Shooting leaves seven dead at Illinois university

Hi! I'm Kristin Volk on this Friday, the 15 day of February 2008 with today's news headline.

Seven people are dead following a shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University yesterday. More than a dozen others are wounded. The alleged gunman, Steven Kazmierczak, opened fire on a geology class before turning the gun on himself. Kazmierczak was reportedly a former graduate and undergraduate student at the university. A preliminary investigation shows the man had no contact with university police while he was a student there.

Former President George H.W. Bush will endorse John McCain in his bid for the Oval Office. This comes just one day after former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney endorsed the Arizona senator. McCain will most likely travel to Texas next week to accept Bush's nod. The endorsement is reportedly aimed especially at Texas where voters will weigh in next month.

The House has failed to renew a surveillance measure that President Bush says is vital to tracking terrorists. The Senate approved the measure earlier this week, but it's set to expire Saturday at midnight without the House's vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to schedule a vote on the legislation before breaking yesterday for a week's recess. The bill would give government the ability to work with telecommunications companies to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists calls and emails. Under the legislation, those companies would receive retroactive protection from lawsuits over wiretapping and privacy. Many House Democrats oppose that immunity.

However, the House did vote to issue contempt citations to two Bush aides. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House lawyer Harriet Miers refused to cooperate in an investigation into the controversial firings of those U.S. attorneys, citing President Bush's executive privilege. Bush has invoked the privilege that protects all former and current White House officials from testifying about this issue. The contempt citations were the first approved by Congress against the executive branch since the Reagan administration.

That's all for now. For all of us at UPI, have a nice weekend.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Northern
• Illinois
• University
• gunman
• dead
• McCain
• Bush
• Romney
• surveillence
• eavesdrop
• terrorist
• Bolten
• Miers

[Conan568]

One armed student or teacher could have stopped this Bastard before he killed those people.

Gun control doesn't save lives, it never has and never will.

Everywhere conceal and carry laws are in effect, crime rates plummet.

Everywhere that has gun control, crime rates soar.

You Libs. who say otherwise are either misinformed, or lying.

Take your pick.

[lexo30]

I believe in gun control laws because they have a demonstrable effect in reducing the number of people who get (illegally) shot dead. That'll do me for the moment.

[lexo30]

I don't know what 20/20 is, not being American.

You reject gun control laws because they don't reduce overall crime rates? Isn't that wildly unreasonable of you? I for one find it a bit difficult to believe in a genuine correlation between gun control and, say, increased levels of securities fraud.

[ab1tchslap]

John Stossel is the 20/20 reporter who looks like ned flanders.

The gun related crime probably decreases, but what about overall crime? States with concealed carry laws also have lower crime rates without giving up any rights.

[lexo30]

I've never heard of John Stossel. Gun crime in the UK also rose briefly after they introduced a blanket ban on handgun possession in 1997, but ever since then the overall trend in levels of handgun-related crime has been to decline. As soon as nobody can carry guns, criminals - who'll get them anyway - feel freer to use them. But it also becomes a lot easier for law enforcement to control the number of guns in circulation.

[ab1tchslap]

Well, John Stossel linked gun control to higher crime rates. How about the rise in crime in Washington DC after their gun ban?

[lexo30]

"Gun control has been linked to higher crime rates."

Linked by who? Where? In France in 2001, there were 0.21 gun-related homicides per 100,000 people. In the same year, in England and Wales, which have much stricter gun laws than the USA, there were 0.15. In the USA, there were 3.98. That's over 26 times as many gun-related killings than England and Wales. Please explain to me how England and Wales have a higher rate of gun-related crime than the USA.

[ab1tchslap]

Gun control has been linked to higher crime rates.

[FuchsTone66]

Hmmm.... maybe more schools should take Utah's stance. We allow CCW on our campus (law abiding, of age) and guess what? For more than 2 years...no gun violence! What happened to all the rants of "guns on campus will create more violence" "It will be the wild west all over again!" Silly anti defense people. When are you going to learn that when you fight back, you have a better chance of winning. A criminal's best friend is a liberal....

[lexo30]

jbnwc, I will happily debate gun control with you or anyone else who wants to talk about it on a more intelligible and thought-out level than "carry guns saves lives". I have not criticised RedneckMikeSr as a human being, I just criticised his language, and I have been polite to you. Why you have not extended the same courtesy to me?