Did you know that just last year a bill to allow those with concealed permits to carry on college campuses in Virginia was shot down? The first article below has a quote from a Virginia Tech spokesman praising the defeat and saying that people on campus will now feel safe. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." One wonders how bitter those words taste today...
The second article and link are to an eerily prescient essay written by a VT graduate student with a concealed carry permit after an incident last year prompted the evacuation of the campus. Bradford Wiles writes: “I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus."
...
This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.
Virginia Tech (Larry Hincker again) responded to Mr. Wiles’ essay. “Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him.
...
Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.” Where were these “hundreds of highly trained officers” during the 16 April 2007 massacre? Why didn’t VT’s “very sound policy” keep Cho Seung-Hui from bringing multiple firearms onto the campus? Why didn’t the policy prevent more than 50 students from being shot? Larry Hincker asks us to “Imagine if Students Were Armed”. It’s time we did more than “imagine.”
The next article and link describes how VT (who lobbied against the CCW bill that was killed) handled the security in the latest incident. They let the gunman roam the campus for over 2 hours after the initial shooting without effectively notifying anyone nor evacuating the campus. “Why were campus police so sure the threat was contained in one dormitory, when most of the killings occurred two hours later in a classroom building?”
It has been said that evacuating the campus in response to a shooting is over-reacting and impractical. Yet in August 2006, VT did just that. A link and excerpts from this article are included below. “...in response to reported sightings of William Morva, who is accused of shooting and killing a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy this morning and a Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard on Sunday, as well as injuring a sheriff's deputy Sunday. ... Access to Tech's campus has been largely shut down, with classes canceled and staff evacuated.”
VA Tech, in effect, stood up last year and said that they would be responsible for the security of their students--even went so far as to ridicule a carry permit holder for suggesting that they could not do so effectively. Now, a year later they allowed a gunman to roam freely on their campus for OVER TWO HOURS after the first shooting. During that time, they didn't try to evacuate the campus nor did they effectively notify the students on campus. Then they tried to justify their inaction by saying it’s too complicated and impractical to evacuate the campus in response to a shooting when the evidence shows they did so only months earlier.
www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/50658
www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80510
www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/81277
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18142745/
www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/79080
“Police have spent the day racing to sometimes widely separated locations around Blacksburg in response to reported sightings of William Morva, who is accused of shooting and killing a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy this morning and a Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard on Sunday, as well as injuring a sheriff's deputy Sunday.
...
Access to Tech's campus has been largely shut down, with classes canceled and staff evacuated. A few students were still out earlier this afternoon near the dormitories on Washington Street .”
The second article and link are to an eerily prescient essay written by a VT graduate student with a concealed carry permit after an incident last year prompted the evacuation of the campus. Bradford Wiles writes: “I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus."
...
This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.
Virginia Tech (Larry Hincker again) responded to Mr. Wiles’ essay. “Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him.
...
Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.” Where were these “hundreds of highly trained officers” during the 16 April 2007 massacre? Why didn’t VT’s “very sound policy” keep Cho Seung-Hui from bringing multiple firearms onto the campus? Why didn’t the policy prevent more than 50 students from being shot? Larry Hincker asks us to “Imagine if Students Were Armed”. It’s time we did more than “imagine.”
The next article and link describes how VT (who lobbied against the CCW bill that was killed) handled the security in the latest incident. They let the gunman roam the campus for over 2 hours after the initial shooting without effectively notifying anyone nor evacuating the campus. “Why were campus police so sure the threat was contained in one dormitory, when most of the killings occurred two hours later in a classroom building?”
It has been said that evacuating the campus in response to a shooting is over-reacting and impractical. Yet in August 2006, VT did just that. A link and excerpts from this article are included below. “...in response to reported sightings of William Morva, who is accused of shooting and killing a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy this morning and a Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard on Sunday, as well as injuring a sheriff's deputy Sunday. ... Access to Tech's campus has been largely shut down, with classes canceled and staff evacuated.”
VA Tech, in effect, stood up last year and said that they would be responsible for the security of their students--even went so far as to ridicule a carry permit holder for suggesting that they could not do so effectively. Now, a year later they allowed a gunman to roam freely on their campus for OVER TWO HOURS after the first shooting. During that time, they didn't try to evacuate the campus nor did they effectively notify the students on campus. Then they tried to justify their inaction by saying it’s too complicated and impractical to evacuate the campus in response to a shooting when the evidence shows they did so only months earlier.
This tragedy is a classic example of what happens when people are denied the right of self-defense and their safety is put in the hands of others.
Articles and links below
www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/50658
Gun bill gets shot down by panel
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
By Greg Esposito
A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.
...
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
...
In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.
HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.
By Greg Esposito
A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.
...
Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
...
In June, Tech's governing board approved a violence prevention policy reiterating its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus facilities.
www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/80510
Unarmed and vulnerable
Bradford B. Wiles (Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.)
On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m. , my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center
...
It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.
...I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia , and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.
...
First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.
Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.
Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.
Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.
...
I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."
...
This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.
