The Virginia Tech Shootings

As some of you may remember, I actually went to Virginia Tech – so today\’s shootings still have me shaken up a little bit. I lived in Pritchard Hall, which is the all-male dorm right next to Ambler-Johnston, where the early morning shootings took place. I only remember being in that dorm once, to pick up notes from this girl for biology class.

Obviously, I haven\’t been on campus there for 14 years, so I don\’t really have any personal connection to what happened today. I don\’t think I know anyone still there, but my heart goes out to the students and faculty. Otherwise, I\’m just like everyone else, trying to figure out how a shooting takes place in a dorm early in the morning, then the same shooter opens fire in a different building two and a half hours later. Details are still trickling in, but that\’s the thing that\’s going to have to be explained to me.

I tried watching a little of CNN\’s coverage this afternoon, but I couldn\’t take it anymore. They essentially were just letting random Tech students call in and talk about how they felt, while replaying the cell phone captured-video of the shootings. It was all just time filler.

I\’m sure there will be plenty of debate in the next few days about gun control and all the societal issues that this event presents. But for now, I\’m just going to sit here and be numb for a little while.

UPDATE: Here\’s a map of the Tech campus – you can see Pritchard Hall (where I lived) in relation to Ambler-Johnston (where the first shootings occurred). On the other side is Cochrane Hall, which was the dorm where all the athletes lived (I think I remember them doing away with the whole idea of a \”jock dorm,\” but I\’m not sure.) That\’s likely where Antonio Freeman lived while we were both there.

Deaths up to 32 now, according to reports.

UPDATE: Just talked to my former roommate, and he said he had talked to a friend whose dad is a Dean at Tech. The theory going around down there is that the kid shot his girlfriend and the RA in Ambler-Johnston and then went over and hid in Norris until classes started and then unloaded on all of them. That makes sense, given the press accounts to this point.

Still curious why classes were held and the buildings kept open with the knowledge that there was a shooter running free on campus.