Virginia Tech. I am getting more angry about that University President and Police Department.

Some facts: Virginia Tech has 100 buildings. I can't yet find the land area but it is big.

The student population is about 26,000. Faculty and staff 10,000 to 20,000 more.

29 Police Officers. Maybe 35 tops. My sources are “guarded.” No video security cameras. Someone told me the police did not patrol and were unarmed. They only responded to 911 calls. Drunks and fights and the like.

So two of these Police Officers go to a dorm room yesterday at 0715 responding to a 911 call and they find two dead students and they do not ALERT THE COMMUNITY? Unconscionable. Now they are on Fox News Channel saying you could never have alerted the community in time? As the Brits say: BALLS!

TV and Radio? What if they had a tornado? I am incensed.....and they might get away with it. I hope the FBI does a complete review.

Oh, and finally, the University petitioned a State Congress committee to have the campus made “a gun free zone.”

Really great security environment…..

I mour their loss. I weep for them. But it is time for some truth, honesty and accountability.

John E. Carey
http://johnib.wordpress.com/

John,
I'm sure there will be a very thorough investigation of this horrific carnage. But at the end of the day, it will come down to one question and that is how do you anticipate the actions of that single irrational individual, who acts on the spur of the moment. The same situation applies to the terrorist; how do you identify these people before they act?

No doubt that the investigation will lead to a procedure being instituted where a shooting occurs on campus; will that stop these acts of madness? Unfortunatly, I believe it will happen again especially where you have a culture that promotes the rights of citizens to carry weapons.

Before we get all very sanctimonious and say it could never happen here remember it happened here in Nov 2002 at Monash University when a Chinese student opened fire on his honours Econometrics seminar group rather than deliver an oral presentation. He was over powered by the lecturer and some students, some died and others were hospitalised.

The question really is why do people think they can shoot other people in peace time?

If you want to reduce this type of action then you need to reduce the amount of violence shown on TV, the amount of violence in internet games.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some young Chinese males think they are in an economic war to make China great again to recover the prestige lost during the Opium Wars.

And lose the National Rifle Association right to bear arms, the redcoats left 230 years ago.

Are we really going to put something the size of a small town into lock-down on the strength of a couple of murders?

Murders happen, unfortunately, but very few are the precursor for a massacre. If authorities start imposing lock-downs every time there is a suspicious death, they will be seen as crying wolf, and warnings of identified imminent threats will be ignored.

Yes, we all wish it were possible to turn back the clock and handle this incident differently, but we do not have that option, and the police on the ground did not have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

Sylvia.

Netab: I agree with your thoughts on gun control. However, the article had nothing to do with how to "anticipate the actions of that single irrational individual"... the point was, a shooting murder had clearly taken place and we don't know where the shooter is, what do we DO about it? Yes, a lot of students live on campus and could not be safely removed, but they let THOUSANDS of students onto the campus AFTER the first deaths. The second (much worse) round of shootings occurred HOURS after the first.

Sylvia Else: "Are we really going to put something the size of a small town into lock-down on the strength of a couple of murders?" Well... yes!
You can't put most towns/suburbs on lockdown after murders because there are too many access points but you CAN close a university that has limited points of access. I am a university student and I would hope like hell that if someone on my campus got shot (and the shooter was not apprehended) that no one else would be let in until they had located him. It is hardly 20-20 hindsight, just sheer bloody common sense

at virginia tech, a young male went into rage, and killed 2 people over some sort of emotional/sexual dispute. then, he decided his life was finished and decided to spread his despair around.

you can't stop this from happening, although you can limit access to weapons. perhaps this would reduce the scale or frequency of fatality.

don't imagine you can make life safe with more/intensive police activity. you have to accept that a certain percentage of people will die like this, just as some will die by lightening strike. by far the biggest killer is the automobile, but no one says a thing about selling cars that are vastly over powered for legal speed limits. if you use a bicycle, you may be morally justified in calling for 'lock-downs' whenever a car backfires- everyone else should just say "hmm, bad luck there."