Let's see,murderer(assassin) kills others and then self...had access to computer,were files checked? Or did they get erased?
see "assassin"- are hassani ben sabbahites (SPECTRE-Ian Fleming,CYPHER-Maxwell Grant,THRUSH-Man From Uncle,Kali stranglers-indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom),compare with JFK,Lincoln,Garfield(not the cat!),Sadat and Begin, Bhutan, and the French and Russian Revolutions...
Assassins wore "RED" turbans,French "Citizens"-RED hats,Russians.Chinesse,Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge, Castro = "REDS", another name for 60's pills.
And,while you conspiracy buffs are looking for ufos,especially you "Illuminati"-Robert Anton Wilson fans, think about this.
Sanhedrian Council(Pharisees vs Sadducees) vs. Rome vs. Herodians (All of whom,together with
Judas) without a warrant,(illegally) arrested,tried,
imprisoned and beat by Romans,sent to Herod, acquitted by Pilate,re-tried and sentenced to death,
(double jeopardy),died for your sins,according to the scriptures,was buried,and rose from the dead,
ascended into heaven,and is coming again
(I Cor.15,Mat.26:45-28.Isa.53) see- "Illegal Trial of Jesus" by Earl Wingo. Can anybody say:"None Dare Call It Conspiracy"? Psalm 2 CON=with
Spire= wind,breath,spirit "An ILL wind blows no
one good" Revival Now! in Jesus' Name.Amen Evangelist Jim Bell

No matter what, this shooting will forever be in infamy. It may have been the instigator to the Northern Illinois tragedy on Valentine's day of 2008. What is wrong? How come universities aren't safer now? This event will be etched forever in our minds because just one person amazingly killed 32 people outside of war and crowd control. A lot of reprocussions have occured recently. Yes, we will eventually move on from such terror, but it feels so hard to get back to normalcy when a loved one is going to school either so close to home or on the other side of the world and constantly thinking how safe the school and the person will be away from their care.

It's horrible to have to say this, but it looks as though the senseless Virginia Tech killings may be only the beginning. This week alone we've had four shootings on college and high school campuses. I dread to say what may happen tomorrow. The latest shooting, at Northern Illinois, left six dead and seventeen seriously injured today. Your chance of being killed by a terrorist is beginning to pale beside the likelihood of being killed by your classmate. Everyone is criticizing the universities, but it's unreasonable to expect a collegiate culture that's always been based on freedom of movement to start imposing metal detectors and random searches. This was never part of the college way. We have to begin enforcing the gun laws, as SilverFox has said. There's just no other way around it.

This is probably the worst school shooting in history, even worse than that of Columbine.

The most important event in our year. It completely changed the way we look
at things in America and the world.

Yes, because it demonstrates how poor the security is ant most universities. What can be done about it, arm professors or students? NO, these universities are not spending enough money on security. They need to hire more campus police aand have them patrol the campus more frequently like an old school cop on a beat, instead of just handing out parking tickets.
Also, hire students, train them well, and use them as part time security guards, students can pay off part of their education this way and help keep their school safe.

A very tragic event to say the least. as others have mentioned the student shooter showed signs that all was not well with him,all sorts of red flags where there.

It seems that nothing makes our country react with as much passion as a terrorist attack against our citizens. This was probably the biggest terror event in the US since 9/11, and it got a lot of coverage in the media. The issues that arose regarding gun ownership and mental illness are important to government in this country in order to improve the way law enforcement, mental health agencies, institutions such as schools, and other government agencies communicate for the sake of public safety.

Though I see that others disagree, this mad act, like the similar acts of madmen before it, is the poster child for the necessity for gun control. We shouldn't allow people with dangerous or potentially dangerous mental disorders to buy handguns. Fortunately, this isn't really an issue--dangerous mentally ill people are prohibited from buying handguns, we have a national system in place for background checks, and dangerous mentally ill people are supposed to be reported to it. The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act requires a national instant criminal background check system (NICS) that a firearms licensee must contact before selling a handgun to a nonlicensed individual to determine whether he/she is prohibited from purchasing it. Under ATF regulations, a handgun may not be sold to "persons who have been adjudicated as mental defectives or been committed to a mental institution." "Adjudicated as a mental defective" means "a determination by a court . . . or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease . . . is a danger to himself or to others; or . . . a finding of insanity by a court in a criminal case." (See the Wikipedia article Firearm Owners' Protection Act.) I believe I read, though I'm not certain of the details, that a judge made such a finding in this case, based on an evaluation by a mental health professional, and ordered the subject to get mental health treatment. However, the subject didn't do so, and no system was in place to track compliance with the judge's order. Further, the judge's finding didn't make its way into NCIS, so when the firearms dealer checked the system, there was nothing in it concerning this subject that would have prohibited the sale. Those are the failures that need to be investigated and remedied; obviously lives depend on it. Institutions of all sorts should more readily refer people who exhibit bizarre behavior to the judicial or other appropriate system for evaluation by mental health professionals to determine whether they present a danger to the rest of us. But it's going to require more tax money. Are we willing to pay for it?

