Coulda, woulda, shoulda - more thoughts about VT

First, many, especially in VA, say that if only students and teachers carried their own weapon.

No doubt, some may be good shooters who could have stopped him, but does anyone really think that a "wild west" classroom with so many John Wayne and "Dirty Harry" wannabe would have spared the lives of innocent by standers?

Next - the gunman should have been arrested, or something, after his bizarre writings in English class and his stalking of women. The authorities did as much as they could. Do we really want to arrest everyone who fantasizes while writings? We all know that "the authorities" would love to continue limiting our privacy, just given the chances. Plus, as one law enforcement person commented: "our resources are stretched to the limit," wonder why...

Last - the administration should have e-mailed all the students, should have put the campus on a lock down after the first shooting. First, since the gunman was a student, he too, would have been alerted, right? According to reports he went back to his dorm and stayed there for two hours. And then, what would they have done? They thought that he left the campus. How long would have students been locked? And wouldn't the gunman then started again once calm returned?

At least, I think that students should have been alerted to the first murders at the dorm but not necessarily lock everything. At least, I don't know what it would have accomplished, except frustration and pointing fingers, again.

I don't know what the answers are. I just know that they are not easy, simple solutions. As with terrorist threat and other criminal activities, we have to balance our need to security with our cherished freedom and open society. Perhaps I would not say this had I been personally affected, but this is why judges and police officers and prosecutors are expected to recuse themselves when cases come too close to home.

escorts like McCain required before he travelled in the safe market in Baghdad.

You wrote -------
Last - the administration should have e-mailed all the students, should have put the campus on a lock down after the first shooting. First, since the gunman was a student, he too, would have been alerted, right? According to reports he went back to his dorm and stayed there for two hours. And then, what would they have done? They thought that he left the campus. How long would have students been locked? And wouldn't the gunman then started again once calm returned?

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With a lockdown, police cars would have been circling the campus, maybe parked in front of the main student occupied buildings. No way Cho could have walked across campus under those circumstances. I guess he could have started shooting in the dorm but there likely weren't many students still in the dorm. They were off to class, some to their death. Buildings might have been checked by police, and Cho discovered. The lockdown would have continued until at least the person of interest boyfriend had been cleared. Then the police would have been super cautious until they found a suspect. In the meantime, students would have been on the alert, not just calmly attending classes.

The worst part of assuming that nothing more could have been done is that this will probably happen again. Is this what we've come to?

and, no, I am not saying that nothing could have been done. Just that there are no simple solutions as many have been trying to say to reporters, like letting students and teachers carry guns.

One interesting note from Primetime, I think, was that instead of trying to hold the door, someone could have jammed a belt under it, would have been more effective, and then jump from the window, even if they had to grab a computer to break the window.

As a part of both a universal public education system and a universal public health care system, we need mental health care - particularly developmental health care and counseling as an allied part of our public education system. We're producing more and more 'at risk' and emotionally-maladjusted kids and we're ignoring our abundant knowledge and abilities to deal with such issues. It's NOT a question of knowing - it's a question of deprivation and failure to provide such services and education comprehensively. We cannot rely on the red schoolhouse paradigm with the wise and nurturing teacher in an age that opts for massive, centralized, guarded fortresses of educamation. In an age that looks at any ordinary citizen associating themselves with the schooling and coaching of kids in their community as some kind of pervert - and where people aware of such trends wisely avoid such involvement in a post-Wenatchee era, we MUST address the vacuum. When it's easier for a military recruiter to prey on students with the approval of government than for socially concerned males in the community to offer coaching and counseling, we're in deep doodoo.