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Virginia Tech: The Day After
See previous: At least 32 dead in Virginia Tech rampage; Anti-gunners seize the moment before bodies cold. Below the fold:
- Police Preliminarily Identify Virginia Tech Gunman,
Won't Release Name as Campus Reels From Tragedy
- Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech In
Deadliest Shooting in U.S. History
- 32 Shot Dead on Virginia Tech Campus
- Like clockwork: NYTimes wants more gun control;
Like clockwork, Part II: Phelps creeps to protest at funerals
- VA Tech: Is Media Making It Worse?
- Preventing Massacres
- Where did the shooter get his guns? Update: an answer?
- Lessons to be Learned from Senseless Mass Murder
- The Obligatory Va. Tech Shooting Thread
- The Blotter: Never Let Tragedy or Stupidity Get in the Way of Your Political Agenda
- Police: Virginia Tech shooter an English major, 23
- Virginia Tech Police Still Search for Motive After Identifying Shooter
- The shooter...and the "girlfriend"
- Tragedy And Heroism
- Requiem for a monster
- As Sheep To Slaughter Yet Again
- Ismail Ax?
- Asian American Journalists Association: Don't call shooter Asian!
- A Holocaust survivor’s sacrifice
- Cho Seung-Hui Referred To Counseling
- Massacre at a Gun-Free School
- Does ABC News or Brian Ross Have Any Integrity at All?
- Virginia Tech Shooter, Weapons Identified
- Brian Ross' Gun Idiocy Rides Again
- Damn Occam, Full Speed Ahead
- Flashback: A Victim of Gun Control Expresses her anger at Congress
*** Police Preliminarily Identify Virginia Tech Gunman,
Won't Release Name as Campus Reels From Tragedy
Police say they've preliminarily identified a gunman who massacred 32 people Monday at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and get the warning out to students.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum would not release the name of the dead gunman, adding that the investigation was ongoing, and "we want to get it right."
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday night that authorities are investigating whether the gunman was a 24-year-old Chinese man who arrived in the U.S. last year on a student visa issued in Shanghai. Police believe three bomb threats on the campus last week may have been attempts by the man to test the campus' security response, the newspaper reported.
Flinchum also would not confirm whether the gunman, responsible for the bloodbath that left 30 dead in the school's Norris Hall classroom building, was the same person who killed two people — a male and a female — two hours earlier in a dormitory on the other side of the sprawling western Virginia campus. ...
*** Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech
In Deadliest Shooting in U.S. History
By Ian Shapira and Tom Jackman, Washington Post Staff Writers
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 -- An outburst of gunfire at a Virginia Tech dormitory, followed two hours later by a ruthless string of attacks at a classroom building, killed 32 students, faculty and staff and left about 30 others injured yesterday in the deadliest shooting rampage in the nation's history.
The shooter, whose name was not released last night, wore bluejeans, a blue jacket and a vest holding ammunition, witnesses said. He carried a 9mm semiautomatic and a .22-caliber handgun, both with the serial numbers obliterated, federal law enforcement officials said. Witnesses described the shooter as a young man of Asian descent -- a silent killer who was calm and showed no expression as he pursued and shot his victims. He killed himself as police closed in.
He had left two dead at the dormitory and 30 more at a science and engineering building, where he executed people taking and teaching classes after chaining some doors shut behind him. At one point, he shot at a custodian who was helping a victim. Witnesses described scenes of chaos and grief, with students jumping from second-story windows to escape gunfire and others blocking their classroom doors to keep the gunman away.
Even before anyone knew who the gunman was or why he did what he did, the campus community in Southwest Virginia began questioning whether most of the deaths could have been prevented. They wondered why the campus was not shut down after the first shooting. ...
*** 32 Shot Dead on Virginia Tech Campus
By John M Broder
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 — Thirty-two people were killed, along with a gunman, and at least 15 injured in two shooting attacks at Virginia Polytechnic Institute on Monday during three hours of horror and chaos on this sprawling campus.
The police and witnesses said some victims were executed with handguns while other students were hurt jumping from upper-story windows of the classroom building where most of the killings occurred. After the second round of killings, the gunman killed himself, the police said.
It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history and came nearly eight years to the day after 13 people died at Columbine High School in Colorado at the hands of two disaffected students who then killed themselves.
As of Monday evening, only one of the Virginia Tech victims had been officially identified. Police officials said they were not yet ready to identify the gunman or even say whether one person was behind both attacks, which wreaked devastation on this campus of 36,000 students, faculty members and staff.
