that is all, im sure rilla will type in details whenever he gets a chance
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that is all, im sure rilla will type in details whenever he gets a chance
good deal, I could not remember which one of you was UVA vs tech. crazy stuff
the content here would go down a notch without rilla :(
Do I suck because I thought there would be something about the cowboy movie in here?
Do I sucked because I was kind of pumped for it?
wtf why does this shit happen so much?
oh yeah. Guns FTW.
guns? help me.
cnn.comQuote:
Originally Posted by givememyleg
Guns don't kill people. rilla was the first person that came to my mind. Glad to here he's ok.
Thank goodness you're alright, Shane. Take care.
Rilla was the first thing I though of...
If you're still in the dark
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vte...ing/index.html
That's messed up.
Uh, yeah. 'Rilla was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that too.
...except I was actually afraid that he went on that professor killing spree that he was joking about earlier.
Glad to hear that he's ok though.
QFTQuote:
"Thank goodness you're alright, Shane. Take care."
Good luck 'Rilla
I tried to post this reply before but got an error.
I know one of the people shot. She just got out of surgeory and is doing ok.
I was 20 yards away in Randolph watching the whole thing.
If the shooter was smart, he would have picked my building which leads to several others but instead chose Norris which has 3 exits.
Swat, FBI, ATF, K-9, Sherrifs, all descended on that building almost immediately after people claimed to have heard shots.
Campus should have been closed this morning at 7 am. They could have easily canceled the 9 am classes which cost 30 people their lives.
My campus is falling apart at the seams. Morva shot cops at the beginning of the year, 2 bomb threats last week and now this. It's 100% unreal.
Wow, scary stuff. Glad you're okay.
Never have I ever wanted a gun more than when people were being shot 20 yards away.
Never have I ever been in a room with 30 other people, professors and students alike, trying not to cry when the news verified that it was 20 dead. 20 that died a minutes walk away. probably 50 paces from comming to my classroom and shooting me and my friends.
What do you do?
I was in the basement of Randolph (a fucking maze and the safest place) talking to a professor who said a Janitor turned a corner in Norris and saw a body covered in blood. He went to kneel down and touch him when the shooter appeared out of no where and opened fire. The janitor bolted around the corner and across the parking lot (tiny for like 20 cars) to Randolph.
So many people, so close to death.
My friend has a class at 10:10 in Norris 209, 208/06 got shot up. He was heading inside when the swat showed up. 2 mins earlier and hes right in the thick of it all!
I already said I know one girl who was ACTUALLY fucking shot!
The whole thing is just too hard to wrap your brain around. I've been calling everyone Ive ever met to see if they're alive. So many people where just like me, only a couple of yards away. Easily could have been shot.
so fucked up
Glad you're ok rilla. My mind is blown with shock and sadness.
No fucking warning, just bursts into the classrooms and opens fire. what are you supposed to do?
Damn, 'Rilla :shock: ...glad to hear you're OK.
I thought of you too when I heard about this in the morning, Shane. I'm glad you're okay. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this, it must be amazingly hard. I'm glad the girl you know will be okay. Good luck.
wow the experience your describing is unreal.
Shane, good to hear that you are alive and uninjured. All my best wishes go out to you and your peers.
I actually did not know about this until I read this thread. Sick events like this further my belief that I should have a weapon for self defense. This isn't the place for that though.
Interview with a student who was shot and survived.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=67f_1176750363&p=1
glad you are okay I remembered you went there when I heard about it.
Glad you're safe man...
Thoughts and prayers are with you and your fellow students.
Wow that is crazy. Glad you're safe and my thoughts are with those who endured this terrible ordeal.
Glad you are ok and stay safe and careful in the next few weeks. The fallout from these events can be like an aftershock since a lot of people will be angry, hurt, unstable and looking for someone tangible in order to place blame (i.e. if the shooter was a janitor, minority, etc.). Has it been disclosed if the shooter was a student?
In the video zook posted, it was said that he looked like he was in his 20s and he was asian.
They think he maybe was because he would have known the campus pretty well to move as quickly through it as he did. Nothing confirmed yet though.
Glad 'Rilla is safe, first thing I thought about when I heard Virgina Tech. My thoughts go out to all on VT campus.
first thing i thought of was rilla.
im sorry rilla, happy your safe, i hope everything will be alright.
i was driving home from class and bolted to FTR to make sure u were ok, lost your number, otherwise i wouldve called you
good luck VT
fuck this shit...glad tech wouldn't take me and all my friends are safe but thoughts and prayers to everyone harmed in this
Thanks to everyone for their concern and prayers for myself and my community.
