroom building, including the gunman, police said.

“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” Steger said. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”

Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to notify members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out. He said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread the word.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum would not say how many weapons the gunman carried. But a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said that the gunman had two pistols and multiple clips of ammunition.

Flinchum said that some doors in the classroom building had been chained shut from the inside.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time.

“What happened today, this was ridiculous,” student Jason Piatt told CNN. “While they send out that e-mail, 20 more people got killed.”

Students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.

The e-mail had few details. It read: “A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.” The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about anything suspicious.

Student Maurice Hiller said he went to a 9 a.m. class two buildings away from the engineering building, and no warnings were coming over the outdoor public address system on campus at the time.

Everett Good, junior, said of the lack of warning: “I’m trying to figure that out. Someone’s head is definitely going to roll over that.”

“We were kept in the dark a lot about exactly what was going on,” said Andrew Capers Thompson, a 22-year-old graduate student from Walhalla, S.C.

At least 26 people were being treated at three area hospitals for gunshot wounds and other injuries, authorities said. Their exact conditions were not disclosed, but at least one was sent to a trauma center and six were in surgery, authorities said.

Up until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state’s largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse Hokies football team.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus. The campus is centered around the Drill Field, a grassy field where military cadets — who now represent a fraction of the student body — practice. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

A gasp could be heard at a campus news conference early in the day when the police chief announced that at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

A White House spokesman said
President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia. “The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed, and classes were canceled through Tuesday. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children. It also made counselors available and planned an assembly for Tuesday at the basketball arena.

After the shooting began, students were told to stay inside away from the windows.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode’s resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks by authorities but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.

Last August, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff’s deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus. The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

Other blogs about this: (Please note, I DO NOT AGREE with some of these)
Virginia Tech: Shootings
20 dead/20 injured at Virginia Tech right now…
Breaking News: Shootings at Virginia Tech *updated at least 22 killed*
21 DEAD IN VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING
22 dead in Va. Tech shooting rampage, Gunman shot people in a dorm, second building; suspect among dead
Over 20 people killed on Virginia Tech Campus
Virginia Tech shooting leaves me to believe the world is full of cowards.
Oh my God.
Virginia Tech Shootings
33 dead after school shooting
Highly unlikely this was a spur of the moment emotional move (VT shooting)
Why There Are Piles Of Dead Bodies At Virginia Tech

Spotting a sex offender is now even easier, and now you’ll know who’s car to egg.

Yes, this is the best idea from lawmakers in a long time. Sex offenders are really the scumiest you can get. I’m sure people are gonna come here crying that this is embarassing to sex offenders, oh well. Don’t you think being the victim of a sex crime is a little worse? Yeah, thought so.

Story from Yahoo! News:

CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Lawmakers in Ohio said on Wednesday they want to force convicted sex offenders to use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars so they can be easily identified.

A Republican and a Democrat in the state legislature in Columbus have joined forces to propose the law, which echoes measures in several U.S. states that require convicted drunken drivers to use a yellow, pink or red plate on their cars.

“The fluorescent-green license plate will make the most egregious sex offenders easily identifiable,” state Democratic Rep. Michael DeBose said in a statement.

Police said the green plates would allow them to track sex offenders, who are already required to register with the local sheriff’s office and are prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school.

“It will give Ohio families a great peace of mind knowing that their children will be able to recognize where this danger exists,” Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander said.

Alexander joined the politicians at a news conference in Columbus, the state capital, to praise the proposed law.

Opponents of the proposed law argue the use of a special plate would stigmatize everyone who shared the offender’s car — including their spouse or children.

The proposed law will be debated in committee before a decision is made whether to put the proposal to a vote.

Small businesses robbing youth of individuality?

Why yes, yes they are!

How?: It seems in my small town, in order to get a job, you have to look like a clone of the perfect, American child. You WILL NOT get hired if (a) your hair is dyed, or cut in an odd way, (b) you have any type of piercings, or (c) you’re not dressed like you came from a church house. I have personally had to dye my hair brown, remove my nose ring (because it made my boss’ eyes water, how lame of an excuse is that?) AND remove my tongue ring, in which you CAN’T EVEN SEE! I’ve also been forced to wear full makeup everyday, have my hair STYLED (not just brushed and looking nice) and even get in a TANNING BED because I was too pale. Yes. I’m anemic you dumbass! What does any of this matter in a town of 2,000 people? This is what small business owners do to anyone that is unique. They cram you into that little cookie cutter and dare you speak up. If you do, you are gone. Fired. End of story.

Why?: Because there is NO other choice. If you have to have a job, these are the only places that will hire you. There really isn’t any other options in my town and many others like it. They figure that their football playing son who can’t spell is the mold for the rest of the town, just because he has blonde hair cut like a military wannabe. Even though he harrasses his classmates and rapes his girlfriends, you better believe he’s the model child in his family’s eyes. Just because a kid has, oh no, black hair and, gasp, earrings doesn’t make him a criminal. Just because you look different doesn’t make it right to discriminate against them. And don’t give me the ‘but you gotta look professional’ crap. There is NOTHING professional about a grocery store, and it’s horribly sad that they force people to change because ‘they don’t like the way you look’. All they care about is old people being offended by it. What about people with visible deformities? Sometimes you just don’t wanna see that. But if they work somewhere, you have to. But you get over it. A nose ring is not nearly as mortifing as someone missing an arm. People need to accept EVERYONE, no matter what they look like.

What can be done?: At this point, probably nothing. Hopefully in the future there will be some sort of discrimination lawsuit filed, but even then, when will people realize it’s ok to be ‘different’? Why is it such a crime?