Mary Had a Little Lamb

The shooting spree at Virginia Tech have lead people to wonder whether something more could have been done. When a parent is possibly grieving for their child, there is a sense that something more could always have been done. When 9/11 occurred, people try to place blame on someone. Somehow, we had to forsee this, and if we didn't, we have to try harder.

But Virginia Tech's official reaction was perhaps no stranger than any other.

Two events occurred on the University of Maryland campus that had similar overtones. In the one case, an applied math graduate student, a recent graduate of the electrical engineering department sent threatening notes to a department, and the reaction was to have police cars near the building where he might come if he were to take action.

Yet, classes were not canceled. Things went on as usual. Eventually, he was arrested at his mother's house, where he had stashed guns. The details may be incorrect, but the general story and reaction was basically what happened.

Another incident. This time, a boyfriend (alas, also Korean) goes up to his girlfriend, shoots her in the head, then kills himself. Miraculously, she survives, though she is left blind by the shot. Again, nothing much happened on campus. It was determined that the girl's boyfriend (or perhaps ex, at that time) was already dead, and there was no additional reasons to lock down campus.

And this was basically the reaction the police at Virginia Tech had. They thought it was an unhappy boyfriend, and had no reason to think a shooting spree was about to occur.

Now, Mr. Hui, I'd imagine, did not intend to do the first shootings, because too many things could go wrong afterwards, unless he somehow imagined that the police would be so occupied with this, that he would have more chances to carry out his gruesome task. Everyone second guesses the police for not shutting down the campus, and yet, if you put yourself in Mr. Hui's spot, dreadful as that is, it made no sense for him to do what he did early that morning, if he were intent on doing what he wanted to later.

Reading some of the followup, you realize that the situation could have been worse. Were it not for two groups of people barricading the room (once after a shooting occurred within the room, and once elsewhere), there would have been more deaths. Indeed, another group was in someone's office hiding, and were it not for the innate curiosity and desire to help, Kevin Granata may have survived. In such harrowing situations, the decision to help others or to save oneself, or to pretend to be dead, or to realize that putting a table against the door would save them, these tiny decisions have measured effects on the extent of the tragedy.

The point, if there is any, is that Virginia Tech's reaction to the situation may not have been inappropriate given the situation at hand, just as those in the Twin Towers were told to stay put in the building, as no one had any clue that the buildings would collapse.

We seek answers, we want better decisions made, but mostly, we do what we think is best under the circumstances.