Mass Shooting In VA

Today as New Hampshire residents woke up to their own small nightmare; vast flooding and power outages, students at Virginia Tech were fighting for their lives. This morning, around 7:15 an unidentified gunman opened fire at West Ambler Johnston Hall. At 9:15, the gunman resurfaced at Norris Hall, an engineering building nearby. At 9:50 an email was sent to students by university police informing them that there was a shooting; police are investigating and to stay inside and away from windows. VTTimeline

Virginia Tech, a school of 25,000 issued this announcement on its home page. "Two shooting incidents on campus today have left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen other victims from Norris are being treated at area hospitals." VTHomepage

Many are now wondering what went wrong? Why was there such a lapse in time between the first and second shooting. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger when asked why he didn't lock down the school replied,""Where do you lock them down?"
"You can only make a decision based on the information you know at that moment in time. You don't have hours to reflect on it." PressRelease

Many students are rightfully upset over the obvious lack of emergency plan the University had in place. However a massacre this catastrophic has never occurred before so the school was unprepared. The massacre at Virginia Tech has now been identified as the deadliest shooting in the United States. DeadliestInHistory

I hope that this becomes an eye opener for all universities across the country. Every school including UNH should have a plan in place to respond to a shooting. The trend over the last 15 years is horrifying; a disaster plan needs to be in place to try and save as many lives as possible.

To close here are some statements made by VT students. What they say is more important than anything I have posted above.

“He didn’t say a single word the whole time,” said Trey Perkins. “He didn’t say get down, he didn’t say anything. He just came in and started shooting.”

“There was blood pretty much everywhere. It’s just completely unreal … so hard to describe,”

“It seemed so strange,” Erin Sheehan reportedly said. “Because he peeked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in.”
MSNBCStatements

Our thoughts and prayers are with you.