What would've been the right choice for Virginia Tech?

[brien]

Once again, I sincerely apologise because it was a genuine mistake on my part. I know how it feels because at times, I have been the victim of the same type of pablum. Your post #20 above is spot on.

[saltinespike]

Quote by: ZNFYRH First of all... the campus consists of roughly 30,000 people, 100 buildings, and 2,600 acres. It would just take 2 hours to lock all the doors.

Speakers are an amazing invention, though I don't know if they have these. Even if they don't, they must have a way of communicating with all teachers/professors. It's not like they would send a group of lockers out, just tell the teacher to lock their door via e-mail/phone/speaker/whatever.

Quote by: ZNFYRH Second... the 2 hour gap is between the time of the 911 call and the start of the second set of shootings. In responding to a 911 call, first authorities have to arrive. Then they close off the area. Then they investigate the scene and try to get statements from witnesses. When was the last time you say many people up and about at 7:30 on a college campus? They are either asleep or already in class. All witness reports were aural, not visual.

Um. I assume you are directing this to brien? Because I made no statement against this.

Quote by: ZNFYRH An immediate lockdown is ill-advised because you could be locking the killer in a building with students. An evacuation is ill-advised because you just gave the killer a way to blend in.

This was not what I had in mind, and I apologize for not specifying so. I was thinking more along the lines of locking the classroom doors, keeping him confined to the empty (hopefully) hallways. But you are right I suppose. He didn't go to class but the administrators did not know who the shooter was.

I already agreed that an evacuation drill was bad.

Quote by: ZNFYRH The honest answer in this situation is that nothing was done wrong. Based on law, procedure, and the killer's own disposition, there was no way to legally prevent this from happening.

Agreed. Though you nor I have anything to compare this to, so we shall never know what the best decision was.

[ZNFYRH]

saltinespike,

My comments were immediately following brien's post and were directed specifically to him.

Though you nor I have anything to compare this to, so we shall never know what the best decision was.

I do actually have experience in this area, and even without knowing specifics, short of someone actually screwing up the process, if all procedures were followed then there was no legal way to prevent this.

Even now many campuses are looking into some sort of action to take when a student is so drastically unstable.

[saltinespike]

Quote by: ZNFYRH I do actually have experience in this area, and even without knowing specifics, short of someone actually screwing up the process, if all procedures were followed then there was no legal way to prevent this.

Oh, absolutely. I am just suggesting that someone calm and collect (next to impossible) could have taken action and reduced the body count to a high degree.

[ZNFYRH]

Quote by: saltinespike I am just suggesting that someone calm and collect (next to impossible) could have taken action and reduced the body count to a high degree.

"could" being the operative word.

I think things would have gone differently if the first set of shootings happened earlier in the day when more students would have been awake to actually witness what happened.

How do think someone being calm and collected could have legally reduced the body count?

[saltinespike]

Quote by: ZNFYRH "could" being the operative word. I think things would have gone differently if the first set of shootings happened earlier in the day when more students would have been awake to actually witness what happened. How do think someone being calm and collected could have legally reduced the body count?

Charging at the shooter while he was reloading. Still doesn't mean it would work but yeah.

[fushigi]

Uh, isn't that why he had two weapons? So he'd always have one loaded?

The only time he would have reloaded would have been when he knew nobody was charging at him.

He had all the bases covered. He even chained the doors so nobody could leave the building.

Everybody was screwed from the beginning. The only thing that could have happened differently was campus police responding to a distress call faster.

[saltinespike]

Quote by: fushigi Uh, isn't that why he had two weapons? So he'd always have one loaded? The only time he would have reloaded would have been when he knew nobody was charging at him. He had all the bases covered. He even chained the doors so nobody could leave the building. Everybody was screwed from the beginning. The only thing that could have happened differently was campus police responding to a distress call faster.

Would he not have paused to reload?

[ZNFYRH]

saltinespike,

How would you know that the pause is to reload?

Tell me how you would count shots in the midst of screaming, panic, and the fact that he had two handguns, neither of which you know the manufacturer and, therefore, not know the ammo capacity.

[saltinespike]

Quote by: ZNFYRH saltinespike, How would you know that the pause is to reload? Tell me how you would count shots in the midst of screaming, panic, and the fact that he had two handguns, neither of which you know the manufacturer and, therefore, not know the ammo capacity.

Which is why I added:

someone calm and collect (next to impossible)

[hisoka]

Hi, new hear.
In my opinion what was done was the best choice. Evacuation would just cause panic and more victims would possibly be claimed. As stated above.