Gunman at university shoots 17

slodave · slodave's Garage

Students ran for their lives today when a man armed with a shotgun opened fire at Northern Illinois University outside Chicago. Seventeen people were wounded, three critically, authorities say. The gunman is dead, and the campus is secure, officials say.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html

Here we ago again.

Zef · Zef's Garage

Surprised...??? What did you expect...!

BRPORSCHE · 02-14-2008, 02:31 PM

On campus's around the country their will be lots of kids talking about getting their CCW. I know my friends and I are.

PatrickB · PatrickB's Garage

Must be global warming...

slodave · slodave's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by BRPORSCHE

On campus's around the country their will be lots of kids talking about getting their CCW. I know my friends and I are.

Frat parties are about to become a little more interesting.

tabs · 02-14-2008, 02:42 PM

Doesn't Illinois have some pretty tough gun laws? I thought you weren't supposed to be able to get guns there? So how did the law fail us once again? Where were the police to stop him before he started his rampage? It is a total failure of the government to protect us.

Flatbutt1 · 02-14-2008, 02:46 PM

Was that sarcasm Tabs?

PatrickB · PatrickB's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by tabs

Doesn't Illinois have some pretty tough gun laws? I thought you weren't supposed to be able to get guns there? So how did the law fail us once again? Where were the police to stop him before he started his rampage? It is a total failure of the government to protect us.

I'm so bummed I'm not a student there... I can see the lawsuits starting already... And once again, the lawyers keep gettin' richer!

legion · 02-14-2008, 06:09 PM

Yep, our local politicians have protected us again...

The reports say the guy had a shotgun and two handguns and that the shooter was not a student at NIU but a student at another local college. To the best of my knowledge, the only other "colleges" in DeKalb are community colleges.

In order to own any firearm in Illinois or purchase any ammunition, you must register with the state as a firearm owner and have a FOID (firearm owner's ID) card.

No one under 21 can legally possess or purchase ammunition for a handguns. (Just say your .22 LR is for your rifle.

)

I'd be willing to bet the shooter broke one or more Illinois laws just in the possession of his firearms. Strangely, he didn't seem to care.

I am getting a CCW from another state. I know it won't be valid in Illinois, and I will obey the law...

I will also probably be picking up my G26 and AR15 sooner rather than later...while I can still get them.

targa911S · 02-14-2008, 06:18 PM

Yep. Easy pickins' in a "gun free" zone. Of course they will blame it on legitimate, legal, and responsible, gun owners and hunters.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I had a CCW in college and carried all the time. It probably wasn't totally legal. But after watching a guy get shot to death right in front of me once, I didn't care too much about the letter of the law. These mass shooting things probably would not have gone too far where I went to school.

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

Quote:

Surprised...??? What did you expect...!

?? WTF kind of comment is that?

alf · 02-14-2008, 08:42 PM

prayers to the victims.

Hawkney911 · 02-14-2008, 09:02 PM

as a college kid with alot of friends that go to school there i think guys are being pretty disrespectful....

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by alf

prayers to the victims.

.... and their families.
God help us.

varmint · 02-14-2008, 09:19 PM

livi · 02-14-2008, 11:25 PM

This "shoot your school mates" trend is an enigma to me. If you are so pissed off with your life and/or certain people that rule your life - why not take it out on them particularly or just shoot yourself at home..?? This indiscriminate random killing makes no sense. But maybe I am being supremely naive. People will go crazy and fork all sense out the window.

Zef · Zef's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonic dB

?? WTF kind of comment is that?

Just open your eyes...try to look further...

Tim Walsh · Tim Walsh's Garage

As someone who works at a university, I can tell you at least here we're taking this sort of thing VERY seriously and have started measures to mitigate the actions of a rouge shooter. Don't be too surprised if in college they ask for your cell phone number, IM name, email address or anything else they could contact you in case of emergency and have to get a message to you RIGHT NOW. We've just finished a massive upgrade to the security cameras so that all the public areas are covered and are in the middle of implementing a mass communication system. Granted this doesn't make me feel as safe as if I was packing, but at least I work behind a pair of locked doors. After the VT shooting at least schools here in NC have gotten VERY serious about this possibility.

djmcmath · 02-15-2008, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livi

This "shoot your school mates" trend is an enigma to me.

This was my thought, with the question about history. There are enough old fogeys on this board to comment about whether or not this is a new trend, right? I mean, I'm just a kid, but I don't ever remember hearing about this many shootings when I was growing up. Did this sort of thing happen 50 or 100 years ago? Why is it happening now?

The fallout is going to be a lot of protective measures -- locked steel doors, cameras, etc. We're not even really asking the hard question, though: why do people do this, and how can we address it before it gets to this stage?