People Already Profiting from Virginia Tech Shooting (Updated)

Posted On: April 16th, 2007

<b>Normally that would take at least a couple days.</b>

The sad state of the domain squatting industry, and society in general, is that after a horrible shooting a bunch of "business people" sprint to grab up every VT shooting/massacre domain possible.

If your first thought upon seeing the news of this horrible shooting, is "Oh crap, how can I make money off of this?", then you need to get off the computer because the internet has completely warped your ability to care for other people.

After noticing that domains were popping up right after recent tragedies like Katrina, I was curious how often these tragedy induced domain buying frenzies actually happen, and the results were <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B39413A35-F04A-4F5F-A615-837DC825F97D%7D&siteid=google">naturally disgusting and not surprising</a>. This latest VT tragedy is just a <a href="http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:4iqrHUFPJzkJ:www.domainmarketplace.com/amishshooting.com+amishshooting&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us">long history of people snatching up tragedy domain names</a> immediately and then selling them off later for a profit.

<b>The domains that were immediately purchased within 20 mins of the shooting are:</b>

virginiatechshooting.com
virginiatechmassacre.com
vtmassacre.com
vtshooting.com

<strike><b>Special Note: virginiatechschoolshooting.com is still avilable! Hurry, you too can profit from other people&#39;s suffering!</b></strike>

<b>UPDATES:</b>

The first domain is already up for sale already. These poor kids aren&#39;t even in the ground yet and this guy is already making his money: (Copy and paste if you want, I&#39;m not linking to their auction.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Virginia-Tech-Massacre-info-Domain-name-lot-vatech-va_W0QQitemZ320104764149QQihZ011QQcategoryZ3767QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Not only has <b>virginiatechschoolshooting.com </b> been taken quickly after posting this, but the following domains were grabbed up as well (hokiemassacre.com is probably the worst): <a href="http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/04/godaddy_registe.html">Source 27BStroke6 on Wired</a>

<i>virginiatechshooting.com
virginiatechshooting.net
virginiatechshooting.org
virginiatechshooting.info
virginiatechshooting.us
vatechshooting.com
vatechshooting.net
vatechshooting.org
vatechshooting.info
vatechshooting.us
vatechshooting.biz
vtshooting.com
vtshooting.info
vatechmassacre.com
vatechmassacre.net
vatechmassacre.info
vatechmassacre.biz
vtmassacre.com
vtmassacre.net
vtmassacre.org
vtmassacre.info
virginiatechrampage.com
vatechrampage.com
vtrampage.com
virginiatechmurders.com
virginiatechmurders.net
virginiatechmurders.org
virginiatechmurders.info
virginiatechmurders.us
vatechmurders.com
vtmurders.com
hokieshootings.com
hokiemassacre.com
blacksburgshootings.com</i>

<b>Also, thank you to the dozens of people including (Washington Post, Univ of Kansas, Wired, Hipinion, and others) who have referenced my blog and did not just steal my content!</b>

--

Original Source: <a href="http://www.secondcityceo.com/2007/04/16/breaking-news-people-already-profiting-from-virginia-tech-shooting/">http://www.secondcityceo.com/2007/04/16/breaking-news-people-already-profiting-from-virginia-tech-shooting/</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5</a>.

Seth Kravitz

2007-05-26

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5

eng

VT Massacre: Could it Happen at Hampden-Sydney???

Submitted by JohnMaxfield on Tue, 04/17/2007 - 7:30am.

<b>Would this have happened at a school like Hampden-Sydney? That is the question.</b>

And the answer must be dealt with <b>delicately</b>, in the aftermath of such a horrendous massacre that hopefully we will never see repeated in our history. But the fact remains--could this tragedy have been down scaled and at best, diffused, if students were allowed to possess firearms on school campuses?

I noticed Cliff Garstang&#39;s blog going through the aggregator. He had a <a href="http://democracyinvirginia.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-tragedy.html">post up about the tragedy</a> and I thought for once, that he might have a kind word to pass along to the families in mourning. Instead, it ended up being a diatribe about how <i>guns are <b>bad</b>, guns are <b>evil</b>, <b>conservatives</b> are <b>wrong</b> and <b>reactionary</b>, I&#39;m <b>right</b> and <b>you all are wrong</b>, etc. <b>etc.</b></i>

He went on to say how conservatives are of the mindset that if perhaps either some of the students or faculty had been armed, then this might have stopped the shooter. Of course, he disagreed saying, "<b>Put a gun in the hand of every college kid in the country? That&#39;s not only absurd, it&#39;s just crazy. Arming the citizenry will mean more gun-related deaths, intentional and otherwise, not fewer. The sane approach is to make sure that there are fewer guns. Not more.</b>"

