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Morgan Harrington was seen hitchhiking for a ride on the Copeley Road Bridge on the night of her disappearance, according to a police brief released Nov. 13. “After the 9:30 (p.m.) timeframe, we can’t seem to establish any other sightings of her,” said Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police. It was also released in the brief that she was wearing a Swarovski Crystal necklace on that night. Harrington might have received a ride or approached someone to borrow a cell phone, Geller said. “She was wearing it that night,” Geller said. “She dropped her purse and her cell...

Time after time, public murder sprees occur in "gun-free zones" - public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week's slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different - except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire. Among President Clinton's first acts upon taking office in 1993 was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military...

This is a big week for the Virginia Tech chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. It's Defense Education Week, and the student group, which has 100 to 200 members, has organized a week's worth of seminars and gatherings in support of concealed carry on Virginia college campuses. Monday night's featured speaker was Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League. Earlier Monday, I spoke to Ken Stanton, 32, a serious-sounding engineering graduate student and the vice president of the Virginia Tech chapter of the concealed carry group. Here's his argument in favor of guns on...

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- As Americans scrambled to make sense of the life of Army psychiatrist Nidal M. Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people and injured 38 more at Fort Hood, Tex., last week, one fact stood out for those living here: Hasan graduated from Virginia Tech in 1995. "We were like, 'Oh, jeez, not again,' " said Liana Bayne, a freshman communications major who was in charge of writing about the shooting for the campus newspaper, the Collegiate Times. The paper's student editors quickly re-framed their story to reflect the school's connection to another tragedy. It has been 2 1/2...

In light of the Fort Hood Massacre, you notice there are not much condemnation from Muslims, like right after 9/11. It was silence for the most part, with the exception of a few. On the other hand, there were lots of condemnation from Koreans right after the Virginia Tech Massacre. Quite a stark contrast right there. They were fears of backlash in both cases. By the way, I never encountered any backlash after Virginia Tech Massacre. South Korea apologized after Seung-Hui Cho massacred 32 people. Quite frankly, I thought that was a little over the top coming from a Korean...

Lessons learned from the horrific Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 are credited with averting an even bigger massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, Thursday afternoon when police officer Kimberly Munley confronted the gunman without waiting for backup and took him down with four shots. Reviews in the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech, where 32 died, found that first responders' decision to be careful and wait for backup probably cost lives as that gunman moved unchecked from classroom to classroom as law enforcement massed outside. Those findings had found their way to Fort Hood's Special Reaction Team, which had practiced...

Virginia Tech this morning confirmed that Fort Hood shooting suspect Nadal Malik Hasan graduated from the university in 1995. Here's the full news release. Virginia Tech has confirmed with the United States Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., that the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, once attended Virginia Tech. According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology...

The suspect, a Virginia Tech graduate and one-time Vinton resident, was shot but survived at Fort Hood, Texas. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 12 people to death and wounding 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, was the son of Roanoke merchants and restaurateurs, lived in Vinton and graduated from Virginia Tech. Hasan was born in Arlington to Palestinian immigrants from near Jerusalem who later settled in Vinton. Neighbors on Vinton's Ramada Road remembered him as a "studious" boy who went by "Michael." While his brother Eyad -- "Eddie" -- would play football with...

WASHINGTON — Military officials say Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected shooter at Fort Hood, was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed. The Virginia-born soldier is single with no children. He is 39 years old. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in 1997. At Walter Reed, he did an internship, residency and a fellowship.

Jihad at Fort Hood? Shooter: Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan - Jihad Watch via kwout

American heavy metal band Metallica has stumped up 50,000 dollars in reward money for a fan who disappeared at one of their concerts, a campaign website said Monday. Police have been searching for blond-haired, blue-eyed Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, since she went missing from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Virginia on the evening of Saturday, October 17.... "The Band Metallica is also adding an additional 50,000 dollars to the reward bringing it to 150,000 dollars for Morgan's safe return or information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Morgan's disappearance," it said....