Bradford B. Wiles (Wiles, of New Castle, is a graduate student at Virginia Tech.)
On Aug. 21 at about 9:20 a.m. , my graduate-level class was evacuated from the Squires Student Center
...
It was at this time that I realized that I had no viable means of protecting myself.
...I am licensed to carry a concealed handgun in the commonwealth of Virginia , and do so on a regular basis. However, because I am a Virginia Tech student, I am prohibited from carrying at school because of Virginia Tech's student policy, which makes possession of a handgun an expellable offense, but not a prosecutable crime.
...
First, I never want to have my safety fully in the hands of anyone else, including the police.
Second, I considered bringing my gun with me to campus, but did not due to the obvious risk of losing my graduate career, which is ridiculous because had I been shot and killed, there would have been no graduate career for me anyway.
Third, and most important, I am trained and able to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere in Virginia and other states that have reciprocity with Virginia, but cannot carry where I spend more time than anywhere else because, somehow, I become a threat to others when I cross from the town of Blacksburg onto Virginia Tech's campus.
Of all of the emotions and thoughts that were running through my head that morning, the most overwhelming one was of helplessness.
...
I would also like to point out that when I mentioned to a professor that I would feel safer with my gun, this is what she said to me, "I would feel safer if you had your gun."
...
This incident makes it clear that it is time that Virginia Tech and the commonwealth of Virginia let me take responsibility for my safety.
www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/81277
Imagine if students were armed
Larry Hincker (Hincker is associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech.)
After the fear, and dare I say, panic from the events of Aug. 21 (2006) , it is absolutely mind-boggling to see the opinions of Bradford Wiles ("Unarmed and vulnerable," Aug. 31).
...
Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him. He even implies that he needed his sidearm to protect himself against the officers.
...
Who among us thinks the writer of the commentary would not have been directly in harm's way if he showed himself to those tactical squads while displaying a deadly weapon? Would he even be here today to tell us the story? Contrary to his position, the writer's commentary actually gives credence to the university policy preventing weapons in classrooms.
Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.
Larry Hincker (Hincker is associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech.)
After the fear, and dare I say, panic from the events of Aug. 21 (2006) , it is absolutely mind-boggling to see the opinions of Bradford Wiles ("Unarmed and vulnerable," Aug. 31).
...
Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him. He even implies that he needed his sidearm to protect himself against the officers.
...
Who among us thinks the writer of the commentary would not have been directly in harm's way if he showed himself to those tactical squads while displaying a deadly weapon? Would he even be here today to tell us the story? Contrary to his position, the writer's commentary actually gives credence to the university policy preventing weapons in classrooms.
Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18142745/
Questions raised about Virginia Tech security
Reporters, students, professors discuss if reaction could have been better
BLACKSBURG , Va. - On a university campus of 2,600 acres, with more than 26,000 students, ironclad security is not a practical goal. Even so, tough questions swiftly surfaced as to how effectively Virginia Tech authorities responded to Monday's horrific massacre.
Why were campus police so sure the threat was contained in one dormitory, when most of the killings occurred two hours later in a classroom building?
Why were they interviewing a “person of interest” off campus in regard to the first shootings at the very time the classroom killings were unfolding?
Why was there a lag of more than two hours after the first shootings before an alarm was e-mailed campuswide — around the time another, more deadly burst of carnage occurred? And more generally, some security experts wondered, was the school's crisis planning and emergency communications system up to the task?
Clearly, something went terribly wrong.
...
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said there no surveillance cameras in place that recorded the gunman entering Norris Hall, the classroom building where 31 people were killed.
...
Some students were upset that the gunman was able to strike a second time, saying the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m. ...
Reporters, students, professors discuss if reaction could have been better
BLACKSBURG , Va. - On a university campus of 2,600 acres, with more than 26,000 students, ironclad security is not a practical goal. Even so, tough questions swiftly surfaced as to how effectively Virginia Tech authorities responded to Monday's horrific massacre.
Why were campus police so sure the threat was contained in one dormitory, when most of the killings occurred two hours later in a classroom building?
Why were they interviewing a “person of interest” off campus in regard to the first shootings at the very time the classroom killings were unfolding?
Why was there a lag of more than two hours after the first shootings before an alarm was e-mailed campuswide — around the time another, more deadly burst of carnage occurred? And more generally, some security experts wondered, was the school's crisis planning and emergency communications system up to the task?
Clearly, something went terribly wrong.
...
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said there no surveillance cameras in place that recorded the gunman entering Norris Hall, the classroom building where 31 people were killed.
...
Some students were upset that the gunman was able to strike a second time, saying the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m. ...
www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/79080
“Police have spent the day racing to sometimes widely separated locations around Blacksburg in response to reported sightings of William Morva, who is accused of shooting and killing a Montgomery County sheriff's deputy this morning and a Montgomery Regional Hospital security guard on Sunday, as well as injuring a sheriff's deputy Sunday.
...
Access to Tech's campus has been largely shut down, with classes canceled and staff evacuated. A few students were still out earlier this afternoon near the dormitories on Washington Street .”