My heart (and I hope I speak for many others on this site as well) goes out to the victims of this senseless crime. No one should ever forget the innocent lives lost...ever.

I've got to agree with Numbah on this one. The mental health system dropped the ball on this guy. And now everyone and their mother is going to push an agenda.

  The facts of this horrible tragedy are still coming to light.  But, every college president in the US knows that this could very well have happened under his (or her) watch.  This was not caused or facilitated by a lack of communication on the part of the university, nor was it for lack of "gun control" laws.  This happened because one deranged exchange student got by our screening process and carried out an unthinkable crime, killing young unarmed kids with ease and icy efficiency.  My own slant is that it takes years of training to do that.  Yet, this homicidal nut was brought into this country and allowed to roam free among or best and our brightest. 

Call for an additional layer of ridiculous, watered-down, ineffective and unenforceable gun control laws if it makes you feel better.  How can nobody, nobody (?!) raise a question about how this maniac was allowed here?  No, let's make up more silly gun control laws to keep any potential deterrent out of the hands of the innocent victims.  Just consider, would this maniac have done this if there was the slightest possibility of someone shooting back?

My conclusion: this tragedy is just outside my door.  I have two kids at a similarly sized institution.  Couldn't we, for once, look at the gateway that this psycopath waltzed through in order to carry out the most heinous of crimes, executing innocent, unarmed people for the crime of being Americans and being in the wrong place at the most unfortunate of times.  Who let this guy in ?  And, if we turn away 10,000 worthy international candidates and keep him out, who is the major loser in the equation?  Our own goivernment showed its incompetence once again, for which we pay an unimaginable price.

4/19/07 UPDATE:  The college is in huge trouble, waiting way too long before notifying their students and faculty that the campus was not safe.  Not notifying his current suitemates of his mental state also adds to their liability, HIPPA regulations notwithstanding.  Those kids aren't paying 30 grand a year to roll the dice on having a mass murderer sleep next door.  Professors fielding complaints about other students' safety, removing him from English class but not the dorms is an incredibly risky path.  The red flags were everywhere and they just ignored them, confident it couldn't blow up in their faces.  Ka- BOOM!  Ah, President Steger, my lawyer has a couple of questions for you.  It won't take long.

On top of everything else, the perp complied with a background check in order to legally buy his guns.   Yuh, we really need more "gun control" don't we?  Felons cannot buy guns but if you're mentally ill, no problem. 

Nice to see that people are too screwed up to deal with their problems...

UPDATE: I also love the way that everyone is standing on the corpses of these people so the media can get ratings and various people can push agendas like gun control and security measures that won't allow people to live a normal life. Pull the heads out, people. Crazy murderers happen. Sensationalizing it is disrespectful to the victims and gun control and tighter security won't prevent a thing.

UPDATE: Saw the video. Dude shouldn't have been in circulation. I'd like to thank our broken mental health system for letting another one go.

Kids...I don't know what to say to my family here who have been making me LOL since I discovered this website.Your posts show how multi-dimensional you are. Especially with this event. I have a feeling this guy was a paranoid schizophrenic,the most dangerous of schizos. Go look it up. The disease can just appear (sudden) or insiduous(getting worse slowly over a period of time). It's a real brain disease. Have you ever noticed when looking at mug shots that the violent people, their eyes..not symmetrical? One eye or one side of the face different from the other. There's even a term for this when someone suffers a head injury- it's called diccortacte, I spelled that wrong, but it means a brain injury that causes an animal or person to work off of the limbic system, like a crocodile. I have a cat that suffers from this condition. No one wanted him, but I am a sucker, so he is mine. When I get my webcam up & running , you'll see. The truth is this guy was slipping into schizophrenia, became paranoid & killed all of us. We are all represented . He hit every race & every cultural backround. He's not a sociopath as someone here had said earlier, psychotic=delusional. I strongly suggest that ya'll look up personality disorders & mentall illnesses. Look up borderline personality disorder, narcissist p.d., hystrionic p.d., paranoid p.d., especially if you are in your early 20's. Look it up because these people will try to make it out that you are the problem.The red flags your gut tells you about, they're true. Always are. Trust your GUT instinct. You aren't always right, but your gut is. It will never steer you wrong. Trust it, never question it. Unfortunatley, these middle-aged people on campus never learned the most important lesson from deep inside ourselves...If you are 18 or 70-listen, you're gut knows. Follow it. Have u ever met someone & got a bad impression? Then u had an inner dialogue w/ u're self saying"oh, don't be so judgemental!". Then maybe 2 yrs later learned your gut instinct was correct? That's why they say 1st impression,non? I know i'm rambling...but go online & check these p.d.'s & mental conditions, save yourself from heartache & maybe many others. They're out there people.

