I think there needs to be better programs and better awareness of programs geared towards distressed persons. AS well as a reevaluation of warning signs and handling of warning signs. When it gets to the point where a person starts shooting, there isn't much that can be done but react. There are alot of things that sound good "on paper", but aren't realistic to actually put in place.

the high security area at the embassy in iraq got suicide bombed last week, im sure they had metal detectors all the armed guards etc and people still died.

with my grand childeren now in grade school its not just a worry if they will do well but will they survive the guns and drugs. with or without lockdowns these kind of things will probably happen again, the question is will it be someone in my family or will they be strangers? one thing you can take to the bank is if someone in my family died hours later on the same campus like what happend in these 2 shootings and the warning hadnt gone out i would be going thru the roof.
does anyone know if this campus has reader boards? if they did couldnt they use them like an amber alert

There is no clear defined way of being a 100% safe without taking away individual liberties, but on the preventive side I would give the schools and our children back to God. It seems to me that before they took God and every reference of him out of the schools that the terror of these shootings begun.
Ann Pruett, Wa.

It shouldn't be completely up to the school officials since they are horribly out numbered by the students. The students themselves should take the initiative to keep an eye out for anyone who looks distraught or depressed.

I really hope this horrible situation doesn't start a whole new wave of gun laws in congress that do nothing more than make it harder to aquire guns legally for people who more often than not aren't going to use them for criminal purposes. I wouldn't be against a mental stability test added to the criminal background check though.

Hey Ann, god can't stop bullets. I think these things started happening more as parents got worse and worse at being parents. Pay attention to your kids and then you will be able to stop these types of crimes.

As former campus security in the Pacific Northwest, most campuses have unarmed security. Arming teachers and other staff would not be the answer. There should not be any guns or weapons allowed on campus except those by security/law enfocement officials. Security for schools should be armed with a hand gun and a baton. There should be qualifications, certifications, and strict records being kept to monitor. Schools need to understand security is there for more than citing speeding tickets and parking permits.

This is a very, very, sad example of why Mr.Peterson is correct,....people need to understand that security is needed.....armed security hasn't been tried,.....new gun laws have....laws won't stop someone who is determined to do harm to others, as we have seen....repeatedly....nor will films pointing fingers at gun manufacturers and politicians.....what may indeed work,if the people who intend to do, as this sad young man, and sad young men before him;....is if they knew that there are trained security guards that are armed and ready to respond with force to any life threatening situation......no the hall monitors should stay as they are....same with the housing staff.....but all other areas of security should be highly trained......in all schools.....sad but true.....and my prayers go to the family's of the 33 victim's.... I hope that in some way they will be able find a sense of peace, through the turbulent times that lay ahead for them...and to the students that lived through this nightmare...Learn from this....please....You won't be able to save everyone everywhere...but you are the immediate future...don't let This tragedy be repeated....I don't know how....But you as the next generation need to find a way to restore the value of life........too many young people are dying at the hands of there piers....you are there now...start today...don't let the deaths of your friends be the next popular movie then forgotten.....this situation is screaming for you as the next leaders and innovators to stand up and fight for your lives...don't be FISH in a barrel anymore.....may at least the grace of god be with you and guide you............I hold my breath for all of you....

I agree with John... AND IF ANYTHING cultures which have derived from the Judaeo-Christian influence have only EMBRACED firearms. It's time to teach anti-violence... that's never going to happen however with people like George Bush, Saddam Hussein, and Fidel Castro ruling countries. I'll even go as far as saying we should stop making guns. What is the primary function of a weapon? To kill. Killing is bad. THE END

How can NWCN use the inncident in Kent State and at Virginia Tech together? The two incidents have NOTHING to do with one another! One, (Kent State) was politically motivated during a highly volitile time of the Veitnam War spured by an Anti war protest and a bunch of over zelous politictians scarred they were loosing control!!! And the other, (Virginia Tech)the creation of ONE lone Madman with a vendetta against his ex girlfriend. How can you possibilly use the two incidents in the same sentence?

