What makes you think that "thousands" of students currently even have CCW permits? And the next time you are in your supermarket, how many people do you think are actually carrying concealed firearms?
I could tell you a very long story abut how concealed carry came into being here in Texas and all the mechanisims used by the opponents to try and defeat it but I won't do that. Instead, I will simply tell you that the entire argument is NOT about who does or does not have a permit it is about the thugs out there NO KNOWING who has one!
I don't think there are *thousands* of students with CCW in VA, but there are certainly dozens at VA Tech, and probably hundreds statewide. And certainly every member of the university's Corps of Cadets/ROTC program should be so trained in their freshman year.
At least one of those killed was a previous military cadet from a military prep school; one other was a current member of the Va Tech Corps. That would have been two in seperate classrooms in Norris hall, which would have at least offered 50-50 odds of preventing the gunman from continuing his attack on all four classrooms, and with luck, skill or guile, might have stopped him in the doorway of the first classroom.