Tuesday - April 17, 2007

Jilted South Korean Student

_{Jeff Koterba - Omaha World Herald}

The anit-gun groups are already starting to pound the drum. Personally, I have a lot of questions. (1) The last time I checked the BATFE form you are required to fill out and which must be submitted for verification explicitly asks if you are a US citizen - so how did the shooter get the guns and all that ammo? (2) Why wasn’t the campus locked down after the first shooting incident occurred?

I’m waiting for more details to come out before I say too much. Right now the media is in a feeding frenzy. It will be interesting to watch as the finger-pointing begins. For my money, the problem begins with the way entry visas are issued. This is not the first time someone with a student visa killed people. Remember 9/11?

32 Killed By Love Row Student

A jilted boyfriend killed 32 people on a US college campus yesterday. In the country’s worst ever school massacre, the maniac — who also shot himself dead — burst in brandishing two 9mm automatic handguns and an “ungodly” amount of ammunition.

Students said the shooter first killed his ex and her new lover at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg. The slaughter began at 7.15am when the gunman opened fire in a dormitory. The gunman was an Asian male who was a student at the university and a dormitory resident, said the university’s president Charles Steger. However Steger did not give the gunman’s name.

Last night he was said to be a 24-year-old Chinese man who arrived in the US a year ago on a student visa. One of the dormitory victims was named locally as student Ryan Clark, who died with an unnamed woman. Fifteen more students were still being treated in hospital last night.

The names of 14 victims gunned down in yesterday’s massacre were named by the university today. They include the following:

Maxine Turner
Henry Lee
Matt La Porte
Jamie Bishop
Prof G.V. Loganathan
Juan Ortiz
Jarrett Lane
Ryan Clark
Leslie Sherman
Caitlin Hammaren
Prof Liviu Librescu
Prof Kevin Granata
Reema Samaha
Emily Hilscher

- Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech (WASHINGTON POST)

UPDATE: The shooter, whose name was not released last night, wore bluejeans, a blue jacket and a vest holding ammunition, witnesses said. He carried a 9mm semiautomatic and a .22-caliber handgun, both with the serial numbers obliterated, federal law enforcement officials said.

Which begs the question - why were the serial numbers obliterated? So the firearms can’t be traced? Traced to who? Where did the guns come from? They were obviously not bought legally.

UPDATE II: The WAPO also is starting the anti-gun crusade.

Shock, Sympathy And Denunciation Of U.S. Gun Laws
British Newspaper Asks, ‘What Price the Right to Bear Arms?’
_{LONDON (WASHINGTON POST) - Tuesday, April 17, 2007}

The Virginia Tech shootings received extensive news coverage around the world Monday, leading many to question how such violence could keep happening in the United States.

In Britain, there was shock at the scale of the killings, but many people said they were not surprised, seeing the United States as a nation obsessed with guns, where firearms are easy to obtain.

“I think the reason it happens in America is there’s access to weapons—you can go into a supermarket and get powerful automatic weapons,” Keith Ashcroft, a psychologist, told the Press Association. Ashcroft said he believed such access, along with a culture that makes gun ownership seem normal, increases the likelihood of such attacks in the United States.

- More ...

UPDATE III: It turns out the killer was South Korean ...

Va. Tech: Gunman student from S. Korea
_{BLACKSBURG, Va. (YAHOO NEWS) - April 17, 2007 10:04 EDT}

A Virginia Tech senior from South Korea killed at least 30 people locked inside a classroom building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, the university and police said Tuesday. Ballistics tests also found that one of the guns used in that attack was also used in a shooting two hours earlier at a dorm that left two people dead, Virginia State Police said.

Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech and lived in a different dorm on campus. Cho committed suicide after the attacks, and there was no indication Tuesday of any possible motive. “He was a loner, and we’re having difficulty finding information about him,” school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho’s fingerprints were found on the guns used in the shootings. The serial numbers on the two weapons had been filed off, the officials said. One law enforcement official said Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol.

Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said it was reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both attacks but that link was yet definitive. “There’s no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we’re exploring the possibility,” he said.

- More ...

UPDATE IV:(Mr. C) A Local Cartoonist Just Published This:

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/17/2007 at 09:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
• Comments (12) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner