I am answering my own question here, in part because I would like my feelings on this to be known, but also because it seems like there is a little more traffic on the site than when I originally posted the question. I am currently a freshman at Millersville University in south eastern Pennsylvania. One of the alerts occurred because one student committed suicide late one night about two weeks ago and his roommate found him the next morning. Authorities were worried, because the young man's friend had also purchased a gun. This gun could not be located, and a box of bullets were missing. Eventually the friend was found, and the alert was called off. Two days ago, Millersville students received another alert. This time we were in full-blown lockdown. Apparently, a student had been laughed at in class, and then proceeded to make threats towards the other students in class. Early Tuesday morning, a student e-mailed the professor, saying that they were frightened to come to class because of the threats. The campus acted promptly, sending a campus wide alert and closing all buildings. We were locked down for almost 2 hours, and the student of interest was located. When he was found, he had no weapon on him, but he was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and several other misdemeanors. I was happy to see how quickly Millersville authorities acted, but I am still worried about what could have happened, and what may happen in the future.