Really big deal, and it angers me. All those people, not that much more than kids, going to college, bright future ahead, and it all goes to hell when some bastard decides that his life isn't worth it, so no one else's is. Do us all a favor: if you're thinking about wasting a whole bunch of strangers before killing yourself, just fastforward yourself to the end of it. Generally, I'm not big on suicide, but if it's between that and killing a whole bunch of college kids, I'd vote for the former. 

UPDATE:  The egomaniacal bastard actually sent a whole package of stuff over to the news station, filled with pictures of himself posing with guns and hammers and stuff, and video of him whining about how much everyone made his life suck.  What an attention whore.  If only we could deny him that wish to be in the spotlight, since he surely doesn't deserve any attention, but unfortunately that will never be.  That little punk got what he wanted.

Another ghastly tragedy.


Coming near to the anniversary of the Columbine shootings, my choice of the word "another" has an unintentional irony.

Once again, a sociopath seeks an end full of blood and terror, reckless and heedless of the irreparable damage left behind.

And we, the public, gobble up the details and clamour for more, fed by a media that caters to our vicarious need.

Is it any wonder there are copy-cat crimes, when each event is dealt with in near pornographic detail?

I'm not suggesting that news coverage be banned, but I'm suggesting that we all, myself included, take a long hard look at our need to linger on events like this.

As of 5:20 EDT there are 33 confirmed dead (including the shooter).  This country is going to the dogs...

UPDATE:  Out of pure anger I voiced my displeasure on Monday 4/16. This country may not be going to the dogs but we (as a nation) have become more and more desensitized because of repeated school shootings (and other murders). It seems our society isolates some that feel they don't fit in and those people are the "types" that end up being a killer . Here we go again many say. Why didn't someone do anything before he snapped? That one teacher did but he couldn't be forced to seek treatment according to the law.

Those that are still angry and wanting to blame gun control, immigration or VT's security measures have their rights but are they lashing out at the wrong things?

Red flags were there about the shooter. People knew he was troubled but how deeply troubled he really was wasn't answered until 4/16/07. Yes, he bought the Glock 9mm within a minute in VA but he broke no laws.  Why was he allowed to buy 50 rounds of ammunition for the gun? Who knows but the question is pointless at this time. In fact the seller stated the sale to the future assassin was "unremarkable". No red flags there. He was cool and calculated and remained so until the end.

So, as we go through another numbing period of mourning we also go through the same things as we have done for all of the other senseless school slaughters. We mourn for a while and then we move on and become even more desensitized and wait for the next time. 

My prayers go out to the friends and families of the dead and injured and the school as a whole. I also pray that we as a people reach out to help those that feel that there is no hope and isolated. God speed to our troubled country and world.

For me, it comes down to a sick, twisted, monster went on a rampage, and the potential for this sort of thing can happen at any time or place in today's world. It does seem like this type of incident, for whatever reason, has become much more prevalent over the last 20 years or so. The bottom line is there are families and friends grieving over loved ones because of a lunatic.  Exactly why he did it is something I don't know, but beyond the evil and cowardice of such acts is a kind of incredible, if somewhat unconscious, selfishness as well. I read a book recently in which one of the characters says stealing is at the root of all evil- when you steal a life, you rob others of the right to a parent, a spouse, etc...

The Nation bows its head

When I first wrote this review I blamed it mainly on the US' "gun control" law and policies which as far as I'm concerned now - looking at the bigger picture - is not the sole purpose of what went on.  As Abichara so aptly put it "Ask the basic questions before we tackle whether measures like gun control will solve the problem".  Well my question is how did they allow a student like this into their college in the first place?  If he was displaying strange behaviour that wasn't the "norm" as reported from various students and staff why wasn't something done about it?  I think the main thing I'm getting at here and I don't just mean the US, but the UK also needs to do now is do a thorough check on students before they enter ANY educational place where they may be deemed unsafe to others.  They do extreme vetting in the workplace when it comes to health and criminal records so why not in education?  I know I'm going to get stick for this, but I feel when it comes to any students mental health there isn't enough that's done.  I've been to two higher education vicinities where I did my BA and MA and on those seperate occassions I encountered at least one student with serious mental health problems where little or nothing was done to protect them from other students, staff and even themselves.  They were simply not vetted and even if they were it was ignored as the powers that be honestly thought they had it under control, which they clearly didn't.  I hope this is a lesson for everyone where it's not about "equality first", but more about safety first.