<b>What?</b> So here is where my question comes in? Do you think that this tragedy would have happened--better yet--do you think the students would have ALLOWED it to happen at Hampden-Sydney College? Of course not. Why, you ask? Because Hampden-Sydney promotes and allows the use of firearms on campus! Students sleep with shotguns under their beds! They hunt, fish, and target shoot on school property. The Admission Office houses a literal armory of firearms and weaponry under neath that building in their vaults. Statically, the college flaunts, enough firepower to defend the campus against a small country. In talking with a friend after the incident who goes to school there, he said that had discussed this exact issue. They figured that if a shooter dared tried to commit the same horrendous atrocities like at VPI, they wouldn&#39;t last but 10 minutes...alive. So is it absurd, Clifford? Is it a crazy notion? If you was that unidentified Asian...who would you be more likely to attack? A school who prides itself in the respect of the Second Amendment--or schools like VPI, UVA, or William and Mary--that have strict anti-gun polices on campus?

Cliff said that, "<b>Arming the citizenry will mean more gun-related deaths, intentional and otherwise, not fewer.</b>" <b>Really?</b> Well when was the last time of anyone hearing about those gun related incidents at schools that allow and promote gun usage on campus? Why do the &#39;incidents&#39; only occur in school that have anti-gun policies? One can almost draw this parallel--why are the more violent crimes committed in cities like Washington, D.C. and in countries like Great Britain where firearm usage and most possession is illegal? Are we seeing a pattern here? And, sorry, just had to make this final comment, Cliff says that, "The sane approach is to make sure that there are fewer guns. Not more." <b>So people at Hamden-Sydney are insane?</b> Is that the point you are trying to make? And are the people in D.C. who make the gun control laws <b><i>SANE</i></b>?

More on the tragedy: <a href="http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2007/04/va-techs-derek-odell-story-of-survivor.html#links">here</a>, <a href="http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2007/04/george-allens-statement-regarding-va.html#links">here</a>, <a href="http://www.spankthatdonkey.com/spankthatdonkey2/2007/4/17/va-tech-vs-applachian-law-school-take-your-pick.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://kilosparksitup.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech.html">here</a>

--

Original Source: <a href="http://www.progressiveu.org/103032-vt-massacre-could-it-happen-at-hampden-sydney">http://www.progressiveu.org/103032-vt-massacre-could-it-happen-at-hampden-sydney</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0</a>.

John Maxfield

2007-05-26

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0

eng

Mariacristina Blog Archive for Virginia Tech

<b>Arms Control Begins at Home</b>

April 29, 2007 at 3:28 pm &#183; Filed under Virginia Tech, compassion, meditation, violence

I need to be hit with a ton of bricks for a message to sink in. For a long time I&#39;ve spoken about gun control, nuclear disarmament, and crisis prevention, but it took the VT massacre to finally get the message. I know this must appear selfish to the millions of people across the globe who wake up to gunshots on a regular basis, but since my own personal life is relatively peaceful, I didn&#39;t do anything overt to help stop violence. Until now.

I used to think that all I could do was to practice a non-reactionary life by not exploding in anger toward those who cross me. Even though anger management and meditation on a worldwide scale to me is the answer to violence, I now think political activism must also be added to my list of solutions. No more cheering from the sidelines. My voice will be heard beyond the walls of my comfortable home.

--

<b>Making sense of slaughter</b>

April 20, 2007 at 7:17 pm &#183; Filed under Virginia Tech, violence

At the Virginia Tech memorial service, Nikki Giovanni gave a moving and memorable speech. Her words were poetry in motion, urging the students to "embrace their mourning". She reminded us that no victim ever asked to be rubbed out, citing examples of atrocities from Africa to the Appalachians.

As an individual, I can shape what I want my life to be by acting on my dreams. That&#39;s what the students and teachers at VT were doing. But somehow their dream got tangled up with a madman&#39;s nightmare. Caught defensless and unaware, they were slaughtered as if they were still targets on a shooting range. Easy to mark.

No, this guy wasn&#39;t insane. He chose to commit evil. But a long time ago a shift had taken place in his mind that separated him from the rest of the human race. He wasn&#39;t born evil. He had to become the monster. Something or someone shaped him into what he was.

Where does evil begin? How do I reconcile the opposing images of slaughter with the fact of my own continued existence? I don&#39;t think there&#39;s enough time left in my life to figure out the answers to these questions.

In the meantime, I act. I embrace the mourning, and also wait in awareness to feel a moment of joy.