Federal law enforcement officials in Washington said the gunman might have been a young Asian man who recently arrived in the United States. A university spokeswoman, Jenn Lazenby, could not confirm that report but said the university was looking into whether two bomb threats at the campus, — one last Friday, the other earlier this month — might be related to the shootings. ...
I guess I should clarify something before going on with this post. I grieve for the victims of yesterday's murder spree and I hope the perp spend eternity in the hottest corner of Hell. My grieving won't turn back the clock, nor will my posting a lot more information about what happened; the MSM, for all its faults, will probably handle that job well. The bulk of my posting today will be related to other issues, most notably MSM malpractice and the coming attempt to repeal your right and mine to keep and bear arms as guararnteed by the United States Constitution. Like clockwork: NYTimes wants more gun control;
Like clockwork, Part II: Phelps creeps to protest at funerals
Michelle Malkin
The NYTimes has already posted its lead editorial for tomorrow. Not that you need to read it to know what they've already concluded: Yesterday’s mass shooting at Virginia Tech — the worst in American history — is another horrifying reminder that some of the gravest dangers Americans face come from killers at home armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to obtain...
...Our hearts and the hearts of all Americans go out to the victims and their families. Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.
Like I said: Prepare for much more of this.
Bull Dog Pundit: "In one sentence they say is that it is 'premature to draw too many lessons,' yet they then go on to say that stronger laws are needed over 'lethal weapons,' even though nothing is known about how he got them." ...
Here is a clearinghouse for students looking to confirm the well-being of their friends and loved ones on campus.
Related MM posts:
*** VA Tech: Is Media Making It Worse?
Dan Riehl
Whenever there's a tragic event as there was today at Virginia Tech, we soon start hearing stories of counseling programs and how students are in danger of long term emotional issues as a result. Reading multiple threads on this Hokie bulletin board, I came away wondering if the press doesn't make it worse. The students commenting aren't saying too much good about the press. Along with the incident, it's as if they now see their institution being attacked. Perhaps they just aren't up for that right now.
I am appalled by the reporters and their tone of questions (especially the reporter from Radford) at the news conference. Give the speakers a break! NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE can anticipate something like this happening, as it is unfathomable that one human being would do this to others. ...
You can scroll for other threads, Katie Couric especially is drawing criticism, along with Fox. Complaints about the media almost dominate the board.
These reporters should be put in lock down! ...
Dan's staying all over this story. Click here, here and here while you're at it.
*** Preventing Massacres
Clayton Cramer
There are no perfect solutions. Yes, as I mentioned earlier today, Virginia Tech's ban on concealed license holders being armed on campus meant that there was no chance that any of the killer's victims could shoot back. What would happen if such a law had not been in place? Most of the students, being under 21, are not eligible for carry permits. But most of the grad students, most of the staff, and pretty much all of the faculty would be eligible.
I know more than a few faculty, either full-time or adjuncts at various colleges around the country who have carry permits. In those states where the laws allows it, some of them carry on campus. Many of the others would do so, at least when teaching night classes.
Would this have prevented this tragedy? It's hard to say. In most states, about 3-5% of the population eventually get a concealed carry permit. A few carry all the time; some carry frequently; a few carry very seldom. I would not say that there was a strong chance that repealing Virginia Tech's rule, and similar ones around the country, would make a big difference. But it would make a big difference to anyone who survived because one victim could fight back!
Texas state rep. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp became a vigorous advocate of concealed carry because she sat in a Luby's, watching a monster murder her father and mother. Suzanna had been carrying a handgun--illegally, because Texas law did not allow it--for some time. When she walked into that Luby's for lunch, she wasn't carrying--too afraid that she might get arrested. She was in a position to shoot and save lives that day--but the law discouraged her.
At Standard Gravure Printing Plant in Memphis, Tennessee, in a celebrated mass murder in 1989, one of the victims was also illegally carrying a handgun--because Tennessee did not yet make provision for her to obtain a permit. Because she was breaking the law, she delayed pulling her gun until it was too late--and another opportunity to stop a murder spree early on was lost.
At Pearl High School, in Mississippi, the assistant principal brought an end to Luke Woodham's murders by retrieving a pistol from his vehicle. Similarly, ...
