World's Reaction: Sympathy and gun control.

This story broke in the AP just a little under the 24 hour mark. The world leaders reacting to the shooting.

Most expressed shock at the shooting but few said they were surprised - criticizing the availability of guns in the U.S., lax gun controls and the number of Americans who cling to the constitutional right that allows them to bear arms.

"The Queen was shocked and saddened to hear of the news of the shooting in Virginia," Buckingham Palace said. Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, are scheduled to visit Virginia May 3-4.

British Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, earned a masters degree in political science at Virginia Tech in 1982.

"I think if this does prompt a serious and reflective debate on gun issues and gun law in the states then some good may come from this woeful tragedy," McNulty said.

Oddly enough the least political article comes from Tehran, Iran. The statement was made this morning, circulated by Iran's foreign ministry spokesman. Or maybe it's slanted in that they're trying to win back some favor after the big sailor fiasco and other such nonsense.

"Attacking innocent people, irrespective of their race and nationality, is contrary to divine and human values no matter which group or person carries out such an act under any name," the Iranian statement said.

Local Police "We Have A Plan."

While VT administrators are already coming under fire for what appears to be a plodding response to an out-and-out massacre. Local newspapers are picking up on the question of "us too?" Breathe easy because police have a plan!

"Local Agencies Prepared to Handle Violence"

This article deals with how local law enforcement and emergency workers in Trumbull County, Ohio could respond to a seemingly-random and senseless situation in which someone snaps and decides to gun down a lot of people. Local law enforcement has "a plan" which includes:

• A violent crimes task force
• hostage negotiators
• a quickly-mobilized emergency medical worker response plan
• tips
  

But the Youngstown State University (enrollment of about 13,000) police chief was frank with the reporter. He was graceful in not yielding to either the "it can't happen here! we have a plan!" side or the "we need stricter security standards!" side.

John J. Gocala, chief of the Youngstown State University Police Department, said that although it’s difficult to predict and prevent similar tragic situations from occurring because of the open atmosphere on most college campuses, his and other law enforcement agencies are doing their best to do just that.

Other law officers said they were ready to swoop in at a moment's notice.

Warren Police Chief John Mandopoulos said there are cameras placed inside city schools that can be accessed from the outside by police. He said Warren police would react rapidly in case of a crisis situation, getting police officers into the building within 15 minutes.

‘‘We have had this plan in place since Columbine happened in 1999,’’ the chief said. ‘‘These things are always in the back of my mind.’’

By the way, how are officers in your hometown preparing for something like this? Would you mind e-mailing me ( billiamforty@hotmail.com ) similar articles like the one I just posted? I'm interested in hearing what people are claiming or calling for. I know people are writing about it.

Vtech Dies. Too Soon?

While every talking head is assuring everyone reading the news that they feel sorry and will be praying for the families of the victims, we can count on the Internet to give us stuff like this Web site.

I already pointed it out, but I didn't want it to get glossed over. I don't browse /b/ or anything, but from the comments on the parody site, it's obvious that this came from 4chan. I don't have a link to the exact picture, but within hours of the 9-11 attacks, some SomethingAwful forum members had gag photoshop pictures of the attack, showing the explosions with the Counter Strike catchphrase "Terrorists Win."

Certain to cause some guilty laughs and even more certain to show up on a news broadcast sometime down the road. Keep an eye out for another ashen-faced talking head telling people that this isn't funny.

The Internet is Black Humor's big break.

Fox Experts: This can't be prevented

Here's Fox News with a piece about campus security.

The unprecedented school massacre at Virginia Tech has underscored one terrifying fact: Such attacks can never be completely prevented, and college campuses are especially vulnerable.

The experts argue that while campus security isn't entirely achievable (I agree in that there's nothing stopping a person who's genuinely bonkers) it's still possible for campuses to take stricter preventative measures such as:

• Marksmanship training of campus police officers
• bagchecks at campus events
• more campus police officers
• ID scanners in classrooms and dorms
• metal detectors in classrooms and dorms
• security cameras

Could this be the first call for what results in you having to empty your pockets before going to a school football game? Well, anyone who would take the Fox Experts argument has a little more ammo because of the woeful campus response to the shootings.

McCain: 33 Deaths and I won't take your guns!

This AP News article I just read has all of the 2008 presidential hopefuls weighing in on the shootings, with McCain casually pointing out that he's behind the Second Amendment. Not even 24 hours out and we're already beefing up our defenses along party lines.

"We have to look at what happened here, but it doesn't change my views on the Second Amendment, except to make sure that these kinds of weapons don't fall into the hands of bad people," McCain said Monday in response to a question.

This is as sincere as you can hope to get. Maybe we can hold some cheap political point drinking game as this school shooting is clearly going to be a doozy.

President Bush invokes shooting, right to bear arms.

From the Associated Press linked here. This story was reported at 1:14 p.m., almost exactly six hours after the first shots were fired. Six hours later, Bush wants to reaffirm his position on the right to bear arms. As one commenter pointed out, the bodies aren't even cold yet.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," Perino said, noting that Bush and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings held a conference on school gun violence last October. "Certainly, bringing a gun into a school domitory and shooting ... is against the law and something someone should be held accountable for," Perino [the deputy press secretary] said."

MSNBC Speculates on Killer's motive and Pat Robertson may be the real deal!

MSNBC speculates on a motive for the killer with a professor of criminology. It seems the news has gotten so used to these shootings that they're already asking if the shooter was an aloof loner. In this article we have a reference to a violent movie and a disaffected youth scare.

