Friday, February 15, 2008

Guns and universities

Some amazingly fast reporting today on an awful situation: Wis.-based Web site sold to NIU shooter, also sold Va. Tech gun. Internet gun dealer Eric Thompson publicized the fact that the NIU shooter purchased two Glock magazines and a holster. Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho purchased a handgun from Thompson. I'm not going to draw any large conclusions from this other than noting Thompson's openness.

Since I work at a large university, the Virginia Tech murders made me much more cognizant of security issues. In December, a former doctoral student at USF whose committee I sat on killed his former wife, his ex-wife's new partner, and his two children before killing himself. I hadn't spoken with him in months, and I don't think there's anything any of us who knew him at USF could have done to predict the murders, but let's just say it's invaded my thoughts at times.

And since I know the human predilection for finding patterns where there's none, I'll stop here. There's enough time for investigation and reflection later.


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