Original Comment: Absolutely awful.  You can only shake your head in disgust when you think that a Univeristy campass is the last place that something like this could and should happen.  The only positive thing I can say about this incident is that the gun control debate arises again and possibly makes people and even the US President look at how they can improve this problem that is clearly still evident. 

What a horrible tragedy. Surreal at this point, I am sure, to the families of the victims.

I was barely a tot in 1966 when Charles Whitman, former Marine and Eagle Scout, climbed atop a tower in Texas and began killing people, but it made a profound impact, given that it seemed like such a bizarre, aberrant occurrence. Now, unfortunately, it seems to occur every couple of months. Some marginalized non-entity, some inadequate loser, decides to become "somebody" momentous in one suicidal explosion of violence. Almost invariably, these people end up killing themselves at the end of their homicidal sprees, and you have to wonder, "If you're going to kill yourself anyway, why not do it before taking innocent life?" It's as if every spark of humanity, every shred of empathy or compassion, has been extinguished completely within them. It seems as if every couple of years, someone "goes off" like this, and, in sadly predictable fashion, the talking-heads get together and pontificate on America's age-old worship of guns and cowboy-style "machismo", the materialistic philosophy of success at almost any cost, the escalating violence of TV and movies and video games, and the consequent desensitization, the callousness, of increasing segments of society. And the end result of all this analysis and "prayer" (which seems to be about the only thing George Bush can ever offer in any grave national or international crisis and/or tragedy) and sermonizing? Probably nothing. Sadly, a few years from now, or a few months from now, some other disgruntled, twisted cipher will get ahold of firearms, and it will happen again. And again. And again.

The only silver lining - if you can possibly call it that - is that the perpatrator wasn't a Muslim exchange student.  Can you imagine the fear, the agenda pushing, the lynch mob justice that we would be dealing with if it had been a Muslim student behind the shootings?

What a tragic incident. Apparently the perpetrator was a college senior exchange student from Korea with some apparent mental troubles. Over 30 people were killed and many more were wounded.

What would motivate someone to kill innocent people blindly? This person must have been filled with hate and bitterness against society, so much so that he would treat life with such reckless abandon. We can talk about how this incident speaks to the need for gun control or even tougher stands against immigration, but I think the problem is much deeper here. This kid killed those 30 people without motive, without appropriate cause. Perhaps we as a society need to examine how we value life, and what we value specifically. Ask the basic questions before we tackle whether measures like gun control will solve the problem.

The time may come to discuss and resolve in mutual agreement opinions on this matter. For starters, I'd be more comfortable if we'd own up to the fact that what the media calls "a massacre" and others consider "an incident," actually was "a murderous rampage."

For the time being and in regards to the sanctity of human life, it would be constructive and revealing to spend time and efforts in exploring and proposing, other than by hypothesizing, practical and effective measures to keep homicide statistics, including those in self-defense, at a reasonable minimum.

Gun-related deaths are five to six times higher in the Americas than in Europe or Australia and New Zealand and 95 times higher than in Asia.  I didn't say that there are no other problems in society, or that the perpetrator isn't responsible.  And truly I don't think legislation could possibly make a dent, especially given that there is seemingly very little support for enforcement.  Society would have to decide that it s a problem that they are no longer willing to tolerate and that seems to be a long long way away.  So shoot 'em if you got 'em.

Let's all stick our heads in the sand and continue to claim that guns don't kill people, people kill people and have another discussion about the root causes of this type of thing once again the next time that it happens.  You won't have to wait long.  It happens in the United States with a vastly higher frequency than anywhere else.  Never mind the 8 years since Columbine, what about the 6 months since the Amish school killings in Lancaster County?  What about the fact that there have been 19 mass murders involving guns in schools in the United States in just the last 10 years?  Choose to support the continued open availability of firearms in the United States if you wish, but know that in doing so this is the price that society is continuing to pay. 

Franks' Wild Years wrote:  "Choose to support the continued open availability of firearms in the United States if you wish, but know that in doing so this is the price that society is continuing to pay."  This is a specious argument because rarely does the handgun/rifle objector look at anything other than effect.  Nowhere in the argument is root cause addressed...c'mon you lay psychologists:  to what would you attribute an apparent predilection to commit homicide?  Don't worry about the implement, consider the motive or other causal factors. 

