Spring Break
32 dead, 15 wounded in Virginia Tech massacre
Killing spree marks the deadliest shooting in American history
Issue date: 4/16/07 Section: World News
The U.S. House of Representatives marked the shootings with a moment of silence. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine cut short a trip to Japan and rushed home for a service Tuesday on the shaken campus.
University officials and police faced persistent questioning from the news media about how they handled the first reports of gunfire and their delay in alerting students and locking down the campus.
Campus police received the first 911 emergency call from the West Ambler Johnston Hall - reporting multiple gunshot victims - about 7:15 a.m., according to Steger. Police were still there investigating more than two hours later when they received reports of the shootings at the Norris Hall classroom building, which houses the engineering school.
Police didn't secure the campus immediately after the first incident because they thought the first shootings were domestic in nature and that the gunman had left the building and might be fleeing the state. They sent their first e-mail warning to students at 9:26 a.m., but it didn't reach many of them until after the second eruption of gunfire.
"We acted on the best information we had at the time," said a grim-faced Wendell Flinchum, the Virginia Tech police chief.
Steger added that students had been just arriving on campus and that made it difficult to lock them in place.
"We can only make decisions based on the information you had. ... You don't have hours to reflect on it," he said.
The killings reignited the debate over access to guns.
"Mass shootings have come to define our nation," said Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based group that advocates gun control.
"These tragedies are the inevitable result of the ease with which the firepower necessary to slaughter dozens of innocents can be obtained. We allow virtually anyone the means to turn almost any venue into a battlefield."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino suggested that enforcing existing laws was adequate. "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," she said.
University officials and police faced persistent questioning from the news media about how they handled the first reports of gunfire and their delay in alerting students and locking down the campus.
Campus police received the first 911 emergency call from the West Ambler Johnston Hall - reporting multiple gunshot victims - about 7:15 a.m., according to Steger. Police were still there investigating more than two hours later when they received reports of the shootings at the Norris Hall classroom building, which houses the engineering school.
Police didn't secure the campus immediately after the first incident because they thought the first shootings were domestic in nature and that the gunman had left the building and might be fleeing the state. They sent their first e-mail warning to students at 9:26 a.m., but it didn't reach many of them until after the second eruption of gunfire.
"We acted on the best information we had at the time," said a grim-faced Wendell Flinchum, the Virginia Tech police chief.
Steger added that students had been just arriving on campus and that made it difficult to lock them in place.
"We can only make decisions based on the information you had. ... You don't have hours to reflect on it," he said.
The killings reignited the debate over access to guns.
"Mass shootings have come to define our nation," said Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based group that advocates gun control.
"These tragedies are the inevitable result of the ease with which the firepower necessary to slaughter dozens of innocents can be obtained. We allow virtually anyone the means to turn almost any venue into a battlefield."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino suggested that enforcing existing laws was adequate. "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," she said.
Be the first to comment on this story