NIU Shooting
I began writing a blog this morning about "school shootings", and was adding more as this just came in...
This Thursday afternoon, CNN is reporting that at least 15 people have been shot and several injured at Northern Illinois University outside Chicago.
The gunman who opened fire in a lecture hall is dead according to DeKalb police, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
The lecture hall is Cole Hall, reports say. The shooting occured shortly after 3 p.m. ET. The shooter was carrying a shotgun and a pistol.
The University has ordered its student body to seek shelter and canceled classes on this Valentine's Day, 2008.
"Its has been confirmed that there has been a shooting on campus and several people have been taken away by ambulance," the school said in a posting on its DeKalb campus Web site. "All classes are canceled on the DeKalb campus. People are urged not to come to campus."
DeKalb is 65 miles west of downtown Chicago and 45 minutes southeast of Rockford.
I was just preparing a new blog saying I expected some more shootings due to the increased media drumbeat because of the mislabeling of the killings at educational settings in Memphis and Oxnard, California, last week as "school shootings."
It seemed the media is getting bored. Slowing election news and eighteen debates mean that "school shootings" are going to be used to break the boredom. This is a reality, even if last week's "school shootings" were incorrectly labeled as such.
Recent events have been building to this, kicked off most recently by the Louisiana Technical College at Baton Rogue killings during a horrible week of violence (see past blogs here).
At the end of last week, news quickly spread of two "school shootings."
But wait.
"Classic school shootings" are of a suicidal individual invading a school and randomly shooting people, even if he seems to be targeting specific groups (e.g. athletes, girls, teachers, school officials). The ones last week were different.
Two separate cases of individual boys going into two separate schools, after conflicts with one specific individual each, and shooting one chosen victim in each site. In neither case did the two shooters act suicidal, but only revengeful. They both surrendered immediately after they shoot their single target. Nevertheless, both were reported graphically by the media as "school shootings." But they did not really deserve that description, although they technically were attempted murders in schools.
Today, this Valentine's Day morning, the wire services told that the young man who has been shot in Oxnard had died.
Now this Northern Illinois University shooting occurs, and the typical suicidal pattern appears to be repeating itself with this event. It copies the Louisiana Technical College shooting, in many ways.
{See an update that follows.}
This Thursday afternoon, CNN is reporting that at least 15 people have been shot and several injured at Northern Illinois University outside Chicago.
The gunman who opened fire in a lecture hall is dead according to DeKalb police, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
The lecture hall is Cole Hall, reports say. The shooting occured shortly after 3 p.m. ET. The shooter was carrying a shotgun and a pistol.
The University has ordered its student body to seek shelter and canceled classes on this Valentine's Day, 2008.
"Its has been confirmed that there has been a shooting on campus and several people have been taken away by ambulance," the school said in a posting on its DeKalb campus Web site. "All classes are canceled on the DeKalb campus. People are urged not to come to campus."
DeKalb is 65 miles west of downtown Chicago and 45 minutes southeast of Rockford.
I was just preparing a new blog saying I expected some more shootings due to the increased media drumbeat because of the mislabeling of the killings at educational settings in Memphis and Oxnard, California, last week as "school shootings."
It seemed the media is getting bored. Slowing election news and eighteen debates mean that "school shootings" are going to be used to break the boredom. This is a reality, even if last week's "school shootings" were incorrectly labeled as such.
Recent events have been building to this, kicked off most recently by the Louisiana Technical College at Baton Rogue killings during a horrible week of violence (see past blogs here).
At the end of last week, news quickly spread of two "school shootings."
But wait.
"Classic school shootings" are of a suicidal individual invading a school and randomly shooting people, even if he seems to be targeting specific groups (e.g. athletes, girls, teachers, school officials). The ones last week were different.
Two separate cases of individual boys going into two separate schools, after conflicts with one specific individual each, and shooting one chosen victim in each site. In neither case did the two shooters act suicidal, but only revengeful. They both surrendered immediately after they shoot their single target. Nevertheless, both were reported graphically by the media as "school shootings." But they did not really deserve that description, although they technically were attempted murders in schools.
Today, this Valentine's Day morning, the wire services told that the young man who has been shot in Oxnard had died.
Now this Northern Illinois University shooting occurs, and the typical suicidal pattern appears to be repeating itself with this event. It copies the Louisiana Technical College shooting, in many ways.
{See an update that follows.}
