US University Shootings

Vorsprung

Just saw this on the BBC News site, shocking stuff. Looks like one of our own gone caught up in it:

I'm from University College Dublin and now on exchange in Virginia Tech. A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable. Find it hard to believe that 20 people can really be dead. Sitting in dorms right now, waiting for further news. People starting to be released, seems worst may be over.
Nicola, Ireland /Blacksburg, VA

:eek:

Chakar

I'm surprised that we have one of our own over there. It would be interesting to see if the college papers follow up on it with an interview etc.

Blush_01

It's no more surprising that someone from UCD is here than in the Sorbonne or Berkeley, or Melbourne or... shall I go on?

It's tragic that something like this has happened again. The poor families of the victims.

tintinr35

Bam start the debate about gun laws up again.....rabble rabble rabble rabbble!!!!!!!!!

griffdaddy

Blush_01 wrote:

It's no more surprising that someone from UCD is here than in the Sorbonne or Berkeley, or Melbourne or... shall I go on?

yes, i'd love to see how many you can name

random_banter

I was reading up about the University and it seems to have approx the same amount of Students as ours. Imagine that happening here in our college- its large enough but everyone seems to know everyone even if its a friend of a friend situation. Terribly sad.

singingstranger

Yeah, could you imagine that happening at the lake or outside the Arts Block? Someone walking into Daedalus and opening fire? Terrible stuff.

panda100

I was listnin to spin 103.8 this morning and there was a spokesperson on from UCD. She said that there was three students on erasmus there from UCD.They have all been offered flights home and to continue the rest of their year back in Belfield. However,they all refused and said they want to finish up the rest of their year in America.

Something like this really sends shivers down your spine.

Riamfada

panda100 wrote:

Something like this really sends shivers down your spine.

What exacltly do you mean ? Yeah its a tragedy but life goes on. Their lectures will start again. Fair play to them for staying and not jumping on the reactionary plane home.

fish-head

Grimes wrote:

What exacltly do you mean ?

I think it's quite obvious. Reading this news has caused a physical reaction resulting in a sensation of 'the shivers' down her back.

DirkVoodoo

Yeah, to think that what should have been an ordinary day at college turns into a massacre straight out of some horror movie is pretty scary. Only in the US do disgruntled people seem to decide to take out as many people as a 9mm will allow before finishing themselves off. He murdered his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend (motive) before heading off to take out 30 other people 2 hours later. 2 people died trying to jump out of windows in an effort to escape.

The_Minister

Pierce Farrell, in the Union Corridor, with a sharpened referendum.

gubbie

Word around the eng block is that they were engineers. Biosystems to be precise. Considering this happened in the engineering building there, I think they show huge courage in staying

humbert

Why, because it's likely to happen again? I could understand someone being shaken up if they were in the vicinity when it happened but other than that I see no reason why it would affect their decision to stay.

jimi_t

humbert wrote:

Why...? I could understand someone being shaken up if they were in the vicinity when it happened but other than that I see no reason why it would affect their decision to stay.

You're an irish student just arrived - a stranger in a strange land. You've barely arrived and 30 people in your faculty are killed in a completely random incident. Think of the environment you'd now be living and studying in. Think of trying to make some friends, even just trying to integrate in such a climate of mourning.

DirkVoodoo

well said jimi

fits

jimi_t wrote:

You're an irish student just arrived - a stranger in a strange land. You've barely arrived and 30 people in your faculty are killed in a completely random incident. Think of the environment you'd now be living and studying in. Think of trying to make some friends, even just trying to integrate in such a climate of mourning.

But they havent 'just arrived' they've been there since September. Biosystems Engineering has an exchange program with virginiatech (maybe civil is involved now too).

griffdaddy

jimi_t wrote:

Think of trying to make some friends, even just trying to integrate in such a climate of mourning.

At least you'd have something to talk about

jimi_t

fits wrote:

But they havent 'just arrived' they've been there since September.

Taken from the top of the page.

I'm from University College Dublin and now on exchange in Virginia Tech. A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable. Find it hard to believe that 20 people can really be dead. Sitting in dorms right now, waiting for further news. People starting to be released, seems worst may be over.
Nicola, Ireland /Blacksburg, VA

cast_iron

DirkVoodoo wrote:

Only in the US do disgruntled people seem to decide to take out as many people as a 9mm will allow before finishing themselves off.

Well Dunblane wasn't all that dissimilar.

DirkVoodoo

true, but what was the response of the government in the UK following said tragedy? I don't think we can expect similar action in the US.

Also, this was quite interesting, helps you understand the "tragedy" a bit more and that some people's lives don't just go on. No offence grimes.

fits

I'm from University College Dublin and now on exchange in Virginia Tech. A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable. Find it hard to believe that 20 people can really be dead. Sitting in dorms right now, waiting for further news. People starting to be released, seems worst may be over.
Nicola, Ireland /Blacksburg, VA

I believe there was another shooting in August, which is what she was referring too, as in she thought that was as bad as it could get, but this is so much worse...
I'm sure she was in shock when she wrote that, so not very clear.

Manic Moran

DirkVoodoo wrote:

true, but what was the response of the government in the UK following said tragedy? I don't think we can expect similar action in the US.

There's a difference between doing something, and doing something useful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/2642387.stm

NTM

jimi_t

jimi_t wrote:

Taken from the top of the page.

There was a murder in september just off campus.An escaped convict killed a cop and a civilian.

cast_iron

Manic Moran wrote:

There's a difference between doing something, and doing something useful.

Well put Manic.

No disrespect to Dirk, but to alot of people not quite in the know, it appeared they did something, even though all they did was punish innocent sports people. But that's politics for you.

And they are trying something similar here in this country as we speak.

pow wow

The first VT shooting was in August and 2 were killed so I'm sure that's the "first day" she's referring to and that yesterday's events are much much worse than that.

I would have been at school at VT but I turned their offer down for where I am now. The killer was an English major from South Korea who had lived here for a few years.

There is a moment of silence at 2pm our time 7pm Ireland time.

padser

I see that some students are complaining that after the first attack (there were two) it took the university 2 hours to send an e mailing warning students about it.

The university's defence: 'We had no reason to assume there would be a second attack'.

Obviously UCD has a preference for sending students to universitys with equally efficient administration systems.

pow wow

I dunno, they interviewed some ex FBI guy on CNN here this morning who said the college were logical to assume there wouldn't be any further attacks because the first one had been an essentially domestic thing between him and his girlfriend. Also they said that because of the timing in the morning there were so many students arriving for early classes that it would have caused mass panic to have them all milling around trying to figure out where to go etc. if they had known.

I don't know if that's the right thing, but it seems like a logical plan to me?

padser

Not making any effort to evakuate students after there has been a shooting on campus and the gun man is still at large seems pretty remiss to me.

Also even if we assume that it was the correct course of action to take, why did that suddenly change 2 hours later??

pow wow

Based on their reason I'm guessing because the problem of "students milling around" would have eased off given the fact it was two hours later?

Breezer

Surely it was up to the police to evacuate people, not for the university to email students about it! I mean how many of you check your inbox regularly for information about whether a murder has just taken place or not?

I don't buy the excuse that they didn't expect a second attack. It would be a logical reaction in normal circumstances, but the US has a history of this kind of thing happening. The same nation destabilised the Middle East and by extension the entire world because they thought Saddam Hussein might have weapons of mass destruction. I think the police have a lot to answer for.

How Americans can defend, and most likely continue to defend, the "right" to bear arms in the face of repeated incidents like this is beyond me.