--

<b>Where were you when it happened?</b>

April 19, 2007 at 3:06 pm &#183; Filed under Virginia Tech, violence

On Monday, the day of the shootings, I went to a yoga class, unaware of the violence unfolding in Blacksburg. The class was serene. Before raising our arms in salutation to the sun, the teacher had us fold our palms over the sternum, then place our hands over the third eye, fingertips touching. We repeated these motions throughout the class, while flowing in and out of the various postures.

I went home, worked for a few hours, and then made lunch. I sat down at the table and reached for the remote. I watch CNN during lunch because I eat alone, and I&#39;m also a glutton for punishment. When I looked at the remote, something surged inside of me. It was a thought, or a sense, that as soon as I turned on the TV I would learn of something catastrophic, something worse than the typical bad news. It was a thought that made me pause.

This strange intuition wasn&#39;t like my usual fears. I worry about imagined events about 50% of the day. It wasn&#39;t fear, it was simple certainty.

When I turned on the TV a nano second after that flash of thought, it was like stepping into a nightmare. Twenty-two shot dead, then thirty-two!

Later, in the evening, I went for a walk. The air was softer and sweeter, the leaves on the trees more vibrant, the sky more blue than I&#39;ve ever seen it. And I thought, this is so beautiful, how happy I am to be walking along this road, enjoying the evening sun reflected off the tops of the live oaks. And all the while I thought about the students and professors, who in this place and time will never again witness a walk down a country road. Their loved ones will never again enjoy the pleasure of their company. Their parents will grieve the loss of their special child until the end of their days.

--

Original Source: <a href="http://mariacristina.wordpress.com/tag/virginia-tech/">http://mariacristina.wordpress.com/tag/virginia-tech/</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0</a>.

Christine Swint

2007-05-25

Brent Jesiek

eng

It's time to confront the gun lobby

by D. Grant Haynes <i>Thursday, Apr. 19, 2007 at 2:10 PM</i>

<i>The senseless murder of 32 people at Virginia Tech underlines once again the necessity for stricter gun control laws in the United States.</i>

Americans are busily soul searching one more time after another mass killing at an educational institution.

This time the setting was a university rather than a secondary school.

But the ghastly spectacle that unfolded at Virginia Polytechnic University in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16 when a disaffected student--Cho Seung-Hui, 23--systematically executed 32 innocent students and faculty members was fully as terrible as other such recent massacres in America--only worse.

More were killed at Virginia Tech than at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago. And the killer&#39;s cold-blooded and methodical resolve, as well as an inexplicable lack of appropriate and timely responses from police officers on the scene, will put the Virginia Tech massacre in a class apart always.

Media pundits, politicians, university administrators, psychologists, clergymen and others talk endlessly now about what lessons might be learned from Virginia Tech.

The university should have had a better evacuation or lock down protocol in place.

University and other police officers should have been more diligent in protecting students from Cho Seung-Hui&#39;s rage after his first shooting spree in which he killed two individuals more than two hours before he reappeared on campus to kill 30 more students.

The mental health community should have done a better job of intervention when Cho Seung-Hui had, over several years&#39; time, displayed symptoms of mental illness.

There is ample blame to go around in this botched and bungled phantasmagoric mess that, seemingly, could not have been handled in a worse way than it was handled.

But in all of the hand-wringing 24-hour non-stop media reportage and speculation about Blacksburg, few professionals and fewer politicians with their fingers to the wind and their campaign coffers chock full of National Rifle Association dollars in some cases, have been willing to state the obvious.

Cho Seung-Hui could not have murdered 32 people so efficiently in Blacksburg, Virginia, on April 16 without access to two pistols and endless rounds of ammunition for them.

Cho was a brooding youth. One of his teachers had identified him as deeply troubled because of the excessively violent nature of his fictionalized scenarios. She had even referred him for counseling.

He had had encounters with the university police over allegations of stalking others.

He had been described as a potential menace to himself and others by a mental health professional.

Should not these facts alone have been a red flag sufficient to dictate a more than perfunctory look at him when he sought to acquire death-dealing hand guns?

That should have been the case and would have been in a more sensible culture.

Had minimally effective gun control laws been in place in Virginia when Cho sought to purchase his pistols and cartridges, he would have been denied a permit and 32 dead Virginia Tech students and faculty members would be alive today.

For all practical purposes, anyone in this nation can obtain a firearm, regardless of his or her emotional stability, maturity, or legitimate need for the weapon.

This is wrong and is cause for people in more sane societies to fear for their very lives when contemplating a trip to America. This writer knows whereof he speaks because he lived in Great Britain for a time and was asked often about the danger of being gunned down in America.