Christ. Time to expedite that concealed carry application. Then again, can't take it on campus anyway.
Glad your alright man, that's some really fucked up shit... must be tough, best wishes man.
This is very very sad, i'm glad you are ok. It's terrible that so many died.
People are crazy, I dont get why this happens so often now, I dont get it...Easily accessible guns is the first thing that comes to mind, but theres more than that.
Glad you're safe man!
Wow, just saw this on BBC and vaguely remembered someone at FTR attending VT. Glad you're safe man.
hey man do you know why the guy did it?
a friend of mine is a freshman there and got shot twice in the stomach but i think she's going to be okay
Rilla, if you want go into your feelings more?
What you've have written so far is.... idk the word.... touching? Real? idk.
So glad to hear that you're safe, 'Rilla and that your friend made it out of surgery alright. I'm so sorry this happened to your campus and I hope that the friends you've been calling all day are safe as well. My prayers go out to your peers and their families...no one deserves this, and I hope with all hope that you all make it through as best as you can in the next few weeks. Take care of yourself :heart:
Rilla, Im so sorry ,this shit is so fucked up!! Glad your OK.Quote:
Originally Posted by Massimo
Prayers and the best wishes go out to everyone affected by this tragic event.
I've barely been here for a year but my thoughts immediately turned to Shane when reading the news. I'm so glad you're ok mate.
My thoughts go out to the victims/injured. The society we live in today is ridiculously incompassionate and violent.
For an update on the events. People are telling me that he was seen in Randolph waving a gun around. Not that I believe them, but it's just difficult to wrap your mind around. I don't want to believe them. I can't believe them.
When I would watch old tradgedies on television, like the shooting in Lancaster PA (the amish school), you just can't relate. It's easy to desensitize yourself to the violence becuase movies and television are so much more fierce.
But watching the video of pop pop pop the 20 odd shots on the guys cell phone video (Which varified that I heard the gunmans last 3 shots and mistaked them for people knocking down doors with battering rams. Also the nerds in my class thought they were flashbang grenades. Im looking at you Triptanes.)
Every one of those gun shots is someone's life becoming infinitely worse than it was mintues before. Everyone one of those pops is a bullet crashing into someone's chest, someone's arm...
What's sick is that everyone knows that when they release the names tomorrow, you're going to recognize someone. It's a big campus, but it's a small campus in that you see the same people everywhere you go it seems like.
It's just difficult to watch the news and be so sensitive to every image, video and detailed report that your mind throws you right in there. It's really shocking what your mind can put you through when I didn't even see any blood.
All I wanted to do since the momment I got home was just get blazed out of my mind and float away. But you can't get away, it's all anyone talks about and all anyone wants to watch. We just congeal in front of the TV and save for the frequent beer and food runs, zombify ourselves.
I still think that I'm a pretty well adjusted kid, but I have a lot more respect for a lot more things after this. It's just beyond the scope of what my psyche can handle right now. I'm just going to keep drinking until someone changes the damn channel.
That post was for ISF but felt good to write down. I kinda wanna delete it now though.
I quoted it so you can't delete it. (Don't edit me. I'm an DUMMY PANTS.)Quote:
Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
It's good for people to see it from your perspective, Shane. More importantly, it's good for you to vent and do it so frankly.
shit
Glad youre safe mate.
i dunno what else to say. This stuff shouldnt happen :/
Good to see I can still make myself laughQuote:
Originally Posted by Xianti
wow man :(
i'm glad you're okay.. this is just absolutely terrible
Glad you're OK, Shane. I heard about this during a meeting this afternoon, and I've been going nuts wondering if you were OK. What a relief to find this thread at the Community!
May God bless the victims, their families, and everyone around this tragedy.
Shane,
Please keep posting your thoughts here. I promise it will help you. I witnessed a random shooting when I was in junior high school and I'd say it took about a month before I could feel normal again. That happened almost ten years ago but I still remember it like it happened this morning and sometimes it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it. You're probably going to think about today's events every day for the rest of your life. No one should have to see what you saw. I can't even imagine what it would be like to grow up in a neighborhood where shootings are commonplace.
If there's anything positive we can say to you right now, I think it's that you seem like a very mature person, and I expect that you'll deal with this in as healthy a way as is possible under the circumstances. I wish I could say it will be easy for you, though, because it won't be.
Hang in there pal.
Mike
Fuck I just got home from class maybe 30min ago opened Yahoo news and bam got on FTR sure enough one of us goes to the college... this is just some crazy fucking shit, Rilla i'm glad to hear you are fine my best of wishes goes out to you and VT...
