VA Tech - I hope everyone is alright!!!

[burtoncr]

Holy crap. I just heard about the shootings in the engineering building. I pray none of you were involved.

I called my sister (at VA tech) 30 times before I got through. I'm glad she is a slacker http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif and didnt go to campus today.

**crossing my fingers you guys are ok***

- Chris

[burtoncr]

Holy crap. I just heard about the shootings in the engineering building. I pray none of you were involved.

I called my sister (at VA tech) 30 times before I got through. I'm glad she is a slacker http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif and didnt go to campus today.

**crossing my fingers you guys are ok***

- Chris

[bettonracing]

Holy crap! I was just reading the news and refreshed my browser 3 times in 5 mins and each time the body count went up!!! It's now up to 32 (2:20pm EST)!!!

Hope y'all are fine!

[jpventuri]

Condolences to everyone, and may god grant you the strength to live on. Montreal just finished dealing with a college shooting a year ago and it's no fun i'll tell you that.

I pray that no one has suffered fatal injuries, and that all is ok. See you guys in detroit.

JP Venturi
McGill University FSAE

[Gurkaran]

Also just read the news...hope for the best from here in Australia.

[VTMalcolm]

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts. It seems that everyone on our FSAE team is ok. We are working on setting up a phone tree to check with everyone. Unfortunately cell phones aren't working very well in the area. This is a HUGE tragedy for the VT community and I am fairly sure everyone will know someone that was affected if not be directly affected by the shootings. I love Blacksburg and have actualy taken a job in the area because I love what VT brings to the community. I am shaken. Again thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Hope the racecars are coming along well!


Malcolm

VT Motorsports Marketing Team Leader 2007

[LD]

our deepest condolences
hope everyone on the team is alright

[trippjm]

My sympathies go out to everyone at Virginia Tech and their families. We know the team has already settled setbacks with their carbon monocoque, now to add this...and with Detroit around the corner.

[PedalOnTheRight]

Our thoughts are with you VT. If there's anything the FSAE community can do, I mean anything, please ask, I'm sure people will be more than happy to help you make it to Detroit.

Everyone at WU Formula Racing sends our condolences.

[Nic]

Does anybody from VT know if the Baja team is alright. I saw them leave Ocala yesterday afternoon. I hope they didn't make it home in time to be involved in this...

[Andy K]

Having experienced this first-hand this past September at Dawson College (sort of, as I was at work that day, but my cousin was there just a floor up from the shooter) I send my condolences to the VT community. I hope that the SAE guys made it out ok, not to be choosy about who survived. In reality, we've lost several dozen bright individuals...

Trying to hold back the tears,

[Hot Rod JayRad]

Our hearts and minds are with you guys. We wish you the best of luck and strength in getting through this trajedy.

[RiNaZ]

Deepest condolences from everybody here in Embry-Riddle.

[Rene Perez]

Speaking for me and past team members who enjoyed running around with VA Tech FSAE and competing for championships in the past - Deepest condolences and best wishes for a better tomorrow.

UTA FSAE

[Wesley]

I would like to also extend sincere condolences from the University of Oklahoma. I hope the road to recovery is quick, and those lost not easily forgotten.

[ben]

Terrible news. I hope everyone's coping ok. It must be a difficult time.

Ben

[Jose]

I would like to extend sincere condolences from the University of Puerto Rico.



Jose Lugo
Univ. of Puerto Rico
Colegio Racing Engineering

[kuck]

Thanks everybody. Looks like the FSAE team is ok and Baja is good as far as I know. If I hear anything I'll post up.

[jdmdb1]

I would also like to give my condolences to everyone affected by this horrible tragedy.

our thoughts and prayers are with you...
http://iceandcoal.org/images/vticon.jpg

Best of luck to the Virginia Tech SAE teams.

[neil trama]

My deepest sympathies to everyone touched by this terrible tragedy.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Neil Trama
ADFA FSAE Supervisor
Canberra Australia

[ben]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jpventuri:
and may god grant you the strength to live on.
JP Venturi
McGill University FSAE </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Is that the same God who created the shooter?

Forgive me, but instead of hoping God'll make it better maybe some gun control might be a plan?

I don't mean to be rude or disrespect those who've died, but maybe actually changing policy to guns in the US might change things instead of adding to the 19 or so incidents like this in a 10 year period. Because nothing else seems to be working.

