Monday, April 16, 2007

Virginia Tech Shooting--UPDATE, MORE UPDATES

Before it's over, more than 30 dead. Lots more injured. Data: Asian male. Went classroom to classroom. Fox says he was looking for a girlfriend, others say he was mad at a professor.

Lubos Motl wonders why the gunman went for the engineering students. Perhaps he was one or wasn't and wanted to be or knew someone or hated engineers. Or maybe a technical school is full of engineers.

This is too horrible. I want to know why. I always want to know why.

The MSM always seems incurious. Here's what I want to know: Race, religion, family background. Birth order, age, and education. U.S. citizen? From where? History of psychological problems? Is he on any medication? If so, what medication and how much, for how long? Were the guns his or did he steal and/or borrow them? Did he operate alone or part of a group? Who were his friends? What groups was he a part of? Where did he spend time online?

UPDATE:

Jeff says withhold judgment and try to NOT be like the dim bulbs at the D.U.:

Meanwhile, the sociologists at the Democratic Underground are in thesis-framing mode, already placing the blame where it belongs—with the NRA. Because clearly, had we simply banned guns, nobody would have been hurt. And in fact, as one commenter at Hot Air pointed out, because guns are already illegal at Virginia Tech, this shooting must never really have taken place. See? Reality-based.

Next up: ban war, bring about peace! Because life is just like a shiny gold bottle with a progressive genie inside. Just keep rubbing!

At any rate, let’s not emulate these idiots and jump to our own reckless conclusions. My thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of the victims.
Is it safe to jump to this conclusion? Progressives are silly headed children who employ magical thinking when faced with evil actions they can't rationalize.

UPDATE: More questions. Why did it take two hours to inform the campus that there was a shooting--especially since the killer wasn't in custody? Why is the school being coy about his name and identity? Do we know, for a fact, that the two incidents are related? Do we know, for a fact, that the bomb threats were related?

Perhaps it's all the movies that we watch, but it is distressing to see police officers hesitantly moving into a building when people on the inside of the building are informing them what is going on--i.e., a lone shooter is shooting unarmed students. Ostensibly, there is someone, rather, lots of someones calling 911, right? No one wants police officers die, either, but if I had a choice between unarmed students being shot and killed and a police officer, with a bullet-proof vest, superior training, and a loaded gun being shot, guess which I would prefer?

If the police's job isn't to prevent (which it isn't, how can it be) crime, then let people arm themselves. There should be no place where a person can't defend himself. Arm teachers. Arm coaches. Arm pilots. Let people defend themselves! How many times do we have to learn the hard way to not rely on the government in times of crisis.

9/11, Katrina, Columbine, and on and on, gives us more than enough data. Armed people have a better chance of surviving.

Oh, and as a coincidence, The Woodlands High School, part of Conroe Independent School district, in The Woodlands, Texas, is under a bomb threat this Friday. Though this is completely unrelated, I fully expect copycat crimes after the V-Tech shooting.

UPDATED AGAIN: Back to Motl. He has some detail that sounds first hand:
In the morning around 7:15 am, he went to her dormitory at the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall. If she were there, he shot her. If it wasn't her, he shot her female roommate and then the residential assistant, Ryan Clark of Martinez. They didn't shut down the university, so he continued and tried to find the ex-girlfriend or her new boyfriend in the engineering classrooms of the Norris Hall - see the picture above - a few hours later.

He didn't know the exact location, so he has visited a few classrooms and lined up all students against a wall. The worst massacre took place at 9:50 am in room 200 where the students were learning German 2105. He shot them one by one; yes, the professor, Jamie Bishop, died first. Finally, the calm animal killed himself by a shot into his head once he was cornered.
There still seem to be too many important facts missing. Is there another killer lose or not? Sheesh!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has Sarah Brady started her media-pimping yet?

Next up: ban war, bring about peace!

Like all those European countries (with one or two exceptions) did in the 1930s?

Luboš Motl said...

Hi! I have first material rumor - pretty likely. The gunman was a 6-foot Asian male from Radford University who was left by his Virginia Tech girlfriend. He tried to find her in her room and failed. So he shot a roommate plus dorm staff, and then continued to find her in the classroom but didn't know the location so he shot a lot of people around, and then himself.

Not guaranteed.

See motls.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

The MSM always seems incurious.

As in "Nothing Happened, Comrades.
Don't Ask Political Questions."?

That usually means his skin wasn't white and/or his name was "Mohammed"...

Chalmers said...

Hey, if guns were legal on campus someone with the foresight to have a Concealed Handgun License and a weapon could have ended this... Go back and read up on Charles Whitman... civilians, including students, began returning fire.

Get your Concealed Handgun License sis, then you can be one of the few returning fire, before the Liberals take them away...

Melissa Clouthier said...

That would be great, Chalmers. The only problem is that a year ago Virginia made a law against guns on campus that the idiot President lauded. I wonder how he feels about that now? The law sure kept the students safe, huh?

Anonymous said...

seems "mr cho" as he's being called
bought guns a month ago then stayed at dorm got in fight with girlfriend shot her and staff that came to assist. police thought he would flee because they thought it was over not knowing fight was over boyfriend mr cho might have then drove to radford reloaded and went to class room where he thought b/f was we dont know his name he could have been shot at some point things will clear alot today c.com names about twenty killed

Anonymous said...

www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007/70635,00.html