Enough! Not again.
The healing that the Virginia Tech community keeps having to jump start has been disturbed once again. 2 students were found shot in the Jefferson National Forest. The bodies of Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, and David Lee Metzler, 19, both of the Lynchburg area, were found in the parking area of Caldwell Fields by a passerby. The campgrounds are about 15 miles north of the VT campus.
Both were good students, athletic, and highly thought of. Both students lived off campus. Ms. Childs father is with the Virginia State Police.
How much more tragedy is Tech going to have to endure? The state university was the site of a horrible massacre in April, 2007. Last January, one student beheaded another at a coffee shop on campus. Now both of these young people were found dead at a campsite popular with VT students. When is enough enough?
Full story: Manassas News and Messenger
Just frightening, I never want my kids to leave home!
How horrible! Thoughts and prayers for the family.
Where is capital punishment when you need to make more room on death row? Society needs to toughen up and deal with this sickness. The hell with the troubled childhood defense BS! We’ve ‘turned the other cheek’ too many times. Now it’s time to take back the one true freedom we hold above all others, and that is the freedom of LIFE. Many are the stories of how it used to be when people didn’t lock their doors, and children could play down the street without fear of being taken. Forget healthcare issues, let the nation focus on keeping innocent people alive long enough to eventually need healthcare in the first place!
I’ve hiked more then a few times in that area and have ran into my fair share of interesting and shady characters. Most at the trail heads. Some of those campgrounds are notorious for drug activity/partying.
Hiking is my passion and I HATE seeing stuff like this happen. Fricken low lifes.
You won’t get an argument against capital punishment from me, SA. I think they have to find out who did it first though.
I would take it a step further and suggest that we need huge improvements in mental health care. We shouldn’t have to wait until 32 people are dead before ‘something can be done.’
It makes it more understandable that people want firearms allowed in National Parks. Are they allowed in National Forests?
Moonhowler, I agree with your comment about firearms in National Parks. Why should “bad guys” be the only ones with guns. Most people would at least like a fighting chance in a situation like this (which, I admit, is a sad commentary on where we are as a society).
@Moon-howler
>>>It makes it more understandable that people want firearms allowed in National Parks. Are they allowed in National Forests?
My understanding is that carry laws in national *forests* are whatever they are in the state the forest is in.
National *parks* are different. Right now you may not open or conceal-carry. You may conceal-carry after 2/22/2010 if you are legally allowed to in the state.
Anon makes a good point about the bad guys being the only ones with guns. It is not unusual to hear of someone being killed in a National Park. Is this where the predators hang out?
>>>Is this where the predators hang out?
Parks, forests, rest stops, shopping malls, ad infinitum. Best to ‘carry’ wherever you can, IMO.
And lately, they seem to be going to churches. Funny how these murderers never show up at an NRA meeting, huh? I get a kick out of the sign on Buffalo Wild Wings in Gainesville. “No Guns Allowed”. I picture a couple of bad guys getting to the door and looking at each other saying “Oh, Man…..NOW what are we going to do?”
Slowpoke Rodriguez… I think you “got it” (re … NOW what are we going to do?)
I read a book titled, “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson in which he chronicled his experiences hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. It was an interesting book to read. In it he cautioned that one shouldn’t normally hike alone due to the dangers from strange people, illness, injury, etc. I remember when the two female hikers who were hiking the trail were found murdered near Luray in the 1990’s. It is a shame that such beautiful and serene places can also be so dangerous b/c they are isolated.
Yes, Guns are allowed in the National Forest, Just not the National Parks.
IWK Manassas, wasn’t there a mother and daughter also killed in a national park?
I would have no problem with someone getting a permit to carry a gun in a national park if the person were going to be spending time in the outback. I don’t think anyone needs to pack heat at Old Faithful.
I don’t know how it would be managed.
Thank you for the information, PWConservative.
@M-h
A father and son were shot and I believe killed. They were fishing. I believe it was southern VA near the AT.
The two ladies that were killed were in the Shenandoah National Park. The guy targeted them because he thought they were lesbians.
You’d be surprised how many women hike the AT without men. Many alone.
I remember the 2 women. Maybe the mother and daughter were in a National Park somewhere not close by. I am a huge fan of the national parks. What a shame we should even be having this conversation.