At least 20 people are killed and more injured after a gunman goes on the rampage at Virginia Tech.

Source: BBC
UK Live Coverage

This must be the third time a shooting occures inside a University.

There's been many more than 3

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

Virginia Tech is roughly 1-2 hours from our offices.

What a tragedy.

Thankfully the people I know at Virginia Tech are okay...

Still scary. My fiancé knows a few people -- she is waiting to hear back from them.

Horrible, horrible tragedy

Number of fatalities is now 29 according to ABC

Fed sources are saying 32, horrible it keeps climbing.

This is terrible, I can't see why people want to harm others

This is horrible news! Pray for the families and friends of these students.

I know a lot of people from my old neighborhood went their, since I moved I don't know if they are all ok, but at least 15-25 people that are college students went their.

Scary... and sad. Damn crazy people just going around and shooting people, messed up. And plus they should have better security. Just plain fuc*ed up... you don't shoot other people just to shoot people.

I know a few people there myself. I hope this number doesn't keep rising.

Rest in peace all those who were killed. Including the gunman. Surely something set him off. It's just not like people to shoot without reason, is there?

So far, it seems that not one major news source can get a straight number on dead and injured. CNN has 21, Fox News has 32, BBC has 22, and ABC News has 29. So, I guess we have to wait. Maybe it'll turn out lower?

My fiance emailed this story to me moments ago. Very sad indeed.

Leave it to the media to try to squeeze ratings out of this. I'm sure Fox inflated the casualties in the hope that they will get more viewers.

Why did they shoot the gun?

No one really knows, but Fox News is reporting that the guy was looking for his girlfriend.

Thats true my dads watching it all of the networks are competing with the numbers, and all of them bought that Indian dudes cell phone video and CNN had a convo with him, he must have paid his tuition for the next couple of years.

My friend called and said he thinks my old neighbor was in one of the engineering classrooms anyways he's ok. Their campus security sucks if the guy killed people and then two hours later killed more people. Campus Security need handguns or stun guns, or even the pepper ball guns just to injure people like this. Bomb threats and now a second shooting since the opening... one college I will not apply too.



Oh great excuse to go out and shoot people... what a mess. TurXaliM wants IPD... I guess he should go out and hack forums until he gets it.

Are you allowed to do that if you are looking for your girlfriend?

Absolutely tragic.

It just isn't clever in the slightest to make getting guns so easy.

Yeah it's within your human rights...


Anyway not good

A very dark day for all of us, and especially for those connected to the victims. To those who perished, RIP.

I hate to say it, but seems Fox News was closer to the mark. They're all on 31 now, except for FN, which is still 32.

That's just anal. The point is that this is a huge tragedy, whatever the exact body count.

I agree. These tragic incidents are occurring far too often and are inexcusable. Nobody needs a gun bad enough to justify the risks associated with it ending up in the wrong hands as they so often do. I believe that not only should the shooter in such cases be jailed for life (at a minimum) but the owner of the gun used should face the same penalty.

I don't wish to turn this into a gun debate though. Suffice to say, this is a saddening and tragic day for all.

I'm not rooting for anyone to win on a count. I hardly wanted it to rise, and in fact in my last post, said I wanted it to go down. I know it's a tragedy.

Apparently, there were two separate, unrelated shootings within 3 hours of each other today, according to the FBI...doesn't mean they weren't related, but apparently there were two. They were on opposite sides of the campus.

I will never understand this kind of behavior..

That's America for you.

This really does look awful. The BBC is reporting it as the worst campus shooting in US history.

Why does everything always devolve to a "That's America for you" comment? $Intelligence--; for you.

Yeah, no kidding. School shootings can, and have, happened in any country.

Not only that, but they DO happen all the time if not in worse fashion, or some other manner! Just because we are in the lime light and Pakistan isn't, we are the worse? BS.

(p.s. pakistan is an example country that came to mind....not meant for any valid historical reference)

Well we dont see any school shooting, but trust me we have those kind of stuff enough here.

i've a friend who is doing her phd at VT faculty of engineering... funny how these things seem to mean less unless you can make a personal connection... hopefully she is ok!

Just heard about it. Horrendous and very tragic news. All those poor victims and families. I really feel for them. Life will never be the same for all involved.

Joy, Jack Thompson has now decided to use this horrible tragedy to try to push his anti-gaming agenda on everyone. It sickens me that he is willing to go as far as to blame something like this on video games, instead of doing the right thing. No one has even released the shooters' name, let alone a motive, and already he is screaming "VIDEO GAMES." We don't even know if the shooter was a gamer. Instead of focusing on that, he should be focusing on what he can do to help the situation.

