Today, December 15, is the birthday of Waleed Mohammed Shaalan. He died in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting at 32. After receiving a nice offer from Virginia Tech, he left Egypt in 2006 and came to the US to complete his PhD work. His roommates, who could always count on him for a broad smile and a characteristic wave, described him as “the simplest and nicest guy…ever.” A classmate of Waleed’s credited him with saving his life. As the shooter approached the classmate who was uninjured but playing dead, Waleed, who was already injured, made a move to draw the shooter’s attention away from his classmate. With his death, Waleed left a wife and one-year-old son behind. After being separated for almost a year, his wife and son were scheduled to join him in the US in just two weeks. As described in an earlier post, the shooter was a poster boy for red flag laws. He had stated a desire to “repeat Columbine” years earlier, and had continued to draw the concern of classmates, roommates, counselors, and administrators in the intervening years. Yet he was allowed to purchase guns. He killed 32 people and injured 17 with gunfire before committing suicide as police arrived. #HonorWithAction #sensiblegunlaws