What would stop Al Qaeda from having 100 suicidal killers do what this guy did in different cities across the United States? If each took out 20 people, that would be 2,000 deaths.

"Al Qaeda" is a neocon myth.

Isn't it Al-Qaida? But I think 1:14's basic point is that any group with hatred for the U.S. could stage coordinated attacks like this, as long as they have people willing to die for the cause.

Anyone could 1:28. What is your point?

Why was the number of dead so high, especially when it's on a college campus where there is (supposedly) plenty of security? Even the really bad shootings usually just leave a few people dead. 20+ dead, with about the same number of wounded--that just boggles the mind. I think America should say goodbye to the "don't be a hero" crap you hear all the time. Whether it's a plane or a classroom, if some a**hole comes in and starts taking hostages or shooting, do whatever you can to stop him.

He had two 9 mm pistols and managed kill those students before shooting himself. He killed one student in a dorm around 7 am, then two hours later, opened fire in a hall and killed the others. I think they were at 28 injured. MSNBC has the most updated coverage of the story. So sad.

VT is my alma mater. If a gunman hit one of the big classrooms, it, unfortunately, would be able to take out that many people.

Blacksburg is a sleepy little place where stuff like this normally does not happen. It's still the kind of place where people regularly leave their doors unlocked. It's just a little college town with a big university. There aren't armed guards roaming every building and street.

It just more proof that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and bad shit can happen anywhere.

This would never have happened if only there weren't so many violent video games and R rated movies.

1:42: Thanks, Hillary...

1:45: Tell me about it.

First, where the hell were the police in the three hours between when the first person was shot and the next 40.

Secondly, he did all this with 2 9mm handguns? Good to know he was stopping to reload as no one was doing a damn thing.

Finally. Dear gun lobby, yes, i honestly believe that a person's right to live is worth more than you're right to sell a gun to someone who could deprive them of that right. And president Bush, your statement was appalling. "I'm sorry for these kids, but not all gun users are bad, this isn't a gun control problem." Kiss my ass. Yes, he was crazy, but he wouldn't have done so much damage throwing rocks ...

Did Lat intentionally put this news piece right above the heading ".... Dodges a Bullet?"

A friend who works with a Virginia law firm, emails that Va. Tech is a "gun-free zone." Well, for those who follow the law. There was an effort to change that but it failed: "A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly."

That's unfortunate.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

1:51: I beg you, don't bait the idiotic Second Amendment trolls!

actually, Idiot Politician, you have a point.

our government kills more innocents in Iraq every few days, so this shit is not surprising--we live in a martial culture

we'd better bomb Blacksburg to make sure "they" can't hurt us again

Today a wack job shoots up a VA campus and kills at least 21. Look what the Roanoke Times has on it's web page today.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

Gun bill gets shot down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
By Greg Esposito
381-1675

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn't get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill's defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."

Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg, would not comment Monday because he was not part of the subcommittee that discussed the bill.

Most universities in Virginia require students and employees, other than police, to check their guns with police or campus security upon entering campus. The legislation was designed to prohibit public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun."

The legislation allowed for exceptions for participants in athletic events, storage of guns in residence halls and military training programs.

Last spring a Virginia Tech student was disciplined for bringing a handgun to class, despite having a concealed handgun permit. Some gun owners questioned the university's authority, while the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police came out against the presence of guns on campus.

In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.

Al-Qaida is a neocon myth . . .like gravity and the moon landing. I'm hovering above my chait as I write this.

What does this have to do with the law? If it had been at UVA law school, then I'd understand.

Also, NYT: What the hell is "Virginian Tech"?

the neocon myth is that Al Qaeda had any connection to Iraq before we went in.

What does this have to do with the war in Iraq? If it had been at Fallujah, then I'd understand.

1:51 - at the risk of sounding like a troll, I agree with you in principle, but disagree in reality.

Assuming a total gun ban was passed; in a country where illegal narcotics (e.g. marijuana, meth, cocaine) are available in every US city, how are you going to keep criminals from getting guns?

I will defend, in theory...

Clearly, i don't think anyone believes (and hopefully that includes 1:51) that you can actually get every gun off the street ... just like you can't get every drug, every bomb, every anything. However, does that mean that we should keep making more? I mean, the problem either gets worse, or it gets better, and just because we can't make it totally go away, doesn't mean that we shouldn't lower the supply.

Do you think that the world would be better if everyone had a nuclear bomb, or if no one did? If no one has one, you don't have to worry about the crazy people, but if everyone has one, some are guaranteed to be in the wrong hands ... you keep enough to keep people honest (law enforcement) while you cut of the supply and reduce the amount of them in the hands of others.

