Local College on Lockdown

T

treefarmernc

New member
Had an incident near Hickory NC in Catawba County witch resulted a lock down of Catawba Valley Community College Wednesday morning 01/18/2012. The lockdown lasted three or so hours and involved much of the local law enforcement as well as a swat team. Parts of the school was evacuated also.

As of this time it seems that what caused all of this was just one employee of the college apparently saw a guy carrying a handgun across the parking lot. It is unknown if the guy was acting in a threatening manner or not, or if this is just a case of misidentification of behalf of the employee. Either way this resulted in a lot of panic as well as a lot of worried students and parents.

This should be a reminder of the irrational fear and how jumpy many are at the sight of guns as well as a reminder to carless gun owners to know the law as well as where and when it is appropriate to be seen.

Here is the link to the article.
http://www.wbtv.com/story/16545114/college-locked-down-after-possible-gunman-seen-on-campus
 
Last edited:
CVCC is a pretty large community college that also has high school on site. If this happened in the morning when classes were in full session 5000 is probably just the students and faculty.

I live just outside of Hickory.
 
From what I have read He was carrying it in hand.
There is very little to no talk about this being overkill or over-reaction of the one witness or the law. The latest reports show the local law enforcement patting their selves on the back and planning for the next one. I am all for training and being ready but would like to have seen a little more rational involved.
 
While this does strike me as an over-reaction to a non-threat, from what I've read on-line, the various police forces and school administration implemented there plan for a possible shooter quickly and efficiently.

Further more, looking at from a military vantage point, had this been a real 'inicident', it appears to me that the authorities would have quickly been on hand with the proper tools needed to do the job and very few bystanders running about.
 
There is very little to no talk about this being overkill or over-reaction of the one witness or the law. The latest reports show the local law enforcement patting their selves on the back and planning for the next one. I am all for training and being ready but would like to have seen a little more rational involved.
Click to expand...

If they brushed it off and this guy went into the school and shot up a classroom because some instructor flunked him last fall or something, everyone would rightfully be calling for the heads of all involved.

As long as firearms are totally banned from school campuses in NC (whether that's a good idea or not is a different debate) I think it's entirely reasonable to assume malicious intent when a non-uniformed individual openly takes a gun into a school.
 
I agree that they were indeed efficient. Had this gone to the bad this show of force would had been welcomed. With that said I still believe that there should include consideration for the wasteful deployment for a situation where only one person thought they saw something. Had there been an actual incident else ware law enforcement would be caught with their preverbal pants around their ankles.

All in all this can be stated as a success but it is important that law enforcement does not gain a bad case of tunnel vision and not acknowledge the possibility of resource waste. Incident responders should be able to see what is all around them and not focus on what is just in front of them.

Who knows, the guy could have had bad intentions and this show of force sent him away before he caused any harm. Other wise resources committed there could had been needed else-ware.
 
If it had been in a holster then I would say it was a huge overreaction. However in this situation I would have to call the carrier a dumbass. In your hand is not really a normal way of carrying a gun around town and you should expect that to draw some attention, especially in a place where guns are banned entirely to begin with.

While gun rights advocates constantly clamor for allowing carry in more and more places (and I totally agree with it) I think sometimes we forget that just because we have a right to carry somewhere doesn't make it a good idea to go flaunting it about in the open for everyone to see.
 
"One should never judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes"

Having walked in the responsible College Administrator shoes and ordered the evacuation of a town, Chlorine rail car fell off the track, I understand the courage it takes to disrupt the lives of so many people when there is a threat. When it turns out not to have been "real".

I applaud this unnamed individual who had the guts to activate their emergency plan. The response may have prevented a major incident.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top