What must they all think today?

More stringent gun control is the only answer to the madness of disaffected youths and others who, repeatedly, have walked into schools and work places and murdered innocent people.

But cowardly Democrats who should be at the forefront of gun control legislation are already distancing themselves from calls for tougher gun laws in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Congressional Democrats fear the wrath of the National Rifle Association and that organization&#39;s clout with a certain segment of American voters too much to do what they know is both right and desperately needed.

Senate majority leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) squelched serious talk of more rigid gun controls following the Virginia Tech shootings. The Associated Press reported Reid&#39;s lackluster and cowardly response to questions of stricter gun control as blood was being mopped at Virginia Tech.

"After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a &#39;rush to judgment&#39; on stricter gun control....

"I think we ought to be thinking about the families and the victims and not speculate about future legislative battles that might lie ahead," said Reid... ."

And you should also be thinking about the families and the victims of the next such massacre, Senator Reid.

A ban on the sale of assault rifles in the United States--one that was in place from 1994 until 2004 when a Republican Congress permitted it to expire--should be reinstated as soon as possible.

And hand gun acquisition requirements should also be made more restrictive as soon as possible.

The American with a legitimate need for a personal hand gun--certainly and especially a license to carry such a weapon on his person--should become a rare exception rather than the rule.

The Cho Seung-Hui&#39;s of this nation should never be permitted to purchase a handgun or an assault rifle. Background checks prior to the sale of a pistol should be infinitely more thorough--modeled, perhaps after the British system.

The only viable solution to the epidemic of mass killings at American educational institutions and work places is to drastically reduce the number of guns in the hands of Americans.

This can be done and should be done.

And to those who would at this point trot out the tired old bromide, "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns", one can only observe that we must start somewhere and at some point in time.

The process may take decades, but if assault rifle acquisitions are stanched altogether and hand guns are made infinitely more difficult to obtain, there will be ever fewer of each in circulation over time.

That would represent a move in the right direction and would be a fitting memorial to those who gave their lives at Virginia Tech because Virginia&#39;s gun laws had permitted a psychologically impaired youth to acquire the instruments to murder 32 people on a morning that will live in infamy throughout American history.

How many more Virginia Techs must occur before our elected representatives muster the courage to confront the gun lobby and do what must be done?

--

Original Source: <a href="http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/197101.php">http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/04/197101.php</a>

(c) Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.

D. Grant Haynes

2007-05-25

Brent Jesiek

(c) Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center.

eng

Massacre at Virginia Tech: Let the Media Exploitation Begin

Posted Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 at 1:43 AM by Justin

I hate it how, whenever we have a national tragedy, journos just eat it up. The TV stations make logos for it, and slogans like "Massacre at Virginia Tech" that become ominous jingles as the anchors and announcers repeat them as a story unfolds.

We&#39;re watching Dateline NBC now (for the first time ever), and the exploitation of the V Tech tragedy is enraging. Matt Lauer is just getting too much mileage out of it.

They take every aspect of the story and make it into an entertainment event. They interview grief counselors and find out how that works. They pull out footage of previous shootings. They interview paramedics and enlighten us about their work. It&#39;s all for entertainment and to create viewership for the network.

The other people who infuriate me when we have a tragedy is the "expert" morons who get on the tube saying how this could have easily been prevented. Their hindsight is perfect, and they get to promote themselves as experts every time an unpreventable tragedy happens. There&#39;s a guy on Dateline now talking about how they should have sent in a massive anti-terrorism response team after the first two people were shot. Come on. We&#39;re going to send in the ATF or the army or whomever every time there&#39;s a shooting? Ten thousand people are shot to death each year in this country. We can&#39;t treat each incident like an act of terrorism as this guy is suggesting.

The other thing I hate about the "if only" experts is that they implicitly blame everyone involved. If only the campus police had done something different. If only the email had gone out sooner warning people to stay in lockdown. None of this was foreseeable - who could have known a campus shooting (like the one that happened in Seattle a few weeks ago) would turn into a massacre?

I say, mourn with those who mourn, and stop exploiting them for publicity and our need to know.

If that weren&#39;t enough, they&#39;re now doing a story about a guy who survived the Columbine massacre but lost his sister, Rachel Scott. Emotional aftermath and all that. Ugh. "Soon, even prayer was no match for the terror..."

--

Original Source: <a href="http://www.radicalcongruency.com/20070416-massacre-at-virginia-tech-let-the-media-exploitation-begin">http://www.radicalcongruency.com/20070416-massacre-at-virginia-tech-let-the-media-exploitation-begin</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution 2.5</a>.

