<p>so much speculation. today we should be grieving and supportive…there is just not enough information for us to be lambasting everyone…</p>
<p>i found this post on another site, and if this would prove to be true, how could anyone have guessed what would happen…</p>
<p>"Per a VT graduate student who posts at Bernie’s Pressbox, the police thought they knew who the original shooter was (someone different than it ended up being) and were getting ready to question him when the second one broke out.</p>
<p>Like people said, the original shooting was of a dometic nature and the cops had information that he had fled. I’m certainly in no position to criticize the university or the authorities for not locking down the entire campus. If that’s the information I had and I was in charge, I can’t say I would have acted any differently."</p>
I so strongly agree with these two sentiments. The armchair quarterbacking, whether by the press or by my fellow posters here on cc, is unseemly in my opinion.</p>
<p>Students are in their rooms, students are on their way to campus, students are in classroom buildings and others. The notion that the administration has any sort of culpability here whatsoever for mishandling events, or even for errors of omission, is just way too much for me to take.</p>
<p>I agree with jmmom - people cannot imagine the sheer number of things that go on in a case like this. Locking down a campus the size of a small city simply isn’t feasable. I’m sure that the police and administration did what they thought was right given what the knew of the situation.</p>
<p>People who are not trained in emergency management and who have the gift of hindsight should not critisize those who were there dealing with it.</p>
<p>And I agree with jmmom and Icarus: we should not be second-guessing those who made the best decisions they could at the time with the best info available to them.</p>
<p>I also don’t understand the blame on the pres and police chief. Would you expect a police department to “lockdown” a town of 25000 inhabitants after a murder? I know it is not quite the same, but is a university of that size any more like a high school of 1500 students than it is a small town?</p>
<p>Forget the breathless media coverage, let the investigations go to their conclusion.</p>
<p>I understand the blame n the pres and police chief: People – particularly parents and students are grieving, scared, and desperate to find a reason for this inexplicable tragedy.</p>
<p>My friend talked to me about copycats, and I told him it was highly unlikely, because college students are a little older and more mature than high school students. I hope I am right.</p>
<p>hmm - I’m honestly not too concerned about this from the college-age crowd. I can see copycat type stuff from high school age people, who are more prone to such things. But people with the mindset to do something like this probably won’t be encouraged or deterred because of similar events.</p>
<p>My greatest concern is that this tragic event will be used to push more worthless gun conrol legislation through that will only disarm the law-abiding people who could have stopped these events. If you remember the Utah mall shooting, the shooter was engaged by an off-duty officer who was carrying his weapon that day. The death toll could have been much higher if not for that fact. Unfortunately, Virginia has a law against concealed carry on college campuses. There is a reason these things always happen in so-called “gun-free zones” - the shooter (who either plans on killing himself or knows that his actions will likely result in his death) can act with impunity.</p>
<p>I am incredibly saddened by how this will be spun to hurt the right of people to their own self-defense.</p>
<p>D’s friend did not make it. Please keep her parents in your prayers. In addition, my D is on college visit day 1500 miles away making her own decision about leaving home. I can’t hug her or comfort beyond phone calls. Its hard being a Mom.</p>
If you remember the Utah mall shooting, the shooter was engaged by an off-duty officer who was carrying his weapon that day. The death toll could have been much higher if not for that fact. Unfortunately, Virginia has a law against concealed carry on college campuses. There is a reason these things always happen in so-called “gun-free zones” - the shooter (who either plans on killing himself or knows that his actions will likely result in his death) can act with impunity.</p>