Back of Norris

After I got the email about the first shooting, I came to campus to get in to the radio station. I was walking by the power plant and saw 15-20 ambulances behind McBryde/Norris. I had no idea about the second shooting at this point, but the timing indicates that this was taken right as people were being taken out of the building.

Billy Glynn

2007-04-30

Billy Glynn

eng

Gun-control debate rages on

The following is a short piece by myself, published in the Irish Sunday Business Post.
~NiK

-------------------

<a href="http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/04/22/story22922.asp">http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/04/22/story22922.asp</a>

Gun-control debate rages on
22 April 2007
By Nicholas Kiersey

Six days have passed since the horrific events at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, during which 32 people were shot dead by a lone gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, before he killed himself.

It is hardly enough time for students and staff to begin to reflect upon the scale of the event and how it is already provoking what will probably turn out to be a major round in the US gun-control debate.

Of course, the human dimension to the story is being played out this weekend in the homes of the families and friends of the victims. Memorials are taking place around the state. Funerals are being arranged for tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how soon the police release the bodies.

The university administration wants students back at school for resumption of classes tomorrow. Professors and teaching assistants are being briefed in the coming days. The regular curriculum will be suspended for tomorrow&#39;s classes, in favour of discussions on the events from a variety of perspectives.

Elsewhere, the nation&#39;s media are already turning to eager &#39;talking heads&#39; and pundits for their commentary on the killer, his psychological state and how campuses might better prepare themselves to ward off similar attacks. Conspicuous by its absence in this dialogue, however, is a meaningful engagement by US politicians with the question of gun control.

On the left and right alike, US politicians have long considered the issue of gun control to be very tricky. Analysts have attributed John Kerry&#39;s defeat in the 2000 election to his stance on the banning of assault weapons.

The news networks are affording the pro-gun movement ample space to express its views. The views of Susanna Hupp, herself a survivor of a shoot-out in a Texas cafe in 1991, are not atypical.

As she put it in a debate on CBS last week, the most heinous of all mass killings in the US, like those at Columbine and Virginia Tech, have all taken place in &#39;gun-free zones&#39;, places where even basic side arms are banned.

Such views are popular in America and are not uncommon even among students and alumni of Virginia Tech. As one friend of mine, a former tech student currently deployed in Iraq with a private security firm, said a couple of days ago: &#39;&#39;If one of the victims had been carrying [a gun] and had reacted properly, a lot of lives could had been saved."

Others at Virginia Tech are perplexed by such opinions. The idea that weapons-bearing students might somehow have averted last week&#39;s massacre seems to ignore the likely complexities that such a situation would produce.

How, for example, would students in separate classrooms have been able to distinguish friend from foe? Would such a scenario not make the job of law enforcement officers extremely difficult?

President George W Bush last week asserted his support for the second amendment, the instrument of the US constitution that grants the right to bear arms to all citizens.

The day before his speech at the Virginia Tech memorial convocation, his press secretary, Dana Perino, said: &#39;&#39;The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed."

However, the second amendment was written when the US nation was still insecure about foreign invasion. Its sole instrumental purpose was to ensure citizens were equipped to form a militia in the absence of a standing army.

Meanwhile, news is breaking about the sheer quantity of ammunition expended by the Virginia Tech killer. Among the inventory he carried on the day were hollow-point shells and ammunition clips capable of holding up to 30 bullets.

Protagonists on both sides of the gun debate in the US tend to stereotype their opponents, yet the pro-gun movement seems incapable of articulating a balanced view on the sorts of weapons required by the average citizen.

The fact remains high-powered guns are too easy to get in Virginia. Second-hand weapons may be purchased with no background check, and there are no state restrictions on the sale of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, such as the AK47.

As we learned last week, a Virginia judicial officer certified in 2005 that Cho presented &#39;&#39;an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness&#39;&#39;.

As such, Cho probably fell within the category of &#39;&#39;adjudicated as a mental incompetent&#39;&#39; used in the Federal Gun Control Act of 1968. However, none of this showed up in his background checks on the day he purchased his weapons.

