I don't usually way in on discussions here, but I wanted to say something about this, as it strikes me kind of close in a profressionaly sense. As many people know, I'm an engineer and I have taught engineering at my university. (15,000 student tech school, not that disimilar from Virginia Tech). My long term career goal, is in fact, to teach at the college level.
Giving that background, I am fairly familar with campus life. At my school, there are not enough campus police officers to cover all the doors of just ONE building. (we'll use the engineering building as an example). The building has well over a dozen entrances at ground level. you can also access the building from 2 seperate tunnel systems and 2 skyway bridges.
This is just one building. There are over 200 on campus.
So, all the armchair quarterbacks jumping up and down about locking down a campus need to realize that you can't do anything short of calling in the national guard.
also, as others have said, knowing how you will react in a situation until that situation occurs is impossible. I've had a loaded gun pointed at me before by a criminal. It was only briefly, but it seemed like a lifetime. He then offered to sell me the gun as "it's hot man, I need to get out of town and I need $20" I declined his generous offer and scrambled on my way as fast as I could.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I would react, as a professor, to a violent situation. This, for me, extends back to Columbine. I've been in front of a classroom a lot since then and it's something that still crosses my mind now and then. I would like to think that if I was going to go down, I'd do so swinging. But none of us can really judge until, God forbid, we face that situation.
I cannot do anything more than express my sorrow at the loss of innocent life, express gratitude for those that made it out alive, and remember with honor a 77 yr old Israeli Holocoust survivor who blocked the door of his classroom so his students could escape with their lives.
Myr