Like in “Falling Down,” the Michael Douglas movie?
A really good example, actually. But what I think now is that you can be 16 or 21 and have suffered for a long period of time--for most of your life. We’re talking about young people who have endured a whole set of frustrating circumstances. They may have been bullied in high school, shy kids suffering from physical defects or mental handicaps. The point is you can still be young and profoundly frustrated. So frustrated that you don’t want to go on living and you want to get even.

I would imagine many younger people don’t also quite have the same sense of the value of life either.
There are teenagers I would call “temporary sociopaths.” They’ll commit a hideous act, such as the taking of human life with impunity, when they’re 16 or 19. They wouldn’t dream of doing the same thing when they’re 30. There’s a lot of evidence that this is, in part, a developmental issue. The brain of an adolescent is quite different from the brain of an adult. Many young people don’t think about consequences--whether it’s spending 30 years behind bars or getting lung cancer 30 years from now. So it’s hard to deal with and discourage violent behavior on the part of those few teenagers so frustrated with life that that they want desperately to get sweet revenge.

MSNBC also is reporting that this might be a terrorist attack.

And I guess Pat Robertson warned about some mass tragedy not four months ago. Could this resurface in some way?

Not 12 hours later...

If I had a huge, annoying ego, I would have posted "I guessed it!" But I think you'd have to be brutally retarded to not know something like this was bound to happen.

Maybe some of you are familiar with the Brady Campaign. They're a gun law reform group that has a hand in The Million Mom March.


Well it's about 6:15 as I write this and the shooting isn't even 12 hours behind us. At some point in that time period, a PR rep had to research, gather quotes, write, and publish this press release on the Brady Campaign's web site.

Here's a statement by Paul Helmke, the group's president.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the Virginia Tech University community, and to the families of the victims of what appears to be one of the worst mass shootings in American history.

"Details are still forthcoming about what motivated the shooter in this case to act, and how he was able to arm himself. It is well known, however, how easy it is for an individual to get powerful weapons in our country.

"Eight years ago this week, the young people in Littleton, Colorado suffered a horrible attack at Columbine High School, and almost exactly six months ago, five young people were killed at an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. Since these killings, we've done nothing as a country to end gun violence in our schools and communities. If anything, we've made it easier to access powerful weapons.

"We have now seen another horrible tragedy that will never be forgotten. It is long overdue for us to take some common-sense actions to prevent tragedies like this from continuing to occur."

After invoking not only V-tech and Columbine, but also the Amish school shooting, the press release ends with links to the following Web site.

I promise that I will stop prefacing my points with disclaimers, but I probably should just once more for good measure.

I'm not saying whether or not I feel the Brady Campaign is worthwhile, but I want everyone to know that this shooting is already being invoked along with a political cause!

Transcript of Interview with Survivor

This is the transcript of this video:
Video of Trey Perkins, brother of SomethingAwful.com forum member.

Trey Perkins: I was in my German class this morning. I remember looking at my phone; it was about 9:40, and we started to hear some wild pops, but none of us really thought that it could have been gunshots because it wasn't really loud like that, and then a guy comes into the room. He shot our teacher and then we all got on the ground real quick and then he started just shooting around at different people. I'm not sure how long it lasted; it felt like a really long time but it was probably only about a minute or so, and then he finally left the room. And myself and two other students, one of whom is Derek O'Dell who had called in earlier...and we went up to the door and put our feet against it to hold it shut in case he started to come back again...and he started to try to open the door again and started to shoot through the door, probably 4, 5, 6 shots. Fortunately, none of those shots hit anyone and he finally stopped trying to get in the room and, I guess, continued on to other rooms because we kept hearing shots. After that I just went around and tried to help people that were shot just with, like, taking off my sweatshirt and trying to stop any bleeding that I could and just doing anything I could to help people.

MSNBC: what was the scene like in your room after he was gone?

Trey: It was...so hard to describe. People shot, blood pretty much everywhere, just completely unreal, it's so hard to describe.

MSNBC: Trey, Did he say anything throughout this time?

Trey: Not a word. He didn't say a single word the whole time.

MSNBC: So there was never any indication of why he was doing this?

Trey: Not at all. He didn't say get down, he didn't say anything, he just came in and started shooting.

MSNBC: Did you get a good look at his face? Can you at least describe how he looked? Was he calm? What did he look like?

Trey: I guess you could say serious. He didn't look frightened at all, he didn't look angry. He just looked...just like a straight face.

MSNBC: When this all started, Trey, what went through your mind? what did you try to do?

Trey: I got on the ground, and I was just thinking "there's no way I can survive this." All I could really think about was my mom, and just what she would go through if something were to happen to me. And then I eventually started thinking "is there anything I can do?" But the angle he was at, there was no way I could get up and try to do anything, because I was blocked in by desks that were overturned.

MSNBC: So people were throwing desks over and just trying to protect themselves?

Trey: Yeah, just trying to get as much in-between themselves and the shooter as they could.

MSNBC: Trey, Have you had a chance to talk to your parents since then?

Trey: Yes I have contacted them, and they are on their way here to come see me.

And within hours money starts changing hands

Now, I want to keep some semblance of impartiality to the blog. Before much longer, we'll hear as many opinions on this tragedy as we can handle. I don't think that's what I'm trying to do here. I'd like this to be as detatched as possible. While this is certainly horrible, I do want to observe people's reactions through this blog.

For example, isn't it odd that money starts changing hands just hours after these people were murdered out of the blue? These can be commercials on cable TV news networks or a simple Web search. How long before the advertisements show up in any search for Virginia Tech? Anyone want to take some bets?