My gun-advocate friends often argue it would be impossible to fully regulate the ownership of guns. Better then to let everyone carry a weapon so that they might defend themselves and thereby create a deterrent.

Yet they ignore the experience of many Europeans, such as myself, who have grown up in countries where gun ownership is regulated quite successfully.

This weekend, most Virginia Tech students will be envious of the sort of peace and security that such regulation can provide.

Nicholas Kiersey, who is from Blessington, Co Wicklow, is a PhD student at Virginia Tech

Nicholas Kiersey

2007-04-29

Nicholas Kiersey

eng

Beta Bridge at UVA

This picture was taken on the morning of Tuesday, April 17, 2007. UVA students had re-painted Beta Bridge on Rugby Road with maroon paint with the phrase "Hoos for Hokies" in white letters

Vincent Rivellino

2007-04-29

Vincent Rivellino

eng

TechSportsBlog.com reaction to tragedy

The following article was originally published at HokieHaven.com: <a href="http://virginiatech.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=664661">http://virginiatech.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=664661</a>

It is also available at TechSportBlog.com:
<a href="http://www.techsportsblog.com/2007/04/17/virginia-tech-tragedy/">http://www.techsportsblog.com/2007/04/17/virginia-tech-tragedy/</a>

--

It&#39;s been awhile since my last blog post. Nearly a month, in fact. As a fan, I put a lot of time and energy rooting for my Virginia Hokies on the football field, then on the basketball court, and I needed a break. To get things going again, I was planning on a blog post title "The Off-Season" about how Hokie fans spend their time during the spring and summer before football starts anew in the fall.

Instead of writing about our fans and our football team, I am instead attempting to write about the tragedy that occurred yesterday on the campus of Virginia Tech. This is just a mere attempt, because it is very difficult to find the words to describe the feelings I have experienced since I learned of the magnitude of yesterday&#39;s events.

When I learned of the first shooting, and only one person was reported to have died, my initial thought was that some one got mad at his girlfriend. I was surprised, because shootings just don&#39;t happen in Blacksburg, but I wasn&#39;t shocked, because domestic violence happens all too often.

When the death toll went from 1 to over 20, I am not exactly sure what I felt. I was shocked, but I was also numb. During the early and mid-afternoon hours, it was a very surreal experience watching the story unfold on the internet. It was unfathomable to think that Virginia Tech would be the site of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

I went home from work at about 4pm, and I turned on the television. When I saw the images and heard the sounds of yesterday&#39;s events, it started to sink in. One image in particular hit home - it was a picture showing shocked students standing behind the glass doors of one of the entrances of McBryde Hall. I used to work for the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech, and my office was on the first floor of McBryde. I used to walk in and out of those doors on a daily basis. It was disheartening to see students watching the tragedy unfold from behind those very same doors.

Last night, my thoughts began to drift back to my days at Virginia Tech, both as a student and as a staff member. There was never a time where I felt unsafe walking around campus or around town. There was never a time where I felt unsafe inside a classroom. For today&#39;s students, they will not feel safe anywhere they go for a long time. I simply cannot imagine what it is like to be a student, faculty, or staff at Virginia Tech right now, let alone to be one of the wounded or one who knows a victim.

College campuses are special places. I like to think that the campus of Virginia Tech is extra special, but everyone feels that way about their alma mater. When I walked around Virginia Tech and Blacksburg during football or basketball weekends, I was reminded of so many good times I experienced during my time there, and I felt a disconnect from the strife of the "real world". There is a youthful innocence that pervades college campuses. It touches everyone there, from the 17 and 18 year old freshmen, to the 60 year old professors who only know life in academia.

Yesterday, that innocence was ripped from the hearts of every Hokie, and it was stolen away from anyone who has spent more than a minute on a college campus.

Since the hours that innocence was taken from us, the Hokie Nation has experienced disbelief, deep sadness, and anger. Many of us are still in shock, and it has started to sink in for others. For too many Hokies, a friend or loved one has fallen.