Throughout American history, citizens have had access to and have used handguns and rifles.  Though essentially we gave citizens the right to bear arms because of a resistance to establishing a standing army.  Regardless, I am going to go out on a statistical limb here.  Given that gun use throughout the 19th century, let's say, is approximately equivalent to gun use now, I would say that per 100,000 citizens gun use has actually diminished--except in a very small slice of our society, and not including game hunters. 

If data from the 19th century were available and bore out my assertion, and if the assertion is statistically significant, given that there was no cogent movement to prohibit the use of weapons or to repeal the second amendment, what could we logically infer?

I have my thoughts on this, but would prefer to hear yours.   

  No disrespect to the victims or their families, but I am already sick of hearing about this. Our society has an insatiable need to Oprah/ Springer the hell out of everything; yet no one wants to look at the real root cause of these tragic events- I said the same after Columbine. This is not the fault of the police, the campus police, the university, or a 9mm handgun. This is the responsibility of our society in general.

It used to be that when a married couple had a child, they understood that they had a responsibility to the child, to themselves, and to the community. Today, as a rule, most parents have the attittude that something is owed to their kid, and no one is allowed to discipline these precious babies for fear of social services and lawsuits. Parenting has been replaced by day care and video games; Ritalin has taken the place of discipline. So the youth go about the business of listening to rap & hip-hop, while dressing like gang-bangers and hookers. All the while the parents are in the background with apathy and the "don't you hurt my baby" mentality.

I have not even touched on divorce and single-parent households.

The question is this: Do we really need to wonder why our young people are so ****ed up? Do we really need media overkill to assign blame?

Tragic and it will become a landmark in attempts to turn this country into a land of sheeple with everyone disarmed and huddling in their pens waiting for the next wolf attack.

I won't rush to judgement on the school administration or police until all of the facts are in.  Unless we want to turn our society into a police state, at the expense of personal freedom,  there is some level of danger from our fellow citizens we must live with.  Perhaps there should have been better preparation and a better response, but I doubt anyone enjoying the freedom of speech RIA provides would want to go to a school which could guarantee events like this mass murder could never happen. I'm not sure where the acceptable, middle ground lies between absolute freedom and complete safety.

My first reaction was to jump on the gun control bandwagon.  But guns have been readily available in our country for a hundred years.  These mass killings have really only been a phenomena of the last three decades.  Something else is amiss here.  Something has changed, but not the availability of firearms.  Before we prescribe gun control as an answer (and I am not a gun person), we need to identify root causes.

I don't think this is about nationality, or national origin, as, if I am not mistaken, most of these heinous acts are committed by born in the USA Americans. 

This was a shocking, horrific event, and my heart goes out to the injured and the friends and relatives of those who were killed.  I in no way mean to trivialize what happened at Virginia Tech, but I offer this number to put this in perspective and hopefully focus the debate and our attention on a larger issue.  On average, EVERY DAY, over 45 people die in alcohol related traffic accidents.*  That's right, every day.  Instead of diverting too much national attention and personal energy on the polarizing issues of gun control and immigration, I'd like to see us do something about drunk driving.  Even if we only reduced alcohol related traffic fatalities by 1 percent, we would save 5 times the number of people who lost thier lives on the VT campus yesterday.

* Based on 2005 statistics.  

what a huge tragedy. How sad to tune into the news in late morning and by four in afternoon the deaths were up to 33. just feel horrid for all those families who are now getting phone calls they would never want to get. My heart goes out to all of those families and the students and staff who died. for all the witnessess who will have to live with this. very sad day in the USA.

  This is so devastating!  It makes my heart truly sad for all the families affected. 

I feel the lack of communication from the administrators is why so many are dead.  If they would've only ACTED promptly on ordering a lockdown at the beginning of the 1st shots, so many lives would've been spared.  I could care less that they said we thought the shooter left.  That is all they can say to try and cover their asses!!!

Better safe than sorry!  Better safe than sorry!  Better safe than sorry!

R.I.P.

My heart goes out to the families.  So tragic.

Unbelievably tragic! I don't really know all the details, but as I understand it there was a two hour gap between the shootings and the school administrators chose not announce to the students that a shooting had occurred. Two were killed in the first shooting, thirtyone in the second. Shameful!

How sad! Someone thinks it's not worth living so it's worth killing. I feel really sad for all the innocence that was involved!

A horrific tragedy ranking as the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history. The shootings occurred in two different locations on campus 2 hours apart.