There are at least 29 dead at Virginia Tech after a lone gunman opened fire this morning. The shooter has committed suicide is now dead. It is unclear whether he committed suicide or was shot himself. It is the deadliest school shooting in US history. Our thoughts go out to the friends and family of the victims. This is such shocking and tragic news.
Some stories are reporting 22 have been killed, whie ABC has the number of dead confirmed at 29.
Update: Yahoo! News is reporting that 30 were killed along with the gunman, bringing the total to 31. It is the “deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.”
Here are sources of breaking news:
CNN
ABC
MSNBC
Google News: Aggregate Stories
Header image from The NY Times.
WHAT? This is news to me and I live near Virginia Tech!! WHAT THE HELL?!?!
Wow. That’s horrible. According to VT, 22 are dead.
http://www.vt.edu/campus_alert.php
My heart goes out to the families. This is horrible! Just horrible!
This is tragic and terrible. I can’t believe this has happened again.. My thoughts go out to the friends and families, what an amazingly dark, sad day to all of them.. Unbelievable! =(
ABC News is reporting 29 confirmed, I’m sorry to say:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574
You might want to change ‘loan gunman’ to ‘lone gunman’. I was confused for a second there.
This is NOT shocking- what are you talking about? This is NORMAL and REGULAR nowadays. We can all expect this to happen every few months for the rest of time. And probably, it will only increase in frequency and severity, as we’re already startng to see.
This is shocking and I find it offensive that you would respond that way. According to ABC it may be “the biggest mass shooting in modern American history.” How is that not fucking shocking? Yes murder happens, but look at the facts here. 29 people are dead. Are you so immune to the media that you don’t find mass murder shocking? This is not normal or regular or expected and god help us if more than a fraction of the people respond like you.
Saw a newsclip that the gunman was in his 20’s. Wondering if it was a current or ex-student?
OMG!!!The HORROR!!!
Poor families…Poor victims. I don’t have words to express how sad I feel.
Just terrible. Condoleances to the poor families who are living this tragedy.
Listen, I think realistically, I see the world for what it is. I am just reflecting what I see happening. This is not going to stop. I am being honest!
If you want people to lie to you, and tell you the word is going to be cookies and cream from now on, there are plenty of people willing to do you that disservice- but I am not one of them.
And it may be the biggest “public and commonplace” shoot out now, but just wait and see if I didn’t tell you so in a few years.
Exposed to all the atrocities happening all the time- um like maybe the pillaging in Iraq- you learn that shit hits the fan everyday.
Offensive? What is offensive- that I say it like it is, or what it is?
This isn’t really a debate of humanity or media or anything. This is terrible and the folks who live in this area (NoVA) are going to be rocked by this. Instead of the “I told you so” attitude, your first reaction should be one of compassion to the people hurt, and the students and families suffering loss today.
Being desensitized by things like this is, is downright frightening.
I still remember the Polytechnic shooting here at Montreal and we had “only” 15 deaths…
My heart goes to the families of the victims. I can’t honestly imagine their pain right now.
Thank you Celebitchy for posting this here on your blog. It is a sad reminder that, outside of the Hollywood’s “La La Land”, real life exist.
thank you , celebitchy.
I’m up by DC and this is just horrendous. I know a lot of people who have friends or family going to VA Tech. They are worried silly and very concerned. God bless the souls of those that are lost and comfort the healing and grieving. This is just horrible. And yes it IS shocking as well that people are so desensitized to news that they no longer feel compassion. It’s pathetic.
And thank you Celebitchy for covering this story.
I’m sorry but while I’m sad to see it happen again, I’m not shocked or surprised. What do you expect in a country where practically anyone can have access to guns, including semi-automatic weapons? I feel compassion for the families but I bet that most of them won’t even stop to think about it.
It’s hard to get into the celeb gossip stuff today, with this going on. My heart goes out to family and friends of the victims, as well. Very sad… 🙁
That’s just sickening.
This is tragic – too bad the murdered didn’t just turn his gun on himself first.
kailie2 – I own a semi-automatic. It doesn’t make me want to go out and shoot anyone, so blame the killer, not the tool.
Does anyone know anything about the shooter yet – who he/she was or the motive?
Too much freedom for criminals. Nobody needs guns except murderers. That should be banned.
