Shooting at Va. Tech

Wow. This story is finally coming together. I'm relieved to hear about the significance of the date. At least we know that he had some sort of warped perception of the world. Clearly, he was insane. But a lot of people are insane. Very few of them go on a killing spree. Now we know something about what motivated him or at least planted the seed.

It's clear that he planned this attack. Whatever set him off isn't something that took place on Monday. After all, he made purchases at least as early as March 9. What's most disturbing to me is that Oklahoma City and Columbine were the work of multiple individuals. If he was planning this sort of thing, you'd think that he might have intended to have an accomplice, or at the very least some sort of approval from an individual he knew.

I'm still not sure that his girlfriend was having an affair. I'm still guessing that the RA that was killed had been responding to some sort of situation. Now, the fact that he didn't have his arsenal with him during his visit to the dorm room indicates to me that he did not plan his attack for Monday. I'm wondering if one of the people in the dorm room had knowledge of his plan and confronted him.

 

What is the significance of the date?

 

You could post officers at the major buildings in the school where people congregate. The Student Union, engineering building (this was Va TECH for crying out loud).

A friend of mine had a son walking into that building for a 10 am class. He was a little early and the SWAT team stormed in when he did. Those facts could be a little off about where he was (inside building or not), but the fact that he was still going to class at 10 am says a lot.

If anyone really wanted to dig into this story, I would look at a few things:

1. Who comprises a SWAT team in SW VA? Are they really qualified for something like this?

2. Why couldn't the students secure the doors from the inside? Why did they have to hold them shut themselves?

3. Was the security company outsourced? Did VA Tech save money by outsourcing their campus security?

All of those issues have nothing to do with shutting the campus down or not, but do go back to how safe that campus exactly was after the initial shootings.

 

I'm not trying to downplay at all the first two victims of the dorm rampage, but to suggest that the police could predict that what looked like a domestic situation would evolve into a spree killing is just not a logical leap.

You know how many murders take place every day? And most of them while tragic, are contained situations. Even those that happen in college towns.

Unfortunately, this situation went past that, way past that and into the deadliest killing spree this country's ever seen. Unless the gunman left a note stating his plans to attack a school building at his first crime scene, there was likely no way to anticipate that.

 

Maybe he just thought he could kill more people with 30 in a classroom, not two in a dormroom. Imagine if he had gotten into one of those 100-200-seat class auditoriums...

 

OK, so the close all roads heading into and out of campus.

The killer is now on campus with his guns and no one can leave unless their backpacks and/or cars are screened. Meanwhile, the killer is on campus.

I'm not trying to say mistakes weren't made or that things couldn't have or shouldn't have been done differently or better, folks. I am trying to say it's not as easy as we'd like to think it is to almost immediately secure a major college campus at 7:30 a.m.

 

4/20?

Work for a educational system and you know 4/20 well.

Columbine, OK City bombing (4-19 actually), Hitler's Birthday

 

Idaho, they had two freaking hours. Two. In that first hour, especially in light of the recent bomb hoaxes and an earlier shooting, Va. Tech should've been better prepare for disasters such as this.
As for the date, it was 4/16. It's a stretch to include it with Columbine, OK City and Hitler's birthday.

 

No, but one police officer in the major buildings would have helped a lot. They have radios, you know, and could alert others of a situation immediately.

I'm guessing 10-12 officers would have helped.

 

Especially one with the geographic sprawl of Virginia Tech. Even with "security protocols", locking down a campus that big with that many people is a logistical nightmare. These are old buildings, people--you can't just flip a switch and have magic gates and bars drop. To actually make sure every building was secure would take HOURS. More than two. Unless of course you're going to start conscripting professors, janitors and other staff to "lock down" in the event of an emergency.

Look, in hindsight, should they have cancelled classes? Probably so.

But then, you would've had a good number of people ambling aimlessly about the campus. Dude still would've found a way to wreak havoc wherever people congregate.

I don't really see what is accomplished by playing Monday Morning QB on this situation.

 

My suggestion was to cancel classes asap. If you did that by 8:30 most would have likely known by 9:30. That's my main point. Information is key. They can notify everyone when classes are canceled for a snow day, I would hope they have a way to do it in case of an emergency or natural disaster ... if not than they fucked up, especially in this day and age.

I was listing lockdown as an advantage, especially if the police had a description of the subject and were able to pinpoint a section of campus he was on, which I don't know to be the case. I'm not on the boat that says lockdown the whole university but what good reason did they have to believe he left the campus? There had to be an awfully good one.

 

I think the term "domestic situation" is being used to downplay what actually occurred.

It was a homicide. A murder. The murderer was still on the loose.

What the hell does it matter if it was "domestic" or not?