Justin Baeder

2007-05-25

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5

eng

Tragedy In Virginia As Some Fail To Draw Conclusions From VTech Massacre

By a4g
Point Five Staff Writer @ 4:51 pm
April 16, 2007

--

Fears Raised That Details Of Shooting Might Be Released Into Context-Free Void

--

A massacre at Virginia Tech took the lives of 32 on Monday. But as the sun set, and sketchy details slowly emerged on what was still a largely unclear series of events, an even greater tragedy began to reveal itself, as a few irresponsible Americans had not yet drawn broad life lessons from the atrocity.

"We&#39;ve got scores of kids dead or wounded," said one police officer on the scene, "and there&#39;s folks out there who have the gall to tell me they haven&#39;t decided what this teaches us about America? Sometimes I wonder if I even recognize this country anymore."

While most media reports wisely began to correlate the shootings almost immediately to pre-packaged positions on gun control and video game violence, few ordinary citizens have the resources of a major television network to so neatly encapsulate the horror�- and the life lessons� of the shooting spree into an easily digestible sound bite. This worries analyst Greg Collier, who warned that such individuals were basically "on their own", and may find themselves without a support system when the media machine moves onto the next big story sometime Wednesday or Thursday.

"Listen, if you&#39;re big on Sudden Jihad Syndrome, just for example," said Collier, "you&#39;ve got a window of basically six to twelve hours before they identify the shooter. So what are you waiting for? If you don&#39;t take your shot against Islam now, and this guy turns out not to be a diabolical Muslim convert�- but just some ordinary shmuck with some adjustment problems�- you&#39;re out of the discussion, irrelevant."

He said the same devastating metric applied to race hustlers, white supremacists, militant feminists, conspiracy theorists, and Bill Maher.

"If you haven&#39;t drawn your conclusions by nightfall, you&#39;re going to be trampled by tomorrow&#39;s news cycle. I mean, imagine if right now you were still pondering the implications of the Imus firing, leisurely asking yourself questions about the proper response to boorish behavior in a society that values free speech. Hello? Imus is gone, baby. Al Sharpton already solved racial inequality last week. We&#39;re on school shootings now. We&#39;ve got a country to save, people."

Even worse, mental health professionals feel that important "closure" may not occur in those who are unwilling to quickly find a way to make sense of the murders.

"As humans, we need to make sense of the senseless," said Dr. Jane Krempsky, a grief counselor, television commentator, and frequent expert witness in civil trials.
"We need to exert our control over those things that seem uncontrollable, in order to feel safe once again. Some people just don&#39;t appreciate that the clock is ticking."

Krempsky said the issues involved in this shooting became plain almost the instant that the widely conflicting reports hit the wires, and included increased gun control, liberalized concealed carry, the effects of the Iraq war, America&#39;s obsession with violence, the feminization of the Western male, and the prevalence of pre-marital sex and binge drinking on campus.

As one blogger noted in an iconic post near the end of the day: "Virginia who? Oh yeah... I remember that. Horrible tragedy. That was the one caused by global warming, right?"

--

Original Source: <a href="http://pointfiveblog.com/index.php/2007/04/1260">http://pointfiveblog.com/index.php/2007/04/1260</a>

Licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License</a>.

a4g / Point Five Blog

2007-05-25

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5

eng

Don't Conceal This Debate

<p>Tom DeLay</p>
<p>Former Tennessee Senator and potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson had a very interesting article in the National Review on April 20th entitled, "Signs of Intelligence?" which dealt with concealed carry laws on the Virginia Tech Campus. In the article he writes,</p>
<blockquote>Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus...</blockquote>
<blockquote>...So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university&#39;s "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.</blockquote>
<p>To read the article in its entirety click <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTIwYzMyZmQ1YzQ1MDNmZTMyYzQ1Y2U3YTU4YzNmNGE=">here</a> (and I would encourage you to do so because Senator Thompson makes a lot of sense on this issue).</p>
<p>I did some research on my own on the background of this Virginia Tech concealed carry debate and I found <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80510">this article</a> in the Roanoke Times submitted by a Virginia Tech graduate student during August of last year. Entitled "Unarmed and Vulnerable" it is written by a Mr. Bradford Wiles and it says this,</p>
<blockquote>On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m., my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center. We were interrupted in class and not informed of anything other than the following words: "You need to get out of the building."</blockquote>
<blockquote>Upon exiting the classroom, we were met at the doors leading outside by two armor-clad policemen with fully automatic weapons, plus their side arms. Once outside, there were several more officers with either fully automatic rifles and pump shotguns, and policemen running down the street, pistols drawn.</blockquote>
<blockquote>It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself...</blockquote>
<blockquote>...This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.</blockquote>
<p>Given the horrific nature of recent events, Mr. Wiles&#39; article has certainly become even more prescient and chilling. Would that Bradford had been in the engineering building that terrible day with the correct law in place - perhaps the tragedy may have ended very differently.</p>
<p>There are many who view supporters of concealed carry laws as fringe crazies who envision life as some kind of ongoing shootem&#39; up western movie. However, statistics don&#39;t lie. Jurisdictions which allow responsible citizens the free exercise of their Second Amendment rights have lower levels of violent crime. Ask most incarcerated criminals whether they take into account existing gun laws in choosing their targets and where they will commit a crime and the answer is a resounding yes.</p>
<p>Call me a crazy if you wish, but I think this pro Second Amendment Argument of mine and others bears listening to.</p>
<p>Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 09:41AM by Tom DeLay</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Original Source: <a href="http://www.tomdelay.com/home/2007/4/26/dont-conceal-this-debate.html">http://www.tomdelay.com/home/2007/4/26/dont-conceal-this-debate.html</a></p>
<p>Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5</a>.</p>

