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Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder
twoscrewsloose
16 April 2007 @ 09:58 am
You could say I'm somewhat less than satisfied.  
Two emails I received within a few minutes of each other.

"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston [one of the dorms] earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.

The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case."

Okay. This coupled with the bomb threats over the past couple weeks.. those visiting high schoolers are either getting a very poor image of our school, or causing faaaarrr too much trouble.

But then, a bit later..

"Hello everyone,

The Alliance of Concerned Students is a campus climate team run by the Student Government Association with direct support from both the Dean of Students Office and Multicultural Programs and Services. We are eager to hear from more students so we can continue to address issues of campus climate!

Has your experience at Virginia Tech been less than perfect?
..."

Yes. Yes, it has.

Oh, hey, upside, though! I got another email saying it was too dangerous for me to leave my dorm. So no classes this morning [EDIT: Or all of today, or tomorrow, even. Yeesh]. Also, it's snowing!

...You'd think these two things would cancel each other out, but no, not in my mind. Oh, hey! *turns on TV* Wonder if we're on the news like last time.

Less then perfect? Yeah, you could say that.

[EDIT: Buh.. yeah, we're on the news. This isn't at all like last time. Last time, some crazy guy got loose and ran around campus until they found him again. I mean, I think a couple people got shot, and it's sad, but..

This time, people are dead. Many people. At least 22, if you believe the news, and about that many again in the hospital wounded. Jeez... I mean... jeez. ...I mean... there just aren't words for it. I mean... I.. I just don't have the words for this.
I don't even know what to feel now.]

[EDIT2: Wow. Um. Well, they've let people back out of the classrooms, but only to go back to wherever they live, as far as I can tell. Dining halls are back open, but.. Well, I don't think anyone wants to go out there now. And even worse, the kill count is up to 32. I don't know if that's people that just didn't make it in the hospital, or if they found more bodies, or what. In any case, it's pretty firmly established that this is literally the most lethal school shooting in US history.]

[EDIT3: So.. apparently now I'm a news source? I've been linked to from the Wikipedia entry's talk page, and apparently some news source that makes even more disjointed entries than I do. ...I don't really know why anyone would want to see what I've got to say about this, since all I know is what I've seen on the news. I haven't even left my dorm today, I've been eating bagel crisps and sun chips. This is all just crazy.
Today doesn't even seem real, you know? Even the weather's being weird. Super windy, it's giving the people out there lots of trouble.]
 
 
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31 comments | Leave a comment
 
( 31 comments — Post a new comment )
Growlithe[info]sandaa on April 16th, 2007 04:40 pm (UTC)
Man, that is really awful. Glad to hear you're okay, though.
(Anonymous) on April 17th, 2007 12:38 am (UTC)
Why is everyone suprised?
With the gun laws in the good old USA it's no wonder these types of things happen. Look to your almighty government and ask them WHY is it so easy to own a gun in this country? and why is ammo so cheap and accessible? I think if you got them on a honest day you might get an answer somewhere along the lines of: "It's all about money nobody gives a fuck!"

For the media this is good news they will be all over it like a fucking rash. The media loves bad news and the government loves it too, keeps us all living in fear just like we should be according to the government.
Growlithe[info]sandaa on April 17th, 2007 12:42 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
...what is with this ridiculous spam?
(Anonymous) on April 18th, 2007 01:36 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
What's with the denial?
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 18th, 2007 01:41 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
What denial? I'm curious about the rash of spam too.
(Anonymous) on April 19th, 2007 07:17 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
haha call it what you will but whoever posted the original post is pretty much spot on. Come on it's easier to buy a gun in parts of America than it is to buy cigarettes! When guns are so readily available it's only a matter of time until things like this happen.

Everyone is focusing on "Why wasn't the campus shutdown after the first shooting" typical! look for someone to blame.

Why not focus some attention on the root causes of this horrible event?

Guns are part of your everyday life and with that "right to bear arms" comes some responsibility but not everyone is responsible now are they?
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder: Red alert[info]twoscrewsloose on April 19th, 2007 08:01 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
Oh, for crying out loud.

Look. This "look for someone to blame" thing you think everyone but you is doing? That's you too. I don't blame you, it's human nature. Everyone's trying to find someone to blame for this thing. But yanno what?

