People want to put down VT for how they reacted; well how do you think your school would react, or your work place, the local mall, or wherever? It could happen in a parking lot, it can happen anywhere. Do you think where you go to school, work or wherever would have proceeded any faster or in a different way? Do you think that if a gunman was killing people in a parking lot of a large mall, that word would get out rapidly so that everyone in the mall would automatically know not to go outside? or that everyone driving to the mall would know that this is happening? Not everyone is paying attention to their radio, phone, or sometimes anything to that matter- all the time. People ask these questions, but if you weren't in their shoes, how would you know what you would do? You can say one thing and prepare and criticize what was done, but then when in the actual situation, will you do what you said you would or planned to do? You really don't know if people would have been saved, no one knew who the killer was, or where he was. It's a college campus, not an elementary school. To spread the word is a lot harder. They could have locked down the dorms and he could have just killed people in the dorms, it's hard to say what would have happened. He was apparently on a rampage. Perhaps the killer blended in so well with everyone else on campus (cause he was a student) that within those 2 hours before the next attack, it would have been hard to know it was him. How could they know that he was going to do more? He could have just planned on killing one person, ended up killing a second because they were in the way. I'm not sure what the school officials/police thought. And we may never know the real reasons why the killer did things the way he did. People have posed the question about how did he get into the dorm? Well, he was a student, not some random Joe off the street. Everyone else wants to give their opinion on what happened, so can I. You can't always assume that a person is going to go off the handle and keep on killing. It is a sad situation and I am truly saddened and heart broken by this. I don't know how to feel really. But I don't think arguing about who's fault it is is going to help. We need to be there for the victims' families and the students. We need to be sensitive to the situation, make the changes necessary and keep our eyes open. But, soon as everyone is comfortable and has moved forward, it is only going to happen again. We need to wake up, as Americans who have all of these freedoms and just want more more more. People ask why weren't there any cameras or other things set in place? Well, why should they be? This shouldn't happen and it is not expected to happen, especially in this area. The more security we have the less freedoms people will have, then you have even more people complaining. So what do you expect? We could easily build up walls around the school and have iron gates to go through, where every inch of yourself, your car and everything you own is searched through. Even still, someone would still probably get through and do this again. Everyone has to blame someone. I simply blame the killer. Who did he hate so much? Why did he hate so much??

The massacre at VT was a horrible, tragic event and the discussion about locking down the entire campus after the first shooting should not be part of our attempt at support for the victims. Remember that the shooter was himself a VT student and would have access to the University buildings just as any student would have had. He would not have been "locked out" by the administration taking different measures. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror for these families and friends and University employees and I hope the discussion of how events progressed does not prevent the beginning of healing and peace.