Every day, nearly 2,500 missing-persons reports are filed across the United States. Few of those reports receive any media attention. Yet the disappearance of Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington went from local newspaper and television stations to cable television's "Nancy Grace" in 48 hours. According to some television and digital journalism experts, Harrington's case skyrocketed because of a confluence of circumstances including her connection to the site of the largest mass school shooting in U.S. history. Those experts say that the disappearance of the 20-year-old from Roanoke County made national news because: -- Harrington is a young, pretty, blue-eyed...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Police searched Tuesday for a Virginia Tech student who hasn't been seen since she was separated from her friends at a Metallica concert Saturday. Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen near the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. Her parents said they talk to her every day and her disappearance is very out of character.

Lynchburg, VA - Supporters of the Second Amendment gathered Friday afternoon at the Liberty University (web) School of Law for a gun rights symposium. The discussion of current legal cases turned into a cry for help from students at Virginia Tech. Some Virginia Tech students even skipped class to do it. Alyson Boyce with VT Students for Concealed Carry President said, "Two and a half years ago, if you would have asked me anything about gun rights, I would not have been able to tell you a thing. Now, Boyce is the president of the Hokie Chapter of Students for...

Note: Photo included. Contrite St. John's Univ. student behind alleged massacre threats on Facebook says booze to blame BY KERRY BURKE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, September 17th 2009, 3:34 PM PHOTO CAPTION: "Radames Santiago Jr., 18, a student from St John's, who was arrested for making threats on his Facebook page." SNIPPET: "A St. John's University freshman who posted messages on Facebook threatening to launch a "Virginia Tech attack" at the Queens campus told the Daily News that he was just drunk and never would have caused anyone harm." SNIPPET: "Santiago, who lives in Washington Heights with his mom...

The funeral services for two Virginia Tech sophomores who apparently were shot to death last week in the Caldwell Fields section of the Jefferson National Forest are scheduled for today in Lynchburg. As of Sunday evening, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office still was seeking leads for the shooting, which they believe occurred either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Services for David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest will be held at Heritage Baptist Church, which both students attended. Metzler's service will be at 1 p.m., while Childs' will be at 3 p.m. Each service...

BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 28 -- In what has become a sadly familiar ritual, about 100 students huddled together Friday on the Drillfield at the heart of the Virginia Tech campus, weeping and singing hymns as they mourned two slain classmates. Heidi Childs, 18, and David Metzler, 19, bright and promising students who were active in Campus Crusade for Christ, were found fatally shot Thursday morning in a national park about 15 miles from campus. Police said Friday that they had no suspects.

David Lee Metzler, 19 years old, and Heidi Lynn Childs, 19 years old, both of Lynchburg, VA were found by a passerby this morning at approximately 8:00 a.m. in the area of Caldwell Fields off of Craig’s Creek Road in Montgomery County. Both were deceased when they were found. The preliminary investigation revealed that both victims had gunshot wounds. Both were Virginia Tech students living off campus.

Family gives permission for release Recently discovered mental health records contain no obvious indications that the Virginia Tech gunman was a year and a half away from committing the worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history. The records contain previously unseen handwritten notes from the counselors who talked to Seung-Hui Cho in 2005, and in one report Cho denied having any suicidal or homicidal thoughts. On April 16, 2007, Cho killed 32 students and faculty members on the Blacksburg, Va., campus and took his own life. The counselors' notes indicate they were concerned for the troubled student, but the records...

Now that Virginia Tech has conquered the Atlantic Coast Conference in back-to-back years, it’s setting its sights on a loftier goal in 2009—wire-to-wire contention for a national title. The Hokies are the class of the ACC for now, a fact that most expect to continue this fall. Heck, they wore the league crown last year, which was supposed to be a quasi-rebuilding period. However, like the local bully looking for new challenges, they’re pining for more respect outside of the neighborhood. Tech needs that kind of season that keeps them in the BCS championship right through November. And so does...

