[GoodOlBoy]

WOOT SLEEP ROCKS!

Anyway. Fabs the only thing I have to go by is video I was seeing on several of the news channels, and reports we have gotten back (paper reports we have not gotten to review the first responders video yet as every college PD in the country is trying to get ahold of it) The first LEO's to arrive were heard by those inside (including the shooter) and attempted access shortly thereafter. The shooter actually took his own life at this point (remember some of the doors had been chained shut at this point) Even if the officers had arrived and did wait for backup before entering I could not say that I would have blamed them. With the amount of gunfire in the building and NO reliable reports from the inside they could easily have been walking into half a dozen people instead of one. If that had been the case how could the officers being slaughtered help those inside? It could not have. Yes it is their job to put their life on the line, BUT it is their job to do so in such a manner that it saves others. NOT just be cannon fodder.

In all things considered I think the VT Police department did an excellent job with what they had to work with. We can sit back an analyze this for years to come (and believe me it will be) However colleges are not military bases. They are not closed to the public. You cannot carry a weapon concealed or otherwise on your person on one. There are no metal detectors because there are no centralized points of access. There are not guards standing around at every entrance and exit. It is a school. Period. This IS a tragedy. But perhaps some good will come of it. Perhaps this will become a wake up call for millions of Americans. Or perhaps, as in the past, they will blame the gun. Blame the bullet. Blame the gunshop, and blame the state. They certainly won't blame the poor mentally derranged piece of garbage that DID the deed. After all if he hadn't been picked at in kindergarten, denied ice cream in junior high, and had his parts laughed at by a girl in high school this never would have happened right? RIGHT? Yeah right.

Whatever the reason to do such a thing it was done. How many would have died had he simply used a chainsaw? How many would have died if he used a knife, a bat, a brick? Every day in this country thousands of assaults are commited. People are murdered. Lifes are destroyed. And guess what? Guns are used in alot less of these cases than people believe. Recently a man was dragged to death behind a car by his extranged wife. Did the news focus on the car? Did they focus on the wife? Did they focus on the rope she tied him to the bumper with? Did they EVEN focus on the fact that this abusive SOB beat her regularly? No they mentioned pointedly that there was a gun found in the glove box when she was caught. A gun HE had kept in his car. A gun SHE didn't know was there. An HOUR long local report on the news focused on the gun and the ease of getting such a gun in todays society. She never once held him at gunpoint, or even threatened him with one. She cold cocked him with a brick from the edge of her flower bed and dragged him to death behind the car.

More to come I just got called out of office for a tech problem in dispatch.

GoodOlBoy