However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. We have seen an overwhelming outpouring of support from members and fans of other universities and colleges. I have been deeply moved by the well wishes I have seen on our Rivals.com HokieHaven board, TechSideline.com&#39;s Lounge board, as well as TheSabre.com&#39;s The Corner board. I am sure there are many other internet message boards that have similar threads voicing support for the Virginia Tech community.

On behalf of Virginia Tech and the Hokie Nation, I&#39;d like to say "thank you" for keeping our community in your thoughts and prayers. It is comforting to see the kinder and gentler side of the human spirit after such a horrific event.

Vincent Rivellino

2007-04-29

Vincent Rivellino

eng

A Difficult Time

I stopped watching all media on TV after Tuesday&#39;s convocation. I have not see the majority of the video played on NBC, but several of my VT alum friends told me about how disturbing it was. Personally, I think it would be too painful to watch.

The following is part of a blog post I wrote on Tuesday late night / Wednesday morning after the convocation.

----

Never in a million years did I think that I would see my alma mater on the news for such a horrific event. I&#39;m finding it difficult right now to gather my thoughts and process what happened on Monday morning at Virginia Tech. It seems ironic that on Sunday afternoon I was explaining to fellow UCSC students how Blacksburg is a little town in sleepy, Southwest Virginia that revolves around the university. Nearly the entire population attends or works at the university--over 26,000 students, probably 3,000 faculty and staff: a total population somewhere between 35,000-40,000. The professors and students form a close-knit, supportive community that I have never seen at the other universities I have attended or visited. Everything shuts down for home football games. The coffee shops, restaurants, and other local businesses revolve entirely around the academic calendar, parent/alumni weekends, and student schedules. Even the bus system is almost entirely students. I am part of this Virginia Tech community forever. Perhaps the best years of my life were spent there. The people I met, the professors that influenced me, the experiences that formed and shaped who I am today. Even though I haven&#39;t visited in two years or so, I am once a hokie and always a hokie.

Being at this campus at this time makes what happened at VT real and surreal for me. At first, I didn&#39;t know what to make of the situation--it took some time to process. But Tuesday, when I woke up and started reading about the victims and viewing the images... it became much more real. I had history class in the building where most of the murders took place. Many of my friends lived in the same dorms (West AJ and Harper) described. The pictures online and on TV of the buildings and campus I have so many fond memories of--so many images of police with guns, students wounded... It all really hit me when I saw the convocation on TV today--held in the same room where my graduation ceremony was held a few short years ago.

Immediately following the convocation today on TV, just as this was all sinking in, I had to go teach. I was disoriented and I think the students could tell. How am I supposed to focus on positive introductions when all I can think about is what my friends at Virginia Tech are going through? So far, no one I know has been idenitifed as a victim, though my friends at VT are traumatized. One of the victims may have gone to my high school and the one who survived by "playing dead" did go to my high school. The gunman went to high school a few miles away from my high school (Centreville is close to Fairfax, just a few miles West--both are suburbs of Washington, D.C.).

Tuesday it was very difficult walking around this campus where I felt like an outsider or stranger. Not many people seemed to relate closely to what happened on the other side of the country. While my fellow colleagues at VT, GMU, and in DC were mourning and holding vigils, people here were discussing parties on the bus. I don&#39;t know how to handle this right now. Where am I?

Amanda Shuman

2007-04-29

Amanda Shuman

eng

Are you a Hokie

I never really thought of myself as a Hokie. I came to VT to learn engineering and science. I have never been to a game nor participated in any student activities. I have always thought of myself as a student here to learn, not a Hokie. Tragedy struck and I asked myself, like all did, what can I do? I found myself walking through campus, like I have done so many times before. This time it was different. I was not in a hurry to get to class and there was no commotion ringing off the building walls from fellow students. It was quite unlike any night at VT I had ever experienced. I was handed a candle and I walked out onto the Drillfield. I lit my candle and a tidal wave of previously unknown Hokie pride came over me as I heard students chant "Let&#39;s Go....HOKIES!" I was a Hokie. I did not know any of our fellow fallen Hokies, but I am not ashamed to say I loved them and nor should you. And when you walk the Hokie walk and feel as though something is different, do not ask yourself, "Is it just me?" We are all one body, one soul, one Hokie, even when we do not know it.