2:30: Sorry that Lat had to bother you with this "irrelevant" posting. This is only the deadliest mass shooting in US history. I guess he should have just done another thread on salaries, rather than waste your time with this post. Or, he should have only mentioned it if it happened at a lawuit. You f***ing idiot.

lawuit=lawschool

Disarming lawful citizens only empowers criminals.

Congratulations to the gun grabbers, 32+ deaths are on your heads today.

3:14 - Yeah, if only there wasn't any gun control, then this guy would have only shot 10 people.

Nevermind the fact that the shooter was allowed to lawfully arm himself to the teeth before he walked on campus.

I'm with 2:51. Lat, any word on clerkship bonuses?

College populations feature a high percentage of students suffering from some form of mental illness (bipolarism, shizophrenia, depression, etc.) and a high levels of stress (esp. compared to the mechanisms of coping with such stress - such as failed relationships, exams, parental pressures, substance abuse, peer pressure, etc.).

Accordingly, is it SAFER to allow guns generally on campus and in classrooms, and risk having more students experiencing psychological or emotional problems have access to weapons or is it SAFER to prohibit guns on campus, and run the risk that a few students will violate the rule, but be able to wreak havoc without anyone being able to stop them? If the argument is that criminals will always find a way to get a gun, I would argue that while many criminals will find a way to get a gun no matter whether they are allowed to possess them, I have to think that less emotionally and psychologically challenged students would have guns IF they were prohibited. This rampage has to be the work of someone with emotional or psychological problems.

I honestly don't know the answer. This is so horribly sad.

6:07 - I am glad you weighed in, as you have made the best point regarding gun control to date.

A point that sadly, those of the 'if everyone was armed, this would never have happened', and the 'outlaw all guns' camps choose to ignore...

What the fuck is going on down there? This is the second shooting in 18 months at VT's campus. Then there was the shooting at Appalachian Law School in 2002, just down the road from VT. At least the shooters in the two earlier incidents were caught.

This country is going fucking nuts.

6:07, we need guns to protect us from the psychos you described. your argument is convoluted and flies in the face of reality.

The "if everyone was armed we'd never have another mass shooting" is complete and utter foolishness.

I bet you the gunner is from Virginia law school

Yeah, you're right 9:40. I mean, look at Japan -- they're killing each other right and left since they don't have guns to protect themselves. What a cruel government that deprives the people of their Rambo gun-slinging fantasies.

The shooting at Appalachian law school was stopped by A STUDENT WHO HAD A LAWFULLY POSSESSED GUN and used it to apprehend the shooter. But for that more would have certainly been killed.

9:40 - I really didn't have an argument. I made statements on both sides of the issue, because I honestly don't know the answer. I grew up in a home with guns. I respected them and knew how to use them. I know that the vast majority of gun owners use them properly and safely. However, it is precisely incidents like these (and incidents where a child finds the family gun and tragedy ensues) that make me, and many others, wonder at what price freedom of gun ownership comes.

My point is that, yes, some other armed student might have been able to stop this before 32 innocents were dead. But that would depend on students or professors actually carrying guns to class and being accessible to the crime scene. I think it might be too convenient to say that more armed people would prevent this tragedy. In connection with this argument in past years, people have argued that criminals will be less likely to act when they're afraid that the other guy is also carrying a gun. I don't think that logic works in a situation like this or Columbine, or the many others, where the shooters enter the situation knowing they'll be killing themselves. Fear of someone else with a gun probably is no deterrent to that behavior - it likely stems from a sense of hopelessness and desperation and nothing left to lose. (It's the same reason it's kind of hard to deter a suicide bomber - they're generally willing to lose more than you are.)

So, then you'd have to look at whether allowing everyone to have access to guns in classrooms (or anywhere else for matter, but for present purposes, classrooms) would, in the aggregate, have the effect of reducing gun violence or increasing gun violence. And because of the high levels of emotional and psychological instabilities in college-aged people and the stresses that college life entails, my honest guess is that the number of incidents of single murders or murder-suicides would increase if college students were allowed to have guns on campus. True, a mass shooting might be prevented, but in the aggregate, my suspicion is that the discrete incidences of violence would end up taking more lives than the larger events. I concede that the truly disturbed may find a way to get a gun whether or not they're readily available - but I'm not sure that easy access for everyone is that best way to mitigate that risk.

I knew too many kids in college who were either bad drunks, bipolar, stress cases, or depressives to think that they should have been given the opportunity to have a gun on campus.

6:07,
Great comment.

6:07, your points are taken but I have one more to add.

I can't tell you if lives would have been saved if Virgina Tech allowed the carry of concealed firearms. What I can say with certainty is that had I been at Virginia Tech as the rampage unfolded and been carrying a gun, I would have had a better fighting chance of getting myself out alive then others who could only cower in fear as the gunman stalked and killed them. "Duck and cover" doesn't work against bullets.