The largest mass-shooting in U.S. history was against Native Americans at Wounded Knee in which 200-300 were shot to death.

Sorry V.M. The Sioux were shooting back. These students couldn't fight back.

Your experts are full of it.
When you send out emails to the students, in the emails you ask each person reading the email to contact by cell phone all other students they know, to warm them.
That way in a few minutes almost all students would have got the message not to go to the Campus.

why are you people bickering about this? 33 people are dead .. shot to death in a locked building and ur arguing over the battle of wounded knee? i fail to see how playing the nuh uh this was a bigger shooting contest is going to help the families who jus lost there children.

Virginia Tech's lack of emergency procedures and protocol for informing students of the morning incident could have saved the majority of lives in the latter part of the day. WHO SENDS EMAILS TO INFORM 26,000 students ABOUT a DOUBLE HOMICIDE occurring on campus vs. having some sort of intercom systems to inform students that their safety was potentially being compromised if they continued to class until details were worked out from the morning incident. You don't allow students to go to class regardless of how many you have if you still potentially have a shooter/murderer on the loose or if you are still trying to determine the details of a morning homicide. VIRGINIA TECH is highly responsible for this incident escalating to the level that it did.

we cant blame it all on the campus i mean this guy had studied this he had a plan whats to say if things were different he could not have still done this

This is so very tragic. This person knew no one would be there to shoot back. Easy access to guns and poor security. I think defensive skills and measures for all individuals should be taught. One never knows when you may have to defend yourself.

I've never been to a university that had an intercom system - faulting VT for not having one is 'hindsight 20/20'. At my universities, the way we were notified of closures was there would be emails, notices on the radio and photocopied paper signs put up on campus (like they did for September 11th). But none of those measures is effective, as VT's president said, when you have 11,000 people on their way to campus already and you're trying to tell them to turn around and go home.

there is absolutely NO valid or acceptable reason for the college administration and police not to inform the whole campus and shut it down immediately after the first 2 shoothings news, especially since they had not captured or known anything about the first two murders then! it is unacceptable! I don't care what they say (college and police)... it's just avoiding responsibilty for who's to blame for the murders that followed!!!!!!! what a tragedy!

As someone who visits VA Tech regularly, I could never imagine something like this tragedy! I have lived 30 min from VT all my life and can say we have a loving community and we are all in such awe over what has happened. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this terrible act of violence. I don't agree with the way the initial shooting was handled but I'm not in law enforcement. Thank God I don't have to be judged by the entire nation. I'm sure all involved did what they felt was right at that moment in time. This is horrible what our community has to endure from now on but we need to make sure ALL those affected know God will send his healing. Our community is a strong one and will recover with time. It's a shame the focus is put on things done wrong when no one had any idea of the magnitude of what would happen. I feel for all those harmed and for those who have lost loved ones way too soon. This is where our focus should be, helping those who need our help. That's what our nation should be showing-love, compasion, concern! Please don't harp on what wasn't done but what we can do to keep this from happening in the future. My prayers for our community-

As a graduate of Va. Tech, I know the campus very well. There is no way that everyone on that campus could have been warned or the campus shut down. The myriad entrances, the lack of a P.A. system throughout 100 buildings in addition the the very obvious lack of information that officials had leads me to believe that the administration dis all they could given the facts they knew yesterday morning. I can only imagine the panic that would have arisen if public announcements of "gunman on campus" would have been sounded. 2600 Acres and 26,000 students is a small city. You don't shut down a city.

33 lives...to so many not close to VT...just another shooting. As a college student I began thinking of security on campuses. If VT is anything like the two universities I have attended, security is more worried if you have a parking permit and giving tickets for stupid things than worrying about the safety of students. Even though I am at a smaller school than VT, colleges are still so huge and anyone could walk around campus and not be noticed. It is just so sad to know a place where we try to better ourselves is not always safe.
I agree the way of letting the students know wasn't the best...but who can say anyone else would have done better in that situation.
May God be with the students and all the families

I don't think lack of gun control is to blame here. Law-abiding citizens have a right to defend themselves, and if this guy and others like him go around shooting people, do you think they're going to follow gun-control laws? And it doesn't have to do with availability of the weapons either.. anyone who wants to do something like this can get a weapon, whether it's knives, explosives, chemicals, etc.

As far as Virginia Tech's blunder, why can't a system be developed that will automatically call students' cell phones when there is an emergency like this? Almost everyone has a cell phone by now, and we usually give them out on applications, registration, etc. so I know the schools have access to these numbers. We need to start looking for solutions and applying them to ALL public institutions instead of trying to place blame on one.

This sad, awful tragedy brings to the forefront the pitiful fact that most colleges and universities, small and large, do not have an emergency plan. As a college grad, I do not remember any type of drill or even a piece of paper received during freshman year that listed a campus plan of action in the case of an emergency or crisis.

I work in the public schools now and K-12 campuses have better emergency plans than universities! Even the pre-k and kindergarten babies know what the different campus sirens are for tornadoes, storms, intruder on campus, etc. Those administrators can lock down a campus in less than 5 minutes. Even the largest high schools don't come near the amount of people that are on a college campus, which makes it even sadder that universities don't have proper plans in place for emergencies.

The collegiate community needs to wake up and put plans in place for emergencies/crises. It is my sincere hope that something like this never happens again, but if it does, colleges/universities need to be prepared.

My prayers go out to all the VT students, VT faculty and staff, and Blackburg residents. May God bless you and keep you during this tragic time.

