Virginia Tech shooting

[xiphias]

When I first saw this, it said, "21 dead." I went to find the link to post it, and the link text was "25 dead." The headline now says "29 dead."

God grant that the number is no higher when you read the article.

It is the deadliest school shooting in United States history.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

This is terrible. I don't know why these things happen. My mind just can't grasp it at all. I see people trying to compare one horror with another, as if that makes all of them more comprehensible, brings them into the range of ordinary human behavior. I understand the desire.

There's a craft of responding to this kind of horror. Treating the severely injured. Gathering the survivors -- comforting the shocked and frightened, bringing family members together, making the transition from terror to grief. I don't know if the responders are really *better* now than they were after Montreal or Columbine but they have a standard practice. They drill. There is enough expectation of these things that they have drills for it. Such a world we live in.