Tom DeLay

2007-05-25

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5

eng

Of Shooters and Schools

Why must we pay the price
For others sins and vice?
As I lay dying here, I cry.
I wonder, <i>Why, why, why?</i>
~Joseph M. Skipsey, April 23rd, 2007

<b>Of Shooters and Schools</b>

Can video games make kids more violent? A new study employing state-of-the-art brain-scanning technology says that the answer may be yes.
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal - and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention.
Does this mean that your teenager will feel an uncontrollable urge to go on a shooting rampage after playing "Call of Duty?"
-Excerpt Taken from the MSNBC On the Level article, "Does game violence make teens aggressive?"

It&#39;s the same tired old stories, over and over. These are but entertainment, without meaning. So, they make you more violent? No, I believe the article is suggesting that playing violent video games simply makes you more more "emotionally aroused."

You can&#39;t blame games, the ESRB was put there for a reason. If you&#39;re unaware that video games are under a strict ratings system, you don&#39;t deserve to speak on such an issue. Movies don&#39;t have anything on the incredible vista of the ESRB. You can&#39;t find a medium of entertainment with a more defined set of guidelines than the ESRB, and the ratings are there for a reason, and deserve enforcement.

Pardon me, but just because you can scan and find emotional arousal, does that mean positive emotion? Negative emotion? Neutral emotion? What exactly does this arousal mean? Until it can be discerned, all these statements are inaccurate. You need to prove then, that emotion is the link. Or, is it? After all, these killers are described as being cold and emotionless, right?

What makes people do the violent acts in the first place? So far, most of these cases have shown mental illness, rage/anger issues, hate, race, and of course, suffering. Where are the cases of sane, rational, normal individuals playing these games and deciding to go kill people? None. All the school shootings? Most were angry youth, youth with guns, youth who were outsiders, the weak, the defenceless, the bullied. Not a single average Joe picking up a gun after a refreshing game of "Kill People" and blowing away innocents.

What we fail to see is an actual connection between motive and games. I see motive in one way, and games in another, because they are NOT the SAME! There are very well-defined lines between motive and what someone does in their spare time. You see, when it comes down to it, you need motive to commit, and without a motive, there is no crime.

Motives like, oh say: Abuse by parents, abuse by peers, bullying, loneliness, delusions, hatred, religious beliefs, monetary issues, and many more.

What needs to be examined is the link between society and killers like this. What makes these people? Look, and you shall find, and it will surprise me not, but shock you beyond your comfortable world of minor tragedy.

The breakdown in society comes not from video games, but from the way we treat some people in it. No one can imagine what horrors some have gone through. I have lived through what I can only describe as sheer torture, for a lack of wanting to dredge up the painful memories. I have come through, and come through well, and I am now working on becoming someone to change the ways these things go about. "Boys will be boys." A bitter, and cruel memory of a tear cried long ago.

I came through my own trial that was childhood, and emerged matured beyond my chronological age. I have stared a coming death in the eyes, and welcomed it with relief. Never does one grow so quickly than when faced with their own life, about to be snuffed out. But I did not die, thanks to one boy who saw others throw me into a dumpster like so much trash, unable to move my arms from the beating they gave me first, bare seconds before a garbage truck came by to collect the garbage, to compact it... and me. One boy, who defied apathy, and saved my life. Live through the worst pain you could ever feel, for six years, alone, different, and scared, then claim that "Boys will be Boys."

