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.