Preparing for the Worst: Living in a Post Virginia Tech Massacre World

As the news and accounts continue to trickle out of Blacksburg, VA tonight and my back knots with disgust and sorrow I'm compelled to put to paper some reactions, reactions I've already spoke, but worth getting down more succinctly anyhow.

Complete prevention of these types of incidents seems close to impossible. All talk of what could have been done to keep something like this from happening must be tempered by the truth that all humans have agency and some are capable of atrocity.

Gun control must be open for discussion, but beyond gun control more discussion about security and planning in schools, towns, and cities must be discussed first on a national scale and then locally to implement plans. We need a national discussion about local preparedness. We shouldn't have to wait for terrible days like this for our leaders to act.

In a post 9-11, post U. Texas, post Columbine, post Nickel Mines, Pa, post Virgina Tech world, more care, effort, and resources must be devoted to improving our response to emergency and catastrophe. Say what you will about the response Virginia Tech Administrators made this morning, say what you will about how any University would have responded. What we must focus on moving forward is preparedness.

• All higher education institutions and all schools must have proper plans;
  
• Every student must have a sense of what they are supposed to do to keep them as far from harm as possible in an emergency situation;
  
• Every university should have an emergency response program to get useful up to the minute information out to all students and staff; and
  
• All schools must have a security director in charge of making sure the above mandates are met.
  

We've got a lot of work to do. Preparedness is our biggest challenge.