1 Year After Rampage, Va. Tech Remembers

Campus Holds Vigil, Solemn Memorial To Victims Of Worst Mass Shooting In U.S. History

(CBS/AP)  Candle flames flickered at dusk as some 30,000 people gathered at Virginia Tech's campus for a vigil to remember those killed by a gunman in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Students representing each of the 32 killed one year ago lit their candles from one burning since midnight when another event on the same field began a day of grieving for the victims.

As the vigil ended, "Let's go," was screamed at one end of the field. "Hokies" was the reply from the other end in what became a growing participatory chant.

Earlier, a sea of people clad in maroon and orange, some with heads tearfully bowed, others with arms interlocked, paid tribute to the victims who died a year ago.

"We remain deeply and profoundly saddened by the events of that tragic day...," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told the crowd. "Indeed, all our lives were changed on that day."

The accomplishments of each of the 32 people echoed across the drill field, a litany of what they had done and planned to do before a student gunman killed them in classrooms and a dormitory.

Austin Cloyd had an iron will. Caitlin Hammaren loved playing the violin. Emily Hilscher was a skilled horsewoman. Ryan Clark was a collector of friends. Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva dreamed of bringing people together and making the world peaceful.

"The world was cheated - cheated out of the accomplishments that were sure to come from these extraordinary lives," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told the crowd.

People held back tears as a moment of silence was observed for those killed by Seung-Hui Cho, who took his own life as police closed in. But as music started playing, many sobbed and wept openly, overcome again by the magnitude of loss.

One grieving young woman fell to the ground and EMTs hurried to tend to her, eventually helping her off the field as she blinked back tears.

After the ceremony, bells in the nearby administration building tolled 32 times as mourners approached the semicircle of memorial stones, each engraved with the name of a victim.

The mourners gathered on the same field where a white candle lit at midnight began a day of grieving for the victims. Its flame was to be used to light candles for a vigil at dusk.

Some 20 people gathered in front of Norris Hall shortly after 9:30 a.m., the time one year ago that Cho killed 30 people in the building.

Shane Hutton, a senior from Bristol, said he had wanted to go into Norris but it was closed. Hutton, who had studied under instructor Jamie Bishop, one of the victims, said he has visited the wing of locked classrooms a half-dozen times in the past year.

"I find comfort in it," he said. "I just go in and think about the victims and the families."

Some in this close-knit campus of 27,000 were just hoping to make it through what they knew would be a difficult day.

"It's just so emotional for everybody," said Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily survived being shot. "The kids - you're just so worried about them and think, `Are they reliving those moments?"'

Smaller, reflective gatherings were to take place during the day. About 50 people laid down in protest of Virginia's gun laws (left). The protesters stretched out on the grass for three minutes, to symbolize the amount of time they say it takes to buy a gun in Virginia.

A similar "lie-in" was held at the University of Toledo, Ohio, and more were planned for other campuses.

Seung-Hui Cho had a history of bizarre and threatening behavior and had been declared dangerously mentally ill by a court. Under federal law, Virginia authorities should have sent his name to an FBI database, and when the gun stores ran their instant background checks his purchases should have been denied.

In the past year Virginia tightened its laws, sending thousands of names to the FBI, and congress gave all the states financial incentives to do the same, but CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports that progress has been slow at best.

Numbers provided by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence show that a year ago there were 166,000 names in the FBI database and today, about 402,000. But an estimated 2.6 million Americans have been declared dangerously mentally ill.

The Brady Campaign's Paul Helmke says that means, "8 out of 10 people that have a history of being dangerously mentally ill are still going to be able to buy a gun in this country."

Others argue that solving the problem isn't as simple as creating stricter gun laws.

"If you have someone who's intent on committing criminal acts and they want to get a gun, they're gonna find a way to get a gun," says Virgina House of Delegates majority leader Morgan Griffith.

Some family members of victims entered War Memorial Chapel early Wednesday for a private service. Other family members of those killed said they couldn't bear to attend the official events and planned to grieve privately.

Bryan Cloyd, whose daughter Austin was killed, hopes to plant an oak tree with his wife Renee to honor their daughter's life. It is a way of looking toward the future, he said, rather than reflecting on the horrors of last April 16.

As a Virginia Tech professor and Blacksburg resident, Cloyd has faced reminders of his daughter every day. He believes Austin would want the community to honor her life, but then move forward.

"I won't be able to walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. I won't be able to bounce her children on my knee," he said softly. "And I don't think it's helpful to dwell on that, because where that leads is just more sadness. I think what's helpful to do is to dwell on what can be. What can we do with what we have?"