It is disgusting how he uses tragedies like these for his own personal gain.

Because in the UK it's much less likely to happen because of our much stricter gun controls.



Yup, it happened in Dunblame in the early 1990s. After that we made gun control much stricter and the penalties for carrying a gun much stronger, it hasn't happened since.



I'm pretty sure James didn't mean Americans = dumb. I think he meant America = poor gun control laws = greater chance of this happening.

I really don't think this incident has anything to do with the gun control (or lack thereof) in the US.

If someone wants to shoot people, they will find a way.

Yes - but, here, in the U.K guns aren't so freely available. But there is a developing problem in the U.K with guns - it seems black communities in city areas can so easy get them. It is a very tragic event though, early reports only suggested 1 death.

Found an article about it. What an opportunist, trying to push his agenda on the heels of something he knows nothing about.

Sorry, I shouldn't sterotype. The media are good at influencing me too quickly.

There are 33 confirmed deaths Press conference now

I am not really sure video games are to blame but I do think there is a real problem when in the US and in the US you see music videos all the time glorifying gun culture and gangs. In the UK, particularly in London you have all these pretentious people in nightclubs trying to imitate the gang rap stars you have in those music videos. They like to wear dress like them; wear the "bling"; talk like them using the same words because they are deemed cool; and even carry guns and think they are tough. I have a real problem with that, especially when our youth try to imitate them as well because of all the music videos they love.

I don't know whether it is connected to this case but it's certainly becoming a problem.

Like Keith said, if somebody wants a gun they'll get a gun. Somebody who plans on going on a rampage like this probably isn't going to respect any set gun laws.

I believe that parents need to spend more time being parents. If parents took the time to help educate their kids and make sure their kids understood that some objectional things that they may see on television or objectional actions they may perform in a video game are not appropriate to imitate, things would be at least a little better.




Absolutely, what maniac is going to give a damn about some gun law? They will probably think the law is stupid or something...

True but it's not always that simple. What do you do about a single parent family when the parent is out working in the evening or all day? I personally think the break down of the traditional family has a lot to do with many of our sociological problems today. Having read a lot into the research of people who have a troublesome youth, much of them come from a broken family. What can do you when the dad or mother bails out and leaves the family? I have no doubt there are single parents who can raise good responsible children from a young age but they tend to be in the minority according to reports I have read over the years. Children almost always feel a great deal of unhappiness, and often anger, when they have to make do without a mother or father.

I agree that a parent can only do what they can do - I am talking about the parents who don't do anything. The ones that let their kids play games all day long completely unattended. The ones who don't make their kids go outside and play and get some fresh air.

Another factor is that in the 50's, one parent could work full-time and make enough to support the whole family, plus save a nice amount of money. They could buy a new car every 3-5 years without going into any debt. Now, even two people working one full-time job and a part-time job EACH barely make enough money to pay all the necessary bills, let alone save any money.

The majority of US music videos are nothing like this... what you're saying is borderline stereotype.

Right....cause smuggling is effected by gun laws too. Gun laws only affect the lawful, those with no regard to the law will find a way regardless. It may "slow" the possession in some areas, but is nothing more than a band-aid to the underlying cause.

Never said he said American's were dumb, however this "excuse" is used all too often by folks on this forum from Britain. Maybe I should start finding many opportunities to say "Only in Britain (UK) ". I'm sure that would go over well. If he meant that, he should have said that. I'd still disagree with your assessment of his response though. My point however is that comments like "only in America" when 95% of the world is worse of than us is a ridiculous statement to be made by anyone.

You honestly aren't trying to say the UK's gun problem is proportional to the American problem? We have a knife problem over here, for sure. Getting a gun on the other hand, well I can only assume it's a difficult process when done by abiding by the law. For one thing we don't feel the need to sell them alongside the frozen food aisle. And the majority of our citizens don't feel the need to own one. When we want to overthrow the government we usually do it by that democratic process called "fair elections".

Death toll seems to have stopped at 31. What a waste of young, potential life.

Sorry, I should rephrase - I meant the rap music videos and some of the hip-hop ones. For example, why was it so important for OutKast to have one of their singers brandish a gun on the album cover? I say this as a big OutKast fan. I don't get the obsession many artists have with trying to look "tough" and glorifying weapons.