32 shot dead on US college campus at Virginia Tech

[5 Sams]

Everyone on here has rightly said what a horrific act this was and offered condolences to the families and victimsetc, etc, etc.....but is it not an indication of how sympathetic to all things American we are when there is a 4 page thread on this nutcase and the horrific crime he perpetrated and there is isn't one word about the 170 people killed in equally horrific circumstances in one day in Iraq


Just thinking out loud

[full back]

Perhaps it is because deaths in Iraq are such a common occurance in recent times

[downredblack]

At this stage people are numb to Iraq and the Yanks and Brits have been playing down the death toll in Iraq since the invasion . If we really new the full extent of the war on "Terror" I dont think we could get our heads around it .

[5 Sams]

Posted by: full back 
Perhaps it is because deaths in Iraq are such a common occurance in recent times

Maybe so but yesterday's occurences were unreal. What brought it home to me was some one on the news at lunchtime saying that it was the equivalent of 10 Omagh bombs all happening at the same time. Thats hard to take in.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

I see them kooks at the Westboro Baptist Church are organising pickets and rallies at the memorial services for these kids

http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/apr2007/20070418_virginia -tech-memorials.pdf

[brokencrossbar1]

I am with you there sams.  The other day was horrific in both place, with the deathtoll in Iraq one of the highest of the conflict for a single day.  One car bomb took out 110 people. 

To say we have become numb to Iraq is to wash our hands of the blood of thousands Iraqis.  There was a time, before my time I might add, when people bothered their holes to get up and actually make their voice heard about the spin of the Governments.  We, and I include myself in this, have become so sanitised to what happens in the world that we have become dead inside I feel.  We can rightly come on internet discussion boards and criticise what goes on but to do so from our heremetically sealed lives, in our air conditioned offices, while we wile away some time before shutting down our screens on our nice little middle class jobs in our nice little middle class work place, to get into our nice little middle class cars and drive home to our nice little middle class family and live our nice little middle class lives.  We get so offended about the simplest of things while ignoring the carnage that is happening in the world.  We would rather tut tut about how wrong it is for Americans to have access to guns than actually say well fcuk I can do something about that.

I personally am sick of the ambivalence that I and many others have to the state we are in.  If it doesn't sit in our back yard then well, hey it can't hurt me.  But it can hurt you.  It hurts you everytime you put petrol in your car, it hurts you evertime you go to a bank machine and take money out and the bak charges you for it, it hurts you every time you hit the boost on your oil fired central heating, it hurts you every single day and you refuse to see it.  People in Virginia do not want our sympathy, they want their friends and family back.  We cannot give them that.  Those Iraqis who look over the mangled remains of their family in that market place cannot get their loved one back.  We cannot give them that.  What we can do is stand up and say "this is wrong and I want to do something about it" .  Maybe I am just having a bad day at work but it is a happy place in comparison to what goes on elsewhere around the world.

[Square Ball]

Just thought I would stick this here as opposed to starting another thread, cant reallly say much more that what was already said on this one anyway.
From The BBC 
 
A gunman has opened fire on students at a university near Chicago in the United States, killing six people.
The shooting took place at Northern Illinois University, in De Kalb, 65 miles (100km) west of Chicago.

Students ran for cover as a white male armed with two handguns and a shotgun opened fire during a science lecture. He then turned the gun on himself.

Another 15 people were injured in the attack. Police said there was no apparent motive.

  I kept thinking: 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh God, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead'


Two weapons have been recovered and police are searching for a third firearm in Cole Hall near the King Commons, a central gathering place for the 25,000 students on campus.

Five of the victims, four women and a man, were killed in a "brief, rapid-fire assault", university president John Peters said.

A sixth student died later in hospital, the local coroner's office said.

The university said that the gunman was a former graduate student in sociology, but was not currently enrolled.

Earlier reports said 17 victims had been transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital.


Police say there is no apparent motive for the attack
The shooting comes 10 months after 32 students and staff were shot by a student at Virginia Tech University in one of the worst shootings ever at a US school.

It is also the fourth shooting at a US education establishment within a week.

Last Friday, a woman shot dead two fellow students before killing herself at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tennessee, a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a student on Monday, and a 15-year-old was shot at a junior high school in California on Tuesday.

'A lot of blood'

Students described a panicked rush from the lecture theatre as the black-clad gunman walked onto the stage and opened fire.

"I kept thinking, 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh God, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead'," Desiree Smith, a student who dropped to the floor near the back of the auditorium, told AP news agency.

 
"People were crawling on each other, trampling each other," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and I started running."

A student named Sheila told local radio station WBBM the gunman was quiet as he turned his weapons on the students.

"He just stood on the stage in front of everybody and just started shooting," she said.

"I saw a lot of blood. I have blood all over my clothes."

George Gaynor, a senior geography student, told the student newspaper that the gunman was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on".

He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic.

"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," he said.


Emergency workers were at the scene within minutes

Students warned each other by mobile phone within minutes of the shootings, and the university's website issued alerts, warning of the possibility of a gunman on campus.

"Get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear," it warned students.

The site then carried updates confirming the shooting and telling students to stay away or stay in doors. It then said the gunman was "no longer a threat".

Emergency hotlines and counselling are being offered for students and parents.

Mr Peters urged students to remain calm and support each other.

"We've asked them to reach out to each other during this difficult time, and they've done that, and I'm proud of them," he said.

is there much coverage in the states for thoses of you over there?

[AZOffaly]

But, hey. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. 

[ziggysego]

But, hey. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. 

Don't give them guns then!

[AZOffaly]

Exactly ziggy. Exactly. (That line is the NRA's standard defence in cases like this).

[ziggysego]

Exactly ziggy. Exactly. (That line is the NRA's standard defence in cases like this).

Saw Charlton Heston on Bowling for Columbine, what a tool.

[AZOffaly]

Don't blame him ziggy. He can't help it. The apes fcuked with his mind.

[Puckoon]

Another waste of life. Good souls lost because some lunatic can buy a gun at walmart.

Ill have the siverside roast, some baby potatos and the glock.

[Square Ball]

Another waste of life. Good souls lost because some lunatic can buy a gun at walmart.

Ill have the siverside roast, some baby potatos and the glock.

Is it that simple Puck?

[AZOffaly]

It can be Square Ball. It varies from State to state. In Arizona, Walmart sold pistols and game rifles, but there was a 24 hour cooling off period, and I think they did a background check.

HOWEVER you could walk into one of the many, many gun shows and pick up any sort of weapon you liked, and they never bothered their arses checking you out.