Though no explosive devices were found in Monday’s bomb threat, the damage and loss of life could have varied significantly had the threat been real, according to Rick Blackwood, retired Navy captain and retired University English professor.
Blackwood, who was an intelligence officer with the Navy SEALs and director of intelligence for the Department of Defense, said in an email the damage would depend on “the motive or goal of the bomber; his skill as a bomb maker; his tactical anticipation as to what would be happening near the site of the explosion, that is, who or what was nearby at the instant of detonation.”
He added that the loss of life would depend upon “how well the bomb performed; did it work as [the bomber] intended it to; how well the first responders respond, that is, are the police and bomb squad guys and emergency medical personnel able to get in quickly and do their jobs effectively; and the bomb maker’s and his intended victims’ luck.”
LSUPD spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde reiterated Blackwood’s sentiments.
“It’s nearly impossible to say what would happen if someone used an explosive device on campus,” he said.
Blackwood pointed out that if the four bomb threats in the last week — at LSU, at the University of Texas at Austin, North Dakota State University and Hiram College in northeast Ohio — lead to a trend of phony bomb threats across the nation, schools may stop evacuating when threatened.
“That could be when the bomb is real,” Blackwood said.
