Virginia Tech and the Bystander Effect

I was listening to Neil Boortz tonight on my way home from bowling.  Normally I don't because he's a hater of democrats and liberals, which I generally align with.  But I do like some of the ideas he supports, like the Fair Tax.  Read up on it.

Anyway, Neil mentioned something called the Bystander Effect, a pyschological phenomenon where bystanders to a violent crime are less likely to do anything about it if there are more people witnessing the crime.

He brought up the case of the murder of Kitty Genovese - a woman who was attacked and murdered on the street outside her New York apartment building in 1964.  The attack lasted 30 minutes, and nobody called the police until AFTER the murder was completed and the murderer had fled the scene.  A police investigation determined that 38 people heard he call for help, and not one of them did anything about it.  Some of them WATCHED the attack from their windows high above the street.

So how does this relate to the tragedy at Virginia Tech?

I don't know.  I wasn't there, thank god.  But the gunman shot over 50 people, and over 30 of them died.  He obviously unloaded a lot of bullets, and probably had to reload multiple times.  Maybe he was quick.  I wonder if anyone attempted to subdue him - putting their own lives at risk to do so, of course.

What would I do?  Honesty compels me to tell you that I'd probably run and hide.

I don't know if the Bystander Effect really applies here, because there were no bystanders.  There wree only victims.

I'd wager that the police were notified pretty quickly once the second shooting started.  But did anyone try to stop the guy?

BTW, this is not about gun control.  I don't want to hear anyone tell me that gun control could've prevented this, and I don't want to hear anyone tell me how the liberal media wants it to be all about gun control.  It's not, and they don't.  A few people might bring it up, but it's not "the media."