A few of the posters here have mentioned that a better understanding from teachers and students to the "warning signs" is needed. While I agree with that, this particular student was "flagged" by his English teacher (he was an Engligh major) and by other students. If you read any of the follow up interviews with people who actually knew him, they all say the same thing "very quiet, kept to himself, didn't talk to others much", etc, etc. You tend to hear the very same things every time things like this happen. His English teacher refered him to counseling and when he refused, she spoke directly with the school. Guess what the response was? That's right, "we can't force someone who doesn't want help to get help". As Ann Pruett stated in a post above, we are at a state in our country where we can't do anything without taking away some of our personal liberties. This is because Common Sense is dead. There is nothing "common" about sense anymore. We are also so afraid of being sued, that we are willing to stand by and do nothing until the inevitable happens. I say inevitable because if you turn a blind eye to everything (depressed students, cell phones while driving, immagration reform, basically everything that has been brought up on the NWCN Blogs) inevitably, the worst will happen. People, we need to be MORE INVOLVED. More involved with our children, more involved with the laws our govenment is passing on our behalf, more involved with everthing we currently take for granted. Because if we don't, we will all continue to pass blame, after the fact, instead of doing something to help prevent these terrible, terrible tragedies from happening. You know the old saying "It takes a village.....", well it really does. Get more involved with your kids schools. Get more involved with your community meeting(every neighborhood in Seattle has them but they are very poorly attended. Get more involved with the laws and rights that your elected Senators and Congressmen are fighting for and against. I'm willing to bet that it will be a real eye opener to most to see just how weak our "leaders" really are. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families and friends of those who lost their lives in yet another senseless act of violence.

People were killing each other with sticks and rocks long before guns came round. This shouldn't be about guns, but rather about what drives a person to so something like what happened at VT.

Perhaps our culture of killing has inspired a few to take part the violence? I think it's ironic that George W. has condemned the VT massacre... How hypocritical for a man who has come to exemplify our culture of death.

No amount of preparation in my opinion will make students feel safe. I go to WSU-Vancouver and we recently had a scare on campus. I feel safer on this campus than any other campus I have been on since the majority of our security (if I recall correcty) are actual police officers. Although nothing the campus puts into place will make me feel 100% safer. I think that the people who take these innocent lives are rediculous and need to put others ahead of themselves.

Schools need to realize that in these types of situations where a student and or teacher may be a threat to the general public, that perhaps their privacy laws should include clauses that would enable them to contact family members or outside enities for assistance, when the threat of lives are at stake all laws should have this type of clause.

Without faulting those who died, and those who came so close to dying, I really hope we can learn this much from this event and others like it:

Some nutcase is always going to be able to get his hands on a gun, legally or illegally.

Even if everybody is supposed to be disarmed (as on the V.Tech campus)....sooner or later, somebody won't be. And it won't be the law-abiding folks.

Self-defense is still possible. We need to *think* about: what if this happened to me? What would I do? Do mental drills if not phsyical ones. Somebody bursts into the classroom with a gun? Start THROWING things at him! Books, pencils, pens, watches, bottles of water, purses, backpacks, desks, and ultimately (and ultimately necessarily) ourselves, to tackle and hold him down. We may die, but we will die fighting back, not lined up against a wall, or cowering in helpess terror.

I cannot understand why a university like WSU, which is nowhere near so sprawling as UW, is only *now* thinking of emergency sirens? The little town I grew up in, Colville, had an Air Raid siren they tested every day at noon when I was growing up. You could hear it all over town. They never (to my knowledge) distributed literature saying "If you ever hear this siren at any time but noon, take cover and wait for the all-clear" but perhaps that was too much common sense to require saying. Also, half the pickup trucks in town had rifle racks with guns in the back window. There were no mass murders.

I think *every* school campus - from grade school right up through university - ought to have emergency sirens. Never mind the email!! Not everybody checks their email compulsively!! And when the siren goes off, everybody hunkers down and prepares to fight for their lives if they must. Ducking and covering isn't enough. (and, because if this happens, the first ones to be targetted will probably be office staff who could trigger the alarm) there needs to be a way for individual teachers, security, or other persons to trigger the alarm....cell phones hotkeyed to dial a security company, or something. There is a way. We just have to think about it, plan for it, prepare for it.

Sadly, it won't stop the nutcases. But it may slow them down a bit.