Joseph Guirreri

2007-04-28

Joseph Guirreri

eng

VT

It was a tragic day for everyone the day of the shootings on Virginia Tech. I remember coming home and being told that something was going on at Tech. I got worried because I knew so many people who were going there. I had been the campus a number of times because of track and when they were showing the locations of where the shooting took place I recognized it and almost felt as if I was there. I did not know anyone that was hurt or killed but many of them had lived in the area I grew up in. It was a very emotional day and I did not know what to think. I was hardly able to keep my eyes off of the TV and hearing that the death toll was going up I had to stop. I will admit I was afraid that someone I knew would come up but fortunately they did not. I felt for all the families and friends of the victims and even I find it hard to forgive the shooter but I know that we are all strong and will be able to. My heart and prayers go out to the VT community.

Jenni Scolese

2007-04-28

Jenni Scolese

eng

My day

Here I am only going to share the events of my day on April 16, 2007. It feels better tell the story, it&#39;s seems more real, more raw, but that also means that it&#39;s something that I can accept as tangible and can move on from.

My friend and I always eat breakfast together on Monday, Wednsday, and Friday mornings before our 8 o&#39;clock Foundation Design Lab. Mon. April 16th, I got up at 6:15am, as usual, took my shower and got my stuff together for class. We met outside of D2 at 7:15am.

The first shooting was called in at about 7:15am.

Mandy lives in West AJ on the 7th floor.

She took the elevator down and walked over, never knowing what was really behind the elevator doors as she passed the 4th floor.

As we gazed through the glass windows facing AJ and Washington Street, eating our breakfast, we noted and first ambulance, followed later by another. Mandy explained by saying how very many accidental injuries happen at the gyms all the time, neither of us knowing the destination or the calling.

We arrived at Cowgill Hall, fourth floor studios at around 8am or 8:15am. My study is right next to the windows overlooking the commuter parking lots;, Mandy&#39;s has a perfect view of the backside of Burrass, as well as the GBJ Student Center to the right and Hancock and Norris on the left of the plaza.

The first e-mails were sent at about 9:15am and after checking my e-mail I called my mother, not just to reassure her but also to reassure my grandparents once the found out and began barraging my mother with phone calls. As I was talking we noticed a police officer sprinting to the other side of Cowgill, many of us followed to the other side of the fourth floor to see what the fuse was about. rounding the corner of the short, wide hallway, we were shocked to find half of the studios and the custodians already studing the movements of the officers intently from the fourth floor windows. I joined their ranks, along with Mandy. We watched as the SWATT team ran to the door on our side of Norris; I called my boyfriend, having just been let out of an engineering class in Hancock, directly behind Norris and beside Cowgill. At first I saw a few people, normal people running around on the plaza, and I was unsure of whether or not he could run to Cowgill to join us, then the we heard the shots.

Stay where you are, someone will find you.

Only of few of the shots rang loud and clear, and we watched with hushed anticipation as the man with the camera phone took video of the officers and recorded the ominous noises.

Get out of there!

The SWATT team went into Norris.

The man finally left and no more civilians were in sight, besides a funny little asain man with his lunch box, thinking that it was like any other ordinary day. An officer behind a tree quickly shooed him away.

And then people began running out of the building.

It was clear they were in shock and terror, their movements quick and with an almost robotic jerk to each motion, each backward glance, each forward, away, rush. We saw two groups retreat from the building before we were sent back from the windows until the professors were given some idea of what to do with us. We were not well informed being on the fourth floor. But momentarily, not five minutes after we were sent away, we were told to immediately retreat to the 1st floor, room 100, a room with only two entrances and exits, and no wiindows; it is entirely self contained within the core of the building.

