Cry wolf

Of course it had to happen.

This morning, our building (a combined US government/university facility) was locked down briefly. Reason? Some one called in that there was a suspicious fellow on the university lawn carrying what appeared to be a weapon. A few minutes later came another email lifting the lockdown. Appears that the "weapon" may have been a yoga mat. Who would carry a yoga mat in Oklahoma in broad daylight?

But this just points to the raw deal that the Virginia Tech campus police and president are getting. The simplest explanation for a young couple found dead in a dorm room is a domestic squabble, not an out-of-control gunman. It's natural to want to have someone (other than the shooter) to blame, but Virgina Tech and OU are of similar sizes. They are 25,000-people organizations spread over thousands of acres, hundreds of buildings and no real entrances or exits -- as big and indefensible as a small town in other words. Surely, no one closes a town down every time there's a murder ...