Were the shootings today at Virginia Tech worse than the shootings at Columbine High School back in 1999?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting
http://jeffcoweb.jeffco.k12.co.us/high/columbine/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_shooting

Answer 1

Yes. 12 students died in the Columbine shootings. 22-32 (depending on news source) are claimed dead at Va Tech.

Answer 2

Way worse. This time there was one nut who carried out 2 seperate attacks at different ends of the campus. This guy waited for the lockdown to be let off after the 1st and then he went into a building loaded with people, chained the dooes shut, and started firing. He only used a 9mm and a 22 cal as his weapons. To kill 30+ with single shot pistols is a lot of shooting. Plus, the death toll is much higher.

Answer 3

In terms of the loss of lives, I have to say yes! I am a VT alum, so this one hits home for me. The VT shooting seems to be unique in that the shooter(s) seemed to have definitive targets whereas the Columbine boys were just shooting anyone. The VT shooter ended up killing a lot of random people too, but he seemed to be going fo someone in particular at first.

Answer 4

It was a tragic situation in both cases where innocent students lost their lives so it is hard to say which is worst. Virginia Tech has the highest school shooting now because 33 people died. They were all students who had a future and didn't know their lives were going to cut so tragically so I would say they are both equally devasting losses.

Answer 5

iTs going to get worse before it gets better. Until we learn how to teach our children better and give them better values. (which the value system has gone down in our country) And know that it is wrong ...showing such graphic images in the news, in the video games, and in the media, like movies and television. We become who we hang around, we are influenced by people around us and by the images we see all of the time. And the video games for children are not good to teach kids to kill on video games is wrong.

And also the psychologists need to handle people more and do better jobs than to hand out pills and say i will see you in a month. They need to Start listening and get to the root of the problem before the people become a problem.

And we also need to teach eachother that when someone does something wrong to you like stalking you that you need to press charges and get that person off the streets so that something like this never happens again.

And why no one reacted on the "SIGNS" that cho was mentally off . And why they did not keep this man off the streets on his medication and in a place where he can get help is beyond me.

Colombine was one event most people will remember the rest of their lives. And Virginia Tech Shooting is an event that shows how this world is changing and that it is going to get worse.

America all about freedom but what you better know is that it is all about bad people to be free to walk the streets with guns or rob you.


There are many prayers sent out each day. And we all do pray that this world will get better. Surround yourselves around positives and dont let the negative energy into your life. I started turning off the news each day and started giving to others in need and helping our neighbors. Get more involved with your community. And always be aware of your surroundings.

Answer 6

They are both tragic. More people died in Virginia. Columbine was sad to me because both the shooters and the victims were so young. We don't know much yet about the shooter in Virginia.

Answer 7

Absolutely. The shootings today dwarfed Columbine.

Answer 8

no, not at all. At Columbine, only 14 people died. At Virginia Tech, its about 33 now and rising.

Answer 9

In 1999 at the Columbine High School shooting 22 students were killed.

So far 33 have been confirmed dead at the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — (located in the western end of the state near the borders of West Virginia and Tennessee). It has been called the worst mass shooting in modern American history. The shootings began in the Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory at 7:15 a.m. Eyewitnesses described the gunman as an Asian male about 6 feet tall. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1

He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.

The second shooting was at Norris Hall. Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing indiscriminately.

The gunman was said to be of Asian appearance and dressed in maroon hat, leather jacket and black-military style shooting vest.

He had ammunition strapped across his chest as he calmly walked from room to room refilling his two 9mm handguns as he shot students.

He locked the doors of several classrooms to stop anyone escaping. Some terrified students jumped for their lives from fourthfloor windows, while others used desks to barricade doors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=448955&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

The gunman has been identified as a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa. The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/343354,vatech041607.articleprint

The number of dead is almost twice as high as the previous record for a mass shooting on an American college campus. That took place at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when a gunman named Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of a campus tower. Whitman killed 16 and injured 31.

another good account
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070417/D8OI106O0.html
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Answer 10

columbine is nothing compared to this.... i mean 13-15 killed and today there are at least 30 maybe it will go up to 35