I wasn't going to say anything on here about it, but I'm tired of all the finger pointing and blame. And apparently I'm in a introspective mood today.
I went to Virginia Tech in the early 90's, so I'm familiar with the campus and the student body. Many people are arguing the campus should have been locked down after the first shooting. Let's just say that this is possible to do at this hour of the morning and with the magnitude of students, most of whom are driving in from off-campus and most likely have not turned on the news or their computers. Let's just say that the over 20 entrances to campus were blocked off and the off-campus students were sent home.
So, we've locked down the campus. Where is the killer when the lockdown occurs? Noone knows, is he in his dorm room? In the dining hall? In a class? Are we locking down everyone where they are? Are those in the dining hall locked down in the dining hall or are they sent back to their dorm rooms? At 8 am many, many people are in the dining hall. What is to stop the killer from killing whoever is locked down with him? If he is in the dining hall he has 100s of potential victims, he could do a lot more damage in a lot faster period of time in a dining hall. If he is in his dorm, what is to stop him from killing everyone in the dorm?
But, let's say he doesn't kill anyone during the lockdown. How long is this lockdown going to last? Until he is caught? They had no leads after the first killing. If he had stopped there, he may never have been caught. So, how long can a lockdown reasonably go on? I know as a college student, I would have taken the lockdown seriously for maybe an hour or 2 before I got bored and started thinking the whole thing was a huge over-reaction. I guarantee I'm not alone in this feeling, so we all start venturing out. Maybe we go to the dining hall to get food, or to McD's or a local bar. We aren't going to stay locked in our dorm rooms forever. So, what is to stop the killer from going out at this point and doing the killing?
Eventually they will have to lift the lockdown, this is a college, classes have to go on. So, if they kept everyone locked down for a whole day, by the next day the lockdown would be lifted and students would go on to class again. What is to stop the killer from doing the killings at this point?
Anyone set on doing something like this is going to do it. I truly believe at best they might have been able to delay what he did. Even with his body it took them hours to identify him, with no real witnesses to the first killing, they honestly may never have identified him.
I'm heartbroken about what has occurred and wish with all my might things like this never occurred. But I don't see how pointing fingers is going to help in this situation.
4 comments:
I totally agree with what you said. Nothing could have stopped this person from killing people. Locking down the campus without knowing where the killer is is a foolish idea. He wanted to kill. I am so sorry this happened and I feel the pain and sorrow of all involved.
Mom
Christy,
I agree with you. This post was so thoughtFULL, like all your posts. I just wanted to pass along this "Thinking Blog" award to you because you make me think too. The details are in this post:
http://learningalwaysandallways.blogspot.com/2007/04/im-thinker-youre-thinker-hes-thinker.html
Deanne,
Wow! Thank you. I was nervous about posting this. I didn't want to offend anyone at this difficult time. I've really been struggling with my emotions today.
I too have thought many of the same thoughts. Perhaps this horrible event could have been avoided, but we don't how a different course of would have provided for a different outcome. Perhaps the fate would have been much worse.
Post a Comment