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Jury finds Va. Tech negligent in '07 shootings By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press – 1 minute ago CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) — A jury has found Virginia Tech negligent for delaying a campus warning of the first shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead. Jurors returned the verdict Wednesday in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Jurors deliberated for 3 ½ hours before awarding $4 million to each family, and the state immediately filed a...

DENVER — Courts are ruling in favor of allowing those with concealed-carry permits to bring their handguns on campus, but universities are figuring out ways to keep the guns out. Gun rights advocates recently notched major legal victories in Colorado and Oregon, with courts in both states agreeing that university policies banning firearms on campus must defer to state laws allowing permit holders to carry concealed handguns. In response, however, university officials in Oregon and Virginia have enacted policies allowing concealed carry on campus but not in buildings, including classrooms, dormitories, event centers and dining halls. The result is that...

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. — Attorneys at a trial seeking an accounting of the deadly 2007 rampage on the Virginia Tech campus are expected to question the chief of the university's police force Wednesday to explain his actions during the first two killings on campus. Police Chief Wendell Flinchum is among the witnesses scheduled to testify in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of two students who were among the 33 killed during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Flinchum's officers were the first to investigate the slayings at Ryan Clark and Emily Hilscher in a dormitory on...

WASHINGTON -- When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell decided today to sign legislation that repeals Virginia’s 19-year-old restriction on selling more than one handgun a month, he ignored the pleas of the Virginia Tech families affected by the worst shooting massacre in the history of the Commonwealth and the United States. Colin Goddard, who survived being shot four times at Virginia Tech and now works as an advocate with the Brady Campaign, was outraged. "When the Virginia Tech families spoke to the governor on Saturday, he offered sympathy, not solutions. Sympathy alone will not save lives. The governor had a chance...

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday are expected to publish a report on the disputed gun trafficking investigation called Operation Fast and Furious, concluding that agents in Arizona — not Obama administration officials — were responsible for the tactics used in the inquiry and for providing misleading information relayed to Congress. In an 89-page report, titled “Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona,” the Democratic staff portrays Fast and Furious as the fourth investigation, dating back to 2006, in which Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives employed...

Before I say anything else, let me make it clear: any liberal (or person) who calls himself an American should believe in the Constitution. I see, too often, in blogs and on television people who selectively promote their favorite parts of our governing document. Conservatives seem as if they want to tattoo the 10th Amendment (states’ rights) on their chest, but often questionably cut corners around the Fourth Amendment (protection against unwarranted searches) for the sake of “national security.” Liberals talk endlessly of First Amendment rights to free speech, while trying to ignore the Second Amendment. I try not to...

"Journell, a 20-year-old who graduated from Giles High School, Matthew D. Dunton, 23, and Matthew I. Brady, 21, are charged with entering the house of Dorenzo Hudson and Sean Allen with a weapon, with the intent to commit larceny, assault and battery, or other felony, according to warrants. " ... "Prosecution and defense lawyers acknowledged that Hudson and Allen later went looking for the three and a physical altercation took place, but no charges have been filed in that incident. "

ovington VA --(Ammoland.com)- The Radford University protest on Wednesday was a success, even if the weather didn’t really cooperate. Despite the rain and the fact that we could not hand out our brochures and stickers unsolicited, we still handed out 500 brochures and even more stickers. Eryn Bartholomew (Vice-President of the Radford College Republicans), VCDL EM Dave Knight, and I spoke at the event. We met with the police and student event staff early so they could go over the rules with us for our protest. We also paid for our tables, which we were required to stay near during...

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The man who authorities say killed a Virginia Tech police officer was described as a typical college student in many ways, making it difficult to understand why he would commit an armed robbery and then, apparently at random, target the patrolman before killing himself. The gunman was identified Friday as Ross Truett Ashley, a 22-year-old part-time business student at Radford University, about 10 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. He first drew authorities'attention Wednesday when, they say, he walked into his landlord's office with a handgun and demanded the keys to a Mercedes-Benz SUV.

