VA Tech Students Murdered

[CDeb]

but how can you put a price on safety.

If you drive a car, you do it every day.

[hokieone]

The people who were murdered were in class, right? They would've left if classes had been cancelled. Two murders on campus sounds like a good reason to take action.

the guy lived on campus - yes, classes could have been cancelled, but its a very large campus. instead of norris hall, i think he could have gone to a different building and done the very same thing. 2 hours sounds like a lot of time, but that is the time that they went to investigate and i don't think they could have had the whole place on lock down in that small of an amount of time. at this point though, its just not even important - let people grieve...

[westguy]

I'm not talking about lockdown. They could've cancelled classes for the day, people would've gone home, and the body count would've been much lower. He may have tried again later, but I don't think someone who just murdered two people in his dorm would've had a place to hide.

[HtownWxBoy]

I'm not talking about lockdown. They could've cancelled classes for the day, people would've gone home, and the body count would've been much lower. He may have tried again later, but I don't think someone who just murdered two people in his dorm would've had a place to hide.

The body count would have also been lower if this guy decided NOT to shoot everyone. Let's place blame where blame is due.

[H-Town Man]

I think your post is a typical knee-jerk, uninformed, unresearched and frankly, stupid reaction to yesterday's tragedy.

There are over 4,000 college campuses in the United States. Over 17 million students attend those colleges. There are millions more employed as professors, administrators and staff at those campuses. With the millions of people swarming these campuses, there are generally LESS THAN 20 MURDERS committed on college campuses per year. In the rest of the US, total murders exceed 15,000 per year. The murder rate on college campuses is 0.14 per 100,000, while it is 5.7 per 100,000 in the general population. In other words, you are 40 TIMES more likely to be murdered OFF-campus than ON-campus.

I believe the above facts entitle me to call your post ignorant and stupid. Quit taking isolated events and trying to turn them into trends.

Indeed, American society is way too violent. We should all be like RedScare - peaceful, friendly, positive, good-natured human beings.

Edited April 18, 2007 by H-Town Man

[RedScare]

Indeed, American society is way too violent. We should all be like RedScare - peaceful, friendly, positive, good-natured human beings.

You left out non-religious, fornicating, smoking drunk....and the life of the party....but, you hit the highlights.

[DJ V Lawrence]

The body count would have also been lower if this guy decided NOT to shoot everyone. Let's place blame where blame is due.

Well said.

[marmer]

Lockdown only makes sense when you have a few central buildings and some good way to get word out quickly. Most elementary, middle, and high schools fit this description. Also, there's no residential element in public schools. You keep people where you know where they are and where they are as protected as possible by structure. Of course, the disadvantage is that if a bad guy gets inside a room, he has plenty of targets. But look at the choices the University admin faced, even assuming you could communicate with everybody: Send everyone back to their dorms? Yeah, right, when you've just had a shooting in a dorm? Cancel classes and put the whole University population outdoors between buildings? Then you've got the possibility of Charles Whitman UT 1966 all over again.

marmer

[northbeaumont]

Here come the lawsuits, more sad days to follow.

Oh, yes, the lawsuits are coming! First, the gun store in Roanoke will be sued for selling the gun. Second, the gun manufacturer will be sued for making it. Third, the credit card company will be sued for approving a charge at a gun store.

[westguy]

He killed almost an entire class of French students. It was in session when the gunman started shooting everybody. If classes were cancelled, everyone would've gone home if they had not already known about the other murders from earlier. The gunman wouldn'tve had all those people sitting around to shoot at. Cancelling classes is not the same thing as a lockdown, and it is the very least that could've been done.

[CDeb]

He killed almost an entire class of French students. It was in session when the gunman started shooting everybody. If classes were cancelled, everyone would've gone home if they had not already known about the other murders from earlier. The gunman wouldn'tve had all those people sitting around to shoot at. Cancelling classes is not the same thing as a lockdown, and it is the very least that could've been done.

But there's not much of a chance it would have lessened the carnage. We're talking about a huge public university campus with lots of people. They are going to congregate somewhere, class or no class, and they'll be a target.

[westguy]

They said the attack was well-planned with chains on the doors. He wouldn'tve had another whole building, full of students under his control.

[marmer]

If there was no class he could go to a dorm or dining hall and find plenty of easy victims. And the university president made it clear that they thought people would be safer indoors than walking the campus, given the limited information they had at the time.

[northbeaumont]

Topic merged with Virginia Tech Massacre.

Saying 33 killed is helping the food supply is like saying having a leg amputated is good because lessens a person's weight and therefore helps their gas mileage.....

Let's say for example that those 33 people later had two or three children each. That would have been around 100 additional mouths to feed. But as least Sueng Hui Cho did a favor to the taxpayers to go ahead and kill himself. Now taxpayers don't have to pay a penny for his incarceration, subsequent trial, and time in prison prior to his execution (if Virginia has the death penalty).

