It has made me ill watching this tragedy unfold today. Such a senseless loss of promising lives.

My heart breaks for all the families that have lost loved ones today. It is indeed a very sad day.

Horrible! absolulely Horrible! Sad indeed..............May God be with those familes.......................

I can't imagine being a parent or family member of a VT student at this time, the lack of information must be maddening.

I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for these assailants, they have not a shred of honor, or a sliver of compassion.

A tragedy to be sure. It made me sick to think that 31 defenseless people are dead because of one madman. But we've got to put some of the blame on this "gun free zone" foolishness. If there had been even one CCW holder on that floor many less people might have died.

We need to at least give our people the ability to defend themselves. We as gun owners need to take the lead and get these laws repealed.

Gun Free Zone = target rich environment.

It's really two tragedies that have happened. First an foremost is my sympathy and condolences to the families and the victims of all this. What a terrible act by such a clearly insane and careless person. It's such a shame that there are so many malicious, misguided, and careless people in the world today who feel or think that they need to take out their rage on innocent defenseless people.

There are some out there that are so mis-adjusted that they just can seem to be able to handle life's ups and downs. So they act out a horrible thing like this. What ever pushed the shooter over the edge, he clearly lacked the ability and charecter to handle life. Terrible.

The second tragedy is that this now only gives the anti-gun folks more fuel and rage to try and enact any anti-gun legislation that is already on the table. Maybe even changes a few "fence-sitters" minds about gun use and ownership.

God bless us all

I am a professor at a University not all that smaller than VT. We talked about it in class today. (One of my students has friend(s) at VT.) I am actually quite steamed about the situation. Here's the deal as I see it:

From what I read the shooter was popping students for over 30 minutes before he shot himself. In 30 minutes I can decide to finish getting dressed, walk outside my residence, walk across town WALKING DIRECTLY PAST THE P0LICE STATION, continue walking across town, onto campus, walk halfway across campus, walk into class, and be lecturing for 5 minutes ... all in 30 minutes.

So, where the police? WHERE WERE THE F-----G POLICE!

I read that 2 years ago they banned guns from students and profs at VT. That being the case - the responsibility for protection of students and faculty falls SQUARELY on police and emergency services. WHERE WE THEY?!!!

IT IS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME THAT THIS GUY HAD THE TIME TO SHOOT AND KILL 30+ STUDENTS AND WOUND DOZENS MORE.

Here's the way I see it:

Someone hears shots fired, calls 911, gives general location.

Police responds ASAP and, coming on location, hear additional shots.

Police move in direction of sounds of shots.

Police identify shooter (easy: he's they guy with the gun shooting people).

Police stop shooter (presumably with lethal force).

Oh, ... doors chained shut?

Grab axe from emergency personnel arriving on scene or from fire fighting box/station.

Chop through door or by other means enter area of shooter.

Identify shooter.

Stop shooter.

IT SHOULD HAVE TAKEN NO LONGER THAN IT DID TO TYPE THIS!

Oh, can't find shooter? He's dead already? Killed himself?

(Police took too long getting there.)

That being said - the bottom line - as a professor ... here's how our discussion ended:

1. I'm not sure I'm 100% comfortable with my students `carrying' - especially on the day that I hand back exams ...

2. I praised the student who had the savvy and courage to block the door to his classroom.

3. AND I ADMITTED THAT - FOR ME - PERSONALLY - I HOPE AND PRAY THAT IF A SITUATION LIKE THAT UNFOLDS BEFORE ME - I WOULD HAVE THE COURAGE TO INSTANTLY SIZE UP THE SITUATION - AND LEAD A COUNTERATTACK - WITH WHATEVER MEANS AVAILABLE - AND NOT JUST ALLOW MY STUDENTS TO BE LINED UP AGAINST A WALL AND EXECUTED.

It seems that law enforcement is more concerned with doing things right, than simply doing ...

So while law enforcement is trying to figure out how to respond - God help me in the mean time if I am `the man on the ground'.

This whole thing REALLY SUCKS ... more than the other stuff I have said that sucks.

I hope I'm still a moderator after all this. I doubt our discussion in class today will doom me as a professor. Some of the other stuff we talk about in class would - theoretically - except that I get fired at the end of every semester anyway - and, more often than not, re-hired at the beginning of the next one. Either the Univ is really hurting for professors, or they can't live without me, or some combination in between.

`The Doc' ... known in other circles as ...

Serious Hunter - I agree that too much time passed before the police acted. A couple of other points to go along with what you said.

A professor held the door while his students jumped out the window - he sacrificed his life to save the students. This also kept the shooter occupied for some time.

The police should have been on high alert because he killed two other people earlier in the day.

Yeah, I hear you on the prof. Another hero.

And, yeah, even more inconceivable is their response ... with the murder just hours before. Maybe I'm missing something - but you would think there would be a pile of police already on campus milling around, asking questions, checking things out ... AVAILABLE TO RESPOND ... if shooting started again. I am dumbfounded by the whole thing.

Think of it ...

This guy shot (hit) at least 50 people. In the choas and mayhem, and assuming not everyone just stood still to let him shoot them - perhaps he missed as many shots as he fired. That is 100 rounds. Let's say the average handgun holds 9 rounds ... that means he needs to load/reload 10 times ... I guess you could argue 9 times if he started with 2 loaded guns. I have never shot a person - - but it would take me a lot of time to shoot 50 person-size targets with a handgun ... walking along, shooting, probably missing some shots, maybe missing a lot of shots (the shooter's targets were real live people, some presumably screaming, running, ducking), .... reloading, shooting some more, pushing on doors that are blocked, shooting at doors that are blocked, resuming shooting at people, etc.

This guy did not have a machine gun (with someone carrying a long ammo belt) - or some massive bomb - he had handguns.

I am dumbfounded.