The Transportation Department will convene a meeting of safety experts and others concerned about the dangers of text-messaging and cell phone use while driving, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Tuesday. “If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting, but unfortunately, laws aren’t always enough,” Mr. LaHood said. Mr. LaHood said he hoped to bring together transportation and safety officials from around the country, as well as members of Congress, law enforcement officials and others concerned about what happens when drivers do not give full attention to controlling their vehicles. The session may be held in...

The gunman who killed three women in an aerobics class at a Pittsburgh-area gym bought accessories for his weapons from the same dealer that sold a gun to the Virginia Tech shooter. George Sodini, 48, purchased the items from TGSCOM Inc. of Green Bay, Wis., before committing the Aug. 4 massacre that left three women dead and nine wounded. He then killed himself. It wasn't immediately clear what accessories Sodini bought. Seung-Hui Cho purchased a .22-caliber handgun from TGSCOM in February 2007, two months before he killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. Police investigating Tuesday's shootings at the L.A. Fitness...

Guns are now legal for students on public university campuses in South Carolina. The signs say "guns prohibited" on the College of Charleston's campus, but according to bill 593 that's about to change. Lawmakers approved the bill last month. It says cars on public college campuses are now acceptable places for concealed weapons permit holders to store guns. But that makes some students feel uneasy. "Why makes guns more easily accessible after the violence we just saw at virginia tech and nationwide?" asked student Rachel Kutler. Kutler transferred to the College of Charleston after the Virginia Tech massacre. She doesn't...

RICHMOND, Va. – Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, then committed suicide as police closed in. His mental health treatment has been a major issue in the investigation of the shootings. A memo from Gov. Tim Kaine's chief legal counsel to victims' family members says Cho's records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found July 18 in the home of Dr. Robert...

Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The memo said the records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting

Gun-rights advocates have won victories in several states in recent months allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons in public parks, taverns and their work places. So it came as a surprise to Tennessee state Rep. Stacey Campfield that he couldn't persuade his colleagues to pass a law allowing students at public colleges to carry concealed firearms on campus. The bill died this spring in the Republican-controlled legislature -- one of 34 straight defeats nationwide for people who believe a gun wouldn't be out of place in a college student's knapsack. aucous debates over the parameters of the Second Amendment...

A participant of a summer camp on Tech's campus has been confirmed by Schiffert Health Center to have a case of H1N1 influenza, according to an e-mail to on-campus students from Housing and Dining Services. The H1N1 influenza virus, also known as swine flu, recently hit pandemic status in early June, indicating widespread global activity, as defined by the World Health Organization. According to the Center for Disease Control website, the pandemic status only reflects the spread of the virus to over 70 countries and not its severity. Housing's e-mail, sent by Associate Director for Occupancy Management Kenneth Belcher, clarified...

Despite Recent Violence, Gun Laws Are Softening Thirteen killed at an immigration center in New York. Eight at a nursing home in North Carolina. Five in a house in California. These were among the 57 people killed in mass shootings in a 30-day period this spring in the U.S. Meanwhile, new laws are easing restrictions on guns. Congress recently approved a bill to allow guns in national parks. Tennessee has passed similar measures for its state parks. In South Carolina, a bill under debate would allow weapons on school grounds. Texas may welcome guns into bars. In Montana, a new...

WASHINGTON — The First Amendment guarantees Americans the right to free speech. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to possess firearms. Now the first two clauses in the Bill of Rights have come together in an ongoing debate over the right of college students to advocate that they be allowed to carry guns on campus. The bloody massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School, as well as smaller campus shootings across the country in the last decade, have fomented a lively debate over whether citizens should be allowed to carry concealed weapons to defend themselves on campus. But that...

