Just over a month after the original release of a revised Governor’s Panel report on the April 16, 2007 shootings on Virginia Tech’s campus, an addendum to the revision has been published, but several families say their suggestions were not taken into account.
The new edition of the report says after initial publication of the original, “a few errors or unclear points were reported,” and the addendum attempts to correct those. TriData, an independent information systems company, completed the revision and addendum.
Several families affected by Seung Hui Cho’s April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech created a separate addendum to the Governor’s Panel report on the shootings that alleges the university did not follow its own emergency response procedures.
The families’ addendum, which has been obtained by the Collegiate Times, was sent to Gov. Tim Kaine Friday by the family of Norris Hall victim Michael Pohle Jr. a month after Kaine released a revised version of the original Governor’s Panel report on the shootings. They also cited efforts of Michael Bishop and Suzanne Grimes. Some families were unhappy that the original panel was not reconvened to revise the report. Instead, TriData compiled the revisions. According to e-mails obtained by the Collegiate Times, the TriData addendum was in the works prior to the families sending their addendum.
PDF: Supplement to review panel report presented to Gov. Tim Kaine
Link: April 16, 2007 victims' familes Web site
“We had also hoped that by providing factual input to this addendum to the original panel report we would take further important steps through the grieving process,” the families’ addendum’s introduction said. “All along, we wanted to collaborate face to face with panel members and TriData personnel in creating the most thorough accounting of that day. Unfortunately, that opportunity never came, in our opinion, as our requests were rejected.”
However, the Governor's office had asked TriData to begin corrections for the original addendum before receiving the families' proposed addendum. Comments and corrections were taken in immediately and forwarded to TriData. Gordon Hickey, Kaine's press secretary, said Tuesday afternoon that the newest addendum to the Governor's Report began shortly after the original revision was released in late November.
Two university suggestions were changed in the newest revision. The university said Director of Government Affairs Ralph Byers locked his own office, not President Charles Steger's, contrary to the original report.
Another change involved two university officials that notified family members of the initial shootings in West Ambler Johnston Hall. The newly revised report is changed to say that the two officials were not members of the decision-making Policy Group.
Kim O'Rourke, Steger's chief of staff, called her son. Lisa Wilkes, an assistant vice president serving under then-Vice President James Hyatt, informed her mother of the shootings. The original report named them as members of the Policy Group, but the university told TriData they were not.
However, a university document from March 2008, sent to the Collegiate Times by a family member, that lists Policy Group members as well as support staff shows both as official Policy Group members.
Input and research from family members of victims was also compiled for the families' addendum, which only addressed the revised report’s Summary of Key Findings and Timeline of Events.
Hickey said the families' addendum has been looked at by Kaine's office and forwarded to TriData. He said he had not cross-referenced to check if the families' concerns were addressed by the TriData addendum.
The families' addendum said two emergency response plans were in effect on the day of the shootings. A 2005 Tech plan entitled “Campus Safety a Shared Responsibility,” is quoted by the addendum as mandating the Tech Police to issue a timely warning in the situation of a “potential dangerous situation.”
It continues to point out that Tech Police did not send a warning following the first two shootings in West AJ.
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"The ERP called for a Vice President in Charge, an Emergency Response Coordinator and an Emergency Response Resource Group operating in addition to the Policy Group that convened in Burruss Hall." So who were the VP in Charge and the Emergency Response Coordinator? Are those official positions and were they filled at the time?
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This crime was horrific. Seismic. The worst in American history. Unfortunately all of the anger and sorrow is resulting in nothing
more than splitting hairs. It is 100% understandable. But what is not happening is addressing the root of the issue - the current state of American gun laws. Yes, Cho was a nut. Yes, he committed a horrible crime. But if we had R E S P O N S I B L E gun ownership, gun access, gun sales and gun licensing laws this boy wouldn't have been able to buy a weapon in a Roanoke Pawn Shop and walk out with it. And he would not have been able to buy a weapon on-line (in absence of any face-to-face process) from an internet gun dealer who has also sold weapons that were used in other "mass crimes". So the state and the families and the university and all of those who want to bicker the nuance for an eternity can do so. But it will change absolutely nothing until Gun Laws are stiffened exponentially in the United States. At the moment everyone has turned their back on the elephant in the room.
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You've based your opinion on an incorrect assumption that less guns means less criminals will have guns. If you make it harder for people to obtain firearms than law abiding citizens will have fewer guns, while criminals will break the laws to obtain guns making the ratio shift towards the criminals. The best approach would be to allow guns to be carried on campus so future Chos would have to face armed citizens instead of helpless victims.
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The law is not the problem. Cho did not legally purchase his guns; his court ruling rendered him ineligible by law to own or purchase the guns he had. The problem is that he fell through the cracks of the criminal background check system. Poor enforcement, not poor laws. Also, he may have purchased the guns online, but he still had to have them delivered to a federally licensed dealer, who ran the background check at the time that they were transferred to him. The problem with more laws is that they will likely face similarly poor enforcement. Since the shooting, laws have been altered and the data flow to the background check system has been improved. Without a way to actively prevent illegal transfers of guns, more laws won't be effective at keeping guns out of the hands of irresponsible or malicious people.
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This happened a mere 8 hours ago + happens literally roughly every 72 hours:
St. Louis, Missouri (CNN) -- Three people were killed and five others wounded Thursday in a shooting at a St. Louis, Missouri, transformer manufacturing company, police said. It was unclear whether the suspect was among those killed at ABB Inc., St. Louis Metropolitan Police said in a statement. A law enforcement official identified the suspect to CNN as Timothy Hendron.
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This happened a couple of days ago:
(CNN) -- A man who lost a recent Social Security claim opened fire with a shotgun in a federal courthouse Monday, killing a court security officer and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal, authorities said.
Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity identified the man as Johnny Wicks, a Las Vegas resident. The FBI said the black-clad man walked into the lobby of the Las Vegas federal courthouse, pulled a shotgun from underneath his jacket and began shooting.
The shootout ended after federal marshals chased Wicks out of the courthouse and across the street, where he was shot and killed. He died among the bushes in front of an old school that once housed a temporary police headquarters.
"There had to be close to 40 gunshots, if not more," said Troy Saceal, who was parking in a garage near the courthouse when the shooting broke out.
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