Two Virginia College Massacres

Just over 5 years before the 16 April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in Blacksburg, Virginia, there was another shooting massacre less than 100 miles away. On 16 January 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, a student at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA, killed the Dean, Anthony Sutin, along with Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales.


There are many parallels between the two incidents. The shooter in each case was a foreign-born person legally in the United States who had severe emotional issues, who took out their frustrations with handguns.


But there is also a contrasting distinction between the two incidents, a distinction which seems to have been lost in the news media feeding frenzy. In the Appalachian School of Law incident, the killer only murdered three victims, as compared to the 32 victims at Virginia Tech. And at ASL, the killer's rampage was stopped because another student was able to go to his car and access his firearm, which he used to subdue the killer.


Regardless of your opinions regarding the regulation of firearms, there is no denying the facts.


Disclosure Number 1: Less than 3 months before the ASL massacre, I had met with several ASL faculty members for the purpose of discussing my prospective employment there. Considerations of family and geography dictated that I not pursue the matter any further at that time.


Disclosure Number 2: My wife has two cousins who are enrolled at Virginia Tech. We were, of course relieved to learn that they are safe and sound. But it wasn't really good news that they were not victims, because someone else's family instead of ours got the bad news.


May the victims of both masssacres rest in peace, and may their families be comforted!