Thoughts on the VA Tech Assassin

Glockman 17366 - You make some interesting points worthy of investigation. I hope you are right about this not fuel an anti-rights movement, but I think every activitist, Senator, and Representative, be nationally or state wide, that fears or opposes guns is going jump on to this one. The number 32 is too big to ignore. Of course, one life, is too much not to notice.

I think we, as true Americans and advocates of freedom, should really express together our feelings of sadness and the reprehensibleness of this action. Other than that, I am not sure how we fight the madness.

His accuracy appears to come from the fact that he chained up doors, lined up at least a lot of his victims and executed them in the most dispicable way possible, point blank and defenseless. Even if it comes out that the guy had military training, I don't think it really matters all that much considering the way it appears (at least for now) most of the murders were committed.

The guy doesnt appear to have accomplished any really impressive feats of marksmanship here. Shooting unarmed people in a locked room is hardly a show of skill, just a willingness to do it.

Having had the displeasure of attending some very crowded lecture halls during college is is not hard to imagine that after the first shot there would be pandemonium at the exits. All one would have to do is point at the back of the crowd and open fire.

Saying he is a marksman is an insult. He was a cowardly, gutless, nut job with a gun. period

The news report so far seem to indicated that this might have started because of an altercation between the shooter and a girl, that was being broken up by an RA. That was the first shooting at the first location. Could have been a lovers spat, that went bad, then the guy went bonkers. Hopefully it was a simple spur of the moment spree shooting attack, and not a new form of terrorism.

The strange thing is the 2 previous bomb threats, and the possibility that the guy is a Chinese national. How did he get the gun in the first place? Also the Guy is in College, how old was he??? Under 21??? Was the bomb threats done by him, or perhaps they were just pranks by a 3rd party? If the bomb threats were done by the shooter, was he testing the security response, or perhaps lull the security force by crying wolf?

Also what is up with the VA police and campus police force? No statement yet, and it seems they pulled a "Columbine" type of response, surrounding the area and letting the guy shoot up the place. In a post Columbine, Post 9/11 world, didn't they prepare or train for something like this. Seem like they didn't. Are their any reports of first reponder trying engage this guy, like every LEO I know was trained to do post Columbine?

Thoughts on the gunman? A coward, spineless nut case who off's himself in the end to evade justice not to be held responsible for his devious acts of violence. This just makes me sick, and it's not going to go away this time. Put on your seat belts firearm owners, this is going to be a long bumpy ride thanks to one idiot with a firearm.

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In that case, I would have expected more wounding, rather then killing. A kill shot with a .22 would be tough to do. Even using a 9 mm, all those people being killed would be difficult.

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Why? Why do I keep reading how it is so hard to kill someone with a 9mm and that your odd of surviving are "very good".

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Ballistics gel and terminal bullet performance has little to do with the real world where people bleed and die.

When this settles down I think you will see that there are not as many head shots or "execution style" shots as is being reported currently. I think you will see multpile shots but few headshots.

This magical ability to survive 60% of handgun wounds or whatever numbers are being tossed around here are clearly not true.

It doesn't take an expert marksman, only a willing psycopath and unarmed victims.

The news just identified the gunman as an immigrant from South Korea. Depending on his age when he arrived here, he might have served in the ROK armed forces as they still have a conscription system.

In that case, I would have expected more wounding, rather then killing. A kill shot with a .22 would be tough to do. Even using a 9 mm, all those people being killed would be difficult.

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If these classrooms were like most I've been in, he was blocking the only door, so there's really nowhere to run; all he would have to do is hold his position for a second or two until the students clump up somewhere, then take his time shooting at stationary targets. Any beginner can get consistent headshots under those conditions.

The tactical situation in classrooms is really miserable for everybody but the shooter. Even if a student happened to be armed, there's no real advantageous spot unless you're willing to use your classmates for cover. Of course, if the alternative is to let them be systematically executed, that's not exactly lowering their chances.

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Personally, I haven't discounted him being a terrorist yet

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This kind of thinking is a symptom of what's wrong with the people in
our fine country these days.

