Daniel P. O’Neil, one of 32 killed in the shooting at Virginia Tech University a year ago, had a love of music.

AP / Claire Corgan

A year after the shootings at Virginia Tech University, where 32 people were killed in two separate attacks, a Lincoln man whose son died there said yesterday he takes some solace that the tragedy led colleges and universities across the country to enact safety rules and programs for their campuses.

“Every college in the country is safer today than it was a year ago,” said William F. O’Neil, whose son, Daniel was among those killed on April 16, 2007. “Plans that were not in place before April 16 are now. If we can get any comfort, we can get comfort from that.”

O’Neil said he was still embittered by what he felt was the university’s failure to fully account for what happened that day.

“The university in, my opinion, did nothing to protect my son,” he said.

Daniel P. O’Neil, 22, had enrolled at Virginia Tech to study water hydrology. He was on campus April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at the Blacksburg, Va., school, went on a rampage that killed 32 people and wounded two dozen more. Cho, who had a history of behavioral problems, killed two students in a dormitory at around 7:15 that morning. He then left the campus and returned 2½ hours later for his second attack, when he killed 30 others — including Daniel O’Neil — in a classroom building on the other side of campus before killing himself.

A special commission created to study the incident concluded that the university erred in waiting two hours to issue a general e-mail warning after the first two bodies were found. Since then, colleges and universities across the country have set up policies to cover that type of emergency.

“I don’t think that would happen now,” O’Neil said.

Families of some of the victims have become advocates for causes related to the tragedy and have pressed state and federal legislatures for changes in laws that could prevent similar incidents. Last year, the outcry over the shootings prompted Virginia’s governor to change some state regulations on gun sales and on the federal level, a law was enacted to improve the system of instant background checks on potential gun buyers.

O’Neil said he followed those campaigns. He said the families of victims of the shootings are particularly interested in amending a federal law that requires colleges and universities to warn of public safety threats in a “reasonable” time. He said the term reasonable is too vague; the families would like to see it specified at 30 minutes.

He said he was also disappointed to see that the Virginia legislature failed to pass a law that would have put more controls on sales at gun shows. “But I don’t live in Virginia,” he added.

The O’Neil family has maintained a low profile since Daniel’s death and William O’Neil said that was their preference. In the days after Daniel’s death, the family declined public comment. William O’Neil’s remarks yesterday were his first on the events. He said the family appreciated being left alone.

“Everyone was very protective last year,” he said. “We’ve been pleased for others to be the spokespersons.”

Daniel O’Neil had graduated in the top 10 percent of the Lincoln High School Class of 2002. He went on to Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa., where he had been a dean’s list student while earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. His love of music balanced his scientific efforts there as he was also vice president of the Art Association.

In the days and weeks after his death, O’Neil’s love of music emerged as the primary way his friends sought to remember him. The Sunday after the shootings, they held a sing-along on the hill behind a YMCA, playing the songs he liked best. A concert at the school was dedicated in his honor and a scholarship fund for music education has been established in his name.

Some of O’Neil’s friends have assembled a collection of songs he recorded as an undergraduate at Lafayette College and at Virginia Tech to be issued on a compact disc to be called Resident Hippy, his nickname. It will be sold for $10 a copy with the proceeds going to the scholarship fund in his honor.

William O’Neil said that was particularly fitting.

“We are pleased with that,” he said. “We’re doing OK. Some days are better than others.”

jhill@projo.com