For some, the burden warped them, destroyed them, and turned them into beasts, murderous and violent. Killers. But, thanks to several factors, including loving, caring parents, kind teachers, books, and counselling, I stayed human.

It&#39;s an odd feeling, to know you have lived through what broke others, what turned them into bitter, meek, but ever defiant individuals, right down to when they killed others and then themselves.

It&#39;s hard to take when others blame playthings, hobbies, toys, and useless, un-important junk and lay the cause of guilt onto simple objects. Hard to take, to know that someone spent their life in pain, ends it, and yes, they made a bad choice, but it was also a lesson. One which went ignored. Rather than try to fix what is broken, we find ways to avoid examining it. It&#39;s hard to believe, that when a young man kills his peers, takes his life, and writes in a note left in his house about just how horrible a life it was, that others simply dismiss it as vanity, preening, a bid for publicity, rather than take in stride that there is a problem in the echelons of societal form. No one understands them. And that&#39;s one of the worst parts.

I am alive. I am well. I live my life, and rejoice in the pleasures of taking breath, looking at the natural beauty of the world around me, the cool caress of the wind on my face, with the glow of the sun. I live content, confident in a future, bright in possibilities. But I will always remember what it took to make me see the way I do, to have the very thing that makes me different, and the humiliation and indignities I lived through. But the past is the past, and I look to the future, looking to speak, be heard, and change the system that nearly destroyed me, the system that is supported by the strong, the system that propagates stereotypes, and the system that creates the very things it fears most.

I lost my childhood when I was but six. I grew up too fast, in a hard system, and have learned some very hard lessons. These lessons have taught me what you&#39;re still struggling to comprehend. There is no deep mystery to why the school shooters do this. It is simply misguided vengeance, striking against what they feel is the cause of their misery. Their school, their peers, and themselves. They hate their existence, and others for what they did to make their existence the kind they hated. Therefore, they attack both at the same time, and martyr themselves to their ideas of justice, of vengeance, and of retribution. They do it for themselves, for other victims, for the weak, the defenseless, whatever they want to.

Because they are without hope. They are without pity, for they have received none. They have no mercy or regret, as they have learned from those who showed them nought. Their consciences are but husks, destroyed by oppression and injustice. They looked into others eyes as they were hurt, as they were abused, in pain, and all they saw were the malice of their attackers, and the apathy of the crowd, staring into their eyes, and seeing nothing. They have walked where few have dared to tread, but where several are forced to walk. Alone, feeling only the worst things, falling into darkness, with healthy shoves from ignorant and callous peers.

This is why. This is what no one will say. This is not your pretty glossy CNN coverage, not your heartening fiction of fantasy, nor your peppy college psychology lecture. This is hard, gritty truth, this is a revelation of knowledge, and a desperate cry to end the pain, the bloodshed, the sorrow.

Kind of sad, don&#39;t you think, how a 17 year old just told you exactly what countless people have been searching for. The answers to why School Shooters do what they&#39;re named for. And do you know what the saddest part will be? When this goes ignored, because this couldn&#39;t possibly be it. And I will watch and cry, as more and more people die while we look for the answer that is right in front of our noses, as we assign blame to scapegoats, and as we lower the bodies of innocents, and heroes into the ground.

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<b>Author&#39;s Comments</b>

I hate the way the world is working these days. All violence and bloodshed, killers and crazies, all over school shootings. The latest Tragedy is now becoming a Travesty, and all we can seem to do is blame peripherals.

Monsters aren&#39;t born; They&#39;re created.

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Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 23, 2007:
href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53886930/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53886930/</a>

Licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.

Joseph M. Skipsey

2007-05-24

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5

eng

Losing Students: Virginia Tech

by SamiSunshine

That is a prime example of colleges not looking into the right cases and not checking up on people. Once Cho started to stalk people, he should have been expelled. They seem to spend more time fighting underage drinking than sexual assult.

Relating that to the U of A, at one of the dorms my friend was staying with a girl who had moved into her room from another dorm. What my friend didn&#39;t know was that the girl was moved from the other room for taking a knife and slashing up the furniture and threatening people. Finally my friend got really scared because the girl did something similar again and instead of kicking the psycho girl out, they moved my friend in with another girl and the psycho has her own room. In this same dorm, another friend got kicked out of the dorm system because his roommates said he didn&#39;t clean and said he was smoking pot while there was no evidence of the fact.

