HBCU Hampton University campus shooting

HAMPTON, Va. — Three people have been taken to a hospital after a shooting in the Harkness Hall men's dormitory on the campus of Historic Black College and University (HBCU) Hampton University.

Spokeswoman Yuri Rodgers Milligan says police believes that the shooter is a former student who was one of the three injured early Sunday. A night manager for the Harkness Hall men's dormitory at the school in southeastern Virginia was also hurt. The third victim was not identified, but was not a student.

No students were injured in the shooting reported about 1 a.m., Hampton police said.

The suspect, from Richmond, shot two Hampton men ages 62 and 43, before shooting himself, according to local police.

Milligan says all three are alive but she doesn't have an update on their conditions. Officials don't yet know the shooter's motive.

Per Hampton University policy, all students, faculty and staff were notified about the situation via text message and e-mail. The school remains locked down while police investigate.

Hampton University is a Historic Black College/University (HBCU) established in 1868 during Re-Construction to educate Black leaders for the newly freed former slaves.

A former Hampton University Graduate Booker T. Washington was one of those leaders, and Mr. Washington based his foundation setting up Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (now Tuskegee University) on Hampton's ideology.

Hampton and Tuskegee Universities focus on both a scholastic Education to go along with a high Skills curriculum.

A Hampton education is on par with the level of education offered at Howard, Morehouse, and Tuskegee. The shooting at such an outstanding University is a total surprise. Well-to-do African-Americans send their children to these high-end HBCU's, partly because of the Institution safety.

Can anyone feel absolutely safe now when shootings occur on University campuses each and every year -- Virginia Tech in 07, Deleware State last year, and now Hampton University? Two of these three Universities are in Virginia with their buy-a-gun-at-the-corner-store reputation. Virginia has very loose well documented gun laws. Would you send your kid to a Virginia college or university before their gun laws were fully addresed by the State? Or do we just take it for granted that anyone can get a gun like a piece of candy?

Secondly, is the solution that we first address violent and defiant behavior of a now desperate society? I say 'society' because it's not just the easily targetted and defenseless youth anymore.

You can no longer blame it on conneisseurs of gangsta rap music and pimped-out videos. Now grown men are going postal on their former colleagues at their most recent employer. The recent rash of grown-ass-men killing their entire family (kids included) and then themselves.

Are mental institutions too lenient in their prognosis? The answer is no longer an easy solution anymore.

Times can only get tougher considering the medical benefits, pensions, job/salary eliminations, and lower wages offered by today's buiness environment. Throwing a million youngins' in prison has not worked. A Government takeover nor bailout cannot resolve this continued menacing problem.

Education nowadays goes so far. White collar workers standing in concert-like lines for menial jobs in New York City, shown last week on Sunday's 60 minutes news program, was a sad site to see. Today, with the addition of easy access to every type of gun possible, may be a bad time to sit around and do nothing about it.

I am guesing -- but almost certain -- that Great Britian has laws where both its' citizens and local police are un-able to carry nor own guns. Homicides are a rarity throughout the entire country. Considered a drastic gun law in the land of guns (USA), that may be 'one' of the answers considering that over half-a-million mortgage and rent paying adults are being fired each month. I don't think that crime will go 'down' with people facing these drastic financial problems.

What is your solution?