Tragedy

[Jean Lansford]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, M Holmes wrote:

>Guido N. Vacano writes:
>
>> Apparently, there were a large number of shootings at Virginia Tech
>> today, with at least 22 people dead. I hope you're OK Paul.
>
>Curious: Is Virginia a "Shall Issue" state? Are personal firearms banned on
>campus? 

Don't know about VT specifically, but government building of all
types ban personal firearms in concealed carry states. The VT
grads I know have not questioned why no one was carrying on
campus.

>Virginia seems like the sort of place I'd expect someone to
>shoot back long before we got to that number of victims.

That's more a Texas/Wild West attitude. Appalachia isn't as
handgun-crazy. Just don't try to take their hunting guns from
them.

It's telling that most of the students dismissed the initial
gunfire as construction noises or a video presentation in another
classroom. No one reacted until the screaming started, and by
then it was pretty much over.

Some interesting reports coming out of the morass of media
coverage. Some of the doors in the engineering building were
apparently chained shut from the inside. The only non-panicky
reaction I've heard of so far was in the first room the guy shot
up. The shooter left for reasons unknown, and someone had the
presence of mind to barricade the door. The other room, the
students just started jumping out the windows. 
-- 
Jean Lansford
oystrgal at bellsouth.net

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to 
write for the public and have no self.
- Cyril Connolly