And counselors and administrators never get back to you. I had a really bad panic attack the night before an exam and I couldn&#39;t take it because of some harm I did to myself and I explained that to the dean&#39;s secretary who said that she was going to refer me to counselors who would call me in the next few day. They never called. I finally went to the counselors on my own and a lady gave me the names of therapists and said she would call in the next few days. She never called. I could have been so far on the edge that I could have harmed myself or others. I could have been another Cho. But, the university decided to not check up on me, a severely stressed out, freaked out person who was living in the dorms with many other students. I could have been a risk to others and they still did not make sure that I wasn&#39;t a threat to myself or others.

I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if that had happened at Virginia Tech. Don&#39;t blame strict/lax gun laws, violence in the media, or society in general: blame the people who were supposed to be protecting, mentoring, and caring for the students. Cho Seung-Hui had been referred to counseling, he had a record as a stalker, he had a reputation as a disturbed individual: did the President have to march over to the Virgina Tech campus health and demand that they see Cho? This tragedy could happen anywhere. My heartfelt condolences to the victims, their families, and Cho&#39;s family. This should be something that should inspire universities to protect and try to heal their students, not lose them in the masses.

ETA: On a more frivolous note, its appalling that someone with such bad writing could be a Senior English major. The most disturbing things about his writing is how bad it is. That says something about the writing program at Virginia Tech. And, it ain&#39;t good.

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<b>Author&#39;s Comments</b>

This is a little rant about how many chances they had to stop Cho and how little they did and how it isn&#39;t just a problem that Virginia Tech has. Its a problem at universities all over the United States.

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Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 19, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53594990/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53594990/</a>

Licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License</a>.

SamiSunshine

2007-05-24

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5

eng

Letter from a VT Student

Today was by far the most trying day I&#39;ve experienced in my life. On April 16, 2007 33 people were killed, with 15 more wounded on the Virginia Tech Campus. I know that this is likely not new information, but I repeat it just to add strength to my message. There are not words to properly express just what feelings this day has brought. Surreal doesn&#39;t even begin to describe it. I&#39;ve spoken to more people on the phone today than I have in any day I can remember. The hours spent in the dorm just waiting and watching, seeing the events unfold and hearing the number of dead and wounded climb higher was the epitome of helplessness. This was a tragedy the likes of which have never been seen before, and hopefully will never be seen again. We heard it over and over again. The worst school shooting in US history, they said at first. Then, the worst mass murder in US history as the numbers climbed. Any attempt to convey the emotions and thoughts which barraged my mind today would be futile, vain, and ultimately trite. This was a dark day, near black as night.

That said, I have every confidence in this university and this community. I believe this town is capable of rising to the occasion and overcoming this monumental tragedy. I have no idea what the coming days and weeks hold in store, or even the slightest notion of what will happen as time transpires. There is no set procedure for handling something of this magnitude, by sheer virtue of the fact that it has never happened. In spite of that, I feel we, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, students, faculty and staff all, and the town of Blacksburg, are capable of bonding together to lift each other over this hurdle. We will pay our dues and respects to those deceased. We MUST pay our dues and our respects. Anything less would be a mark upon our record.

It is only then that we can hope to begin the rebuilding and healing process. It will be a long time before any student can step into Norris Hall without immediately drawing to mind thoughts of the events which occurred in that building today. I can only imagine what those who live on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall must feel now, and likely for nights to come, in regards to what transpired there as well. However, as time passes and we slowly heal, these things will become easier. And until that time, if we band together, teachers and students, all majors and classes, then we will be able to carry on our work as an academic institution. That is the best way we can hope to honor the memories of those murdered here for years to come. We must continue to learn, to advance the knowledge of our society and our species, that we may continue to understand the universe in all its parts. This applies not only to this university, but to every university in the United States and the world, present and future. I leave you all with one final plea from a freshman at this university, a plea echoed from every corner of this university by every student, faculty and staff member, all who witnessed this tragedy. I beg of you, on Tuesday, April 17, 2007, and for as long afterward as you may be convinced to do so, wear any maroon and orange you can find in remembrance of those innocents slain here. To borrow from several sources throughout the day, for the sake of those lost, put aside your allegiances and college ties for at least a short time. For today, we are all Hokies.

In most sincere regards and hope,
Mark Malloy
Virginia Tech Class of 2010

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<b>Author&#39;s Comments</b>

A letter to the world from me, a Virginia Tech student, regarding the events of April 16, 2007. Please spread this as far as you can.

Feel free to copy it and send it to people. If you have trouble doing that here, go to my xanga site, <a href="http://www.xanga.com/guitaristam73">[link]</a> for a copy. I&#39;d also like to thank everyone around the world who has been so supportive in this time. We are all Hokies, yesterday, today, and every day hence.

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Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 19, 2007: <a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53551291/">http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53551291/</a>

Mark Malloy

2007-05-24

Brent Jesiek

eng