REACTION: Preventing a Tragedy

Campus shootings make big news.

Preventing a possible tragedy like this does, too. Lots of people are breathing a sigh of relief after police arrested  over the weekend that he would go on a "shooting rampage" on campus.

Councilman Marcus Afzali (Dist. 4) closed Tuesday night's mayor and council meeting by commending the 's Department of Public Safety for a job well done.  to track the online threats to Song.

When police found Song Sunday morning, he was unarmed, and searches have turned up no weapons. Still, what we saw play out this week was an example of good humanity, university police Chief David Mitchell said.

The best security we have is looking after each other, Mitchell said, according to the AP. "And that's exactly what happened. Three people saw online postings and called us."

He was talking about three people who contacted university police, when they saw the threatening notes posted by Song on various social networking sites. One of the three was a former UMd. alumnus, who used to work for university police. Another was an anonymous individual in Montana.

"...what happened in Maryland this week is proof that there are still good people in this world," reacts Jeanne Sager on The Stir. "Song's arrest after police were alerted to the scary online postings sends a message that speaking up makes a difference. These things can be stopped!"

Despite sighs of relief, the incident was a reality check for others, who think about what could have been:

“I feel like we look at places like Columbine or Virginia Tech and think that that kind of senseless violence could never happen here but it definitely could," said Taylor Procida, a UMd. junior hearing and speech sciences major. "Maybe people will be a little more cautious now.”

At least one who knows Song said she felt the incident was blown out of proportion, though, according to The Diamondback.

Margo Johnson, who has known Song since middle school, told the campus newspaper that she does not believe he was serious about the threats.

"He's not at all the type of person that would commit a massacre," said Johnson, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon. "It's just part of his messed up sense of humor. Me and a bunch of people who know him read what he was saying and they were messed up, but he didn't mean them."