The dead included one suspected gunman, the university president, Charles Steger, told reporters.

The rampage took place in two separate areas, first at a dormitory as students had begun criss-crossing the sprawling campus for morning classes, and then about two hours later at an engineering and science hall a half-mile away.

The attacks sparked panic and chaos.

The 15 wounded included people shot and those hurt jumping from windows to escape the gunfire, Virginia Tech campus police chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Flinchum said the suspected gunman killed himself during the rampage.

"All I can tell you is that he's a male," Flinchum said, giving no details of his age or nationality. He also did not say how well-armed the suspected gunman was.

"We have not confirmed the identity of the gunman because he carried no identification on his person and we are in the process of attempting that identification," Steger said.

Students told CNN there were multiple bomb threats to the campus in the last few weeks. Two of the threats were aimed at the university's science and engineering school.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman said there was no indication of terrorism but that it would be part of the investigation.

"Today our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech," President George W. Bush said.

A student journalist's video of the chaos at Virginia Tech, a state university, was replayed repeatedly on U.S. television networks.

It showed people scurrying around the campus and more than two dozen shots ringing out.

The death toll was worse than a massacre at the University of Texas in Austin on August 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old student, killed 13 people and wounded 31 in a 90-minute spree. Whitman had killed his mother and wife the night before.

TWO HOURS BETWEEN ATTACKS

The first shooting at Virginia Tech was reported to campus police at about 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory housing some 900 students.

It was followed by more shooting at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school that has given the university much of its fame as a leading technical institute in the United States.

During the two hours after the first shooting some students had ventured out again. University police were investigating the first shooting at the dormitory when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Student Justin Merrifield told Reuters he was outside West Ambler dormitory at 9 a.m. when he saw police and a crying student but did not realize the magnitude of the crisis until he arrived at his 10 a.m. class.

Merrifield said students were alerted by campus loudspeakers.

"There was a voice that just kept repeating, 'Gunman on campus, stay indoors, get away from windows,' over and over, basically," said Merrifield.

Steger, facing a barrage of questions over the university's initial response, stressed that its efforts to alert students could not possibly reach the thousands of people moving around the campus at the start of the school day.

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," Steger said of the first shooting.

One student criticized how university officials reacted.

"I'm pretty outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 O'clock in the morning and the first e-mail about it had no mention of locking down the campus, no mention of canceling classes," Jason Piatt told CNN.

"They just mentioned that they were investigating a shooting," he said. "That's pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile, while they sent out that e-mail, 21 people got killed."

The shooting was bound to revive debate in the United States about gun violence.

"We live in a society where guns are pretty well accepted," said Jim Sollo, of Virginians Against Handgun Violence. "There are 200 million guns in this society and obviously some in the wrong hands."

Virginia Tech, with 26,000 students and some 100 buildings on 2,600 acres, is located in the town of Blacksburg and set in lush rolling hills in the southwest corner of the state, about 240 miles from Washington.

Classes were canceled for Monday and Tuesday and counselors were being brought in to talk to the students.

Source

we talked about this in my Civic's class today
they should really lower the ability to be able to purchase a gun
its like anybody can do it now a days
it was like 32 or 33 people were killed
:'(

I wouldn't say lower the ability actually, as it is an American citizen's right to own a gun. More so i'd say add safety restraints somehow. No place in the world is truly safe, but we have to understand that rights can't be taken away to make a change, there's always going to be a leak.

Though there were things that could have been done to prevent this from continuing to such a large massacre. It's sad, really...

It is a damn shame that students aren't even safe in their classrooms..

They said that this was the worst in U.S. history..

Jeez...It really is a shame that schools aren't safe. This really is one of the worst shootings I've heard of. :ashamed:

Heard that the murderer was the mentally disturbed neibor of a student's parent. Did I get that right?

No. He was a student.

He was from South Korea. Some of his teachers already feared him before the incident. One teacher described him as the loneliest person they'd seen. However, there were teachers who did things to save their students, one aged 74, stayed watch at door while three others made a jump for safety. You have to admire what he did.

Still though.... This is worse then the Texas shooting which is bad. This one they had time though. They just didn't take the first few murders seriously enough, they thought it was over then. Maybe this will teach America to wake up to reality if anything.

I think this was the worst thing that happened in USA since the attack on WTC.

Columbine was pretty bad too..

just watch, people will make a tv movie, and big-screen movie based on this.. that is if one isn't currently in production already.

It's because people know how to make money. They know tragedy will get them profit, and in a way that's just sick. I was watching something last night and found it very interesting too. Someone said that we shouldn't be calling the 33deaths a record for school masacres in the US because it's like an invintation for others to come and try to break it. I agree with him, it is like an invintation so we should treat it more like a tragedy then a game.

I listened to one of the people who had a friend killed in this. At first, i tried to put myself in place, with everything I'd heard, to see how I'd feel. I didn't think of this as anything else but modern news before really, but this guy just made me think differently. He talked about how it really hits you when you learn that it is real people who died. It's not like a movie, these people are real. There is no rewind to go see a favorite part. When they're gone they're gone, and so it's changed me alot already. I tried to think about how it would be if I or somebody I knew well just suddenly died, the next day, the next few months, wouldn't be the same.