[millennica]

Let's say for example that those 33 people later had two or three children each. That would have been around 100 additional mouths to feed. But as least Sueng Hui Cho did a favor to the taxpayers to go ahead and kill himself. Now taxpayers don't have to pay a penny for his incarceration, subsequent trial, and time in prison prior to his execution (if Virginia has the death penalty).

Virginia has the death penalty.

[northbeaumont]

Virginia has the death penalty.

And Cho Seung-Hui probably would have sat on Death Row for at least ten years. All of the appeals in themselves would have cost taxpayers more than it would have to have kept him in prison for life.

[Jeebus]

He killed almost an entire class of French students. It was in session when the gunman started shooting everybody. If classes were cancelled, everyone would've gone home if they had not already known about the other murders from earlier. The gunman wouldn'tve had all those people sitting around to shoot at. Cancelling classes is not the same thing as a lockdown, and it is the very least that could've been done.

Right, when class is cancelled ALL students go directly home. WRONG. Most linger around, form study groups in the empty classrooms, go to the student center to get coffee or breakfast, go to the library in groups, or go to their dorm. Only a few run to their car and go home. Most who live off of campus would still be lingering around because they would have had nothing to do. Even if the school locked all its doors, do you think 20,000 people would have just vanished?

The point is that cancelling class would have done nothing. Himself being a student and having intimate knowledge of that campus, he was going to find his victims. He spent way too much time planning this disgusting massacre. He would have probably marched right over to the dorms, shot his way in, and killed just as many, if not more people that way.

What's done is done. If you want to blame anyone, blame our nation for having a flawed system of thousands of individual law enforcement agencies. You can clearly see from any of the news footage that because none of them were in unison, it took that much longer for them to figure out what was going on. This has been true of any tragic incident in our nation's history. You have dozens of law enforcement agencies running around each with no idea what to do. Those officers from all those agencies were not trained for such a situation. It showed them all hiding behind trees with guns drawn and looking across to their other officers also hiding behind trees, all with looks of question and doubt on their face.

Just look at how many law enforcement agencies we have here in Houston. You think they're all cross-trained with each other for this type of response? No. They're all drunk with power, but none with the discipline to apply that power to its full potential.

Edited April 18, 2007 by Jeebus

[VicMan]

We should desecrate Cho's body as a response to his cowardly gesture (the video).

Cho should be "laid to rest" in a humiliating and dishonorable manner. Cho, a coward, a thief, and a murderer, does not deserve a funeral, nor does he deserve a proper burial, nor does he deserve freedom from humiliation.

[jmancuso]

cho was just a disturbed individual and i can't help but have sadness for him as well. mental illness is a bitch.

[VicMan]

If it was a point before the killings, I would have felt sorry for Cho.

But, now that all is said and done, I hate Cho.

[Trae]

He looked like a wreck in that video. He was dumb for what he did, but he had a mental illness. You could easily tell.

[WestGrayGuy]

I can't believe how the media is running his sick pictures and videos almost continuously. The killer, name left out on purpose, should be never mentioned by name. He wanted to become famous with those videos. I refuse to give him that glory. The victims were not allowed to make videos to say good bye before they were executed in cold blood.

Let's remember the victims not the monster.

[VicMan]

I can't believe how the media is running his sick pictures and videos almost continuously. The killer, name left out on purpose, should be never mentioned by name. He wanted to become famous with those videos. I refuse to give him that glory. The victims were not allowed to make videos to say good bye before they were executed in cold blood.

Let's remember the victims not the monster.

I have another idea - Why not try to post-posthumously embarrass the monster?

Dig up any dirt on him and make fun of it. People are already calling the killer stupid (as his plays were poorly-written). We should "bully" him and in the end call him a "worthless blathering monster" that would have never succeeded in life. Also label him a coward and therefore give him a dishonorable "funeral" that will have no sadness and no pity for the killer.

[Jeebus]

I can't believe how the media is running his sick pictures and videos almost continuously. The killer, name left out on purpose, should be never mentioned by name. He wanted to become famous with those videos. I refuse to give him that glory. The victims were not allowed to make videos to say good bye before they were executed in cold blood.

Let's remember the victims not the monster.

Good Post.

[VicMan]

Stephen King, as it turns out, thinks that Cho's stories had no creativity and had nothing but anger.

See: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036014,00.html

[donnieyen]

I think Cho was just an angry guy who was picked on his entire life. It was all built up inside until Monday.

[TJones]

How many of you folks know about this school shooting that also happened in Virginia at a different College ? This is what SHOULD happen in a case like VT. Yes, I know some will disagree with this scenario, but just think if this same story could have played out at VT.

http://www.packing.org/community/general/listview/23048

[Trae]

See, the media won't report stories like that.

[dbigtex56]

President Bush's radio address 4/21/07:

"What we do know is that this was a deeply troubled young man

[Jeebus]

How many of you folks know about this school shooting that also happened in Virginia at a different College ? This is what SHOULD happen in a case like VT. Yes, I know some will disagree with this scenario, but just think if this same story could have played out at VT.

http://www.packing.org/community/general/listview/23048

My first thought was what if the police mistook the two vigilante boys for the murderer?

Edited April 28, 2007 by Jeebus