*** Where did the shooter get his guns? Update: an answer?
Bryan Preston
If the reports are accurate, we have a 24-year-old Chinese national in the US on a student visa as the VTech shooter. I don’t know a great deal about the process for student visa holders to obtain firearms, but I have a friend who does know quite a bit about it. So I’ll defer to an email he just sent me. You can obtain a firearm if you are a resident alien and present proof of residency 90 days prior to a purchase. Usually a utility bill for 3 months prior to the day the RA attempts to purchase the firearm bill must match your state DL or ID address. The RA also must must fill out 4473 form and pass a background check. But on a student VISA? No way! Those guns had to be stolen or he fooled the system some how!
He sent a link to the ATF’s write-up on the Brady Law, which states: As you may be aware, Section 121 of Public Law 105-277, the Omnibus Appropriations Act for 1999, amended the Gun Control Act of 1968 to prohibit, with certain exceptions, the transfer to and possession of firearms by aliens admitted to the United States under a nonimmigrant visa. This definition includes, in large part, persons traveling temporarily in the United States for business or pleasure, persons studying in the United States who maintain a residence abroad, and certain foreign workers. Therefore, you, as a Federal firearms licensee, are prohibited from transferring firearms to aliens that fall within this category.
The site lists exceptions, none of which appear to apply to the as of yet unnamed mass murderer. So it would seem that the gunman obtained his weapons illegally, either by gaming the system or by stealing them.
Now, some are likely to react to this post by scolding me for highlighting a possible gun crime committed by a man who perpetrated the worst massacre in US history, bringing up a relatively trivial crime next to a monstrous one as though I’m equating the two. I’m not. The point of bringing it up is to discover as much as we can about how the crime occurred, and how he obtained his weapons plays a role in that.
Just so we’re all on the same page.
Update: ...
*** Lessons to be Learned from Senseless Mass Murder
Lorie Byrd
... Most of the early reports are fact oriented. What has only just begun, but will surely follow in earnest over the next few days is the political blame game. The calls for gun control are a given, as they were following Columbine. There will also, probably, be a way some will tie all this to President Bush, Dick Cheney and/or Halliburton. (I really hope I am wrong about that last prediction.)
Many will be searching for lessons to be learned from this senseless mass murder. I hope all aspects of the horrible crime are investigated and studied. If anything can be learned from this event that could save lives in the future, that would at least make these senseless deaths serve some meaningful purpose. It wouldn't make it any less horrific or any easier for the families of the lost and injured, but at the very least we should always look for any lessons that can be learned from such an event. There is already questioning of the way the crime scene was secured and those on campus were alerted and when. Maybe as a result procedures will be improved for future emergency situations.
Those looking for deeper meanings, the "why" for the shootings, are likely to be disappointed. In these situations, when a murderer decides to take the lives of innocent strangers, there is little hope for a satisfying answer to the question of "why." Unfortunately there are rarely even any answers to the question, "How could this have been prevented?" Hopefully any meaningful lessons that can be learned, will be, and political opportunism will be kept to a minimum. ...
Another thing I see in these crimes is that often there was little anyone could have done, without being able to read the murderer's mind, to prevent the killings. Some schools already have metal detectors and I expect even more will have them following the Virginia Tech killings. But short of erecting maximum security schools, it is difficult to stop a madman determined to kill. That is a horrifying thought, but sadly it is true. These are senseless acts of cruelty that are difficult to prevent.
We will strengthen security measures in our schools and public places, and we will attempt to understand and treat the underlying reasons a person might commit such an insane act. But, unfortunately, I fear most of us will just be left with an increased sense of helplessness and bewilderment. ...
*** The Obligatory Va. Tech Shooting Thread
John Hawkins
... Earlier in this post I said, "The inevitable cries for gun control have already started on the left side of the blogosphere, but the traditional apportioning of blame, explanations of how Bush is at fault for this tragedy, and calls for new legislation don't seem to have gotten started yet. That should start to change by later tonight or some time tomorrow at the latest."
Well, the calls for gun control have continued. Here's Cliff Schecter, "To those who say guns don't kill, people kill.
Maybe, but guns sure do make it easier to mow down 22 innocent college students at a time.
WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GUN CONTROL ACTIVISTS?"
Oh, don't worry, Cliff, they're coming.
The "traditional apportioning of blame" seems to be continuing apace as well on the cable news networks. The fall guy here appears to be the university for not immediately cancelling all classes and locking down the campus because now that we have had a mass murder, there are experts coming out of the woodwork to say that obviously if some nut freaks out and kills 2 people over his girlfriend, he's going to go on a mass murdering spree later in the day instead of running away.