That's why this is considered a National Crisis more-so then just a Virginia one. We affect each other. Look at this and then try to reflect on it. The impact is major and saddening. I can't express my sorrow when I watched it yesterday, and yet I felt no anger. This crisis is one that will bring America closer for the better, to change for the better. But I ask you now, at what cost?

Well said, Dictator.

VIRGINIA. Israeli Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, protected his students when the shooter tried to enter the classroom. He blocked the door with his body and ordered his students to evacuate the room. Some jumped through the windows. This action costed him his life.

Professor Librescu was an engineering math lecturer at Virginia Tech for 20 years. His research focused in aeronautical engineering, according to university sources.

He lived threw what Anne Frank didnt, the Holacost, He's annonced a hero today for saving a class from pain and suffering and more weeping. He Sacrificed his life for others. Hes a hero for the kids and a Hero fo Virginia Tech. The wife of this man, is sadly not getting the picture that hes never coming back. This is what she said. "I dont care what you say! I know you can be walking threw that door any minute, please leave me alone."

That was one of the sadder stories. Such good people have to go away, it's sad to think and not know them personally. But he knew he wouldn't make it, so he did what was right for his students.

Killer leaves a chilling message..

http://ffsx.sytes.net/index.php?showtopic=3100

This isn't meant in a pleasent tone, but at least he left us some clues for understanding... It was wrong, but we can begin to piece up what happened.

Now that I look at this more though, the evidence was all around. They should have been prepared, known that this would have happened. Then again, how could any of us really predict such a tragedy? Maybe it'd be more understandable if he were more like an average person, but his mental health was absolutely ill...

We may have not been able to predict it, but there was things we could have done to prevent this from happening.. I mean, we had Columbine, the shooting in Canada, and many other school shootings to go on to at the very least protect those who were in the building..

They could have put armed security guards on the premises, had police patrol the school grounds, metal detectors at every entrance.. both school and dorms.. they could have even conducted drills.

There needs to be stronger gun control regulations in place, including but not limited to subjecting would-be purchasers to an extensive criminal background check, as well as a psychological exam, and counseling before allowing any kind of purchase.

But, hindsight is 20/20..

The Virginia gun laws are very lenient it would appear. That's what I saw on another news issue. So I completely agree with you BA, there were things that could have prevented this. It doesn't take law enforcement to stop a crisis, just a little thinking ahead.

yeah they rreeaallyy need to start doing things to plan ahead but the goverment that runs these days (no offence but) sucks. I mean if they don't start taking any king of tragedy more seriously there could be caos and i'm not saying that one will be affected but everyone in all states will be. I gave up on the world a long time because i know that these crimes simpli won't stop crime will always be there and the people aren't that nice anymore, to be more precise there are a lot of people out there who are violent, suicidal, aggressive, cruel, and generally homicidal. I know there are fewer people in th world who are kind, gentle, considerate, modest, and friendly; some people pretend to be that way to lure us gentle hearted to our doom. I've always said that the world is a big mess and somebody needs to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ! AND FOR THE BETTER! But looking at him at another angle he must have done this for some resons like: he probably suffered neglect when he was little being picked on a lot and always finding shelter by staying away from others and always alone. Thing like that cause someone to lose confidence in ones self, low optimism, being quiet all the time generally bottling all this hatred up, he must've felt lonely and that everybody was against him or that everyone was going to hurt him and that nobody loved him. But still ther are better ways to deal with this; I read a line in the bible (somewere in it) that says: "El ser humano es su propia destrucción" which means "man is his own destruction" and that's true. :'( :flag:

It would have been one thing if the very premise of school shootings were unprecedented.. but as I had pointed out earlier, it wasn't.. so the fact that they didn't act quickly enough, or were to lazy to implement the security measures currently used by many high schools after columbine, and urban high schools.. proved to be just as deadly, as the gunman's actions.

They were probably thinking "this will never happen to us" during and after Columbine, and that may have been why everyone was so "blindsided" by this.

If it can happen in a high school.. it can happen anywhere.. <= and that was one fact that they overlooked that ended up costing 32 people their lives.

Of course it can happen anywhere. People aren't afraid to murder if they intend to kill themselves in the end as well. I can actually imagine a mass murder being easy at my own middle school as it would only take a gunman the right time of the day to come in and then the right class.

Even in other places security is so low it's simple to cause mass murder. I don't think it's as much the government's fault as it is the security issued to places. So what if it costs a few more hundred dollars to support cops or law enforcement every year. It's worth it if it can save lives. I can't say that those campus police did the best of their job.

I agree.. you can't put a price on safety.

Honestly one of the worst things I heard of happening in a while. I think the school could have prevented if they handled the situation correctly. After the first shooting they should have cancelled classes for the day and had a more thorough investigation especially with all the bomb threats and what not they've been receiving