We all began hurridly calling our friends and loved ones, knowing this was more serious than we had orginially assumed. After a half an hour, my boyfriend had been moved to a conference room in Randolph, connected to Hancock, where they watched the news, waiting for any tiny scrap of information, and we in Cowgill were all sent to the undergroung depths of Burchard Hall, beneath the plaza, where we were kept in side rooms away from the glass pyramids above, but protected by the automatically locking doors on the stairwells. It must be understood that Cowgill is undergoing renovations in the coming year or years to revamp some security issues, such as the fact that our front door refuses to automatically lock with the rest of campus. Therefore, we were safer in Burchard than in Cowgill.

From then on we played the waiting game, with two liasons with the outside world, showing up two or three times over the next hours to give us the grim news of the rising death count.

Finally we were released close to noon, much of time had slipped away from us in our safehold, trying to either flood our senses with news, or shut it out. We were told that we could only leave if we went away from campus, then we were told students were allowed back, but Mandy, Rachel, and I were sure that that didn&#39;t include them. Rachel is from my studio and also lives in AJ. We met up with Bryan, my boyfriend, and crossed to Burrass, where his aunt was able to gather us together and take us to Bryan&#39;s appartment off campus, behind the Kroger.

She was parked on the Drillfield.

I still can&#39;t stand that silence, it resonates through my memory as the sound of death, the final sound. It was unbearable, and the police were so solemn.

Once at Bryan&#39;s, the four of us begain a frenzied phone tag with our loved ones and listened to their worries between snatches of the news cast as all the information was slowly trickling in, and the count slowly rose.

I remember when there were 2
8
21
22
33, counting the shooter of course.

And now we wait for the names.

My mother came by to check on us, but I told her I needed to stay there, close to campus and my student family, I needed them. I didn&#39;t want to be on campus, but I NEEDED to stay near it, them.

Rachel and some of her friends from AJ went to her uncles.
We stayed at Bryan&#39;s to wait out the night.

We had already cried for our dancing sister Reema and a friend of a friend, Ryan.

We continued to grieve as Bryan&#39;s Professor, Dr. Loganathan was revealed, and then four of his five Measurements Teaching Assistants. Mandy and I&#39;s former French teacher, Madame Couture, classmates, Ross and Rachel, the second floor Residential Advisor of my building, Peddrew-Yates&#39; Caitlin, a mere aquantance, Austin, and a hometown boy, Jarret.

These were the people we knew

These are the people we know

These are our hokie brothers and sisters, and we will never forget 4-16-07

Kristin Fields

2007-04-27

Kristin Fields

eng

VT Stay Strong

Sign in front of Burruss Hall reading &#39;VT Stay Strong Media Stay Away.&#39; By around this time I was sensing that this sentiment was shared by growing numbers of this community. Photo taken April 19, 2007.

Brent Jesiek

2007-04-27

Brent Jesiek

eng

We WILL Prevail!

Friends,

There is a loss for words when one ponders on the "Virginia Tech Massacre." We cannot possibly understand why things like this happen. We cannot understand why anyone would ever want to hurt another person, let alone take a life. There are no easy answers. However, I do believe that there is hope if we keep believing and sharing compassion each and every single day that we are blessed with here, in this life.

Friday, April 20, when people all over the world wore two normally clashing colors, maroon and orange, the spirits of those draped in these colors were doing anything but clashing, they were united. More than sharing a similarity of color choice for clothing, people were sharing
emotions, concerns, and compassion.

My heart, as millions of others, goes out to everyone left without a sister, brother, mother, father or friend. My heart goes out to those who were injured and those who were left with a horrible since of fear. My heart also cries with everyone impacted by this sad, horrendous occurrence.

Our community has been forever changed by a senseless act of violence. The people here have suffered and will continue to suffer for some time.

But, as Nikki Giovanni said in her Convocation address, "We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities.

We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech."

Hug someone, because for some reason today, it feels just a little bit better.

Nick Flaherty
Blacksburg, VA

Nicholas Flaherty

2007-04-27

Nicholas Flaherty

eng