Newspaper Editorials on Virginia Tech Tragedy

Thirty-three people on the Virginia Tech campus died for no reason. When they woke up yesterday morning, they got up and dressed and walked to class, just like the rest of us. They sat in their classrooms, prepared to learn. They did their jobs as students, and in turn they were not protected. But how can anyone know what was to come. People always want to place blame, but in this case guilt falls on no one but the shooter, who brutally took the lives of so many, and then selfishly, his own.

*Virginian-Pilot ("Unspeakable grief binds Virginians"):

Even in the minutes afterward, there is the withering sense that Virginia can't ever be the same. Heaven knows, there is anger. Parents entrust their children to systems and to places they hope can protect them. Schools that will teach them to build things, and fix things, and invent things. No matter. At any campus anywhere, there will be moments when the madness intrudes and there are no safe places left.

More on the "flip."
*Hampton Roads Daily Press ("Incomprehensible"):

In a society enveloped by everyday violence, we cling to the assumption that our children are safe on campus. Then comes the news that assumptions are false and nightmares are real.

Monday afternoon the death toll was reported at more than 30, making it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. So many questions remained unanswered, and at this moment it's hard to imagine answers that could bring any comfort. You want to know why and how, but some facts are incapable of providing consolation.

Time will bring some clarity, but right now, hug your loved ones, hug your kids, and live the days you're given.

*Roanoke Times ("A day of sorrow"):

In coming weeks and months there will be time to heal. A community that has dealt with so much already will pull together again. It will show its strength in the face of adversity. The people of the New River Valley and beyond will come to terms with an incomprehensible tragedy.

There will be time, too, for questions and answers, discussions of what happened and how to rebuild Blacksburg's shattered sense of safety and security.

Today, however, there is time only for shock and grief and to support those who have lost so much.

*Washington Post ("A Killer in Blacksburg"): "...the nation grieved, once again, as young lives brimming with promise and possibility were cut short by that now familiar campus scourge: an aggrieved gunman, or gunmen, on a rampage."  The Post adds:

The atrocity at Virginia Tech sparked instant and fierce debates, online and elsewhere, even as survivors were fighting for their lives. Under what circumstances, and where, did the gunman obtain his weapons? Would the university have suffered the same tragedy if Virginia law did not prohibit the carrying of guns on campus? Should metal detectors be ubiquitous in American classrooms and dormitories? And why are gunmen so apt to carry out their lethal rampages at American schools?

*New York Times ("Eight Years After Columbine"): "Yesterday's mass shooting at Virginia Tech - the worst in American history - is another horrifying reminder that some of the gravest dangers Americans face come from killers at home armed with guns that are frighteningly easy to obtain."

*USA Today ("On a Virginia campus, another American tragedy"):

There will be much time to review whether more could have been done to protect the students at Virginia Tech, and what might be done to protect students elsewhere. The Columbine experience taught school officials to take warnings and bullying seriously, to reach out to students and listen when they say something's wrong. Student tips have helped avert Columbine-style attacks.

No doubt the Virginia Tech massacre will bring about more changes in school security. For today, however, the focus should properly be on revulsion at what the gunman wrought and heartache for his victims.

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