Just Gripping

[AllanJ]

At the end of the day, there is just no stopping a nutter hell bent on destruction who picks a soft target unless you have some luck.

In most cases I agree.. but not at VT. Those first 2 killings were probably unavoidable. Even if both had been armed, the surprised would have been against them.  However, in regards to the 2nd building, we had all the police force available to stop it. Unfortunately VT operated under 4 bad approaches..  1) They did not have a disaster/situational plan in place that allowed them to make instance and decisive decisions. Although nothing ever goes to plan, in this case, the events of the 1st shooting would have been covered and led to an immediate shutdown and lock up. 2) They treated the 2 killings as nothing much of a big deal. Two dead in 1 building, must be issolated so why bother shutting down campus? 3) They did not have the killer & 4) they appeared to be under the illusion that 'it would never happen here'.

I am so tired this week of hearing excuses about how they could not have avoided the killings in the 2nd building.

[kathyp]

one armed guard in every school or public institution

here in the Socialist Republic of Oregon, we have several colleges.  one is downtown portland.  they interviewed some of the staff students.  they don't want armed security on campus.  after all, the town cops are only a phone call away.....

allanJ, you can not stop a wing nut from doing harm.  short of having caught him after the first shootings, he was going to do what he was going to do.  as a student, he could have gone anywhere on that campus and killed.  coffee shop, book store, another dorm, the quad.....what the school did wrong was take away the ability of anyone on that campus....student or instructor, to protect themselves.

we learn from the event.  no matter how much you brainstorm the possibilities, it is the event that gives you new direction. 

in all the anti-terrorist training i had, the CW for a plane hijacking was to be quiet, don't identify yourself as military or us citizen, and cooporate.  after 9/11 that CW does not apply.  before Columbine, the cops waited out a shooter because storming the school might make things worse.  now cops immediately enter the school because how could it get much worse than Columbine?  we learn as we go, and unfortunately sometimes people die to teach us.

the population of that school is double the size of the town i live in, and much bigger than the town that is closer to me. i don't know how you "lock down" that many people even in a two hour time period.  where do you put them where another student can't get access to them?  no one knew it was a student who'd done the first shooting.

 i am only surprised that he quit at 32.