Using this logic, we would place every school underground because on a few occasions in the past century a school has been hit by a tornado.
We all know that would be very illogical.
The bottom line remains the same. If just one person in Norris Hall was armed, the death/casualty rate would probably have been greatly reduced.
If Cho was aware that it was likely a student or instructor was carrying concealed, I doubt he would have attempted this in the manner in which he did.
There is a reason violent crime rates drop in areas where CCW is approved, and taken advantage of by the citizens.
Not quite. The murderer attacked victims in four seperate classrooms in Norris Hall; an effective defender would have had to have been in the first room attacked to have *greatly* reduced the toll, and that's where the killer had the greatest element of surprise on his side. More likely: a single armed person in one of the four classrooms would have had a good chance of cutting the toll in half, as the odds would be one in four that he would have been in the first room and thereby would have had a better chance of being warned by the first shots elsewhere or by a witness. But even cutting the toll of dead and wounded by one-fourth would have been an improvement.
Better: had there been an armed student or university staffer in each of the four rooms, it's almost a certainty that Cho would have been less successful by half or three-fourths. Once warned by the first shots, those in other rooms could have taken cover as available and been waiting and ready, instead of trying to hide in adjoining closets or jump out of upper-story windows.
But if every person in that building had been effectively equipped and at least minimally trained, it's most likely Cho would have not completed his atrocity in the first room he attacked. There might be three, even five dead, plus the death of the perpetrator. But it would have ended there.
I wish that old Romanian Jew who had survived the Nazi Transnistria labor camp and had an instructor's grasp of technical and scientific skill had stood in that doorway with whatever effective tool he thought most suitable for his circumstances. Had that been the case, he could have protected his students by doing something more effective than using his body as a sandbag.
If just one person had dropped an Alka Seltzer into a water bottle and tossed it into the hallway it would have immediately made Cho more circumspect and the death/casualty rate would probably have been greatly reduced.
Best regards,