Thank you for putting this post up. I cannot imagine what everyone down there is going through. I have friends and people I went to high school who go there. Luckly everyone is ok. I wish the school had controlled the situation better though…3 hours could have saved 33 lives. Unfortunately this university will be now be forever thought of as the “school shooting” just like columbine.
Gracie.. just out of curiosity, I’m not trying to be sarcastic or anything but I wonder why would anyone want a semi? What purpose does it serve? I would be scared to death to even own a gun or have one near my children.
Glowstar…I live 45 minutes from the VT campus and I love my Hokies. I truly hope that you are wrong, and the school I love is not forever associated with this tragedy. Unfortunately, I think you are probably right.
If the shooter knew who God was, he would not have done this.
This is truly horrifying news. I was watching CNN earlier and there was a student who said the man, who appeared to be a student, came into her classroom and kind of looked around before he started shooting at the students in there, and it was as if he was looking for someone in particular but couldn’t find them so he just shot whoever he could find. She pretended to be dead to save her life. I feel really terrible for the parents of the students who died too. so awful to lose your children like that.
This was a horrific event. The reports are that the first shooting at West AJ dorm was domestic in nature. The officials thought the gunman had left campus. 9000 of the 26000 students live on campus at VT. The total dead stands at 33 and the gunman. Who was an asian man in his early 20s. They have not announced if he was a student, but likely he was. What is awful is that opening day of classes at VT this year were cancelled due to a gunman loose on campus who killed 2. One would have hoped that incident would have set up a security protocol to prevent future situations. This is a horrible malicious act of cowardice by the gunman and it has made all of us sick.
I am a graduate of The University of Virginia and we have extended our hands to the VT community to help in anyway we can. Our hearts and prayers go out to the entire community.
This is terrible, my heart goes out to the victims and
This is terrible, my heart goes out to the victims and the families.
It makes you wonder how the American government can still defend “the right to bear arms”. How many more people have to die before things change?
Gracie – You can blame the killer but without a semi-automatic what exactly could he have done?
This kind of thing just would not happen in the UK. It’s not the people who are different, but the access to firearms.
Jane I totally agree with your last sentence “its not the people who are different, but the access to firearms”. Something needs to be done about this, seriously, how many people have to die???
And Pecarrie – I know what you were trying to say even though you didnt put it very eloquently! I’m sure you are touched by what has happened and are not completely immune to this but you are right in that it happens all too frequently. The Sun newspaper has printed the following timeline of other such incidents:
April 2007: At least 32 people are killed as a gunman goes on the rampage at the campus of Virginia Tech
October 2006: A 32-year-old gunman goes on the rampage at an Amish school in Pennsylvania, shooting dead at least three girls before killing himself
September 2006: A gunman in Colorado shoots and fatally wounds a teenage schoolgirl, and then kills himself
September 2006: Two days later a teenager kills the headteacher of a school in Cazenovia, Wisconsin
November 2005: Student in Tennessee shoots dead an assistant principal and wounds two other administrators
March 2005: Schoolboy in Minnesota kills nine, and then shoots himself
May 2004: Four people are injured in a shooting at a school in Maryland
April 2003: Teenager shoots dead a head-teacher at a Pennsylvania school, and then kills himself
January 2002: A student who had been dismissed from the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, killed the dean, a professor and a student, and wounded three others
March 2001: A pupil kills two students after opening fire at a school in California
February 2000: A classmate shoots dead a six-year-old girl in Michigan
November 1999: A 13-year-old girl is murdered by a classmate in New Mexico, again via a shooting
May 1999: Six are injured by a student in a shoot-out in Georgia
April 1999: Two teenagers shoot dead 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine School in Colorado. An award-winning documentary was later made about the killing
June 1998: Two adults are hurt in shooting by teenage student at high school in Virginia
And these dates are only from 1998 to present day. There were more before 1998. I really hope the American government does something about their gun laws as this problem is way out of control.
My heart goes out to the relatives and friends of the VT victims.
If a person wants a gun, they will get it whether or not they are legal. All taking away the ability to own a gun will do is take away the ability for law abiding citizens to get guns. Criminals know the back channels to get guns a stupid law won’t stop them, because the law doesn’t stop them from other criminal activities either.
That said, I don’t own a gun and nor do I want one. I don’t see the point of owning a hand gun in one’s home because IF it’s stored correctly (locked case, unloaded, ammunition in a separate locked place) it will do absolutely no good in self-defense. And of course, if kids are in the house someone shouldn’t very well leave their loaded handgun in a drawer or closet. And guns have been proven to HURT not HELP homeowners in case of invasion.
