Virginia

[oggbashan]

I have just seen a breaking news item about a shooting in Virginia.

50 years ago, most people in the UK wouldn't have known where Virginia was. Now we get news from there in seconds.

Our local airport had arranged a weekly tourist flight from Kent to Virginia. The service was due to start next month. They had 10,000 seats to sell. They sold 400. The service has been scrapped at a loss of £200,000 in promotional costs.

There is growing resistance locally to going to the US because of the reception given on entry. Kids now go to EuroDisney instead of Florida despite the high value of the pound against the dollar. Pissing off your friends is not good business - and we in the UK do just the same to US citizens coming here. Madness.

Og

 

[FatDino]

Just in: At least 21 killed in Virginia Tech campus. The shooting began at around 7:15 AM (their time) at a co-ed residence hall.

People say this is the deadliest campus shooting in the U.S history.

Breaking News

 

[Guest]

Just in: At least 21 killed in Virginia Tech campus. The shooting began at around 7:15 AM (their time) at a co-ed residence hall.

People say this is the deadliest campus shooting in the U.S history.

Breaking News

Yes, Columbine had 13 fatalities. Supposed the gunman is dead. No word yet if student.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

That's terrible. I hate when stuff like that happens.

As an aside:
I wonder what popular distractions they are going to blame this one on. Games? Movies? Music? Hair dye?

 

[Guest]

50 years ago, most people in the UK wouldn't have known where Virginia was.

Four hundred years ago, some from the UK knew where Virginia was.

link

 

[FatDino]

CNN just said "at least 22 students reported dead at the moment."

Damn.

 

[scriptordelecto]

That's terrible. I hate when stuff like that happens.

As an aside:
I wonder what popular distractions they are going to blame this one on. Games? Movies? Music? Hair dye?

Indeed.

How horrifying.

 

[S-Des]

Indeed.

How horrifying.

Truly sad. The thought of sending your kids off to school, not knowing if they're safe or not...it's just awful.

 

[ChristopherMaxwell]

That's terrible. I hate when stuff like that happens.

As an aside:
I wonder what popular distractions they are going to blame this one on. Games? Movies? Music? Hair dye?

That or lack of gun controls....

 

[Emperor_Nero]

CBS News has just had update, and the death toll at Virginia Tech is now over 30, with many people injured. If that number contains the shooter is not known, although he is dead as well. No word on if he was shot by police or killed himself after the rampage.

 

[neonlyte]

Having recently spent some days on an American University campus in the Adirondacks, I can easily imagine the shock and grief of students, staff and families. The reception we received from wonderful warm hearted folk at the university only serves to stretch my incredulity of the Virginia shooting (and similar incidents) and while I can understand why such things happen, I cannot understand how they happen.







On Og's point about entry to the USA - unless we were exceptionally lucky, I wait longer at Luton coming in from Portugal that I waited at JFK for entry to the USA - the immigration officer was also a human being rather than the humourless, non-speaking dummies the UK use to check passports.

 

[Sherry Hawk]

CBS News has just had update, and the death toll at Virginia Tech is now over 30, with many people injured. If that number contains the shooter is not known, although he is dead as well. No word on if he was shot by police or killed himself after the rampage.

CNN (watching it right now) still has the death toll at 22, and the injured at 29, both confirmed.

Regardless of how many....it's still too many.

 

[R. Richard]

Very sad news. The only bright spot is that the shooter is among the dead.

 

[FatDino]

Last week was an office shooting in Detroit and now this. Soon we'll need armors just being out of the house.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Just heard on MSNBC reporting confirmation of 31 dead.

 

[vampiredust]

I heard about the shooting on the channel 4 news tonight

horrific stuff

condolences for the victims families and prayers all round for everyone affected

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I know two people on another forum who attend Virginia Tech, and luckily they weren't on campus at the time. They receieved the class canclation emails about a half hour before their first classes.

 

[Guest]

Death toll now 31, unconfirmed. Shooter apparently killed himself. I've heard both one and two dozen wounded.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

 

[Just-Legal]

On Og's point about entry to the USA - unless we were exceptionally lucky, I wait longer at Luton coming in from Portugal that I waited at JFK for entry to the USA - the immigration officer was also a human being rather than the humourless, non-speaking dummies the UK use to check passports.

Think everyone's heard my US immigration horror story.

But... on the shooting. Damn, just... damn.

 

[FatDino]

Just in: 33 dead, including the shooter.

This is crazy!

 

[3113]

This is terrible. Here's the latest:

At least 33 people were killed today on the campus of Virginia Tech in what appears to be the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, according to federal law-enforcement officials. Many of the victims were students shot in a dorm and a classroom building.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said the university's president, Charles Steger.

Witnesses described scenes of mass chaos and unimaginable horror as some students were lined up against a wall and shot. Others jumped out of windows to escape, or crouched on floors to take cover.

There were two shootings on the campus in Blacksburg, Va., and in both instances there were fatalities with "multiple shooting victims," Mr. Steger said.

The attacks started early in the morning, with a call to police at 7:15 a.m., as students were getting ready for classes or were on their way there. As the rampage unfolded over nearly three hours, details emerged from witnesses describing a gunman going room to room in a residence hall, and of gunfire later at a building where classes were held.

When it was over, sidewalks were stained with blood. Among those dead was the gunman.

The identification of the gunman was proving difficult, because the suspected shooter did not have identification among his effects and because of the severity of an apparently self-inflicted wound to the head, according to a federal law enforcement official. He said investigators were trying to trace purchase records for two handguns found near the body.

At least 22 people were injured. At least 17 Virginia Tech students were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries at Montgomery Regional Hospital, and four of them were in surgery, according to a hospital spokesperson. At Lewis-Gale Medical Center, in Salem, Va., four students and a staff member were treated. Two were in stable condition, and the conditions of the other three were described as "undetermined."

Officials said there could have been more injured and taken to other medical facilities.
The university has more than 25,000 full-time students on a campus that is spread over 2,600 acres. It was not clear how many of the victims were notified of the dangers.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Three Hours!

 

[Liar]

Three Hours!

Indeed. wtf?

There's probably an explanation why somebody or something didn't manage to stop him in three hours. But until i hear it: wtf?

Scary shit.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Indeed. wtf?

There's probably an explanation why somebody or something didn't manage to stop him in three hours. But until i hear it: wtf?

Scary shit.

I just watched a news briefing, and evidently the first shooting (of 2 people) occurred at 7:15 a.m. in the dormitory. The police arrived within 10 minutes of receiving the 911 call and claim that they received some kind of information that led them to believe it was a domestic/isolated incident and that the gunman had (this part is still unsure, obviously) left campus and was not an immediate threat to the rest of the student body.

Two hours later, the shootings began in another building across campus. It's been reported to be quite gruesome, some killed execution style lined up against a wall. Two kids jumped out of 2nd story windows to escape and received nasty injuries. I think the death count is up to 32 now, though many more are injured and some are in emergency surgeries. I somehow doubt that number is the top.

It was reported that the gunman shot himself in the head and didn't have any identification on him, so they're having a hard time identifying him so far.