Speaking to the number of people killed, I originally had mixed feelings.
Apparently they found a March receipt for the Glock in his bag. I had
thought that it would take time and training to get to where you could
coolly execute 30+ people. Now I don't think so. A motivated person
could teach himself to shoot that type of pistol very quickly and effectively
in a short period of time. Also, the people were likely scared out of their
wits and weren't shooting back.

This wasn't a spur of the moment thing, it was premeditated.

Man, I feel like crap today.
It's easy to just dismiss this poor bastard as a nutcase;but, I think it's just too bad that he couldn't go someplace and just talk to someone. Someone he felt he could trust.
Sometimes that makes all the difference in the world.

From Drudge Report...

POLICE: Campus gunman is Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a student and native of South Korea....
Permanent resident of United States; lived in dorm...
LEFT BEHIND DISTURBING NOTE AND HAD RECEIPT FOR HANDGUN...

I heard that the savage came into classrooms and shot people in the front rows. Probably three feet away or so. No skill involved. Evil, evil scumbag who destroyed countless lives. And this will surely bring down all sorts of calls for absurd gun control on law-abiding citizens.

Thanks Ride for thee report, so he was able to buy the gun legally.

Man, I feel like crap today.
It's easy to just dismiss this poor bastard as a nutcase;but, I think it's just too bad that he couldn't go someplace and just talk to someone. Someone he felt he could trust.
Sometimes that makes all the difference in the world

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It is stupid, If he was P.O. at an ex girlfriend, why doesn't he shoot her and just blow his own brains out. Why does he need to kill a bunch of innocent people?

We need to get out that this IS NOT the largest school related killing. They are focusing on the shooting aspect. We need to bring this to light http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster. I have informed numerous people of this event today and said regardless of the means, it will happen. We need to make them think. I've been changing the minds of my students about guns, and this helps a little.

The Bath School disaster is the name given to not one (as the name implies) but three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. During the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing.

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More at link

John, a school teacher.

Tough to comment on his marksmanship abilities until we get an official round count. Several accounts from students say that the shooter emptied "5-6 clips" in one room. Granted, magazines, but 5-6 is at least 50-60 rounds in a single room. He opened fire in (was it?) 4 different classrooms and the hallways/stairwells?

A few more numbers; CNN quotes ER Doctor as saying most victims he saw has 3 or more wounds each. If true this would at least partially explain the high death toll. Also we could assume he was shooting at least some after they were down.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.wounded/index.html

ER doctor: never seen 'anything like this before'
POSTED: 1619 GMT (0019 HKT), April 17, 2007
Story Highlights:
• ER doctor: "The injuries were just amazing"
• The victims he saw "didn't have less than three bullet wounds"
• Seventeen of the wounded remained hospitalized Tuesday

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- It was more like a scene from an episode of "ER" than one from a real-life hospital in a small college town. "Nobody had ever seen anything like this before," CEO for Montgomery Regional Hospital Scott Hill said. "You can never adequately prepare for this level of violence."

On a day where too many died on the scene, many more were taken, injured and bleeding to the hospital. It was a process hindered by the weather. High winds prevented the use of helicopters to move patients, Hill said.

Dr. Joseph Cacioppo, an emergency room doctor at Montgomery, indicated he was stunned when victims began pouring in. "The injuries were just amazing. This man was brutal. There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in him," Cacioppo said of the victims he saw.

Not all of the injuries were life threatening. "Even, again, the less serious injuries, we saw one patient that had a bullet wound to the wrist, one to the elbow and one to the thigh. We had another one with a bullet wound to the abdomen, one to the chest and one to the head," Cacioppo said.

Seventeen of the wounded remained hospitalized Tuesday, and at least one of those patients was to be released Tuesday, Hill said. All of the nine patients at Montgomery, including three who had been critical, were now in stable condition, he said.

Montgomery in Blacksburg received a total of 19 patients, Hill said.

In addition, three patients remained at Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, two remained in critical condition at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and three were in stable condition at New River Valley Medical Center in Blacksburg, hospital officials said.

Seven patients had been released from hospitals by Tuesday, Hill said.

He came to the US in 1992. That's 15 years. He's a permanent resident. Likely to soon get his citizenship. He's South Korean, not Chinese.

So no he's not ex-military. No he's not a terrorist. He's a loner, has mental issues.