It's not the gun company's fault.
It's not the government's fault.
It's not the school's fault.
It's not the family's fault.
It's not video games' fault.
It's not rap music's fault.
It's not Satan's fault.
It's not aliens' fault.
It's not his friends' fault.
It's not your fault.
It's not my fault.

When it comes down to it, there was only one finger on each trigger. The root cause of this horrible event was a single psychotic person who wanted to kill people, and then did. He could have done it with a knife, explosives, or his own bare hands. And the kill count could have been a different number, either higher or lower. But him having guns isn't why this happened.

And do your research before you start ranting about policy. There's a 30-day waiting period per gun in Virginia. This guy was planning this for at least two months, it wasn't some thing where he went "ooh, I have guns, I'll go kill people!" It doesn't work that way.
I only wish cigarettes were that hard to buy.
(Anonymous) on April 19th, 2007 02:45 pm (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
You are right of course. As much as I would like more gun control, you are right. We can't take this as an excuse though, say we couldn't have done anything, so we should not do anything in the future. Many people tried to do something, there are things we will learn from this that could save lives in the future.
There are things that we can do as a society, it is about minimizing risk at some cost to our rights - a balancing act.
So, you are right.. but don't lose hope.
[info]constant314 on April 20th, 2007 01:03 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
I've been observing my fellow humans for 5 decades (maybe observing for 4 and experiencing for 5). I can't say the human animal is any better or any worse. But it does seem that he has access to more fire power. It is my perception that we are not as safe now as were a half century ago. Of course the perception of a child cannot be adequately compared to an adult, but I can compare the feelings of adults then and myself now. When I was young, barely eight, my best friend and I were allowed to camp out in the front yard. No one worried that a psychotic individual would cause harm to us in the night. But when my own children were that age I would not allow them to do so. So, yes, I think I feel my children are less safe than my parents felt about theirs.

But there is a flip side. We are safer now from the authorities, bureaucrats, agents and petty tyrants of our own government. When I was in junior high, a young man could get detention for letting his shirt tail hang out and could be paddled for forgetting his belt and suspended should the elastic top of his underwear be seen. I watched at least one sadistic physical ed coach inflict punishment on his charges with a leather strap for any number of minor offenses, while I said a private prayer of thanks that I was in the class of the nice coach who's punishments tended toward picking up garbage on the school yard. The authorities had all the power and the students none, and we were mostly safe from each other.

Back in the safe fifties, school authorities would have no trouble dismissing a disturbed individual. They also would not tolerate homosexuals, the mildly retarded, African Americans, long hair, unwed mothers, mixed race marriage, criticism of the government. Well, that's my two cents worth. We all have more personal power now, including the power to purchase high capacity fire arms and lay waste to our fellow humans.
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 23rd, 2007 05:18 am (UTC)
Re: Why is everyone suprised?
...Just for the record, despite my little rant below, I'm actually all in favor of stricter gun control laws. I hate 'em. Guns, that is, not the laws. Not even guns, really. Guns are fascinating little machines, in their own right. Remarkable items of craftsmanship. It's their specific intended application that I'm more than a bit wary of. In a better world, nonlethal weaponry would be a good deal more effective and widespread. But that's another rant altogether, I'm just saying. Stricter gun laws might have prevented this, yes. But so could any number of other things. The laws didn't cause what happened that day, a person did.

I don't even have anything to say to that last bit of your comment, except that I hope your aluminum foil hat doesn't chafe.
The Gab: comfort[info]gab on April 16th, 2007 05:38 pm (UTC)
Do you go there, then? :( oh man, scary. *clings* No dying, okay?
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:24 pm (UTC)
Yeah. If I hadn't been a little slow this morning, I probably would have missed the email and gone to class. A good distance from the actual event, but still..

Yeah, I haven't left the dorm yet, and probably won't until I'm too hungry not to. o_o; No dying sounds like a good plan.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 05:54 pm (UTC)
Kayleigh
This is wonderful news indeed.
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:20 pm (UTC)
Re: Kayleigh
...Most tactless spam, ever.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 06:23 pm (UTC)
Re: Kayleigh
I want to know who this Kayleigh person is because I have been looking at the news and blog entires about this incident all morning and I trully do not like this persons response....excellent news? Who the fuck is that person!? This is terrible news and what makes it worse is that it is now up to THIRTY TWO people. There is one person who I know there who is not fucking answering any of my messages/calls. If that person is one of the casualties, will this person still say GOOD FUCKNG NEWS? I want to smack Kayleigh right in the god damn mouth. I feel bad saying this but maybe one day Kayleigh will be involved in some shooting and someone will write how excellent that news is. God damn ignorant son-of-a ......
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:26 pm (UTC)
Re: Kayleigh
I don't even think it's a person, it's probably just a bot. I've seen replies like this before, just stuck on random entries.

