November 1, 1991

OK - today marks another anniversary that I'm not sure everyone can relate to. However, if you're an Iowa Citian/former Iowa Hawkeye that kept track of stuff like this, yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the Gang Lu shooting.

If you click the title of this post, you can read the article in full. I'm going to include snippets of the article as I write about it.

Any Iowa alumni reading this? If so, please feel free to write in the comments...where were you when this happened? How did this make you feel?

From the article:

The tragedy of Nov. 1, 1991, still lingers 15 years later.
On that blustery day, Gang Lu, a University of Iowa graduate student in physics, upset with people he thought prevented his dissertation from being nominated for an award, shot and killed four people in Van Allen Hall.

Lu opened fire in Van Allen Hall, killing physics and astronomy department chairman Dwight Nicholson, professors Christoph Goertz and Robert Smith and fellow researcher Linhua Shan.

He then went to Jessup Hall, where he fatally shot (T. Anne) Cleary, the associate vice president for academic affairs, and wounded Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, a part-time worker in the office who was the sole survivor.

First of all, a little perspective on the UI campus and downtown Iowa City. Please refer to the map on the left.

For those of you who have never visited Iowa City and the UI Campus, the first thing you should know is this...the campus and the downtown area blend in together. It's easy to tell the older buildings as being part of the campus, but the newer ones - not so much.

Van Allen Hall is where the shootings of Nicholson, Goertz, Smith and Shan occured. This is a fairly tall building, on the corner of Iowa and Linn (I'm going by what the map says).

After that, he crossed over to the Pentacrest area (the area that houses the Natural History Museum, the accounting offices, many of the liberal arts departments, and administrative offices - namely, Jessup Hall.). It's not a very long walk...probably a couple of minutes if one is jogging or running, so maybe a five minute walk.

We'll never know why he chose Jessup Hall as his final destination, because:

He then walked to Jessup Hall where he killed a fifth person and shot an undergraduate student (see above for names) before killing himself.

At the time this happened, I had already graduated from U of I and was going to school at Kirkwood Community College, plus working a part-time telemarking job in downtown Iowa City. My job was in the downtown area, off of Jefferson Street, a few blocks from the Pedestrian Mall. (I am fuzzy on this one, sorry folks...)

Husband #1 was doing another year of college in the dorms full-time because he missed a whole school year with Desert Storm. He could have been anywhere on campus, because the various campus buildings were used as classroom space and it didn't matter what the class was about. (e.g. I took Italian in the Chemistry building.)

We were less than a year away from our actual wedding date.

At first, when I heard about something happening at Van Allen, the details were not clear over the radio. This made sense - why talk about something you don't know everything about, right? (that's never stopped anyone before, but hey...it's good in theory.) I think I was at a fast-food joint somewhere when I first heard.

As more details came out, the more panicked I got. Cell phones weren't available yet, so I could neither call H#1 - nor could he call me - unless we went to a pay phone or something. My supervisors were not going to let me off, so I had to find a phone somewhere and call him.

Fortunately, he did get back to his dorm safely...he missed the action.

The whole story came out by the time I got off work in the late evening (9 or 10, I think). By that time, they knew what happened and why, and all sorts of news stories splintered off of the main incident.

The trauma lives on:

Ann Rhodes, former UI vice president in charge of public relations, had been scheduled to speak at the memorial. But as the anniversary approached, Rhodes was too overcome with emotion to attend, UI geography professor Rex Honey said.

"The fact that she can't come after all this time speaks volumes about the depth of importance of the people we lost," Honey said to about 40 people who gathered outside on a chilly Wednesday afternoon. "Gang Lu ended his life in my department," Honey said. "For some reason, he turned left. If he had turned right, he would have come in on my department's colloquium, where about 40 professors were meeting."

Professor emeritus in physics and astronomy George Knorr was in his office that day and heard noises that he thought were a belated Halloween prank. "Fifteen years ago, it was a Friday and the weather was very bad," Knorr said. "Snow and rain was coming down and in the streets an icy slosh.

"I heard a gunshot, then another, then a third one." Realizing what had happened, he headed back to his office turned out the lights and called 911. Then he heard more shooting.

"My gosh," he remembered thinking. "Is this ever going to end?" Now retired, (Pastor) Chen was a campus minister at the time. It was one of the most difficult times in his life he said. It was particularly difficult for Chinese students. "Chinese students felt a sense of group shame," he said.

One of the splintered news items that came out was Gang Lu's police record, and the details of the gun purchase. Another action that came out of this:

After the shootings, a group now called Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence emerged. They organized Wednesday's remembrance and Honey serves on its board. Since 1991, the group has worked to limit access to guns, such as by urging newspapers not to allow guns be listed in their classified sections.

This was probably the first time I ever REALLY understood the magnitude of a crime like this. I've talked about Iowa and how I don't think it's the epicenter of sweetness and light. I really think my opinion of it started to change on that night.

There was only ONE survivor, and she was paralyzed. Furthermore, she was working as a temp, so she didn't have any benefits to speak of and struggled for quite some time with various hurdles about settlements, etc.

One more thing about it (and I apologize to my Dad's memory in advance for this) is that it changed my mind about gun control.

I used to follow my dad's lead on how to feel about the topic. I grew up around responsible gun users, many of my beaus were acquainted with firearms, and H#1 was in the Army Reserve and had to deal with guns. I was OK with guns. I thought that gunowners' rights should be respected.
For the most part, my feelings haven't changed about the rights of an individual other than myself as far as gun ownership is concerned.

But I am more wary.

After the short married life I had with H#1, I never willingly had a weapon in my home again.

Ed H. was not a gun-owner, and I was cool with that.

The room-mate I had for a while when I lived at my first Maryland apartment had lots of them, but he kept them locked up. However, I didn't feel safe...life was different now than when I was growing up in my parents' house out in the country. A LOT different.

Now I live in a condo, and neither D or I have a weapon (unless you count scissors).

Around here, I don't want the extra liability that gun ownership has.

I wouldn't want it even if I lived in the "town" part of a small town, or out in the country.

I just can't stomach it anymore. That's what Gang Lu left me with.