Lock Down Nonsense

I don't understand the recriminations against VA Tech for not "locking down" the campus after the first murder in the dorm, which occurred a couple of hours before the massacre in the classroom building.

How do you "lock down" an entire campus that sprawls over four square miles? What exactly do these people mean when they say "lock down?" My college campus (University of Illinois) had an undergrad population 10,000 more than VA Tech does. Even if the UofI had half the number it did I can't image the combined campus police and police forces of Urbana and Champaign "locking it down." How do you "lock down" a city?

In hindsight we know that the dorm shooting was not an isolated incident, but no one knew that at the time. Would the same people who are blaming campus officials for not going for a "lock down" after the first shooting be blaming the officials for overreacting if they had locked the campus down and there was no further violence?

Yeah, I think so too.

Tom Bridge at Metroblogger has a GREAT post for all those wanting to play the blame game. He writes:

Stop it.

Stop the recriminations.

Stop the anger and the need for fire. Instead, grieve the victims. Grieve for Reema Samaha, who grew up in Chantilly. Grieve for Mary Read, who grew up in Annandale. Grieve for Leslie Sherman, who grew up in Springfield. They are the tragedy here. Do not focus on the gunman, or the weapons he used, or who he bought them from. Do not press blame where blame does not lay. Grieve.

For all of us.