The explanations of how Bush is responsible have already started, too, in a roundabout way (They'll come up with something more direct presently). From Joseph A. Palermo at The Huffington Post, ...
*** The Blotter: Never Let Tragedy or Stupidity Get in the Way of Your Political Agenda
Confederate Yankee
Brian Ross and Dana Hughes prove just how little they know about firearms, laws related to them, and the effects of both with their knee-jerk response to today's Virginia Tech shootings, where they attempt to place the blame not on the shooter, but on high-capacity magazines: High capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.
Web sites now advertise overnight UPS delivery of the clips, which carry up to 40 rounds for both semi-automatic rifles and handguns. ...
Virginia law enforcement officials have not identified the weapon used in the shootings today at Virginia Tech, but gun experts say the number of shots fired indicate, at the very least, that the gunman had large quantities of ammunition.
"When you have a weapon that can shoot off 20, 30 rounds very quickly, you're going to have a lot more injuries," said Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
"It's not one or two shots at a time when you're putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room," Hamm said.
This blog entry is so ignorant and factually incorrect on so many levels that ABC News should immediately print a correction or a retraction, and require Ross and Hughes to go to a basic firearms safety class before ever being allowed to write about the subject again.
They state: High capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.
This is absolutely and totally false.
First, "clips," literally thin strips of metal designed to hold cartridges for ease in loading, were never addressed in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
For that matter, the law never banned existing high magazines either, "magazines" being the word that Ross and Hughes needed, but were too technically ignorant to use.
As a matter of practical fact, if Hughes and Ross had bothered to speak with any experts at all, they would have discovered that high-capacity magazines were never in short supply prior to 1994, and the commercial sale of high-capacity magazines was never slowed, much less stopped, during the ten years the ban was in effect from 1994-2004. ... [Read the whole thing.]
*** Police: Virginia Tech shooter an English major, 23
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The gunman who killed 30 people at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall before turning the gun on himself was student Cho Seung-hui, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said Tuesday.
University officials said they were still trying to determine whether Cho was responsible for an earlier shooting at a dormitory that left two dead.
However, Flinchum said ballistics tests show that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall was used at Norris and at the dorm, both located on the 26,000-student campus.
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage, Col. Steven Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said.
"It certainly is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places, but we don't have the evidence to take us there at this particular point in time," Flaherty said.
Cho, a 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien, lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said. He was an English major, the chief said.
Cho was a loner and authorities are having a hard time finding information about him, said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
A department of Homeland Security official said Cho came to the United States in 1992, through Detroit, Michigan. He had lawful permanent residence, via his parents, and renewed his green card in October 2003, the official said. ...
*** Virginia Tech Police Still Search for Motive After Identifying Shooter
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The gunman responsible for at least the second of the two Virginia Tech attacks that claimed 33 lives to become the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history has been identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a campus student in the United States on a permanent resident visa, Virginia Tech police said Tuesday.
But police are still searching for a motive.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said the shooter was a 23-year-old resident alien who was an undergraduate senior English major. He had a residence in Centreville, Va., but was also living on campus in Harper Hall.
While authorities say they don't have evidence to confirm yet that Cho — now dead after taking his own life — was also the gunman in the first shooting at West Ambler Johnston residence hall, they have made clear they don't believe there was a second shooter.
"It's certainly reasonable for us to assume Cho was the shooter in both places but we don't have the evidence to take us there at this point in time," said Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty said during a press conference Tuesday. "We also have no evidence to indicate there was an accomplice at either event" but officials are still investigating whether the shooter had any help during the day. ...
*** The shooter...and the "girlfriend"
Michelle Malkin
A Virginia blogger mourns Ryan Clark, a friend killed yesterday in the rampage.
Allah links to the Daily Mail, which ID's the woman killed in the first shooting as Emily Hilscher, "who lived on the fourth floor of Ambler Johnston dormitory next door to the RA, Clark. Clark was also killed in the first shooting. They’re speculating that Cho was either involved with her or stalking her."
Josh Claybourn wonders: What kind of debate is appropriate?
Jim Hoft has a running photo memorial of the victims.
Professor Liviu Librescu: Holocaust survivor and hero, RIP.
