Just a few, quick, thoughts on the Virginia Tech shootings:

• You will never see a shooting spree like this at, say, West Point, VMI, the Citadel, or anywhere else the students are likely to know hand-to-hand combat and the faculty are likely to carry firearms (UPDATE case in point).


• Current estimates are more than thirty people dead and over twenty injured. Even without an armed presence, something doesn't smell right about those numbers. Assuming the shooter(s) shot each of those injured and dead people with a single bullet, we are talking about over 60 bullets being fired. That's an incredible number, and I believe we'll learn some very interesting details in the next few days.


• The dorm shooting, by itself, would have easily looked like a random act of violence, so I can understand why classes weren't canceled for the day (UPDATE I say this because a university just down the street from the one I attend recently had a shooting in their dorms, and I don't remember classes being canceled because of it). From now on, though, universities will be very likely to cancel classes over any kind of fight, regardless of what kind of weapons are used.