It is considered insular (and selfish and alarmist) to always look inwards at each and every event in the world, and wonder what if it happened to you or yours. But the gruesome massacre at Virginia Tech does precisely that.
What if a crazed gunman, touch wood, what if a crazed guinman, student or otherwise, entered our nurseries, montessoris, schools, colleges, Universities, campuses, and hostels?
1) How many fit and able and real “security” men will he meet on our campuses, who have the physical, mental or technical wherewithal to stop him in his tracks?
2) How many closed circuit cameras and alarms and public address systems have our institutions installed to help spot action of this nature before it gets out of hand?
3) How many of our institution have a running hotline with the nearest police station so that they can respond in time to deal with situations of this nature?
4) How many of our police officers have the expertise to deal with shooters and shootouts?
5) If it occurs in the wee hours of the morning, it is one thing. But how long will it take for the first ambulance or fire brigade to make its way through our congested roads to reach the scene of the crime?
6) How many of our schools, colleges and institutions have installed metal detectors and fire extinguishers and water sprinklers that are working 24 x 7? How many staffers are trained in first aid or have dispensaries close at hand?
7) If it happens on a large campus, how many of our institutions have email facilities to inform every student? And how many of them even maintain cell phone directories of all students to send a mass SMS?
8) How long will it take for our institutions with their archaic documentation systems to find out who are the victims and who is the victimiser?
9) How many of our teachers and lecturers and professors will try to shield their students, like one of the teachers at Virginia Tech did?
10) How many of our institutions have the counselling facilities to put disturbed young minds at rest?
11) Do we have the means to trace where the weapon was procured?
12) Are our faculty smart enough to spot disturbing behaviour in their overcrowded classes like one of the faculty at Virginia Tech did?
Questions, questions, questions. The answers, sadly, are few.
This would be similar to the IISC where the assailant would never be nabbed . Also currently the Guns/Weapons are only available to terrorists and naxals and we know how capable are we against such forces .
Agreed – better planning will help us tackle the challenges better. Honestly there is nothing much we can do about these suicidal characters like in Virginia. They are going to create the damage no matter what. Easy access to guns is the number one reason why a degenerate like this guy could kill so many. Guns make it easier to kill.
This incident has created thumba ‘mande bisi’ for everyone, marayre! If you have kids going to school here, your mind is totally ‘sajjige-bajil’ – Entha Avasthe, swaamy Idu!!
It’s a real, shocking possibility. And as always, the authorities concerned will wake up to reality after a few people lose their lives. That’s ’cause early warnings by the state Intelligence would’ve gone unheeded.
Hindu fringe elements will instantly pounce at the chance and say that they suspect the hand of the ISI; the Muslims will be hard pressed to explain that they had nothing to do with it…
Mud-slinging on an unprecedented scale will be witnessed in Vidhana Soudha. There’ll be Commissions of Inquiry and more Commissions will be named to inquire on the initial inquiry. End result: The truth will never be told.
Elsewhere, 183 people dead in a single day in Iraq. That is 8X virginia, but lives not worthy enough for blogs to devote time and space.
what is the purpose of question #9?
& what pray is the point of the IInd para from greatunkown?
critical introspection is poles apart from baseless self flagellation.
13th question : How many times has a college/univ been attacked by a crazed student using a gun or explosive in the past 200 yrs ( just for arguement sake) …
with all due respect , there are other things that our colleges require ( lab, books , ref material,..) than a CCTV
Who are you asking these questions and why? I know we should not stop asking, only wish they serve the purpose.
Good questions and all of us know that this intelligent questions can be only asked by intelligent persons none other than Indians,
The answers are few because we are engaged in only asking more and more questions and no doubt we are the best arguers but Who is on the job of Problem solving??
So, the questions itself contains the answers just delete the words like Who, How and remove the ? signs.
Shettru
Easy access to guns is the number one reason why a degenerate like this guy could kill so many. Guns make it easier to kill.
Tough call. While I agree with the above in principle, I am also conflicted by the need of individuals to defend themselves. Think of how mny countless lives (Hndu, Sikh, Muslim) lives would’ve been saved in Kashmir, Assam, Delhi and Gujrat if people had access to weapons during riots. Sadly, govt has been tyrannical during these riots, either by actively taking part of turning a blind eye. The US has the 2nd amendment precisely to protect against this kind of tyranny. Sadly, I can see how crazed or out of control people can misuse guns.
As I said, I am really conflicted between gun-control and gun-rights.
QM…
wrong prescription. while distributed systems might do a lot of good things, internal policing is a rank bad application of them.
you want gun battles in the streets?
udoadh koTTu baarsodh togond hange.
basically guns simply lower the threshold. they make it easy to kill.
gory details beDa but try to physically harm anyone to see how difficult it is.
gun rights need to be replaced by safety rights. police reforms.
accountable police heads. prolly elected ones like in the US?
now that is an interesting debate.