First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to say that my thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims involved in this terrible tragedy.
Furthermore, I would like to say that I am shocked and appalled at how this situation was handled by the university and the police. Please keep in mind I am reacting and writing in this manner with information I have as of now. I'm sure all the facts have yet to come out and some of this is still purely speculative. But from what I can gather, this incident seemed to be handled very poorly.
From what I understand, the shooter, a Virginia Tech student and dormitory resident left his dorm room and shot and killed an RA, and a female student (some say the shooters girlfriend). A 911 call was made around 7:15am and police arrived on the scene shortly. At this point, without a suspect in custody, why has the school not been locked down IMMEDIATELY? I understand officials "believed"this first shooting was domestic dispute, and they "believed" the shooter had left campus, but if you don't have someone in custody at this point, you don't have a weapon, and you don't have a definitive motive, there is still a shooter out on the loose. And there is a possibility, a good possibility as far as I would be concerned, the shooter is on the campus.
Regardless of what officials believed, there was a shooting on campus, domestic dispute or not, a gun was used IN A DORM. And the shooter was NOT captured. If I were running a university and I had word that there was a shooting on campus, the first thing I would do is cancel class and have students staying in their dorms and lock their doors strictly based on the fact that there is a chance the shooter is still loose and could be on campus. Even as a precaution. Virginia Tech decided to keep investigating and finally sent out an email 2 HOURS later (and about 10 minutes before the mass shootings), without mention of a lock down or a suspect in custody.
I just simply don't understand how this is the only action that was taken, and even why it took nearly two hours to have any sort of communication with the students. I remember exactly were I was during Astronomy class during 9/11. Within nearly 15 minutes of the incident a girl came running down the aisle of the 200+ student lecture hall, and whispered something in the professors ear. Just like that, class was cancelled and everyone was told to return to their dorm room. Granted this was a national crisis, but in VT's case, it was an isolated incident on THEIR campus (which I feel is even more reason to shut down). And an email was sent out? Two hours later? I find this disturbing.
Not to mention, there had been multiple bomb threats in the past couple weeks. Couldn't there be a chance, these incidents were connected? Again, a lot of this rant is without all the facts and very speculative. However, I do believe this could have been handled better regardless. Who knows what would have happened if a more drastic action was taken, or even if it would have prevented the second shootings from happening, but I believe I would have felt better about this whole situation if the university and police had been a little more aggressive.
As sad and disturbing this incident was, if there is one positive conclusion that can be taken out of this it could be learning from the mistakes made, to hopefully prevent such a heinous crime from occurring in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
What is the matter with you, Relaxo? I cannot stand people like you who read about a story like this and then run off to blame someone. How about the fucking kid who shot everyone? Think he could have handled it better?
Tragedies like these are a bit difficult to foresee. You can blame it on a number of things - poor campus security, easy access to guns, etc. People blamed Columbine on video games. I just don't agree that it was handled all that poorly. in the heat of the moment, who the hell knows what the right decision is?
This kid was a nutjob, and clearly intended on hurting many people. So what happens if the dorm was cleared or classes were canceled? The guy runs outside and kills 30 people in the street instead of the classroom?
I realize you are writing with a bit of anger, but I really don't understand why people must rush to point fingers in these situations. The school administration did exactly as you did - acted on whatever information they had and tried to make a decision with the safety of their students in mind. Did they make the right one? Who knows? But if they evacuated the dorms and the people were shot on the way out, then do you argue that everyone should have been advised to lock themselves in their rooms?
My question is how did this kid get these two guns? I can not say I am an expert on gunlaws and I understand that there is a black market for guns in addition to legal ways to acquire them. I just will never understand the argument that an average citizen should have a right to carry a weapon such as this. These are guns that are not used to hunt, but solely for the purpose of target practice/murder.
As much as anybody, I say put heat (no pun intended) on the N.R.A, gun manufacterers and anti gun control citizens and politicians.
Ah yes, I see you didn't actually read my post, because if you did, you would have realized I already answered your questions.
Lets begin. And let me get one thing straight, in no way did I ever blame anyone/something for this incident besides the shooter. Obviously the kid was psycho and no one could have prevent such a thing from happening. All I am arguing is that I believe certain things could have been handled differently, possibly, not definitely preventing further deaths.
The first 911 call was made at about 7:15am, with authorities responding in a swift manner from what I understand. Why, then, was an email sent out 2 hours after? That is the only communication to the students? Last time I checked, college classes did not begin before 8am, and if you had actually read what I wrote instead of just the first couple of sentences: "If I were running a university and I had word that there was a shooting on campus, the first thing I would do is cancel class and have students staying in their dorms and lock their doors strictly based on the fact that there is a chance the shooter is still loose and could be on campus. Even as a precaution.". Not evacuate the dorms, or clear out the classes but have everyone lock their doors and stay put before classes had even started.
If this had been addressed at say 7:30-7:45am as opposed to 9:24am, it is possible, again, not definite, that some (definitely more) students would have stayed at home and locked themselves in. At the very least, this would have prevented the shooter access to full classrooms in a school building.
Yes, maybe he would have gone picking off people in the street, or tried in the dorms. But in this case people would be farther apart, it would have been harder to get a large group of people together, and authorities would have had an easier time taking him down.
This is just my personal take on the matter and I'm not blaming anyone for the shootings except the wack job himself. But from my logical point of view, I feel if these actions would have been taken, or something to this extent, maybe, just maybe some lives could have been saved.
angry american,
last night i was lead to http://tinyurl.com/3e26a9 the site has since been taken down but here is some of the content:
Found on a gun forum....posts by the guy who owned the shop that sold the guns
"Call BS all you like, but I just spent the last several hours with 3 ATF agents. I saw the shooter's picture. I know his name and home address. I also know that he used a Glock 19 and a Walther P-22. The serial number was ground off the Glock. Why would he do that and still keep the receipt in his pocket from when he bought the gun?
ATF told me that they are going to keep this low-key and not report this to the tv news. However, they cautioned that it will leak out eventually, and that I should be ready to deal with CNN, FOX, etc.
My 32 camera surveillance system recorded the event 35 days ago. This is a digital system that only keeps the video for 35 days. We got lucky.
By the way, the paperwork for Mr. Cho was perfect, thank God.
yes, he bought the guns legally"
elsewhere, the owner explains that with a green card and a few other forms of identification, cho legally acquired the gun.
--
katz, as for your sept 11 recollection, i attended a 10:30 class and actually learned some stuff in those 75 minutes. although i think halfway thru the prof realized the full context of the situation and sorta let us talk about whatever. all very hazy. but i dont think officials reacted too slowly. they were simply gathering info to make decisions.
while my initial reaction was similar to that of yours, i eventually realized that shutting down the entire campus would cause quite a state of hysteria for what seemed like a "domestic" incident. it sounds ridiculous to think that now but at that moment, it probably made sense. va tech allows guns on campus from what i understand (not students, however...although im sure plenty have them) but this is a different culture and sending an immediate email saying two shot (maybe dead) with killer at large would probably play out differently in blacksburg, va than where many of us went to school. im not implying every student would be waving a gun around shooting innocent asian males, but the escalated hysteria really could have become problematic and i thnk a part of the prez's decision was based on trying to keep the campus as calm as possible.
im sure the prez will second guess his decision for his entire life, but its probably a lose/lose. and a simple email probably couldnt have stopped a killer on a mission. although its hard to ignore the advantage he gained in being about to corner people in a classroom. but nonetheless, if the killer wanted to keep killing, he could have. i will not deny the number of casualties may have dropped and he may have been more easily apprehended, but who knows for sure.
flame away.
Post a Comment