Ben

Edit: According to figures I have looked up, the homicide rate in the US in 2004 (the latest year for which I could get figures) is 5.5/100,000 population, 50% of which were committed using handguns, and 16% using other guns - 66% in total.
(Using DOJ figures from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/homtrnd.htm)

The equivalent figure for England & Wales is 1.5/100,000, of which 9.4% were committed with a gun.
(http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb0206.pdf)

If you eliminate the gun homicides from both sets of figures, you end up with a rate of 1.8/100,000 for the US and 1.35/100,000 for England & Wales.

As a good engineer I know a statistical correlation doesn't imply causality but can someone suggest an alternative?

[Faterooski]

Very, very, very well said Mike.

[ben]

We had 46 total gun deaths last year. Percentages are fine, but on per capita numbers the US looks pretty bad. Maybe this isn't the time or the place but in this country we had a massacre in Dunblane and you can't legally purchase a handgun. We have had no subsequent incidents like that.

The gun crime in the UK is rising in certain small elements of society mostly related to drugs and gangs; John Doe who's a bit down and suicidal or annoyed with a colleague can't easily get a gun and finish them off. The situation is utterly different.

The US has had 19 such incidents in 10 years and has done nothing to limit handgun ownership.

I've been talking about this issue on the net today with a diversity of people and I'm willing to accept the constitutional argument regarding your "right" to carry arms.

My question is simple. Do you think the ease with which it is possible to buy a gun contributes to these massacres? If not, what do you propose as a way of reducing the risk of such massacres happening in the future?

Like I said, maybe not the time or the place, but if this happens again next year in the US (statistically a dead cert) these people's deaths will be even more in vain.

To honour the dead of VT would be to actually do something to fix the problem...

[\end soapbox]

Ben

[Bill Kunst]

An atheist gun hater makes sense. But to point at those who own and use them wisely and to say that we are insensitive to the happenings because we will not give up our "right" in a thread brought up to offer condolences to those few that we know in contact with this grave incedent is aweful.

VT scholars and Grads,
I cannot know the pain and horror that you may be experiencing, but I offer my sincere condolences for your losses and urge you, the Hokies, to bond together in what you do have. Good luck with your school year, competitions, and as the Irish say:

May the road rise to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His Hand.

Bill Kunst

[Beatle]

Condolences from the whole University of Michigan team, I cant explain how sad I am for your loss. I hope you are all getting through this ok.

[Parker]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nic:
Does anybody from VT know if the Baja team is alright. I saw them leave Ocala yesterday afternoon. I hope they didn't make it home in time to be involved in this... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We got home from Ocala and heard about this, and the first thing we tried to do was get in touch with their Baja team. It seemed that everyone on the team was safe. They helped us out several times over the weekend and it would be awful if anything happened to them.

Best wishes come out from the students at Georgia Southern as well.

[VFR750R]

[Stepping up on soapbox]

I'm an atheist gun lover and I am currently going through the hoops for concealed carry in NC.

There are two ways to 'fix' the issue that will actually have an influence.
One. Somehow manage to dearm an america that already has 30million or so guns among its law abiding citizens. Then also outlaw any and all substances then can be made into bombs and manage to confiscate any and all substances that are already out there. Then police and regulate a black market that brings billions of dollars of illegal drugs into this country every year, because guess what they'll be selling next....

Two. Gun education, especailly for those interested and get as many law abiding citizens to own a concealed weapon. Nothing is as much of a deterent to a violent crime then knowing you also have an equal chance of getting hurt or killed. They did a survey of criminals in jail for violent crimes. The most common answer to the question "What sight or sound would scare you the most if you broke into a home" the sound of a pump shotgun. This is above a person yelling, dog being seen or barking ect.

Several studies were done in 1993 to determine how many times a year a gun is used for self defense by law abiding citizens. Due to the controversial nature of this subject there was a large range between the different studies but the lowest was 108,000 cases and the high side was 1.5million.

I feel very bad for what happened in VT. That could happen anywhere. I hate that stuff like that can and does happen. Now taking guns out of civilian hands may have prevented this specific tragedy, but how many crimes are prevented by the civilian ownership of guns. If you took all the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, they would be at the mercy of of the criminal few.

[Hopping off soapbox]

[Wesley]

As horrible as this whole event and all others like it truly are, that is the risk one takes by living in a free society.

The right to bear arms isn't granted by the US Bill of Rights. Its an inalienable right that should not be taken away by a government.