This is a tremendous speech by a young republican at the state Republican convention in Richmond, Virginia. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4_0L2ZJAvQ for part one. Part two is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejvNWt65VI&feature=related

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) SNIPPET: "Each time he looked up, Cox said, Zhu was on top of Yang, who was on the floor. Zhu stared at Yang's face as he cut through her neck, Cox said. "It wasn't really an angry face at all," said Cox, at that point the only witness to the gruesome events. "It was just a really blank, determined look." By the time police arrived, Zhu was holding the woman's head in his hand, an officer testified."

The Best Speech of the Virginia GOP Convention. Cadet Colonel Adnan Barqawi:"Impossible is Nothing..." Click here for the video Cadet Colonel Adnan Barqawi "Impossible is Nothing"We had so many speakers at the Virginia Convention, we had Mitt Romney, Sean Hannity and a slate of Virginia representatives but it was not one of them that claimed the day. It was Cadet Colonel Adnan Barqawi, a new citizen and descendent of Palestinian refugees born in Kuwait, who brought the house down with his speech given from the heart with a clear love of his new country and its founding principles. His success...

College students and faculty members with a concealed handgun license would be able to pack their firearms on campus under a bill that the Senate tentatively approved on Tuesday. The measure, passed on a 20-10 vote, was offered by a state senator who said he wants to give Texas students protection against mass shootings such as occurred at Virginia Tech University in 2007. Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said the right-to-carry measure also would protect students from other life-threatening situations. "When I read about massacre in Virginia (in 2007), I felt I would feel personally guilty if it woke up...

A bill to allow college students and employees to carry their concealed handguns on campus — declared all but dead in the House last week — got a second life Tuesday with preliminary approval in the Senate. The bill would allow college students who are at least 21 years old and licensed to carry concealed handguns to bring those weapons into state campus buildings. The vote was 20-10 after about 90 minutes of debate. It would apply to all universities and colleges in the state, but private institutions would be able to opt out. Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said...

For two days, Wesleyan University feared becoming another Virginia Tech as police conducted a nationwide manhunt for a man accused of stalking and killing one student and threatening to kill more. But the crisis came to an abrupt end late Thursday just 10 miles from campus after suspect Stephen P. Morgan saw his photo in a newspaper and asked a convenience store clerk to call police. Officers found him standing peacefully outside a Cumberland Farms store in south Meriden. They took him to the ground, then walked inside to tell the startled clerk that Morgan was the man wanted for...

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Wesleyan University students were told to stay in their dorms and the city's only synagogue closed Thursday as police warned that the man wanted in the shooting death of a woman at a bookstore may be bent on killing other students and Jews. Apparently applying the lessons of Virginia Tech, police and administrators locked down the 3,000-student campus and stepped up patrols as authorities hunted for the killer. Johanna Justin-Jinich, a 21-year-old student, was shot several times Wednesday inside a bookstore cafe just off campus by a gunman wearing a wig. Two years ago, she complained to...

The Missouri House passed a bill that makes changes in the concealed weapons law. Currently, the law requires a holder to be at least 23, among other conditions. The existing law also allows Missouri universities to institute a policy to make them “gun-free zones.” When Missouri’s original conceal-and-carry law was passed, the University of Missouri promptly adopted the policy making the campus a gun-free zone. The proposed law would lower the age of a concealed-carry permit holder to 21 and take away the right of public colleges and universities to ban concealed carry weapons on campus. As this bill started...

Michael Lindenberger of Time.com, in a April 20 article titled “Ten Years After Columbine, It’s Easier to Bear Arms,” found it “odd” that “whatever momentum the Columbine killings gave to gun control has long since petered out,” despite the “massacres perpetrated by deranged gunmen” in the following decade. He also quoted extensively from a young gun control advocate in the online article, without including any arguments from the opposing viewpoint. Lindenberger first gave his reflection on the anniversary: “Monday April 20 marks 10 years since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold permanently etched the words Columbine High School into this nation’s...

