The Governor’s Report indicates university administrators that had assembled in Burruss Hall sent out the warnings, but it said technical difficulties prevented them from sending a warning prior to the class change immediately before Cho’s shootings in Norris Hall.
A separate set of procedures, the Emergency Response Plan, also published in 2005, is discussed more thoroughly in the panel report. The families' addendum said several key elements of the ERP were not planned out by the university.
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.
The Vice President in Charge would have acted as a liaison between the groups, according to the ERP. However, no ERRG was convened. According to the ERP, it was the responsibility of the ERRG to issue a campus-wide alert.
Neither the report nor the families' addendum specifies whether the university ever appointed an ERRG. The families' addendum said a representative from University Relations on the ERRG could have issued a warning. University spokesman Larry Hincker sent out the initial warning, according to the Governor's Report.
The latest version of the Governor's Report says their actions "followed one of the policies but conflicted with the other regarding police authority to send out an alert. The mechanics of the alert system precluded the police from sending an alert directly."
The families of Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson, who were not involved in creating the addendum, await the ruling of a judge on whether they can proceed with civil suits against university officials and mental health professionals involved in the university response to the shootings and the treatment of Cho.
All other victims' families have been invited to meet with Kaine on Saturday in Richmond, the last of three meetings guaranteed by the settlement they signed following the shootings. A Powerpoint presentation of police briefings originally shown to family members in the fall of 2008 has been added to the April 16 archive accessible in Newman Library and the Library of Virginia.
Hickey called it a social event, saying it marked the end of Kaine's term as governor, but that he would still be available should the families wish to speak with him.
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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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