*** Tragedy And Heroism
Ed Morrissey
The shootings at Virginia Tech that killed 33 people, including the gunman, will generate many stories of horror over the next few days and weeks. Already we have heard about the cold and mechanical manner in which the perpetrator selected and shot his many victims. However, the terrible day also will produce stories of courage and heroism, and the first has been that of Professor Liviu Librescu. The Romanian-Israeli engineering professor and Holocaust survivor gave his life to save his students: As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.
Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio. ...
*** Requiem for a monster
Jay Tea
In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, I sincerely hope that one single, burning, indisputable fact remains at the forefront of any and all discussions:
This atrocity was the responsibility of one individual, one person who decided -- for whatever reason -- that this life was no longer tolerable and chose to leave it, and -- damn him to hell -- to take over 30 others with him.
This deed was not committed by a weapon, a political movement, or some failing of society. It was not carried out by a video game, a rap song, or pornography. This was, ultimately, the fault of exactly one man -- and we can't punish him for it, as he has already chosen to enact the ultimate sanction upon himself.
To deny this monster the full credit for his heinous deeds is to deny his free choice to carry it out, and to diminish the responsibility that lies at his feet, and his feet alone. ...
See also: "You Caused Me to Do This"
*** As Sheep To Slaughter Yet Again
Judith Apter Klinghoffer
I know I am going to get hate mail and I may be rushing to judgment. But it all seems to follow such a familiar pattern. Terrified students lined up against the wall of their classroom and shot, execution-style. Once again, this time in a campus filled with young men and women military age, a lone bully seemed to have been able to go on a rampage without anyone trying to actively stop him. What did the students and faculty do? They either cowered behind furniture or locked their door. He, of course, went on to shoot the students next door. Once again, as Bill Bennet noted, heavily armed men were seen swarming OUTSIDE assessing the situation!
As this murder spree took place on Holocaust memorial day, it is not be surprising that the one man who said "Never again" was a 76 year old professor, a holocaust survivor.
He did the best he could, blocked the door with his body and told his students to flee. Of course, it would have been better if had he told them to attack.
You think I am too harsh? believe it or not, Mahatma Gandhi shared my view. ...
*** Ismail Ax?
Ed Morrissey
The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of odd behavior, and his professors had gone so far as to recommend him for counseling, the Chicago Tribune reports this morning. Seung-hui Cho left behind a note that blamed the "debauchery" of "rich kids" for his shooting spree, and had the words "Ismail Ax" written on his forearm when he died: The suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, Cho Seung-Hui, was a troubled 23-year-old senior from South Korea who investigators believe left an invective-filled note in his dorm room, sources say.
The note included a rambling list of grievances, according to sources. They said Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms.
Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.
A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.
Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.
No one is sure as of yet what the phrase "Ismail Ax" means. It appears to be a reference to Abraham/Ibrahim, in which Ismail and Abraham take an axe to the idols of a temple as part of his conversion to monotheism. Is this a cryptic reference to Islamist or Christian radicalism? It certainly suggests one of the two. ...
Ed goes on to mention the suggestion in Allah's post here that Ismail is a reference to a James Fennimore Cooper's character "Ishmael Bush." I don't know how he can fall into that trap in a post linking to a muslim web page identifying "Ismail" as a son of "Ibrahim." This Old Dog smells something strange, and I'm beginnin' to think it could be jihad.
*** Asian American Journalists Association: Don't call shooter Asian!
Michelle Malkin
An important media advisory from the AAJA: Only they can use ethnic descriptors. Everyone else: Back off!
Too.
Ridiculous.
Reader Doug in Colorado writes: ...
*** A Holocaust survivor’s sacrifice
Don Surber
The headline in the Jerusalem Post did not do Professor Liviu Librescu justice: “Israeli professor killed in US attack.”
The 76-year-old Holocaust survivor, a visiting professor at Virginia Tech, gave his life so that his students may live. Haviv Rettig reported: Librescu threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, “but all the students lived — because of him,” Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli — told Army Radio. ...
It came on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Some may say it was an irony. But I think it was repayment for sacrifices others made so that the teen-age Librescu survived the concentration camp. God cannot stop tragedies, but he can ease our pain. ...
While you're on Don's site don't miss The best Va. Tech story and The worst Va. Tech story.
***
Bookworm's more trusting than I am. I just emailed to point out to her the significance of the spelling variations that I noted earlier.
*** Cho Seung-Hui Referred To Counseling
Dan Riehl
Before everyone gets the idea of starting to collect our guns over this terrible tragedy, I'd rather see what it was that caused the VA Tech shooter to be referred to counseling. Also see below for a bit on the Ismail Ax item regarding writing on Cho's arm. Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."