God be with the entire VT campus over the next few days, and for however long it might be to help the ones that need it the most in a dark time of need…. I know that nothing will ever be the same for the VT students that experienced this… but my god be the strong hand in helping them get through the pain… amen
No plz dont delete that, I know this is in the midst of a tragedy but seriously all this is reall touching me, it's showing me emotions ive never experienced before, so thank you.
that's just patheticQuote:
Originally Posted by Ltrain
i just found out that a friend's friend's sister went there and died in the hospital. i dont know the person at all but still makes me sadder
oh my god....
i can't even imagine one of my brothers dieing.
Wow Shane. I can't even imagine what you must be going through.
Be strong.
Its sad it took me this news to pop back into FTR since I had remembered rilla going to VT.
Such a shame that this has to happen to innocent people because some lil' fucking coward goes apeshit for no good reason.
Ill keep the Hokie nation in my thougts, stay strong rilla
wtf bobbysalami? Haven't seen you around in a year i think
Shane, my thoughts immediately went to you when I first saw the news about this on cnn.com this morning. As the death toll kept rising, I kept thinking, "god I hope rilla is okay."
I actually came home during lunch (something I hardly ever do) to check into FTR to see if you were okay, but the site was down. Tonight when I got home from coaching baseball I made a bee-line to FTR and the community to hopefully find out that you were all right. You are, and I am really glad and thankful for that.
My thoughts go out to you and everyone in your community. Stay strong, bro.
I just want to thank everyone again for their kind words, thoughts and prayers.
I never come here anymore but I rememeberred Rilla went to VA Tech, thank god your ok buddy.
This is sick. Just sick. I'm really glad you're still here. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who aren't.
:(
Sort of a weird feeling to see this post and first thing I did was go yay!! or at least whew! when I realized rilla is not hurt, and then quickly realize how many more people out there who are absolutely life changingly devastated by today's happenings.
'rilla I'm glad you're safe. I am so saddened for your college community.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chardrian
A lot of famalies experienced the most stressful days of their lives today, hearing the news and not being able to contact your kids has got to be a huge burden on famalies. For the famalies of the past everyones prays are with you, and for everyone that has been affected hopefully it will not have a negative affect on your life.
People life is precious, let this put everything in prospective and make this world a better place for not only you but the people you meet in your every day life.
peace and happyness be with everyone.
As soon as I realized it said "Virginia" and then "Tech" i rushed to FTR. Glad that you guys are safe in all of this. Take care.
I know he hasnt posted here in a long time, but Hydroseeds goes to VT and is an engineering major. Anyone know his name/number?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/..._tech_shooting
Apparently the guy was a senior.
Reading some parts of this article made me cry. There was one point where I just had to turn away from my computer. This is really disturbing.
Just as probably many expected, the guy was a complete loner, probably really depressed and emotionally disturbed.
good to hear ur safe rilla. jesus, this is so fucked up.
i hope you're not calling ltrain pathetic, b/c he's probably rightQuote:
Originally Posted by DaNutsInYoEye
I was listening to updates on it today in my car while driving during work and I cried. It's just so sad to think of how people's lives were taken without any warning at all and it must have impacted their families.Quote:
Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan
this is sick, the more i hear, the less sad i am, and the more angry i get... the stories im hearing are so sad and hurtful that its really making me tear up right now. i want to meet the shooters friends and family, i know that sounds bad, but thats how angry i am right now. how the fuck can a human being shoot ANOTHER INNOCENT human being. its so wrong.
shane, i dont even know you, but im so sorry about the whole thing.
im 2000 miles away in california, but god damn, this is just so fucked up.
im so sorry for ANYONE affected by this.
Da Nuts,Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukie
Please understand, this is obviously a massive tragedy and I am not qualifying, rationalizing or passing judgment on what anyone needs to do to grieve or deal with such a traumatic event. My thoughts are on the health and safety of the OP not just for the day of the event, but afterward. It is obviously irrational and "pathetic" to take this tragedy and do what I suggested (pyschological projection), however, it is not a stretch to think that students on campus are not going to be rational for some time and there may be lingering safety issues for VT students as people vent out their frustrations. If I lost a friend in this, I am a very objective person, but I couldn't tell you what I would be capable of in a time of desperation.
If anyone wants to talk to me about this, please PM me as not to hijack the thread and I will be happy to discuss it. I would rather not post on this again since this thread is becoming a great coping mechanism, but again, please be conscious of your surroundings for the next few weeks so you can stay safe.
