[Sarafan]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/virginia-tech/breaking-idiot-blames-va-shooting-on-games-252702.php
****ing surprise surprise..
That guy is disgusting -_-

No... but I'm betting he broke quite a few laws procuring / using those guns...

This is sad.  Wonder why he did it. 

Procuring? No. No laws against owning a handgun(or more) if you're 21 in most states, including Virginia.

Using? Well...yeah. Murder is against the law.

As for why? Someone like that is a sociopath, and they're honest to god not mentally healthy. Something may have set them off, but that's the base cause, and other than killing him at the start, there's no way to prevent something like that from happening.

As for why? GTA probably made him do it.

This is truly disguting, I'm really sorry for the families.

edit: posted way wrong.

[Grey Wolf]

Instead of deleting and reposting, you could just edit in the future.

[Ghost]

There's no law against owning a handgun if you're of age. That is something I would like to be made clear.

What you're most likely thinking of is the legality of carrying a concealed weapon. That you do need a permit for, and if he was hiding it on his person then he did commit another felony, but for someone like that it's not like it matters. Laws are for the law-abiding and sane.

[Mars]

Educational facilities in general have horrible security that makes it harder for people to survive... when my school goes into lock down the administration gathers everyone in an off period into the cafeteria... which is covered in windows... with one pepper-spray equipped 110 lb security guard.

well i could have been worse.  He could have been a better shot.

On the flip side they could have ended it quicker, i saw some of those cops on tv, my grampa can run faster. 

100lbs of body armor tends to hamper.

[Sarafan]

Instead of deleting and reposting, you could just edit in the future.

I tried that, didnt work so that's way I removed and posted again.

[jr2]

There's no law against owning a handgun if you're of age. That is something I would like to be made clear.

What you're most likely thinking of is the legality of carrying a concealed weapon. That you do need a permit for, and if he was hiding it on his person then he did commit another felony, but for someone like that it's not like it matters. Laws are for the law-abiding and sane.

Agreed.  I was just trying to make sure no one started saying we should band handguns or anything; this fella prolly already broke quite a few laws (not to mention murder).

Anyways, I can't imagine what it must have been like there.  yikes.

[Prophet]

Oh well just look at this. Once again the basic response to crazy people shooting incident. Blame everything else but the crazy guy.

If them mother****ing americans go blaming computergames and I'll swear I'll join the holy war.
Though the media blackout leads me to believe someone is trying to figure out how to blame allah about this.

"People are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling"
Free shot between the eyes for the one who knows who I quoted...

[Sarafan]

"People are bastard coated bastards with bastard filling"
Free shot between the eyes for the one who knows who I quoted...

Scrubs?

*shoot between the eyes*

[Prophet]

Ya...

[Sandwich]

He could have killed more people with a combination of common household items and chemicals. But seriously, saying guns kill people is like saying cars kill people, not reckless driving.

Uhm, no, not really. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to kill over 15-20 people with an explosion from one source? Just ask the Palestinians (not trying to get political, let's keep this about VT, but this is just the example I am familiar with). Pack a 20kg bomb with metal shrapnel all around and blow it up on a crowded bus, and you might manage to kill 20 people. For this guy to have taken out 32 other people, one bullet at a time, is just a sign that nobody knew what to do (Flght 93-style), and were just cowered in a corner somewhere.

Not to demean them or anything - it's gotta take balls to go up against a crazy man with a gun - but when there's nobody else around who can take the threat out from a distance, and no immediate escape, charging en masse is the only logical thing to do.

Granted, I come from a society where people actually do think about what their response will be when faced with such a situation, so it doesn't surprise me that your run-of-the-mill American college students didn't do that. I'm just saying is all.

[Goober5000]

That's a good point.  The whole episode has a serious flavor.  It sounds like he didn't have any assault weapons; he had a pair of 9mm handguns, which aren't that big and which generally don't kill unless aimed at a critical part of the body.  Apparently he lined them up against the wall and shot them execution-style.  He's only one guy... surely some of the people "waiting their turn" could have tried turning around and doing something?

I'm guessing we don't have the whole picture yet, and we'll have to wait for more reports to come in.  I would hope that Americans aren't actually that sheep-like.

[Mathwiz6]

Judging by the story I just read, he had 2 weapons, (I guess semi automatic) with 22 bullets apiece.

