Here, in the wake of the massacre, is a sobering observation from Fred Burton at Strategic Forecasting, Inc. “Historically,” he points out, “incidents of school shootings tend to spawn similar attacks so that three or four major incidents occur within a mass attack against a school.”

And what can be done to prevent future such attacks?

the need for large institutions to have redundant and overlapping notification systems that will convey clear and consistent instructions [according to one source, at V. Tech “large clusters of students ‘seemed to be caught between orders to go inside and some sort of building evacuation instructions’”]. Such systems could incorporate e-mail notification, text messages and public address systems. Of course any such system would have to be routinely tested and refined to become more