Va. Tech shooting

[lamont]

Carrying a gun for protection as it relates to Diving.

Or it could be like carrying a big knife strapped to your thigh to fight off the sharks...

 

[letterboy]

One problem could have been the sue happy society that no one wanted to be sued Art. . .

 

[Desert_Diver]

One problem could have been the sue happy society that no one wanted to be sued Art. . .

As I read through the first hand accounts, most people were hell bent on vacating the premesis. A wise move in my estimation. One of my co-workers was in the Kid's Pottery Barn when the shooter came in. They were eyeball to eyeball but the shooter was temporarily out of ammo. He was in the process of reloading when the off duty cop took him under fire. The shooter focused on the cop. Jeff took the opportunity to hustle his wife and child out the back of the store.

I got the impression that most people tried to leave. And I don't blame them. Fear of litigation was never discussed in the after action reports.

Art

 

[Wayward Son]

Wonder if any of them were carrying at the time?

 

[letterboy]

Never discussed doesn't mean it wasn't on their mind. . . we all know that. . .

 

[irishsquid]

I saw a video that had the gunshots recorded. Violence happens so quickly, I believe that even if all the students were carrying weapons, the outcome would have been the same. I heard about twenty shots in the space of ten seconds on the video. Even professional soldiers can be taken by surprise and killed. These were just students in a classroom listening to a lecture.

My thought is this- there isn't a way to stop shootings like this, within the realm of living in a free society. Like I said above, violence happens *so* quickly. Its not like in the movies with long prolonged shoot-outs. In ten seconds twenty people were shot. The gunman had no concern for his own safety, so that even further reduces any possibility of stopping something like this.

The only way to remedy something like this is to prevent it from happening. I'm not talking about gun control. I'm talking about reporting unstable individuals who make claims of violence or threats to the police.

Audio of 20 shots in 10 secs. does not mean 20 hits in 10 secs. Most trained Police Officers are not that accurate. Most shootouts involving 20+ shots fired usually end with less than 50% hits (non lethal). Watch just about any documentary on shootouts or confrontations. This piece of human debris casually walked around at his leisure shooting who he desired because he was highly assured that no one would be firing back. 3-4 armed people may or may not have stopped him, but they surely could have slowed him down. The reports are that he had (2) 9mm auto pistols. Assume with a 14 rd.clip in each, shooting like they do in the movies (each hand full), assuming true ambidexterity, he would be empty handed shortly, and would either have to stow one and reload the other and do the same for the other or just drop one to be more efficient in reloading. Admittedly, I'm not an expert, however; crisis is not so quick for everyone, and at this point he is as vulnerable as anyone else. IMHO.

 

[texdiveguy]

Very tragic day of events. My prayers go out to all those whom lost loved ones and for the fast recovery of those whom were injured. Have been a university police officer early in my career with a major university system, I know the pain the campus officers and staff are feeling. My wishes are for all to heal in time.

PS-- the only ones whom should be allowed to carry firearms on any school, public or private are those allowed by state law and or board of regents...and in my opinion that should be limited to auth. campus law enforcement officers and other duly auth. police acting in performance of their official duties.

 

[wardric]

Who said he was Chinese? the students said he was 6 feet tall and looked as if he was asian. . . thats a lot of countries. .. .

Could even be american. There are a lot of asian-americans in the USA, right? Or are they not considered fully americans because they are of asian origin?

 

[letterboy]

Could even be american. There are a lot of asian-americans in the USA, right? Or are they not considered fully americans because they are of asian origin?

Good point. . . HMMM seems this could be a case of racial profiling. . .

 

[Wayward Son]

The AP is now reporting he is believed to be a Chinese man who came here last year on a student visa. Dunno if this will prove to be true or not:

BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist
Authorities were investigating whether the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history was a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa.


The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said. Investigators have not linked him to any terrorist groups, the source said.


Police believe three bomb threats on the campus last week may have been attempts by the man to test the campus’ security response, the source said.


The exits to the buildings where the shootings occurred were chained by the shooter, the source said.


Students complained that there were no public address announcements or other warnings on campus after the first burst of gunfire. They 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 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: ‘‘We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it.’’


Steger said the university decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means of notifying 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 to everyone.


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.


Contributing: Associated Press