As word spread through the media earlier today of a shooting in College Station, Texas, visions of a repeat of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 32 lives played in many people’s minds.
https://twitter.com/911BUFF/statuses/235071471251243010
Reports of a school shooting at Texas A&M. Suspect in custody: http://t.co/LyJ1n8zv
— Sam Sifton (@SamSifton) August 13, 2012
Reports starting to trickle in from Texas A&M of a possible mass shooting. Working on more as it develops…
— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) August 13, 2012
ok there was the shooting at the movie theatre, then there was the shooting at the temple and now a school shooting at Texas A&M???
— Ryan Stevenson (@MarReal_1stLady) August 13, 2012
Omg there was a shooting at the other Texas A&M now I'm nervous to start school
— Jaimie (@Thangg_01) August 13, 2012
https://twitter.com/Aleks_TJ/status/235133520136257536
In reality, though, the event was much closer to the 2011 shooting at that same school which, while tragic, claimed only two lives, including that of the shooter, who was not a student there. Today’s gun violence reportedly took the lives of three: a constable serving an eviction notice, the suspected gunman and a bystander.
ths was not a Texas A&M shooting as media is reporting, its A person shooting from his home as an eviction was being served.
— Walter A Spychalski (@waltspy) August 13, 2012
As the “Texas A&M shooting” slowly became “the shooting near Texas A&M,” some are wondering if a nation (and media) on edge from multiple shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Oak Creek, Wis., was primed for something more.
Media needs to take Texas A&M out of the shooting, is not a school event nor involve it! Was eviction notice being served at house.
— duckster (@ducktrades) August 13, 2012
https://twitter.com/Dani0126/status/235134181502504961
@southern_gentTN It was not a Texas A&M shooting. Please don't add to the hysteria.
— Clay Wisner (@claymonster) August 13, 2012
I do wish the media would get the headlines right. The "Texas A&M Shooting" did NOT happen on campus, but at a house nearby.
— Samra Jones Bufkins MJ, APR (@Samjb) August 13, 2012
https://twitter.com/jimiscalling/status/235128098100760576
The Texas A&M shooting was not on the A&M campus, yet many media outlets are passing it off as a school shooting. Sad.
— Bryan Wood (@bryanwx) August 13, 2012
Media: Stop calling the breaking Texas A&M event a "mass shooting." The 3 people killed were the shooter, the cop, & a guy in the crossfire.
— Zafo Jones (@zafojones) August 13, 2012
As reported by Twitchy earlier, anti-gun advocates were quick to lump the shooting with those mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin in a call for gun control. But when a supposed school massacre is revealed as an eviction gone wrong blocks from campus, is Texas A&M being used unfairly as a tool in the gun rights battle?
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