We will never be able to ask why enough - we will never be sorry enough - we will never be safe enough. We will, however, be here for all of you who have suffered. We will be sending our thoughts and prayers to all of you. We will always remember - always - the pain we ourselves felt at your great loss. I was never blessed enough to meet any of you, but I will see you in heaven.
Your Sister in Christ,
Someone from MSU who will be wearing orange and maroon on Friday to honor all of VT

My heart goes out to everyone that this tragedy has touched from the campus community to the people around the nation. I am so sad to hear that people always blame the gun like the first blogger or the dealer for things like this, when in fact it's the weak minded individual who pulled the trigger. Many things in this world kill others from bombs to guns. The person who did this had many problems as we all know he is the one who took all their innocent lives by his own hand. I feel so sorry for all those who were lost and their families.

There are no words that can ease the pain for students,teachers and parents at Virginia Tech. Or even other Schools that have gone though this same tragic and catastrophic nightmare. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones. And we ask God to grant peace and healing to the students and parents and the Staff at Virginia Tech.

We ask why.....this young man was very troubled and how are we to feel towards him and grant it he was in the wrong for what he had done.I can't help but feel some sadness that no one could reach out to him before this took place.
If you haven't lived with depression ever,then this will be very difficult to understand.
Yes we can point fingers all we want towards the use of guns or towards any individual that has a history of mental illness and goes forth and kills for no good reason but this individual is so sick inside that they are unable to help themselves.

So this is where others come into play to check out individuals that show signs that are not normal and have further discussions as a group in taking steps to avoid this if possible. This is only for the protection of others.

Time to take control..take back the guns! Wake up American leaders,our children are dying in towns and cities all across the country.
To those 33 families and the VTECH community I'm sorry one troubled young man had such an impact on your lives. Your remembered in my prayers Peace be with you

I would like to express my condolences to those families who lost loved ones, but I DONOT understand why the American people are so hell bent on making guns so available to anyone and everyone who has the money to buy one. The rest of the world is having a problem understanding this as well. We understand that it is part of a constitution that was written over 200 years ago. Isn't it about time to do an overhaul on the 2nd Ammendment? How many people have to die before you people get it?

I am deeply grieved at the Virginia Tech tragedy, and my heart goes out to all the victims, their families, and their friends.
Has anyone in academia ever considered the idea of BACKGROUND CHECKS ON PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS??? The most glaring example before the VT tragedy is 9/11. No one at the flight schools checked the future hijackers' backgrounds...and look what happened.

what were the administration and police doing the 2
hours between the two shootings. Presumably if one
accepts the mantle of responsibility for the safety of others then when those persons fail, possibly instead of speeches they should resign and more
responsible leadership sought out.

marc miles. parent and grandparent.

I only want to see pictures of and hear about the stories of those who we lost. Tell us what they brought to the world and we will all realize what we lost on Monday. Do not show the killer over and over. I do not care about him. I care about the families of the victims and the lives that were lost. The media should focus on making this real to all people. Only then will gun laws get changed and people with mental problems be better treated.

The only solution that would help is to place some preventive measures.
Today, guns detection devices are limited to courts and government locations.
Based on the latest incident and other potential incidents that could be planned by unknown terrorist groups, there should be more gun detection devices installed in all academic buildings, corporate buildings, theaters, entertainment and crowded events.

This message is for our cities and government officials who should be aware that such incidents could happen at any day and let us not wait for it to happen before taking precaution measures. Today our nation is at war with lots of terrorist groups and this should be a good reason to setup a preventive program for such horrifying incidents.

What would officials do if a terrorist group decided to take over a large corporate building and use all employees as hostage or decided to blow up the building?
Let our officials play the “if game” before the game actually begins.

There are some precautions our officials can take to protect us, here are some:

• All academic, corporate and crowded buildings need to have gun detection devices.
• Survival procedures need to be in place to inform people on how to react.

my heart goes out to those who died and my prayers go out to there mothers and fathers who lost there sons/doughters this shouldent have never have happend

Please take the time to pray for all the victims in this horrific tragedy. God Be With You.

Unfortunately, due to Columbine and now VA Tech, even the 1966 attack at the University of Texas, that used to be the nation's worst attack on students, cannot be helped by security or otherwise. VA Tech is no different. You can equate this to 911; it was well calcuated; our Government couldn't stop that either. They, as in the shooters at both places as well as the 911 plane hijackers, had an agenda; what can you do about that without taking into custody every student who says they don't like their teacher or professor? Take into custody everyone who cusses out the US government? There is no clear answer here. But the idea that the school had any reason to pursue him prior to this is absurd. If no charges are pressed, nothing anyone can do. Point is, press the charges if there is erratic behavior. Its our law, people! This boy was mad, he was obsessed with something that most of us can't comprehend. He did a horrible thing. But us talking about it won't change it nor make sure it doesn't happen again. Until his package to the networks, which meant he wanted attention, noone had a clue. Only AFTER the fact, does anyone find anything strange in his behavior. THAT is the common factor in school shootings. So, let's question our students when they say, "I hate the Principal". Let's take them into custody and make them fess up that they really do hate the principal, but they wouldn't do anything to him or her. Let's NOT go too far the other way, folks. Going to school for most kids these days is like going to the airport; thru an x-ray machine. If they invent a machine that reads minds, that might be different. I think we're stuck with what we got, people! Its normal to blame somebody for not doing something, unfortunately. This young man had ideas that were skewed; such as the boys from Columbine; what do you do? Parents should know what's going on. Unfortunately, it happens too late when everyone who "knows" what is happening, has any effect.

Over the past several years there have been several mass killings by disturbed mentally ill children who were "bullied" at school, every single one of them has this in common. Mental illness is a disease and we are not addressing this problem as we should starting in the first year of school. School administrators, teachers and students must be educated about mental illness, it needs to be discussed openly and "bullying" of any kind must not be accepted in any form. It is the bullying that put most of these kids over the line. Students must learn this and keep an eye out for the "loner" the kid that doesn't "fit in" and instead of picking on him inform a teacher and a plan must be set up to help this child before he can cause harm to himself or to others.
Don't even get me going on guns, in a society where everyone could be deemed "sane" only then should we have the liberal policy we have on owning them, such as we have now. Obviously, many people are out there who are not stable and see how easily he was able to obtain guns, guns that were not for hunting, but for killing, mass killing. Why are they legal and so easy to obtain??? Because the NRA has lots of money and power thats why...ask your congressman/woman...have they received money from the NRA??

It seems much of the commenting on here is pushing for preventive measures - and I for one agree 100%. Preventive is needed to ensure innocent lives are not lost in such tragic ways. The question that lurks my mind though, is what kind of preventive measures?
When I see a fire, and wish to extinguish it, I normally shoot the blue area on the bottom; spraying the hell out of the red above is to no avail.

Perhaps some are for the 2nd amendment and keeping their guns, fine. so let's focus on how you use them.
Psychology plays a major role in how we use our guns; and evidently, psychology played a major role in this tragedy. Being preventive is finding out why these events are occurring. Is it an isolated incident? Was Columbine? Were the ones in between? Or could it be an overall level of frustration, especially among students who are trying to make sense of this world and the way it is being managed. And that, especially that they belong to the society that influences this world a great deal, not just from coast to coast.
I remember, school years, where when I could be totally myself, explore myself, explore the world, defend the rights of the weak, of the poor, spread peace & love and hippy stuff; water ski, go clubbing and get girls, all while using the little dreamer inside.

What's this dreamer left with today? How are we managing our world within? how are we managing our without? Planet wise? It's being managed by a political system, by an executive branch, that anyone with some sense & logic can tell has been lying to its population to achieve personal/ a certain group's interests... to the extent that, as a country, the US government currently dismisses the reality of global warming, for example, as a debatable/political issue; while every student who takes a science class can see how it is becoming more & more inevitable and this same society is the planet's biggest polluter.
what's our young people going to learn? to think? to rationalize? to dream? when we continue to set the wrong example?

Need I go into world political affairs? I hope I don't have to, because I'd be preaching to the quire.
Yes, we need to be preventive, but at a fundamental level, so as, if we decide to keep the guns, as a freedom thingy, at least we're stable enough to handle them.

From Canada with Love & great sympathies, to our second home, the US, and our brothers, sisters and uncle who are there.

The press keeps playing on the fact that it was so easy for him to purchase a gun..If a psycho is really set on killing people and didn't have a gun readily available he would have found another weapon of choice, be it a bomb (which can be easily made) knifes, posinius gas etc...and Cho bought this gun a month before he did the killings. No 3 or 5 day waiting period would have mattered. What could have made a difference would be if charges were filed for stalking. Could have raised a red flag!

It seems this is again a reminder to people how fragle people really are and how we as people of all cultures need to treat each other.

We all know that one person who was always picked on in grade schoolor the unfortant one who didn't have money, popularity. The person who was called names, made fun of, mocked at.

It pretty much seems indeed its coming back to bit many people back for the treatment that they do unto people. We have had alot of school shootings in the past years and now it's getting up in the Universities.

It's not our laws that need to change in how to help people, quite honestly, its the services people recieve. There are many people in this world that need to get help / support, but get shoved away. Sometimes, this is what happens, people get killed and we sit back and wonder why. People jump to conclusions and dumb laws, and laws are made that just don't solve a problem, but more hinder what is actually needing to be done with someone in need.

My prayers are with all who have been effected by this young mans actions. Including his parents. My only question is when will do more for the Mentally Ill?? When will we teach our children that they need to be kind?

By airing the tape and pictures of this paranoid sicko, you are giving purpose to others with psychotic thinking to do the same thing. Seems the news media is more concerned with rateings. So when you ask the question "What did he expect to get from his sick thinking"---WELL, its constant recogniation on national TV.. Get him off TV