30 Killed In Virgina Tech Shooting

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I heard this on the way home from work. Scary and sad!

After seeing the news, it was someone I knew. Not a friend, just an acquaintance, still hit close to home though.

Meh, this kind of thing happens all the time and will happen again unfortunately.

In another forum, on the topic of these shootings, someone related that a kid in his town, who had Aspergers', killed two other kids with a shotgun on Halloween, while "protecting his pumpkins." And therefore concluded that people with Aspergers' were psychos and shouldn't be trusted with guns.

Then he is more of a danger than the kid with the shotgun. People with psychological issues (and by that I mean far more than simply AS) that would motivate them to commit such an atrocity can be helped. People that are that simple-minded cannot.

For someone to immediately jump to the conclusion that the gunman had Asperger's is asinine.

My university's counseling center is going up their staff and start taking walk-ins.

My sentiments exactly. I know it's a legitimate concern given how the few Aspies who happen to be killers have been portrayed, but honestly I've been around AS forums and the first thing anyone seems to say and is care about is "Oh I hope they don't make us look bad"-- when at this stage so little is known about the gunman, much less whether he happes to be Aspie-is or not, rather than first recognise what a terrible tragedy this is, and all the other issues directly related to this.

Nope, that wasn't my concern. The fact is that a number of people involved in school massacres did have lots of aspie traits-- including IMO one of the columbine shooters. The perpetrator of the 1927 Bath school massacre also had AS traits. And I dare anyone to read the biography of Ted Kaczynski (who targeted academia) and tell me he wasn't aspie or HFA. Kip Kinkel (who committed his crime at 15 and will have no chance at parole) also might be aspie, IMO.

It's the scope of the tragedy that concerns me. I wouldn't want an aspie involved in a shooting like this any more than I would want my own brother involved in something like this. Please don't take it upon yourself to read between the lines of what I wrote. Why on earth would I be concerned about us saving face as a group when we already tend to be social pariahs each in his own world? I couldn't care less what "they" think of us.

(source)

Something that struck me as true and important:



Same source, but different person.

You see, we Aspies have trouble with empathy. Um...ya, that's it.

Seems a German class was targeted. I was considering taking German as part of my chemistry major so I'm sure some chemistry majors may have been effected

I'm not sure that's the actual assertion. Most people who fire weapons illegally won't care whether they're also carrying illegally. "Oh shoot, I was going to mow down a campus, but taking the gun there is against the law, so nevermind." For me, "no legal right to carry" translates too closely to: "Leave the guns to the criminals, and everything'll work out fine". Comforting.

Yeah from a practical stand point even if you began aggressively removing guns in America the day the supply pool will be low enough to keep them out of the hands of the gun obsessed (I was that way 18-23 years old) will be well into the next century.
Just no chance of any of this improving in our life times by any means.

A German class, a French class, a Civil Engineering professor was killed...I think, can't remember all the details. Also don't really want to. I know at least one Chemical Engineer was wounded, killed if I remember right. Again, not trying to think about that too much. The R.A. in West A.J. that died was graduating with three degrees at the end of the semester, before this happened. I know he was a psychology major, for one of those. The couple classes I had with him, he was always a really upbeat, good natured guy.

Another friend of mine apparently knew at least a couple of the German students. She's graduated and gone on to grad school elsewhere, but had an away message up mentioning the German class. She graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry, and, surprise, took / knew a good amount of German.

Something like three professors and 29 students, excluding the gunman. If I remember right (this is a common trend, my nerves, and thus my memory, have been shot to hell since yesterday) the news reported the shooter as an English major. If that's the case, I don't know why the hell he even went to Norris, I thought most of the English classes were held in Torg and Squires. Wouldn't know for sure though, never took an English class while here.

9:34 a.m.

Authorities identified the deceased shooter in yesterday's Virginia Tech massacre as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a South Korean native in U.S. as a resident alien. His residency was in Centreville and he was staying at the Harper residence hall on Tech's campus.

No possible motive was disclosed.

"The only thing that we know about him is that he was a loner and we are having difficulty finding information" about him, university spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Authorities said they are not releasing names of the victims until all have been identified.

President Bush and Gov. Tim Kaine are going to appear at 2 p.m. memorial service at Cassell.

Tech President Charles Steger and the university's police chief, Wendell Flinchum appeared at the 9 a.m. press conference where the shooter was identified but declined to field reporters questions on security measures taken in the two hours between the first and second shootings Monday, a gap that has been questioned by students, parents, and the media.

Flinchum said the second shootings started as police were questioning a male associate of a female victim of the first shooting.

Results of ballistic tests conducted at a federal lab in Maryland overnight confirmed that the same weapon was used in both on campus shooting events on Monday, a detail that proves they incidents were related, Flinchum said.

Eighteen-year-old Emily Jane Hilscher was one of the first two victims to be identified in the Virginia Tech massacre, along with 22-year-old Ryan Clark.

The pair were neighbours in rooms 4040 and 4042 on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory where a gunman began the first of 33 campus shootings on Monday morning just after 7am, US time.

The gunman was identified by federal law enforcement authorities late last night as Cho Seung-Hui. He was described as being a 23-year-old South Korean male student who lived on campus, but no other details about him were released last night.

Witnesses to the shooting said that the gunman was involved in an argument with a girlfriend and had later stormed out of the dormitory building.

A counsellor – believed to be Mr Clark, who was also a resident adviser – was called to calm the situation at the dormitory.

The gunman returned at 7.15am and shot Ms Hilscher and Mr Clark. US media reported that Mr Clark had been shot in the neck.

More than two hours later the murderer – armed with two hand guns – stalked the corridors and classrooms of a college building in another separate part of the campus for about 20 minutes, killing 30 more people.

A further 20 students were injured, either by gunfire or jumping out of the