33 Dead in Virginia Tech Shooting Yesterday
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Inside Campus Notice News 2 Power outage scheduled for Features 3, 7 lower campus dorms today Commentary 4, 5 from 3 to 3:15 p.m. Comics 6 Sports 8 ASUH election results See News, page 2 VOL. 101 | ISSUE 124 Tuesday, April 17, 2007 WWW.KALEO.ORG 33 dead in Virginia Tech shooting COURTESY ILLUSTRATION • MCT CaMpus yesterday With an additional 15 injured, families and friends of victims cope with their losses as many question the administration's COURTESY PHOTO • MCT CaMpus A police officer stands guard near Norris Hall on the handling of the situation. Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, where 33 people, including the gunman, were killed and more were injured yesterday morning. By Bruce Henderson and April Bethea Manoa remains commit- shootings at the Norris means to turn almost any venue into a McClatchy Newspapers ted to a non-violent learn- Hall classroom build- battlefield.” ing environment for all ing, which houses the White House spokeswoman Dana With contributions by the Ka Leo our students, and I want engineering school. Perino suggested that enforcing existing News Desk to assure everyone that Police didn’t secure laws was adequate. we take this responsibil- the campus immedi- “The president believes that there is ambulances lined up as he tried to leave BLACKSBURG, Va. - The deadli- ity very seriously.” ately after the first incident because they a right for people to bear arms, but that the area. “At that point, you fully realize est shooting massacre in American histo- The shooter started at a coed dor- thought the first shootings were domestic all laws must be followed,” she said. the scale of what just happened.” ry savaged Virginia Polytechnic Institute mitory, opening fire at about 7:15 a.m. in nature and that the gunman had left the Gun advocates went farther, saying President Bush was said to be hor- and State University on Monday, as an and killing a man and woman in a room building and might be fleeing the state. the shootings underscore the need to rified when he heard the news. unidentified gunman killed 32 people there. Two hours later he appeared in an They sent their first e-mail warning to allow students to arm themselves. “Schools should be places of safety and wounded 15 more, then killed him- engineering classroom building across students at 9:26 a.m., but it didn’t reach “It is irresponsibly dangerous to and sanctuary and learning,” he said self, his motive and identity unknown as campus, where he killed 30 more people many of them until after the second erup- tell citizens that they may not have guns Monday afternoon at the White House. of early yesterday evening. and then himself, police said. tion of gunfire. at schools,” said Larry Pratt, the execu- “When that sanctuary is violated, the The shootings stunned the sprawl- “It was about four or five shots pret- “We acted on the best information tive director of the group Gun Owners impact is felt in every American class- ing campus in southwest Virginia and ty close together,” said Justice Goracke, we had at the time,” said a grim-faced of America. “The Virginia Tech shoot- room and every American community.” shocked the country. 21, of Lovettsville, a junior who was Wendell Flinchum, the Virginia Tech ing shows that killers have no concern The U.S. House of Representatives “Today the university was struck near the classroom building at the time. police chief. about a gun ban when murder is in their marked the shootings with a moment with a tragedy that we consider of monu- “When I heard it, it kind of sounded Steger added that students had been hearts,” he added in reference to the of silence. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine mental proportions,” said Virginia Tech like bullets, but there was construction just arriving on campus and that made it campus’ ban on guns. cut short a trip to Japan and rushed President Charles Steger. “The univer- going on nearby,” Goracke said. “Then difficult to lock them in place. Best known for its engineering home for a service Tuesday on the sity is shocked and indeed horrified.” about 20 seconds later I heard another six “We can only make decisions based school and its football program, Virginia shaken campus. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, shots. Then I knew: This wasn’t right.” on the information you had ... You don’t Tech has nearly 26,000 full-time students University officials and police interim Chancellor Denise Konan said Students and onlookers across the have hours to reflect on it,” he said. on a 2,600-acre campus in the Blue faced persistent questioning from the in a press release: “After today’s hor- campus were dazed, asking which of The killings reignited the debate Ridge Mountains about 160 miles west news media about how they handled rific and tragic events, the University of their friends had been shot, and why over access to guns. of Richmond. the first reports of gunfire and their Hawai‘i at Mānoa wishes to express our they were left uninformed and exposed “Mass shootings have come to The school is ranked 34th among delay in alerting students and locking deepest condolences to our colleagues to danger for hours. define our nation,” said Josh Sugarmann, national public universities by U.S. down the campus. at our sister Land Grant institution, “Everybody’s in complete shock,” the executive director of the Violence News & World Report. Its engineering Campus police received the first Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State said freshman Rachel Wirth, 18, of Policy Center, a Washington-based school is ranked 17th and its civil engi- 911 emergency call from the West University. Many of our Mānoa com- Charlotte, N.C. “Everybody’s wonder- group that advocates gun control.“These neering program 11th. The emphasis on Ambler Johnston Hall reporting mul- munity have connections, family, and ing if they know anybody who was tragedies are the inevitable result of the engineering is a likely reason that the tiple gunshot victims at about 7:15 a.m., colleagues at Virginia Tech, and wish to killed or wounded.” ease with which the firepower necessary school is more male-dominated than according to Steger. Police were still send our most heartfelt Aloha to them. Graduate student Darryl Price, 23, to slaughter dozens of innocents can be there investigating more than two hours “The University of Hawai‘i at also of Charlotte, described seeing 20 obtained. We allow virtually anyone the later when they received reports of the See Shooting, page 2 Students, officials meet to take one step toward world peace By Dan Souder The war was chucked into a freez- SGI, or Soka Gakkai International, UN’s eight-decade theme of cul- Aoyama, a graduate student in Asian Ka Leo Staff Reporter er. A big filthy meat locker seemed right. was founded in Japan. It promotes peace, tural peace. UH is the exhibit’s studies and SGI member. “It comes It stayed there and peace has reigned culture and education based on Nichiren first stop as it embarks on a tour of from being human.” The idea of an organization that ever since. Buddhism. Its members include people the U.S. mainland. Elsewhere from the printed page, would bring the countries of the world Nevertheless, the Aloha from 190 countries. “Especially university students new wars sprang up and raged. Some together suggested itself in the after- Community Peace Forum is being held “We want to raise the awareness of have a responsibility to create a transitioned. Lawrence of Arabia stepped math of World War II. It was a war in on Saturday, April 21, at 1 p.m. The young people,” Yasutake said. “Young better world and a better future,” off the silver screen and into the real which millions of people were stabbed, keynote speaker will be Anwarul K. people can learn to make changes to Yasutake said. world. In the movie, the British refused bludgeoned, shot, starved, drowned, Chowdhury, the undersecretary general empower themselves.” Daisaku Ikeda is the international to give guns to the Arabs. In the real drowned out, overwhelmed, poisoned of the United Nations. There will be After the forum at the School of president of SGI. He has won a number world, we gave the guns. and put to rest. hula dancing and Hawaiian music, but Architecture Auditorium, there will be of awards for his work, including the Meanwhile, World War II iced For some, the last thing they saw it remains to be seen whether this will an exhibit opening ceremony at 2:30 United Nations Peace Award. He last over in a meat locker underground. in this world was a light so bright their involve the secretary. p.m. “Creating a Culture of Peace: The spoke at UH in 1995 at the East-West The two words on its door are shadows were burned into the walls “Peace is the most basic starting Right to Human Security” will run in Center. Recently, he published an essay Slaughterhouse Five. behind them. There were two bombs point for the advancement of human- Sinclair Library until April 28. based on his experience here, called “Like Gandhi said, be the change that radiated. When they extinguished, kind,” said Taeko Yasutake, a graduate With spotlights on “Peace “Human Security and the Dignity of you wish to see,” Aoyama said. so did the war. It beached itself on the student in economics and a member Heroes,” “What Happens When Human Life.” “Nothing is more precious than shores of two ruined cities in the land of of SGI Peace 21, a student club at the a Nuclear Bomb Explodes” and “The dignity of human life is peace,” Yasutake said.