US Features
Shooting rampage worst ever in US history
By Mike McCarthy Apr 17, 2007, 8:09 GMT
Virginia police officers stand at a road block near a building where a gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech College in Blacksburg, Virginia, in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, 16 April 2007. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH
Washington - A gunman opened fire at Virginia Tech university on Monday, killing 32 other people in the deadliest massacre in US history as school violence continues to haunt American society.
The day's madness began shortly after 7 am when a gunman shot two people to death in a dorm on the polytechnic university's campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, before a second incident two hours later in a classroom building, where a gunman murdered 30 more people. Twenty- nine people were wounded.
The gunman then killed himself, bringing the death toll to 33, authorities said.
The shootings drew immediate shock and outrage in the United States and took place only days before what will be the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado.
'Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning,' a saddened US President George W Bush said hours after the ordeal. 'When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.'
The rampage is likely to generate discussion in the coming days about the motives behind such acts, which experts say vary greatly, and rekindle debates about gun control and campus safety.
Although the death toll at Virginia Tech is unprecedented, Americans have had to cope with campus violence for years. Many urban public schools began installing medal detectors at school entrances in the 1980s because of gang violence.
And during the 1990s there were school shootings seemingly almost on an annual basis, almost always acts carried out by students, some as young as 11 years old. What was unusual about Monday's shooting spree was that it took place on a college campus, not at an elementary school, middle school or high school.
The last time a mass killing took place at a university was 1966, when Charles Whitman, 26, climbed a tower at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, and opened fire on pedestrians. Twelve people died before Whitman was shot and killed by police. The night before, he had murdered his wife and mother.
The United States, however, is not the only country victimized by bloodbaths at school. In April 2002 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser, came to school in Erfurt, Germany and shot 13 teachers, two students and a police officer to death before killing himself.
In Dunblane, Scotland in March 1996, Thomas Hamilton, 43, went into an elementary school gym and began shooting, killing 16 students aged five to six and a teacher before taking his own life. A mentally disturbed man went on a stabbing attack in Japan in June 2001 and killed eight children between the ages of six and eight at an elementary school.
The most notorious case in US history prior to Virginia Tech was the Columbine shootings on April 20, 1999. Two deranged students, Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, went to school with automatic weapons and hand grenades and assaulted fellow students and teachers in the school cafeteria and library.
Klebold and Harris, wearing black trenchcoats, claimed the lives of 12 students and one teacher before taking their own lives.
'This is like a college Columbine,' a Virginia Tech student said on television.
Many of the university's 25,000 students were puzzled how this happened on their campus and complained university officials did not act fast enough to warn people about the first shooting incident. They said with a gunman on the loose, officials should have done more to keep students from coming to campus, a move they say might have saved lives in the second rampage.
But even as all of the facts emerge in days ahead that will help people understand how events unfolded, it will take much longer to determine and reconcile why it happened.
'It's an utter shock how anybody can do this to other people,' another student said. 'It's crazy to me.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
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My sincerest condolences to the victims' their families, friends and the University and township.
I hope the NRA and their wealthy and well-placed lobbyists are proud of themselves now. Yes, the perpetrator pulled the trigger, but the availability of the trigger is the real issue behind the attack. The first weapon of choice for a psychotic killer is a rifle, gun or pistol. For the lone individual planning carnage and mass murder; knives, num-chucks, Ninja stars, explosives are all more unreliable and cumbersome so usually don’t rate high on the preference scale – you get the picture.
Forgetting the odd revolutionaries; which are also premeditated; guns have killed more innocent humans, with the express intent of the shootist, than any of the ‘unreliable’ choices above. Firearms must be removed from the temptation of the potential killer!
Emotions are running high on this, but it is spelled 'metal', not 'medal' detectors.
NRA is spo,soring the republican party ,94 percent of their financial contributions go to this party.George Bush was quick to play into their cards after the shooting by defending the gunlobby .Yet statistics prove gun control works ,it would save tenthousands of lives per year in the USA .Comparing figures and statistics with European countries proves that without any doubt .
Per capita you have tenfold the number of killings with firearms .Bush knows that too ,and so do the NRA ,little do they care about your lives .
In looking at this issue fully, it's important to understand that the Right to Bear Arms is not something new to US citizens ... guns have been with us 'long before' the beginning of our formalized nation.
And if we are going to objectively try to understand the recent escalation of these kinds of atrocities in the US, we also have to acknowledge that if the problem were merely the Right to Bear Arms, then it would have some sort of historical paralell to the availablity of guns ... but there isn't a time correalation between right to own guns, and these kinds of horrendous acts.
For more than 230 years the right to bear arms has been part of our nation - yet this kind of violent phenomenon is relatively new.
In questioning the logic of the US Right to Bear Arms for it's citizens, it's vital that gun critics understand that there are good reasons for that Right - yes, I said good reasons.
Some critics may or may not know this, but the Right to Bear Arms was intentionally given to The People by founders who knew from their own experience, that without the right to bear arms, The People would be powerless to defend themselves from a government that if corrupted, could impose tyranny over a civilian populace that couldn't resist, or defend themselves from 'their own government'. Can you see the signifigance of that? And the wisdom as well?
It's also important to understand that if guns were removed, it wouldn't remove the violence. (I can't say that strongly enough)
Those with the desire to commit these types of horrendous acts would simply find another method. (The desire is the real problem, not the tools used).
While the idea of removing or restiricting guns seems like the obvious solution to some, I personally believe it's too simplistic and is not historically supported.
My concern is that if we don't address the 'real root causes' that drive these people to kill innocents like this, we'll never find real solutions to prevent them from killing by other methods in the future either.
Clearly, we face a difficult time in our society ... real answers are not easy to find ... but if we're going to have any 'real and long lasting effect' on preventing this type of violence, we must thoroughly understand that the recent increase in the 'desire to kill' is far more important than the methods used.
- Posted by Get Real
Someone from this town mentioned they had always thought their town was a safe place. Well it still is. This tragedy wasn't the work of a large gang or terrorists - just one small student, and it could have happened anytime anywhere. It doesn't mean their town isn't safe anymore!!!!!
It's an awful incident. Very sad that people resort to evil as a solution to emotional problems.
FOX and CNN keep reporting that 'this is the BIGGEST mass murder in USA history' .
As nasty and evil as this incident is it isn't true at all. Over 300 people mostly women & children were murdered in 1890 at Wounded Knee. It's not important though because they were only Sioux Native Americans.
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lisaApr 17th, 2007 - 12:54:03
my heart goes out to the families who have lost their love ones.
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