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Maintain gun-free campuses

Letting students carry guns on campus might have increased the death toll of April 16, a state investigative panel said in recommending that Virginia Tech and other schools maintain bans on guns.

Gun-rights advocates have argued that Tech's ban contributed to the carnage by prohibiting students and staff from shooting back when Seung-Hui Cho opened fire in Norris Hall.

However, the panel's report stated that "if numerous people had been rushing around with handguns outside Norris Hall ... the possibility of accidental or mistaken shootings would have increased significantly."

In fact, campus police said there was a "high probability" they would have shot anyone seen coming from a classroom with a gun.

Some have argued that in light of the Tech shootings, the General Assembly should reconsider a previously unsuccessful bill that would prevent colleges from banning firearms.

The panel, however, took the opposite tack: recommending that the legislature pass a law "clearly establishing" the right of colleges to regulate gun possession on their campuses.

-- Laurence Hammack

Poor treatment of victims' kin

Though the medical examiner's office was understaffed, it performed its technical duties well under the pressures of a high-profile event, the report concluded.

The office did not do so well with its treatment of victims' families. The report concluded that was "haphazard, inconsistent, and compounded the pain and trauma of the event."

Virginia Tech and law enforcement also were criticized for the way families were notified of their loved ones' deaths.

Many of the recommendations in this section deal with training more people to handle such a sensitive and traumatic situation -- and to make sure those people are available when those situations arise.

-- Tim Thornton

Confusion and commendations

The panel commended all 15 emergency medical organizations that responded to the shootings, but the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad was singled out for praise. The report called the student-run and student-staffed squad "heroic."

Virtually all of the shortcomings the committee found with the emergency response involved communication.

Too much time passed before Tech police called for the first rescue squad. Initially, rescue units were dispatched to Norris Hall when they should have been sent to staging areas. The Tech squad and Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad use different radio frequencies, which made communication difficult.

The hospitals were praised, too. Some communication issues were cited, but every victim who was alive when the shooting stopped at Norris Hall survived -- even those with serious and multiple gunshot wounds.

Many of the committee's recommendations focused on improving communication and coordination among the New River Valley's emergency responders and hospitals.

-- Tim Thornton