After speakers from Virginia Tech and law enforcement agencies spent most of Monday filling in the governor's panel on facts about the April 16 shootings, some in the audience of about 80 people gave their opinions during the public address portion of the meeting:

Clinton Perdue, a Salem resident who received his undergraduate degree at Tech in 1992 and his master's there in 2006, described himself as "the poster child" for the argument that responsible people should be allowed to carry guns on college campuses.

"Damn it, I'm one of the good guys, and I'm going to be there, and I'm never going to have to say I wasn't able to do something," he said.

Perdue was not on campus April 16, but he said if he had been, he might have been able to stop shooter Seung-Hui Cho without actually shooting him.

"If I had been there and had blazed away ... I could've made him duck and cover and sit and wait until someone else showed up," he said. "As soon as this guy met resistance, he put a bullet in his brain."

Perdue said he caused a controversy at the school in 2005 when it was discovered during a CPR class that he was carrying a gun.

The resulting fallout, which included Perdue's being referred to the student judicial system, led him to stop carrying a gun as a student. But now he carries one when he works on campus as a consultant.

Perdue was one of a handful of gun-rights advocates who spoke out against a university policy prohibiting guns inside university buildings.

Tech professor Peter Wallenstein criticized the school's policy of not requiring recommendations for student applicants. Instead of asking what could have been done once Cho came to campus and presented a problem, Wallenstein said he's asked himself another question:

"How does that person get to be a part of the community to begin with?"

Joe Painter, a Blacksburg attorney, Tech graduate and former local politician, focused his criticism on the handling of people with mental health problems. As a special justice, he served as the primary officer for commitment hearings in the 1990s.

He said he handled more than 13,000 such hearings, and there was always clear communication between him and the New River Valley Community Services Board. The board also monitored anyone Painter ordered to receive outpatient treatment, preventing people from falling through the cracks, he said.

After reports surfaced that Cho may never have received the ordered treatment, Mike Wade, spokesman for the community services board, said Cho was never referred to the agency.

But regardless of where a patient ended up, the community services board was always involved in the monitoring, Painter said.

"I want to know when and why they did unlearn the law," he said.