Good luck.
i searched the guys name on facebook
there was a group called 'forgive chung so' with 20 members and a group called 'fuck chung so' with abuot 900 members.
Yeah I saw that on Facebook too. Who can seriously forgive that? I was shocked to see that group had that many members. Awful.Quote:
Originally Posted by gabe
Just came back from the assembly thing where the president spoke. It ended with a "Let's Go Hokies!" chant.
I'm feeling real good right now. The whole time that's all I wanted to do was blurt it out and get a chant going. The mood in that place was so somber, everyone really needed it.
The entire campus today was covered in news reports too. I took a stroll around campus trying to score one of the Collegiate Times papers for today and sneaking a peak at norris hall but everyone I went there were reports.
It was windy and you know how wind can sometimes make you teary eyed? Well, I was just walking and a reporter came up to me and asked "How are you doing?" "Fine." "Trying to pick up the pieces?" "...Yah (?!?!?!)"
Anyway, I've done a bunch of interviews becuase I was kind of interested in begin interviewed and seeing what it was like. The first I did for the Daily Iowan, I'll past it in the next post. The guy who interviewed me was real cool and didn't try to lead me anywhere. When I told him that I hadn't really thought about something but would respond, he said "That's alright. I don't want you to go somewhere you don't want to go." So he was really cool. I think he missunderstood me when we were talking about gun control. I was previously for a gun ban on campus but wasn't for gun control otherwise. No biggie.
I also did one for NPR. We were headed to this thing today (I wish I knew what to call it. Essentially an assembly with the Prez) I was with my friends Rob, Missy and Ashley and they all wanted to do the interview so I joined in. NPR was also real cool with their questions, nothing that ticked me off or was worded in any way that would make me not want to answer. If I could figure out how to get NPR podcasts, I'd link that.
Anyway, for anyone who's interested. Here's the article they wrote about me and my buddy Mike Kime.
At 9:05 a.m., Virginia Tech junior Shane O'Connell said he walked into his compressible aerodynamic lecture "concerned" about how he would finish all of his classwork due that week.
His concerns would soon be turned to something else.
Nearing the end of class, O'Connell said, students began to rush to the windows, shouting to their nearby classmates to come look as well.
When O'Connell arrived, he could not believe his sight.
"Someone said they heard at least 25 gunshots," the junior told The Daily Iowan. "At first I didn't believe her. But there was a tremendous number of SWAT team [members]. Just a tremendous response. The number of weapons I saw just didn't seem real to me."
The entire classroom was ordered to remain at Randolph Hall, which is located behind Norris Hall - the scene of the shootings. And when word reached them that an unknown assailant had fatally shot at least 20 across the campus, a sober silence befell the room, O'Connell said.
"I have never been in a room where everyone was trying not to cry," he said. "We were 50 paces away from 20 people losing their lives. You are so close to it, and you think what you would do, but what would you do? You just hope he doesn't shoot you or you die."
Norris Hall, an engineering building, is one of more than 100 university buildings on the Blacksburg, Va., campus, which spans 2,600 acres and also includes an airport.
Farther away from the massacre, at a different university building, sat a tired Michael Kime in his 9:05 a.m. psychology class. The junior said he was still longing for the just-passed weekend when he exited the building and was confronted with pandemonium.
" 'Get back in that building,' " a police officer screamed at him, Kime recalled.
Within 30 seconds of Kime's exit, he said the cops hurled him and others back into the building - but not before Kime saw and heard the shooting from 200 yards away.
Like O'Connell, Kime couldn't believe what had happened.
"It seemed surreal," said Kime, a Laurel, Md., native. "I just thought, 'It can't be right, it must be a mistake.' It is just sickening. You don't think something like this would happen so close to you."
Although the first shootings occurred around 7 a.m. at a dormitory, Kime said he had no idea about those initial victims until he was released from class at 9:55 a.m.
Kime's father, William Kime, said his son was the first person to tell him about the killings, and after relief swept through him, surprise surged in.
"This is a campus that is the middle of nowhere," William Kime said. "It is relatively quiet, even though it is a big school."
He noted, however, that he is not nervous about sending any of his other children to the Big East school.
"This could have happened anywhere," he said. "And certainly, it has in the past. It is the society we live in. We live in the United States. We are a free country, and I am afraid that sometimes these things happen."
In total, the shooter killed 32 people and himself, according to the Associated Press.
Now, the streets of Blacksburg have become vacant, O'Connell said. And most are "zombified" in front of the television, waiting to see how high the death count will reach.
