On Deadline has an update on the shootings at VA Tech that was posted a short time ago. The chain of events seems incredibly confusing and there’s some implication that there was more than one shooter. I haven’t had time to read much more on it today, and it’s so heartbreaking as a parent to fathom this.

Virginia Tech officials and police are providing an update on today’s events. Here are some highlights:

• Police have a tentative identification of the dead gunman but aren’t releasing his name yet or saying whether he’s a student, saying the investigation is continuing. The chief of campus police said the man does not fit the description of the “person of interest” who was being sought in the dormintory killings earlier in the morning. That suspect is not a student and has not been arrested. Murder-suicide has been ruled out in the dorm killings.
• Two guns have been recovered, but they are not being idenfitied. CNN reports that sources have identified the weapons as 9mm and 22-caliber handguns.
• Police found the doors to Norris Hall chained when they arrived. It took officers about minute to break through.
• The shooting stopped when police reached the second floor of the engineering building. The chief said that officers found the gunman dead of a self-inflicted wound and that police did not fire any shots.
• University officials will post their timeline of the day’s events on the school’s Web site.

Also in the news, in the wake of the shootings, ABC’s The Blotter reports that a “Lapse of Federal Law Allows Sale of Large Ammo Clips.” Wonderful. Needless to say, right wing gun advocates are up in arms over the report.

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