I hate to relive the events of the Virginia Tech shootings but at this point I feel that it is a necessary evil. Virginia Tech was a tragedy. A plain and simple tragedy. A student with an apparently unknown mental problem decided that, for God, he was going to take his own life, and like God he was going to decide the fate of a whole building full of students and professors. This event made many in the United States wary about college campus security.
Now, less than a year later, this same thing happened again. Not exactly the same scenario but with the same result. Earlier this week at the University of Northern Illinois, a former graduate student entered a lecture hall form an emergency exit in the front. Along with two hand guns he toted a shotgun. Come on people, who wouldn't notice a guy with a shotgun walking down the street. This man walked into a crowded lecture hall in the middle of the afternoon and opened fire into the room. He was mentally disturbed, probably depressed, and he decided to take other people's lives at his own will. This is so wrong and sick.
I think this will become an increasing trend at colleges around the nation. I hate to make that prediction, but we are all too complacent. We think it is politically correct to trust everyone until they give us a reason not to. This is the wrong stance to take when you are at college with a whole bunch of people that you don't know. You should be hesitant to trust anyone until they give you a reason to trust them. I think that on the whole our colleges are not as safe as we all think. I personally am going to graduate in about four months and I would like to head off to college but it might just be more cost effective if I got a minimum wage job and never made more than seven dollars an hour. At least I would be alive. I don't know about anyone else but going to college for me is now a risk. A risk I am still willing to take but it is a rather large risk.
I am posting this to make people think about who is around them, who they trust, and who they don't. Be aware of what is going on around you and if you see someone walking around with a SHOTGUN... for goodness sake run! And then tell campus security.
I am also putting this out here to spark an interest in people to get help. If you know someone is having a problem or seems to be depressed, tell someone... get them help. And if you are reading this and you feel like you could end it all or everything just seems to be going against you, get HELP. Playing God will not help you. The lives of people around you are not yours, you do not get to decide who should live and who should die.
How many people have to die before campus securities are beefed up and extra protection is provided? How much loss do American universities have to feel before it will sink in?
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There are several important contrasts between the Illinois shooting and Virginia Tech that I think you haven't taken into account. As far you the authorities can tell, the shooter at Illinois didn't personally know any of the students or staff in the room he opened fire on, he hadn't been a student at the school for a year. The shooter at Virginia Tech meant to send a message with his acts, hence the video he sent to NBC, but not so with the Illinois shooter, he didn't even leave a note. The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of depression, anger issues, and disputes with other students. The shooter at Illinois had never had any encounters with police or complaints against him, and when he was a student at the school, no one saw anything out of the ordinary with him.
There appears to be no rhyme or reason behind the Illinois shooting, whereas there was a history of anger, depression, and prior signs of mental disturbance behind Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech could have been prevented years ago, but Illinois seemed to be a freak incident.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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