(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 06:17 pm (UTC)
Shooting.
Your blog was linked on Wikipedia.

They haven't mentioned any names, possibly because it JUST happened.
The gun-wielder(s) used two 9.mm pistols.
I'm rather surprised, really. It is the worst shooting ever in American history. Worse than Coulmbine.

Check out the Wiki article:
http://it01.info/visa/pr.php?q=gnitoohs_hceT_ainigriV_7002%2Fikiw%2Fgro.aidepikiw.ne%2F%2F%3Aptth

No names have been mentioned, possibly because they're still investigating. I wasn't there, I mean, I live in California. Just using common sence.

Anyways, that's pretty crazy.
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:23 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
What? They linked back to ME? o_O Wh.. why? Where?

And what's up with that link? It's all backwards and a completely different server.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 06:45 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Virginia_Tech_shootings
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:46 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
Thanks.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 06:47 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
they also linked you on The Raw Story:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Latest_At_least_32_killed_in_0416.html
and you might want to say something to them because this is the quote they used: "I got another email saying it was too dangerous for me to leave my dorm. So no classes this morning, yay."
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 06:51 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
You are also linked on Raw story.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Students_at_Virginia_Tech_told_not_0416.html

And this is very sad news indeed. But I and my peeps are glad you are safe.
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 06:53 pm (UTC)
Re: Shooting.
Great! Uh... who are you and who are your peeps?
Cyanne[info]cyanne on April 16th, 2007 07:29 pm (UTC)
Hello fellow Wiki blogger. It is surreal isn't it?
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 08:14 pm (UTC)
It is. It really, really is.

And then, I wonder how long it'll be until it seems like it never happened, rather than that it's not happening. The human brain sure has funny little ways of coping with things, doesn't it?

But wow, you sure seem to have gotten more involved in this than I did. I think I'd have completely freaked out at the sight of blood.
Cyanne[info]cyanne on April 16th, 2007 08:54 pm (UTC)
Well. What else is a person to do? Though I feel really bad for everyone who was actually in Norris and the parents of the kids. I think it'll be a while before we can put this behind us. I've locked down my LJ unfortunately due to the recent internet spam.

Good luck to you friend.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 07:51 pm (UTC)
Please excuse my intrusion into your space
But I felt compelled to write.

Yes, I was linked to your page from the wikipedia and yes, I don't know you in what we may call real life... You see, though, I'm one of those high school students you mentioned in your post. I visited the campus Saturday and decided yesterday that I would attend Tech (over UVA).

I'm sure that this event will go down in infamy... I'm sure that you and I will hear of it many, many times over the rest of our lives. I'm sure of a number of things about this event but there's so many more things I don't know... and I'm not sure even what to question.

I don't know what purpose this post serves, but as I stated, I felt compelled to write.
Travis Thor, Guy of Thunder[info]twoscrewsloose on April 16th, 2007 08:12 pm (UTC)
Re: Please excuse my intrusion into your space
So you decided to come here? Heh. For what it's worth, uh.. it's really not usually this bad here. As evidenced by the apparently national news coverage.

And no problem with the 'intrusion'. It's quite a little thing, 'specially compared to all that's been going on here. In fact, on the contrary, I think it's better for people to talk to each other after something like this.

That said, I kinda just want to stockpile food and not come out of my dorm until after exams.
(Anonymous) on April 16th, 2007 08:01 pm (UTC)
terrible, just terrible
Michael Moore: Sad[info]admiralmemo on April 22nd, 2007 05:35 am (UTC)

Holy Crap! I haven't checked my friends list in a long while. I checked it today and found this. I never realized you were going there! I'm glad you're alright. Take care, man. That stuff was just crazy.

Were you anywhere near Norris Hall at all?

*idly wonders if any of the victims also had LiveJournals* *would think that would be a good way to get to know them in their happier times*
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