RE: Preventing a second attack? No way!

It is understandable that many people believe the Virginia Tech campus should have been shut down with the first killings. But, what would that have accomplished?

It is likely that a locked down school would have encouraged students to congregate in larger groups. This would have made it easier for the gunman to murder larger numbers of people. His death toll was limited by the small numbers of students attending classes in the building he entered. After shooting all the people he could find in the four occupied classrooms, he killed himself.

How many students could he have murdered before he was stopped had they gathered in groups, in places like an auditorium? Or, if they grouped together inside the dormitory? Or if they formed groups to eat in the cafeteria? What about those going to the library, taking advantage of a break in classes to catch up on their reading? The Columbine shooters hit those places where students naturally group together and made most of their kills in the cafeteria and the library.

I believe the school made the correct decision. Had they announced the murders and closed the school, the students would have congregated to discuss what was going on. With 900 students occupying the dorms, it would be impossible eliminate all people from the school grounds.

The death toll could have been two or three times higher, limited only by the number of rounds the shooter had with him. It still would have been like shooting fish in a barrel. Only the locations would have been different. As it was, the classes were small and the shooter was limited by the number of available victims. Imagine if there were larger classes or if the shooter found larger groups of students to victimize …

Instead of looking to place blame anywhere but with the shooter, perhaps we need to look at ourselves to see how a marginal person can be left by himself, lurking on the sidelines of society for years, without anyone taking notice or attempting to reach him. It must have been a very lonely world for this shooter. Why did nobody intervene to point the man in a direction to find some relief before he went off the deep end?

Give the school administration and police a break on this...this is the fault of the shooter!

There’s an average of 15 murders a year at colleges/universities...are there "lock downs" immediately after each murder? Not that I’ve ever heard in the news. And did anyone complain about not having those lock downs? Since when is it standard procedure to assume a random mass murder is in progress?

With no other shooting the first ½ hour, hour, 2nd hour after the first…it seems logical to think this was an isolated incident. And it still might be so…something caused the 2+ hour delay…even though it was the same shooter it still looks like 2 different shootings…one targeted and one random.

As always, hindsight is 20/20…but regardless of any decisions that could have been better by the school this is not their fault! Remember…guns don’t kill people…people kill people…but in this case it was the person with the gun, not the school!

This situation should have been handled by the school administration before it escalated into this tragedy. I have read that this student was referred to "counseling", what good is counseling? Counseling, therapy and emotional rehabilitation is what's necessary here. Good student/teacher relationships are also necessary. With all of our children. If the parents are not emotionally capable of recognizing the signs, then it's up to the teachers. We need more of them NOW! Teachers who actually care about the students and school institutions that not only care about grades but about the sanity of our children!

It's a shame that we no longer "love thy neighbor".

THE ONLY WAY WE CAN EVER PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN IS TO TEACH OUR KIDS ABOUT ANGER. HOW TO UNDERTSAND, HOW TO COPE, HOW TO TOLERATE, AND ESPECIALLY, HOW TO LOVE. IF PEOPLE LOVED OTHERS AS MUCH AS THEY DO THEMSELVES, THIS WOOULD NOT BE HAPPENING!

I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I will certainly teach them about the dangers of words and their actions. Having been bullied as a child, and then flipping the table and being the bully when I became older, I know full well the emotional implications of these actions. So I can't help but think of exactly where this student's anger came from...most likely years of loneliness, and perhaps torment and ridicule from other kids, or maybe just from the lack of love. Maybe if someone had really paid any attention to him or affection, he would not have exploded like this. He wouldn't have thought his life, and the lives of so many others, was so insignificant.

The point is, we all lost someone yesterday.
Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers.
But more importantly, humanity has lost 32 souls that would've made a difference in all of our lives and for years to come.
Our doctors, engineers, athletes, musicians, etc. violently taken away from us all.

MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS!

People are going to kill people if they make their mind up to do so. There is NOTHING we can do about it. If there was, we would have no crime in this country. People should not "make what if" statements. We do not live in a "what if" world. We live in blameless society. I see people making excuses for why he did it or what could have been done. If something could have been done, it would have been. The people at Tech love the school and the people there. That is what makes this school special. There loyalty to the school and each other. I know, my family and friends went there and my team gets beat by them every year in football. I wish this would never happen again, but afraid if we do not change our society and place blame where it really belongs it will happen again. To the media this is just another story and some sick person will think it is a great idea because of all the publicity this has gotten. I listened to the heartless questions being asked, to some this is entertaiment, to the rest of us, this is so horrible it can't be put into words. Today, we are all Hokies!