Jury finds Va. Tech negligent in '07 shootings

[Guest Smitty]

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2774412

Discuss.

[Garufa]

Does getting paid for a family member's death make it better? How does it ease the pain?

Does it help one to remember their loss while watching a big new TV or driving a fancy new car?

Edited March 14, 2012 by Garufa

[TripleDigitRide]

Does getting paid for a family member's death make it better? How does it ease the pain?

Does it help one to remember their loss while watching a big new TV or driving a fancy new car?

Probably not, but I don't think making the school pay financially and force policy changes is necessarily a bad thing. I only wish one of the changes would have included the ability to carry on campus.

[Erik88]

The only thing VA Tech is guilty of is not allowing their students to defend themselves.

[Guest RichieRich]

The only thing VA Tech is guilty of is not allowing their students to defend themselves.

I was thinking just the same thing. Although the details are sparse, presumably the case was made that Virginia Tech didn't have a good enough or quick enough lock down. I would take the position that IF they should be liable (and that's a stretch--everyone seems to conventiently forget that there was a crazy guy pulling the trigger) it would be because they prohibited faculty and students from defending themselves.

I'd personally love to see a case where an anti-gunner "gun free safe zone" was cited as the reason for a bad outcome, but won't hold my breath.

Edited March 15, 2012 by RichieRich

[peejman]

Does getting paid for a family member's death make it better? How does it ease the pain?

Does it help one to remember their loss while watching a big new TV or driving a fancy new car?

I understand what you're saying, but according to the families that wasn't the point...

The jury determined the Prydes and Petersons each deserved $4 million, but the award is likely to be sharply reduced. State law requires it to be capped at $100,000.

Still, the amount of the award mattered little to the two families. "We were looking for truth for a long time," Harry Pryde said outside the courthouse that's less than 10 miles from Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus. "We persevered and we got some truth today."

[QuietDan]

http://www.wtop.com/...=41&sid=2774412

Discuss.

It will all boil down to a cost versus benefit analysis. When the various colleges and universities in the nation begin to understand that their legal liability in the tens of millions of dollars for a shooting on campus is less when they allow on-campus carry by licensed, trustworthy handgun permit holders, then you will have on-campus carry. There is no way that campus police all by themselves can provide the level of protection required without the additional protection that we can provide for ourselves with campus carry. When the stupid intellectuals on campus begin to do the math, then campus carry will start taking place, and not before.

[raydog1]

Wait a minute. I thought banning guns would help avoid lawsuits.

Not only did they not avoid lawsuits, but they're actually losing them?

Perhaps a different strategy is in order:

http://concealedcampus.org/

[Dennis1209]

Just another example that you're responsible to save your own life, be it in church or away at school. In addition, a college and/or university does not produce anything to generate income to pay settlements. When you punish a business, police department, college, university, etc, with punitive financial suits, the money is paid by higher insurance premiums, higher tuition and more extended hands out to Uncle Sugar for more. Rightly or wrongly, the tax payer (you and I) ultimately pays the price.

We need to hold the powers that be personally responsible for negligence and not the collective. Anyone disagree?

[mikegideon]

Even if they would have allowed campus carry, they still would have been tagged by this lawsuit. It will take more than a change in that one policy. They need to get out of the "protection" business entirely. They suck at it.

Edited March 15, 2012 by mikegideon

[Oh Shoot]

Just another example that you're responsible to save your own life, be it in church or away at school. In addition, a college and/or university does not produce anything to generate income to pay settlements. When you punish a business, police department, college, university, etc, with punitive financial suits, the money is paid by higher insurance premiums, higher tuition and more extended hands out to Uncle Sugar for more. Rightly or wrongly, the tax payer (you and I) ultimately pays the price.

We need to hold the powers that be personally responsible for negligence and not the collective. Anyone disagree?

Sort of.

VT has an endowment of $ 600.6 million. That pretty much all comes from donors and grants, not the taxpayer.

Something like 75 colleges/universities have over $1 billion. Yale has over $19 billion!

So the previous settlements and current awards are less than chump change.

Even so, looks like the state may appeal, as seems now that it's gone this far they're fighting for the "truth" as they see it as much as the families are, not the money. Certainly the families are, since apparently they can't get but 100K and could have settled for much more as the other families did, without going to trial.

- OS

Edited March 16, 2012 by OhShoot

[Guest HvyMtl]

What would impact them is the negative publicity, not the monetary damages. I wish more people stepped up to the plate and started swinging. Here, all the victims' families need to step up, to make things safer.

I doubt, though, any carry will be allowed on their turf now, or in the future. All they will do is point to the crazed gunman. Not to the fact someone could have possibly done something to stop him...

[gjohnsoniv]

Schools should train HCP students to act as a mini swat teams, send them through swat training. Just my random thought after reading this. I say this in a joking manner before anyone gets offended.

Edited March 22, 2012 by gjohnsoniv