Now, we could get into hunting rifles…but that’s another story.
Anyway, a law will not help take guns out of criminals hands. There are too many guns in our country to eradicate them to the point where criminals cannot get their hands on them regardless of law.
Lisa, you are more of the problem than Gracie is. I do not support the right to have semi-automatic weapons, there is no use for them other than killing people. BUT it is YOUR hate that is the problem. Never in a million years would I wish that someone’s children killed them. Or say that people had their deaths coming. If you had the opportunity to speak with the shooter, I suspect his attitudes would have been very similar to your own. At the route of all of this is hate, and you have it in abundance. Shame on you.
Lisa’s comment was inappropriate, insensitive and cruel and was deleted when someone brought it to my attention.
Open discussion is encouraged. Obnoxious comments and commentors that continue berating and badgering others will be deleted and banned.
I have no idea what Lisa said but I still want to know why would ANYONE want to own a semi-automatic weapon? What is the purpose of it? Anyone?
I lived a good part of my life on the darker side of the law and trust me, it is easy as can be to get an illegal gun. Laws will do nothing to stop that. I don’t know what the solution is but it’s not gun control.
I have owned a semi-automatic pistol before, all that means is that it re-cocks itself after you fire it. You can shoot rounds off faster but it’s not like cocking a gun takes very long anyway.
Sure, it’s easy to get an illegal gun so why do anything about gun control? Frankly, I wouldn’t know where to go to buy an illegal gun, most kids probably wouldn’t know either. All I’m saying is this: if someone wants to kill people he’ll find a way to do it, but having a knife instead of a semi would slow him down considerably. Tell me why Europeans don’t have mass killings on this scale in their schools or universities? One reason: it’s harder to get a gun, period. You can find crazies everywhere but in the U.S. they can get a gun while shopping for chips and Pampers. Again, I’m still waiting for an explanation why a civilian would need to keep a semi-automatic in the house.
Its so utterly ignorant of people to say that tightening gun laws wouldnt make a difference!!! Yeah fine there would still be a lot of guns on the streets but it would DEFINITELY make life a lot more difficult for future generations to get their hands on guns and it would also DEFINITELY make life much more difficult for people to get their hands on guns and operate them now. The States should bring in these laws and enforce a mass hand in of household guns and punish those who didnt harshly.
For God’s sake open your eyes America
Sadly, America will never open its eyes. Some are proud of their frontier mentality, with some right-wing commentators even suggesting that it’s all because the students were not armed to “defend themselves”. Others put the blinders on and send their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims’ families, end of story. Here is a good summary of what the rest of the world did and does about gun violence — check out the numbers-46 gun incidents in the entire UK in one year, over 590 in New York alone during the same time period of time.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/616/story/40473.html
Great article Kailie. Let’s hope that this latest shooting and the loss of so many innocent lives will prompt Bush and his fogies into action.
Anyone who thinks gun control would have anything to do with the ease of obtaining a handgun is DEFINITELY completely ignorant of how American criminals operate.
Americans have the right to bear arms and while it does cause problems when they’re in the wrong hands, so do cars. Even if guns were outlawed, people who are hell bent on destroying lives will find other ways to do it, like explosives and bombs.
Exactly ER. If a person wants to kill, they will find a way.
The British may not have guns, but they sure do seem to know how to use their bombs quite well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_the_United_Kingdom
If people want to hurt others, they will do it and will find the means regardless of laws.
WHat I dont understand is how come people are definding the right to bear arms, meanwhile my right to speack has been violated by being banned from this site.
And I am not far from other people’s opinions as well. Many of the posts above share my point of view.
Way to go Celebitchy, for silencing people to your taste.
Funny that, anon. This is a PRIVATE board owned by Celebitchy. It is up to her to choose who posts comments and doesn’t. This is not a public forum.
So go ahead and speak your piece in public. Personally, I’m glad I don’t need to listen to you anymore!
Why are Americans so blinkered about their gun laws? Its unbelievable. No wonder America is in such a mess if its residents think like Carol and Action. Look at the figures – they speak for themselves.
So what exactly would you guys do to solve this ‘little problem’ of yours??? Man, if your country continues like this it will be like constantly living in a Mad Max movie. Shame on you!
If Carol had her way there would be guns, guns, guns and all the men would have to skin their penises. What a great country she would create. Not.