URGENT: Virginia Tech lifts lockdown amid reports gunman has been found dead,

http://www.vt.edu/

BLACKSBURG, Va. – DEVELOPING: A police officer was reportedly shot to death Thursday on Virginia Tech's campus. The university's Collegiate Times newspaper reported the fatality at about 1:30 p.m. A potential second victim has been reported at a campus parking lot, the university announced on its website. The suspect, according to the posting, is described as a white male wearing gray sweatpants and a gray hat with a neon green brim. He was believed to traveling on foot near McComas Hall, a campus gym. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/08/shots-fired-at-virginia-techs-campus-gunman-sought/?test=latestnews#ixzz1fyIBeaLv

BCS Selection: NCG: LSU v Alabama Orange: WVU v Clemson Fiesta: Okie St v Stanford Rose: Oregon v Wisconisn Sugar: Michigan v Va Tech??????????????/

Virginia Tech was the site of one of the bloodiest school shootings in the history of the United States. On that day a single gunman killed 33 people and injured 25 more before he took his own life. Many of us on this site believe the vast majority of those deaths could have been prevented by a single legally armed citizen and their firearm, but thanks to gun-free school laws and policies every victim was unarmed and defenseless. The Virginia Civil Defense League, Virginia’s firearms owner rights protection group, just announced their plans to hold a protest on November 17th...

Virginia Tech is receiving generally positive reviews for how it handled an on-campus gun scare Thursday. It's with some irony that a day later, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is again talking about having the University of Virginia bow to state laws and allow those with permits to bring guns onto grounds. In a opinion issued last month at the request of a republican state senator, Cuccinelli says the University of Virginia may not bar people with concealed carry permits from bringing firearms onto grounds. Cuccinelli said, "Honestly all we say in an opinion is what the law is. We...

RICHMOND — A gun scare Thursday at Virginia Tech rekindled the debate about carrying firearms at state-run universities. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli recently waded into the debate. In an official advisory opinion, Cuccinelli found a University of Virginia gun policy too restrictive and lacking in authority. The opinion, released last month, said that a George Mason University regulation, which has the force of law, unlike a policy, offered a legal way to restrict firearms inside classroom buildings or at campus events but still allow weapons outdoors. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the George Mason regulation but found that universities can’t...

Virginia Tech posted information on its website on Thursday morning about the reported gunman sighting. "I was pretty anxious," the sophomore said. "We had family friends who were up here when the shooting took place in 2007, so it was kind of surreal." Responding cops found no sign of any man matching the description - 6 feet tall, clean-shaven, wearing a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts and brown sandals. A police sketch of the suspect showed a Doogie Howser-ish white man with close-cropped hair. Earlier, emergency sirens howled across the Blacksburg, Va., campus as the university sent news...

BLACKSBURG, VA -- 9:59 a.m. WSLS can confirm that the campus siren system has been activated. --- 9:47 a.m. Virginia Tech Alert claims person with a gun spotted near Dietrick Dining Hall. Tech asking people on campus to stay inside, secure doors. Police conducting search now. WSLS's Ken Heineck is on the way to Virginia Tech now. More information as we get it.

Virginia Tech, site of a 2007 mass shooting, issued a campus lockdown Thursday after a man with a gun was reportedly spotted on campus. NBC affiliate WSLS confirmed that the campus siren system had been activated and all people on campus had been asked to remain indoors. The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. Thursday telling students and employees to stay inside and secure doors. A subsequent crime alert said three children attending a camp on campus reported seeing a white man who appeared to have a gun covered with a cloth.

Virginia's top lawyer stands firm on the issue of campus defense. In a recent opinion, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli affirmed the rights of concealed-handgun permit holders to possess firearms on campus despite an apparent conflict with University of Virginia policy. Virginia's code of law states that a holder of a concealed-handgun permit may possess a handgun anywhere except "in places where such possession is prohibited by law." As Cuccinelli points out, the policies of the University of Virginia do not hold the force of law and therefore cannot restrict where permit holders may carry. In addition, were the total ban...