From what I've read of history - the reason the writers of the Constitution did not want to include a Bill of Rights for one reason. Because it could be misconstrued that the government was the one granting those rights to the people - what the Bill of Rights is actually saying, as I understand it, is that these rights are those that people are guaranteed and deserving of - and the government has no right to infringe upon them. When you start putting them in a government document, saying, this is what the government allows you to do, then you run into problems.

A gun is a tool, just like a hammer, a baseball bat, or a golf club. You can kill a person with any of them. You can use them in a safe and gentle manner. Regulating the tools won't stop the intent.

As Americans, we live with the risk of being shot - because we believe (or did at one point) that bearing arms is a right that any free person deserves. Any time we live in fear of death is a time when we start losing our ability to live. Life has one inevitable conclusion - you will die.

I strongly advocate that the students never be forgotten - but I don't think its correct to say that the "victims" shouldn't be forgotten, because that is what turns them into statistics. If we classify these men and women as victims, they go in a little box that turns all of what they were into a little tiny label.

Remember the students. Remember that loss of life is a terrible, terrible thing, and always will be. But most of all, don't dwell on the actions of one individual. Remember what made those people people, and revere what they accomplished in the time they had. Use that memory to balance your sense of what has been, and what needs to be.

[VFR750R]

Well said.

[Michael Jones]

First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences to the VT community. Without fail one of the more solid and good-natured teams to show up at competition - always fun to talk to, to the point it's always one of the teams I make an effort to check out every year.

Trying to avoid the soapbox, but I think the main element here is how to recognize and deal with the signs of severe mental illness, which Seung-Hui Cho was clearly suffering from.

Mental illness is not something to be trivialized. There are particular patterns of action and behavior that should be seen as warning signs and not ignored. Especially if you have friends who are engaging in incomprehensible and illegal activity, or vocalizing in any shape or form the death of themselves or others, it is time to intervene.

It's hard to force action on this front - acknowledging one needs help is the hardest step, and the current system requires voluntarily acknowledgment for good reason. But with a forceful and compassionate approach, it's doable.

That said, we all have our idiosyncrasies and eccentricities - perhaps more in engineering than other fields. Most of the potentially certifiable people I know are from Cornell Racing (including 'engine and turbo guy' ...but hey, I include myself in that category, so it's good company.)

These eccentricities can be managed to good effect, but it takes a team effort to do so at times.

I suppose the end of this is just look out for your fellow colleagues as best as possible (and look out especially for those who can't or won't respond to the effort - it is a baseline definition of sociopathy in the end.)

As for gun control, I'm all for responsible ownership, and in this case, I believe Cho would've had the guns anyway, even with a proper licensing system. In both our major campus shooting in Canada, gun control did not prevent the situation - insane people with designs on shooting up a college will do so, regardless of the law.

But I can't see any reason why America regulates car ownership and operation infinitely more stringently than it does gun ownership. Both are dangerous technologies by definition - guns more so since their only real purpose is to inflict harm, whereas vehicles are intended for other purposes.

If you must have a right to bear arms, there's nothing saying significant responsibilities don't follow from that right (including, I'd add, the underrepresented part of the 2nd Amendment, which ties the right to bear arms with militia service - frankly, if you're that keen to carry, join the reserves or National Guard. They're eager to talk to you.)

[Ricardo]

My condolences to all VT community. I wish you all the strengh you might need to keep on after this though times.

Ricardo
São Paulo´s University Polythecnical School (Brazil)

[VTMalcolm]

George Bush resisted the temptation to talk politics when he came and gave his speach on Tuesday. I ask that you all please do the same, we are still greving and trying to wrap our heads around this tradgedy. I ask that all who post frivolous posts about gun control and other things to remove their posts. Talking about these things is not going to bring back our friends and family.

On a more positive note we were able to get back into our lab yesterday to get back to work. Also Baja wasn't back in town on Monday so they were all safe.

By the way Friday is orange and maroon day please wear these colors in support of our Uni.

Malcolm

[Ian M]

Our thoughts and prayers are with your families and your university.

[Travis Garrison]

I'm at a loss for words. I'm glad to hear you guys are ok. Our thoughts are all with the victims and their families.

Maybe it's inappropriate to talk shop, but I know this is crunch time for everyone, and even minor shop access disruptions can wreak havoc on something you poured so much into...

I haven't heard any one offer but I'm sure we're all thinking it, if you need any repair parts, spare parts, or even design parts made please don't hesitate to ask. I'm sure that all the alums around here esp. have the time and at least some of the resources.

garrisont@gmail.com