As I arrived at my class last night, I noticed, as was expected, a difference in the way the students were acting. Calmer, more distracted than usual. The Virginia Tech incident was on their minds. I talked with them about it and they were clearly disturbed. They had gobs of questions regarding the possibility of this happening at George Mason. They wondered what could be done to prevent this sort of occurrence. The clear answer was that short of not allowing people with any sort of mental history in to the school (which is absurd) there was nothing to be done. Anyone at any time could lose it and wander around with a gun and kill people. The issue of gun control helping at all is absurd as well. If a person wants a gun, they will find a gun. There are many many outlets to get guns illegally. Gun control won't help that.
I feel awful for the families of the murdered students and in particular, I feel awful for the family of the shooter. They will never be able to escape this. They will forever be the mother and father of a psychopath and will be blamed (if only in secret) by those that are too ignorant to understand mental illness. My thoughts are with them and with the families of the deceased.