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

[mattblum.livejournal.com]

Alas, the Wikipedia page on the massacre is reporting that officials have now confirmed 32 dead. That makes it far and away the worst school shooting in U.S. history (the previous worst having been 15 killed at UT-Austin in 1966), but, alas, not the worst school massacre ever, as 45 people were killed in a bombing in Michigan in 1927.

[beardedone.livejournal.com]

The headline just appeared on the TV screen here in the hostel, but it's one of those ticker tape type of headline displays that doesn't tell you where, when, who or how many.

This is indeed a dark day in the annals of American history.

[ron_newman]

The first thing that came to my mind was the Montreal massacre in 1989 -- but this sounds even worse.

[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.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I did not know about this until I phoned home on something else.

I am watching and listening to streaming video.

Baruch atah, Adonai elohenu, melech ha-olam, ha-dayan ha-emet. Holy One of blessing, Your Presence fills creation; You are the true judge.