The shootings at Virginia Tech were nothing short of horrendous. Imagine going about your school day as if nothing were out of the ordinary, and the next thing you hear is gunshots.

When I first read about it, it hit very close to home and my heart went out to the students and faculty. As the details of the shootings unfolded, there were significant questions that came to mind. The most significant, at least to me, was: Why was there a two-hour block between the first set of shootings and the second set?

Not only was there a two-hour block, but according to various websites including MSNBC.com, Seung-Hui Cho even had time to make a video. I must ask: what were the security guards and/or police officers doing while he made the video?

According to USAToday.com, the two-hour block was used to mail the video to NBC offices. My criticism is directed at police enforcement and campus security. When the first two victims were shot dead in the dormitory halls, there should have been some sort of mass evacuation on campus.

I am well aware of how difficult it must be to evacuate a campus full of students; I just find it very hard to believe that something could not have been done. I can only assume the all the security officers on campus were not made aware of the shootings.

This could just be me playing devil’s advocate over here, but I would bet any amount of money, if a shooting like that would have happened on our campus, things would have been a little different. Granted, we have a much smaller campus than Virginia Tech. The way I see it, if someone had been shot on our campus, alarms would have rang out. Of course, not literally, but I can just imagine the text messages and incoming calls that would have swarmed my phone.

I have also seen how quickly the police on our campus react to an insignificant violation such as skateboarding in the quad, so one can only imagine the urgency they would have had if someone had been shot in the dorms or one of the lecture halls.

Again, I’m just speculating. I could be wrong. According to USAToday.com, campus police were still investigating the shooting around 9:15 a.m. when the second set of shootings occurred. E-mails were issued to students by the school when the first shootings occurred.

It does make me wonder how our police would have handled a similar situation. It’s easy for everyone to say what should have been done or what he or she would have done if it had happened here after the tragedy occurred.

The truth of the matter is, as students, we don’t know what we would have done in that situation, and I believe officials handled it as best as they could. Even now, there is evidence coming out about how the shooting could have been prevented, but when is anyone really ready for something like this?