I don't think allowing a few professors & students is the absolute solution. But it would improve their chances in the future. And it would greatly improve the chances for those who made the choice to train & get armed.

Also think of those who have served in the military & then go to college. If we allow these men & women to protect us on foreign soil then why not allow them to protect the other students who are afraid of guns?

Did you see what the students did with the table? No one in that class room died so it would be a great strategy in the future. Teaching our children how to react in these situations is our duty.

After 9/11 Congress actually woke up & they allowed pilots to have the choice to train & carry.

How many American planes have been hijacked since 9/11?

The number of physicians in the U.S. is approximately 700,000.
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year is 120,000
Accidental deaths per physician is .171

Statistics from Dept. of Heatlth and Human Services.


The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
The number of accidental gun deaths per year is 1,500.
The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.

Statistics from F.B.I.

So, statistically, doctors are 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

I'll bet that you know someone who doesn't own a gun, do you know someone who doesn't have a doctor?

I read that the European press is blaming Charelton Heston. Guess that means the Wright brothers are responsible for 9-11.

"Also, do you think schools or classrooms can be designed in anyway to make them less shooter-friendly ??"

From the Hartford Courant (CT) at http://www.courant.com/chi-070417vtech-shootings,0,3443502.story?track=mostviewedlink

"Among the dead was a professor, Liviu Librescu. Students who were in Librescu's engineering class at Norris Hall told the Tribune late Monday that the professor tried to protect the students in his class when they realized a gunmen was loose in the building... Librescu, went to the door and pushed himself against it in case the shooter tried to come in."

Maybe they should start with some locks on the doors?

From the same source:
"Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service... but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was."

Are there any gamblers here who want to bet that the word describing the outcome wasn't "nothing"?

I agree with the principle that students who are emotionally and mentally mature can and should be entrusted on campus with the same rights they would have off campus. I went to a school where security was the advisors to a very active gun club that maintained its own ranges and had secure storage on campus, and where people who weren't idiots could carry a small-to-medium fixed blade on their belts without too many people whining. I had a Ka-bar in my desk, and my K-22 in the safe in security for a while.

But I also see the other point. I got my degree last spring, and I will say for the record, that I would not trust most of the people in the dorms I was in with an unloaded baseball bat. Too much booze, too much drugs, and way too little concept of adult responsibilities in those kids. I was in the "adult" dorm, and parties unknown decided it would be fun to kick in a 10 foot long length of sheetrock one night. And the random profanities and homophobia scribbled on doors and walls, and the flushing of full rolls of TP.... The list could go on, but keep in mind that it was the dorm reserved for only those over 21. They showed by their actions they were not ready to be trusted to act like civilized members of society, even though they were "adults". They choose to act like children, they get treated like children.

I wouldn't have a problem with commuters who (legally) carry concealed carrying on campus, but it MUST be concealed and in its holster at all times. Heck, if I could have been cleared to carry on campus by being a commuter, I would have swallowed the obscenely inflated rental prices and done so. If there was a special floor set aside in the adult dorm for those of us who really were adults, I'd have been fine with it. But there are too many problems with them in any dorm I've ever been in, and for the same reasons why soldiers aren't allowed to have their privately owned sidearms with them in barracks. I do not doubt their effectiveness as a deterrent in a general and open population, but for this particular, closed population....

Thank you federal and state governments for creating an undefended, target rich environment.

I hope this plays out like the Luby shooting in Texas where PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. wake up and realize they need to be able to defend themselves. Only the elite have 24/7 armed protection. You and me better be able to protect ourselves and our families.

Why does a constitutional right end at the sidewalk of a government building? Maybe open carry should be limited, maybe not. But anyone with a CCW is an FBI certified good guy and should be able to carry anywhere a police officer can carry!

I think people should remember that such terrible events as this are big news because they happen so infrequently.

To put this in perspective, I took a look at the 2005 US traffic fatality statistics. The total deaths of people from ages 5 to 24 were 12,079. Now here’s the ironic part. Divide by 365 days per year and the average number of deaths of school age children per day was… 33.

That’s 33 kids per day, every day, for a year. I don’t know how much it would cost to put bullet resistant desks and doors in every class room on the off chance that an insane mass murderer happens to wander in, but I think it might be better spent on making the roads safer.

Likewise, trying to eliminate certain weapons will not “solve the problem” of homicidal maniacs. A gallon of gasoline dumped in each stairwell could probably have killed more people. It doesn’t take an evil mastermind to come up with all kinds of ways to kill lots of people if you’re not picky about the consequences.

The world is imperfect. Get used to it. Not all tragedies can be prevented. That's why they are tragedies. People still think they can be God and eliminate all imperfection, not realizing that wanting to be like God was the temptation that started ALL our problems.

Just to clarify some things, in the state of VA you have to be 21 years old to carry a handgun. Most students at VA Tech wouldn't have been able to arm themselves with a handgun even if they wanted to, and that has nothing to do with the school's policies.

I disagree with the idea that arming students or teachers at school will prevent an incident like this or "better the odds" of survival. The campus cops were armed AND trained, and they were grossly ineffective here (waiting 2 hours after the first incident to bother warning people is unacceptable, they should've cancelled classes immediately). Seems like if they used their first and most important survival tool, their BRAIN, many lives might have been saved.

My point is, most folks anywhere are not of the ilk whose first impulse would be to protect or defend, much less be capable, confident with, and actually carrying a weapon. You can't expect that of anyone. Given the choice, I doubt many of those students or teachers would train or carry a gun anyway, I personally don't know many folks who would.

Now if they could just develop a tazer with a 10 round magazine and a range of around 300ft. But even a non-lethal alternative such as that would probably be banned as well. Seriously though, are there any "legal to carry" weapons that would have been effective in this situation?