"There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."
She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.
I think we may know the outcome now. And like it or not, the privacy of many innocent people who believe in the 2nd Amendment is just a bit more important than Cho Seung-Hui's right now. Having taken a few creative writing classes in my time, I've seen people write some bizarre material without being referred for counseling over it. It sounds as though we may have to re-visit more than gun laws and campus security issues to examine ineffective processes we may be able to correct. ...
See also: Cho: Crazy And Untalented and Getting Inside the Shooter's Head.
*** Massacre at a Gun-Free School
James Taranto
Predictably, opponents of Second Amendment rights seized opportunistically on the Virginia Tech massacre. "It is long overdue for us to take some common-sense actions to prevent tragedies like this from continuing to occur," said a statement from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino got questions like this one in yesterday's press briefing: Columbine, Amish school shooting, now this, and a whole host of other gun issues brought into schools--that's not including guns on the streets and in many urban areas and rural areas. Does [sic] there need to be some more restrictions? Does there need to be gun control in this country?
And of course the New York Times, while noting that "it is premature to draw too many lessons from this tragedy," draws one anyway: What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.
But there is another side to this argument. Longtime readers may recall the lead item in our Jan. 18, 2002, column, which concerned a shooting spree at another Virginia institution of higher learning, the Appalachian School of Law. The gunman, Peter Odighizuwa, killed three, and probably would have killed more but for another student's gun: Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, officials said.
"We saw the shooter, stopped at my vehicle and got out my handgun and started to approach Peter," Tracy Bridges, who helped subdue the shooter with other students, said Thursday on NBC's "Today" show. "At that time, Peter threw up his hands and threw his weapon down. Ted was the first person to have contact with Peter, and Peter hit him one time in the face, so there was a little bit of a struggle there."
Appalachian is a private institution, Virginia Tech a public one; and Virginia law prohibits guns on campus. Early last year there was an effort in the state Legislature to change that law, but it died in committee. As the Roanoke Times reported at the time: 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."
There are reasons one may be wary of arming academia. College students spend a lot of time drinking and carousing, and so perhaps they're better off without firearms. Academic disputes can get vicious; we wouldn't want them to get bloody. But it does not seem a stretch to think that if Cho Seung-hui had encountered someone else with a gun, fewer people would lie dead at Virginia Tech. ...
***
"Confederate Yankee" Bob Owen's is on a major tear. Three I let get stale without linking to them, one too good to not excerpt:
Damn Occam, Full Speed Ahead
It is becoming abundantly clear that Brian Ross isn't the only member of ABC News that has the intention of using the Virginia Tech massacre to push an anti-gun political agenda, with extended magazines being mentioned again, even though there has been no corroboration that they played any factor at all:
It is unknown at this time if his guns had standard or extended clips, which, depending on the weapon, can fire as many as 30 shots before the gun has to be reloaded.
Actually, we do know for a fact that one of the weapons used, a Walther P22 that was his most recent purchase is only available with a ten-round magazine. Extended magazines for this pistol do not exist.
Extended magazines for Glocks (designed with the selective-fire Glock 18 machine pistol in mind, a weapon practically unavailable to American shooters) are capable of being used in Glock 19s do exist, but they are rather rare to encounter, and are typically found only online or through catalog order. They are rarely carried in most gun stores.
The reason is quite simple; Glocks are typically purchased for sport (target) shooting and personal defense by both civilians and police departments. When a Glock is fed an extended 31-round or even less common 33-round magazine, the weight of the extra 16-18 rounds dramatically changes the balance and weight of the pistol to make it butt-heavy, making it a bit more difficult to shoot, and the extra length and weight make it all but impossible to carry in any practical manner. ...
*** Flashback: A Victim of Gun Control Expresses her anger at Congress
Kim Priestap
Suzanne Hupp, who lost both her parents at Luby's Cafeteria in 1991 when a lunatic gunman crashed his truck through the window and began ruthlessly shooting innocent patrons, spoke to Congress in 1993 on the assault weapons ban that Congress passed but let expire in 2004 because it became obvious it did nothing to deter violence. The video quality is bad, but Ms. Hupp's testimony is compelling. Watch it.
While you're in the neighborhood, also check out European Media Blame Charleton Heston and Guns for Actions of Disturbed, Lone, Killer, Ismail AX -- Or Ismail YK? and The Collected Works Of Cho Seung-Hui.
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