To say that VT officials could not have handled the situation any better is ridiculous. They may have had "no reason to believe" that the gunman was still on campus but nor did they have any reason to believe he wasn't! VT and every other institution must have a solid plan for dealing with any large-scale emergency. If there are many roads into campus, then there have to be an equal number of officials stationed at those roads directing drivers away from the campus in an effort to contain the situation. The campus should have been on lockdown at 7:16am. This is just common sense. For these 31 students it is too late to learn from these gross errors. They paid for the negligence with their lives. What a sad, hearbreaking day for America and a telling reflection on this culture of gun violence that we have fostered.

My heart goes out to all of the victims and their loved ones, but I am outraged by the way this situation was handled. Many lives could have been saved had they locked down the college immediately after the first shooting. By assuming that it was "just" a domestic attack and assuming that the shooter was fleeing the college is absurd. NEVER assume anything!! They should have locked down immediately after the first shooting than maybe, just maybe...other deaths could have been prevented. I know it's a little too late to look at "what ifs", but I believe the school is partially responsible for the magnitude of the the number of deaths. I can't believe that they thought sending out emails would prevent and/or help?! Unbelievable!!!

Enough with the blame. It's very easy to second guess this after the fact. The only place to put the blame is squarely on the shoulder's of the killer. - My god people wake up - if someone is hellbent on killing people there's not much we as a society can do to stop it. That includes gun control too !!!! Lock down the entire campus - alert 25,000 students and 10,000 faculty and staff - please - let's all try and remember who's responsible - do you really think the administration at Virginia Tech thought the Norris shooting was going to happen and thought oh well we'll take our chances? Doubt it !!!

VT should have been locked down immediately upon the findings of the first shootings.

Those kids were put at risk when the police officers and the administration MADE A CHOICE to believe that the nut had fled the campus.

Instead of crucifying the decision, we need to note it. They made a mistake and those that were involved in that decision will live with it the rest of their lives. We as a nation need to support them and know that no matter what we say or how we feel about this----------will ever compare to the guilt they will feel for the rest of their lives.

Cut these people a break and pray for restoration instead of condemning them---------they will do enough self condemnation themselves over the course of the rest of their lives.

my heart goes out to all the victims and families. something like this should never happen in schools (or anywhere for that matter i guess). however, i think it's interesting how angry people become in such horrible and extenuating circumstances, and how quick people are to point fingers and place blame. mayber the university and police could've done things a little better...we don't know, we weren't there making the decisions!! let's wait until we find out all the details. i went to uc berkeley, a very large campus, and i can't even imagine how administrators could contact all the students in cases of emergencies like this. there aren't just a few entrances into the campus; it's really wide open. what are you going to do? have a circle of security encompass the entire campus in that short of a time frame? impossible! let's extend our condolence, reach out to the families, and try to be reasonable people here. we need to move forward and use this incident to pressure all universities to formulate some sort of emergency plan!!

if a double murder had just occured very near a school and it was unsure if the suspect was still in the area, that school would have been placed on "lock down" until it was safe for the students. why not do the same for a college? i truly believe that if vt had been placed in "lock down" or something similar, the students would not have all been in class and 30 people would not have been killed

This sort of tragedy is bound to happen. It is one of the dangers of an open and free society, which is preferable to a police state in which only the government and criminals have guns. I know this is of little consolation to the victims and their families.

Let us remember that several thousand students were already inbound to the school for 8 a.m. classes. So how do did you expect to lock them down? Assuming they all had cellphones, VT did not have the technology in place to send out mass notification via cellphone. So what did you expect the school to do? Keep them all in their cars in the parking lot?

This is a very sad moment in time. Unfortunately this is happening every day all across America. Our youth are dying on the streets in the schools and when it happens in a mass like this it is even more painful. You can only practice so much and be prepared to a degree and will never know how ready you are until you have to go thru this type of situation. It makes it even worse that you don't have a clue who could do something like this. It could be your neighbor you just don't know. We just need to speak to our youth and explain what to do if it happens at their school or where ever they may be. I just continue to pray for these students that have been thru this and their friends and family. This is going to be another hurdle for America to overcome, but we are strong and will push on and continue to unite. We did for September 11th and Columbine, Oklahoma bombing and the list just goes on.

God Bless all of you who are affected in this particular situation.

Lockdown or no lockdown to prevent second shooting at Norris Hall, the first two deaths at Ambler-Johnston Hall would have been just as tragic had the 30 that were shot at Norris Hall never perished. Lets not over look this.

As an alumni from a large college, it infuriates me that the nation is condemming the the VT adminsistrators. There is absolutely no way that they could have known that after the first incident that there would have been a second. Along with that, with 11k students in transit, it is impossible to get the word out to each and every student and faculty member at an insitution as large as VT is. You can try as you might...but not everyone will be forewarned. It is impossible, so lets stop blaming them!

Why cant we just place the blame where it should be...on the gunman who clearly had little regard for human life, including his own? He is the only one to blame here. What a completely repulsive and selfish thing for him to do.

My heart goes out to the family of those who lost loved ones in this horrible tragedy. This horrible event has struck a powerful cord within me. It again reminds me how vulnerable we all are to those who choose to perpetrate such violent acts. No number of police, no lack of guns, will ever prevent man from committing the evil within his heart. My deepest hope is that Congress will not use this tragedy to push its political agenda and attack Americans’ right to bear arms. I agree with those above who pointed out the difficulty of securing such a large and open campus. It is a monumental task which, to do properly and completely would require University involvement in every facet of life, including monitors in dorm rooms, numerous security checkpoints, etc. When the larger group cannot afford resources or is incapable of protecting individuals, it rightly remains the prevue of the individual to provide for his or her own protection. The shooter was not well armed. He was not fitted with automatic weapons and body armor which would prevent a citizen armed with a handgun from confronting him and ending the violence. We must be our own protectors.