BLACKSBURG -- They were: The apple of a parent's eye. A collector of friends. Brilliant. Warm. They dreamed. Volunteered. Had smiles that made others smile. They were 32 people who Virginia Tech paused yesterday to remember and to honor, on the second anniversary of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Under a cloudless sky, 3,000 gathered: families, friends, faculty -- the community of Virginia Tech -- to reflect on those who died.

We Remember

An ad campaign is being launched today to try to force New York City's gun-control laws on Virginians. The ads running in the commonwealth are funded by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The mayor should keep his big-government politics north of the Mason-Dixon Line where they belong. Mr. Bloomberg donated $500,000 last year to a gun-control lobbying outfit called Americans United for Safe Streets, which is running the campaign. The mayor's largesse accounts for 99.5 percent of all money raised by the group. The ads are pegged to the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings and link...

It seems as if every liberal in Texas is up in arms over the issue of concealed carry on campus. Liberals' reasons seem to be endless, but the one most often echoed by the masses is how dangerous it would be for students to be allowed to carry handguns. Apparently, once a student is in possession of a legal weapon he will become a crazed killer, out to shoot anyone who disagrees with him. A concealed carry law will mean the end of safe campuses and it is likely that colleges across Texas will turn into war zones between rival...

You're more likely to be blown away by a fellow American than by a terrorist from the more exotic parts of the world. Terrorism begins at home. Long before 9/11 occurred, America was rocked by the occasional wave of domestic terrorist violence, from Columbine High School to the Oklahoma City bombing. Our history—like that of all countries—is littered with the bodies of people killed as "collateral damage" to some "higher" ideology or government policy. Slavery, it could be argued, was a form of terrorism, as was the slaughter and forced relocation of Native Americans. And so on. Lately we seem...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is getting involved in an election other than his own this November, thanks to an issue he has long cared about: gun control. Hoping to make a splash in the Virginia governor’s race, Mr. Bloomberg showed up here Monday to unveil a new commercial criticizing former Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, the presumptive Republican nominee, who is a strong gun-rights supporter. Mr. Bloomberg was joined about a dozen people, including survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings, their relatives, and Tatyana Timoshenko, the mother of Police Offcer Russel Timoshenko, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York's mayor and relatives of Virginia Tech massacre victims are releasing a new television ad next week urging the state to close a gun show loophole. The second anniversary of the shooting is next Thursday. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will join victims' relatives in Arlington on Monday to release the ad. It calls for Virginia to end a practice allowing what are called "occasional sellers" at gun shows to sell weapons without conducting background checks. Investigators were focusing on the role the Internet might have played in the Virginia Tech slayings. Gunman Seung-Hui Cho...

in Richmond, Va. -- one of hundreds held every weekend across the state of Virginia and the country. We gave Samaha $5,000 and one hour to see how many guns he could buy, and how many questions he would be asked. For Samaha, the Glock handgun was a particularly painful purchase. It was the same kind of gun used to kill his sister Reema when she was a freshman at Virginia Tech. Just holding the gun in his hand was difficult. < snip > Samaha walked back into the gun show, and within minutes he was out again, this time...

Holders of concealed handgun licenses could bring their weapons to college campuses if Rio Grande Valley lawmakers have their way. A proposal working its way through the state Legislature would lift a ban on handguns on campuses of both private and public institutions. Proponents of the bill view it as a way to preserve gun owners' rights while promoting safety on campus, arguing that if students or staff on campus had weapons, they would have a better chance defending themselves against a Virginia Tech-style shooting. Rep. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, one of the bill's co-authors, said he views the measure as...

It was President Bush's fault. And Newt's. When a student went on a rampage and killed 32 students at Virginia Tech in April of 2007, then-Senator Joe Biden, at the time running for the Democrats' presidential nomination, knew exactly who to blame. He pinned the blame squarely on the man in the Oval Office. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Now Vice President Joe Biden is silent on the topic of presidential responsibility for the mass murders in Binghamton and Pittsburgh. Nor has he laid blame at the feet of current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.