"It's been difficult at times. The nightmares and reliving flashbacks and other things," said Derek O'Dell, who was shot in the arm in his German class. He told CBS News there were 13 people in his class, and five didn't survive.

"I try and not let this event define me. It's tough to not be defined by tragedy, especially when you are in the news as much as I might be," O'Dell said. "It's difficult for people who might not have known me prior to April 16th to learn who Derek O'Dell is. Hopefully I will eventually reach all of my aspirations in life and become a great veterinarian and hopefully change the world for the better, and hopefully become remembered for that, and not just as a survivor."

No public memorials were planned for Cho.

Gerald Massengill, who led a governor-appointed panel that investigated the slayings, has tried to focus his thoughts on the changes that have been made to the state's mental health system and school security procedures in light of the panel's recommendations.

"I think a lot of us have been anticipating April the 16th with some reservations as to how it would impact us," he said. "And I think as it's gotten closer, what I have tried to consume myself with are those things ... the lessons that we think we could learn from Virginia Tech."

[displeased]

My motto is "We are Virginia Tech, We HAVE prevailed!"

[gunownerdan]

Unfortunately, killers prefer defenseless victims.

"The peaceable part of mankind will be continually
overrun by the vile and abandoned, while they neglect the means of self defense."
- Thomas Paine

"The Constitution shall never be construed... to
prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
- Samuel Adams

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at
large is that they be properly armed."
- Alexander Hamilton

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and
debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with
arms for our defense?"
- Patrick Henry

"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone
who is able might have a gun."
- Patrick Henry

"No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
- President Thomas Jefferson

"Americans have the right and advantage of being
armed -- unlike the citizens of other countries whose
governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
- James Madison

"To disarm the people is the best and most effective
way to enslave them."
- George Mason

a-human-right
.com

[mckim39]

Cho is an American citizen you moron that''s why he
acted like redneck American except that he has not
earned paper-citizenship.

[gurusavant]

$11 Mil ''only''? for 32 killed? Is there something I missed?

[gunownerdan]

People with a history of violence or severe mental problems should never be allowed to have guns.
This should be common sense and would have certainly made it a little harder for Cho to get them.

[gunownerdan]

How many people need to die before you support laws restricting gun ownership?
Posted by jumkey

Laws like this one?
"Jews are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons.
Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.
Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew''s possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.
Whoever willfully or negligently violates the provisions...will be punished with imprisonment and a fine.
Berlin, 11 November 1938
Minister of the Interior
Frick"

Blaming guns or other weapons for the actions of violent criminals will never solve a single thing.

[ubrew12]

We send our young soldiers to South Korea to help defend that country from a North Korean invasion.

Ironically, in so doing, we decrease their chances of dying of a gunshot wound by a factor of 120!!

The U.S. is a killing field. I dont know what Va tech is commemorating, other than the fact that they are just as likely to suffer a massacre tomorrow as they were a year ago.

[rheola-2009]

The more killings, the more he thinks it is necessary to have more guns out there to stop the killers.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by fibonacci_ at 04:49 PM : Apr 16, 200

His idea is working well isn''t it.

Have a look at the comparison of gun related deaths per country compared with that of the U.S.

Or is it they just do not want to acknowledge the bleeding obvious.

[jumkey]

"I hate violent criminals with a passion..."

Posted by gunownerda

Please, stop your idiotic nonsense. You are the greatest proponent for violent crime I''ve ever heard. You are constantly here defending the "rights" of EVERYONE to own weapons - even the mentally ill.

Again, I''ll give you a chance to dispute this (if the CBS censors will allow actual debate that is):

How many people need to die before you support laws restricting gun ownership? Give me a number.

What are you afraid of gunownerdan?

[ubrew12]

Here are gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in the world''s 36 richest countries in 1994: United States 14.24; Brazil 12.95; Mexico 12.69; Estonia 12.26; Argentina 8.93; Northern Ireland 6.63; Finland 6.46; Switzerland 5.31; France 5.15; Canada 4.31; Norway 3.82; Austria 3.70; Portugal 3.20; Israel 2.91; Belgium 2.90; Australia 2.65; Slovenia 2.60; Italy 2.44; New Zealand 2.38; Denmark 2.09; Sweden 1.92; Kuwait 1.84; Greece 1.29; Germany 1.24; Hungary 1.11; Republic of Ireland 0.97; Spain 0.78; Netherlands 0.70; Scotland 0.54; England and Wales 0.41; Taiwan 0.37; Singapore 0.21; Mauritius 0.19; Hong Kong 0.14; South Korea 0.12; Japan 0.05.