Let's play the blame game.

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Here we go again. Assume your positions. Guns kill. No, guns don't kill..Asians, aliens, or other's kill. No, it's not who people are; it's what they watch and "play" People don't kill. It's people who play video games and watch television that kill. Video games kill. They teach kids to kill. They do it without forcing them to really learn how to use a gun or face the consequences of killing. Kids need to be trained to use real guns, not conditioned by the use of phony ones. Kids need more guns. Or fewer video games.. In 2002, an armed gunman was killed by armed students at Applachia Law School. Or maybe he was unarmed or his gun was empty or he had put it down by the time he was shot dead. The congressman from the district that includes Virginia Tech has been sponsoring legislation every year to expand the right to carry concealed weapons, allowing for reciprocity between states. No, we need more regulation. We license drivers, insisting on training, the ability to pass a test, clear proof that the individual is capable of handling a car. My 16 year old brother did not pass the road test on the first time, took more lessons and now has a license,but was subject to a curfew and can't take any passengers. We take one step at a time. Why not also with guns? No, we need better policing on campus, better security for students. How long will it take before the first lawsuit is filed against the University, claiming that it acted in a grossly negilent fashion in failing to take action after the first shooting to warn students and secure the campus? The first two students to ve shot would have been the only ones had the University not erred so completely in assessing the situation. No, it didn't err so completely except in hindsight. The University was reasonable in its judgements and should enjoy at least qualified immunity from suit when a reasonable judgement turns out to be wrong. Otherwise, taxpayers get stuck with the bill. No, we need more community. Here was this clearly troubled kid living in the middle of this dormitory, a student who was sufficiently "troubled" that the English department at one time had intervened, a kid who simply didn't speak to anyone, and no one did anything or enough to get him the help, attention or expulsion he so clearly needed. No, if he was so troubled it was his parents who should have known- they raised him; they sent him in the world. Why didn't they know or do something? Control him? Warn the rest of us? No, it's culture that did it, that created his anger. It was the way he felt about "rich kids" and the way they behaved, and there was some or no reason or excuse for that. Everyone will find someone to blame. Most people will find more than one person or thing.. The person most obviously to blame is dead, leaving us to search for other scapegoats. The lawyers will find someone to sue. The screamers will have much to say. So we'll take our usual corners and try to impose rationality, and even if no one changes anyone else's mind, at least it is an excercise that feels like doing something. So long as we're arguing, we can almost convince ourselves that we have control, the capacity to protect our kids, to offer them the safety that we so crave in a world that , on some days, feels like a very scary place to send your children into. So who do you blame?