Northern Illinois almost did everything right. Campus police were on the scene of the shooting within two minutes of when the gunman opened fire, according to university police Chief Donald Grady.

Within 20 minutes, campus officials had posted an alert on the university Web site to “get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear.”

They even encouraged students to call their parents as quickly as possible. Northern Illinois was very proactive in its response to an incredibly tragic situation.

The university’s only slipup was that its campus was still open for 40 minutes following the gunfire.

At Northern Illinois, the gunman, Steven Kazmierczak, died of a self-inflicted gunshot after he had killed five students and injured even more. But if he hadn’t killed himself, he would have been a threat on campus for another 40 minutes.

In that time, he could have simply dropped his weapon and blended in with the grieving students. The gunman might never have been found.

But perhaps the scariest thing is how Kazmierczak got his guns in the first place.

He bought the four guns that were used in the shooting legally — with all the necessary documentation. But he also bought gun accessories online, from the same Web site the Virginia Tech University shooter bought his guns.

Selling weapons and their accessories online is a terrible idea. The dealer never actually meets his or her customers, so all human contact is lost.

In Kazmierczak’s case, that interaction may or may not have raised suspicions, since most people say he seemed like a pretty typical college student. Yet, he had been sent to a psychiatric treatment center in Chicago after high school.

By the time Kazmierczak bought his first gun in August, more than five years had passed since his time at the treatment center. Apparently, that is a reasonable amount of time for psychological healing.

Then he reportedly stopped taking his medications and opened fire at Northern Illinois.

Any person with a history of psychological conditions should not own a gun. And the fact that guns and gun accessories are sold online makes it easier for the wrong people to get their hands on weapons.

So how do we prevent it from happening here? Well, in many ways we can’t.

But that doesn’t mean we have to be running scared, placing metal detectors and police officers in the halls of MSU.

We can, however, have plans in place to deal with tragedy should it ever occur in East Lansing. Maybe we should take a nod from Northern Illinois and be proactive to prevent a tragedy.

In many ways, the campus will only be as safe as we make it. As students, we are in and around MSU every day. We know the people, and we can be aware of our surroundings — we don’t need chain-link fences and entrance guards to do that for us.