O'Connell said the shootings he witnessed has made him reconsider his stance on gun control. He was formerly in favor of gun-restriction laws, but now his beliefs have changed.
"It is the only time in my life that I actually wanted a gun for protection," he said, his voice agitated. "I have never understood why you would want a gun for protection, but it seemed like the only thing that could have helped somebody."
Ge Wang, a former UI professor who left the university to pursue a job teaching engineering at Virginia Tech in 2006, said he thinks gun-restriction laws should be enforced, "especially [on] campuses."
But "my impression has been that the VT system is very efficient and effective," the professor said in an e-mail.
O'Connell said he won't allow this situation to frighten him from walking around campus because he believes another shooting will never happen again at the university.
But not all will likely be as calm as he, O'Connell said, noting that the shooting could severely cut enrollment at Virginia Tech, which currently boasts a student population of more than 25,000.
"I feel like anytime I mention I graduated from Virginia Tech, it will now be 'oh the Virginia Tech massacre', " O'Connell said. "I will now be identified with that for the rest of my days."
Great quotes, very good article.
I think its time to pass on LIVE BOON.
LIVE RILLA
good article
No thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by BoondockSaint
I like the effort *bro grabs*
I can say that I feel a lot better about the whole scenario than I did yesterday. The candle light visual was beyond awesome. We basically did all the cheers we could think of and the Drill Field (huge) was packed with students. I have a video of the tailend of the whole thing that I'll post when I get a chance. But now I'm just headed home. And I'd like to see this thread die.
Thanks for thinking of me when you though of Flashbangs.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=9626738
Around minute 4 Me, robbie, ashley and missy.
Entirely up to you, 'rilla. Go ahead and Bin it whenever you want.Quote:
Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla
i'll bin it tomorrow when i get home
the prez was doing the school chant? this seems strange to me, not sure why. I never was the school spirit type I guess.
anyways, good to know that youre ok man. ISF im'd me and asked if yo uwere ok, and that was the first I heard of all this. So I was all like "damn yo, hope rillas ok" Then george was like "rillas ok" and I was all like "well thats good."
I think it would suck to bin this, but obv it's up to you.
you the man shane
same feeling here.Quote:
Originally Posted by swiggidy
Glad your alright rilla. Thats a sad situation.
The president should loose his job over this. That 2 hour lapse before warning people with an email is simply uncalled for and rediculus. Yesterday at OU (Oklahoma) someone reported seeing a person carrying a rifle. The president immediately called for a lock down and personally was going around to every classroom informing students and faculty of the lockdown. Im sure others were helping him. Turned out it was just a guy carrying an umbrella. If there is a shooting on a campus (or anywhere for that matter) there should be an immediate lockdown until the shooter is identified and had no accomplises beyond a shadow of doubt.Quote:
Originally Posted by boostNslide
The school prez got a standing ovation for several minutes. Most of the student body rallies behind him knowing he would never put us in any danger. Like I said, things could have gone differently but someone made a good point yesterday.
Assuming Cho killed for no reason, campus lockdown or not, he's going to find people to kill. You'd have to catch him with the weapons and some how subdue him without a fire fight for the whole thing to be avoided without loss of life.
happy to hear that you are alright
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/..._tech_shooting
Wow this is really fucked up.
I can't imagine being a police officer in any one of those buildings. Standing in a hallway, unsure of what really is going on -- one shooter? More? Where is he? Standing in the hallway, awaiting whatever hell is going to come around the corner at any second. Waiting, waiting waiting, willing to give your life - perfectly willing to selflessly DIE on just the small hope of protecting however many kids are locked in the rooms behind you. Knowing youre their last line of defense if hell rains down like a torrential flood.
Here's to them all. The ones who are hated by most they deal with, but are willing to die for them just the same.
And here's to you Virginia Tech. May the tragedy that befell you strengthen you all and bind you in unprecedented comradery. May the "Lets go Hokies" chant no longer be merely a chant meant to encourage the athletes on the field, but a chant meant to encourage all who hear it. You're there for them, and them you and together you can and do all things. An unspoken bond that when things go bad you will be there for each other. Lets go hokies, lets go.
Cheers.
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/20..._300x460,0.jpg
wow, just realized whats going on here, didnt watch tv yesterday. glad you´re okay rilla. cant even imagine what this experience feels like, keep ya head up buddy.
!!Nice post euphoricismQuote:
Originally Posted by euphoricism
In China, heard about this on the only english tv station here, thought of you immediately.
Glad you're safe Shane