He walked into the classroom, shot the teacher, repeatedly fired at students, eventually left. Then, he came back in and started shooting again. Rinse and repeat. Eventually, the one classroom with the student's testimony this was from blocked the door. Bodily. And he started shooting through the door. In the end, that class lost 21 students or so out of 25.

Really, even if not fatal, repeatedly shooting people does tend to kill them. However, judging by another set of numbers, on average, fired one bullet every 3 seconds...

Apparently most students played dead.

[Mefustae]

I'm guessing we don't have the whole picture yet, and we'll have to wait for more reports to come in.  I would hope that Americans aren't actually that sheep-like.

Are you saying that you would have lead a valiant uprising against the gunman? Rallying your fellow students to bring him down?

**** that, you'd be against the wall with everyone else praying his clip runs dry before he gets to you.

[NGTM-1R]

For this guy to have taken out 32 other people, one bullet at a time, is just a sign that nobody knew what to do (Flght 93-style), and were just cowered in a corner somewhere.

Try that two or three bullets at a time. He followed up.

I normally manage to find fault with these people in planning and execution. Of course, they are also normally much younger than this as well. Either he could think on his feet well or he put some thought into this. Similarly I normally manage to fault their accuracy, but he placed most of his rounds on target. He displayed an unusual desire to insure that anyone he hit did not just go down but stayed that way permanently. Most of the time fatalities in the sort of thing are incidiental, the result of someone getting unlucky more than anything else. This guy had good shot placement and a willingness to go back and do it right.

And hey, Sandwhich, check class sizes before you throw that kind of stuff. The one I found figures for was 15 students. Add a teacher for 16. With two handguns he would have had enough ammunition ready to use to drop most or all of the class. There were three people unhurt after he left the room. That fits pretty well with a pair of your average 9mm's magazines and most people getting shot more than once.

[Unknown Target]

Yea, I have to say, one of the things that I always find about school shootings is that the gunman just goes in and sprays as many bullets as he can, and if someone happens to get hit critically, they go down.

This guy, on the other hand, was stone cold - he judged his shots and actually aimed to deliberately kill. If you read the story, he walked into the room and shot the teacher in the head with his first shot - obviously he didn't go running in and shooting wildly - he knew what he was doing.

Now, granted, if I was lined up against the wall I'd rather charge him and get shot doing that, then waiting for him to walk over and pop me in the head - but I know that as soon as I broke from the ranks I'd be shot down instantly. Sandwich, a quick image search of "Virginia tech classrooms" reveals:



and



An environment like that is basically a shooting gallery. Either you go down and hide under the desks and pray that this guy thinks you're already dead, or you stand up and try to charge him. If you do the latter, you're now the biggest target in the room, and get priority over everyone else - because he knows if you're standing up you're probably planning to attack him.

While I would have charged and gone down while doing that (at least, that's what I think I'd do), it's very logical to be "sheep-like" as you so put it, and stay down and hide under the bodies. Even then you wouldn't stand much of a chance, because as we can see, this gunman was determined to take out everyone in the room, even if he had to come back multiple times to do it. It's like he studied other shootings and found out what they did wrong, and improve on it.

[MP-Ryan]

As for why? Someone like that is a sociopath, and they're honest to god not mentally healthy. Something may have set them off, but that's the base cause, and other than killing him at the start, there's no way to prevent something like that from happening.

I can tell you 100% that this guy wasn't a sociopath - or antisocial personality disorder.That is a highly abused term.    Narcisisstic, borderline, or dependent PD is an extreme maybe.    Mentally healthy - well, chances are he was having problems.  Stress and anxiety have nasty psychologicaly effects.  Couple that with cultural variables such as distance from support networks (apparently he was a Korea with permanent resident status) and you may just have yourself a recipe for disaster.

As to prevention - well, there are ways to prevent things like this from happening.  Coping skills and interpersonal counselling are big ones.  But those require early intervention.

EDIT:  I'm not excusing his behaviour, merely pointing out that armchair diagnoses lead to more confusion than is necessary.

[fsi.scsi]

I knew Dr. Loganathan (engineering prof @ Vtech).  His family back home must feel terrible.
Ouch.

[Charismatic]

I wouldent have jumped out a window, i would have ambushed him at the door.

And this is a sad day. I have friends who have friends that go there.

[Jeryko]

One of the docs they interviewed said most of thw wounded/dead had 2-3 bullet wounds.  Brutally delibrate.

[KappaWing]

Now I expect a big squabble among democrats for gun control, and they will get it passed from pure sensationalist reaction. The next school shooting will be with a crossbow.