Can we stop the violence?
Like the rest of the nation I am stunned and appalled by the killing spree at Virginia Tech.
All of us ponder the events over and over looking for life lessons and solutions and, for the most part, finding none. Nevertheless, I cannot resist sharing some of the questions in my mind, even if I do not have answers.
Could the carnage have been prevented? Evidently many people had recognized aggressive tendencies in the shooter over the past two or three years. The campus police had even placed him in counseling, when some female students complained of his stalking them. A professor had been disturbed enough by the violence in his writings to report him to authorities, but was told nothing could be done without a more overt threat on his part. Obviously, several people tried to get help for him before it was too late, but the system failed them.
Does the system need an overhaul? It seems to me there should be a way to force a psychotic person into treatment, before anyone has to die. Of course, this may constitute a threat to our civil liberties. In the absence of an overt violent act, should a person be forced into treatment against his will? Although I am concerned about protecting civil liberties, I wonder if we need to be even more concerned about the lives of potential victims.
Would stricter gun control help to prevent such violence? Although I am not a mindless supporter of any and all gun control measures, I don't think anyone's liberty is unduly curtailed if he cannot obtain semi-automatic weapons and armor-piercing bullets, whose only purpose is to kill people. Mass killings like this one have become rare in Australia since more stringent laws controlling firearms were passed. Perhaps it is time to consider such measures in this country.
Like most mass murderers, the shooter seemed to be a young man with no friends. If he had a habit of harassing people, it is probably natural that nobody wanted to get close to him. However, how did he become that way? Had people in his orbit offered him support and friendship in his childhood years? The news reports I have heard did not examine that angle, but I wonder if enough love in his formative years would have made a difference. Perhaps that is simplistic thinking, but perhaps not. Love can be a powerful force for reform and redemption.
We all feel totally helpless in the face of events like this one, and in a sense we are. We cannot bring any of the victims or the shooter back to life. We cannot turn the clock back. If the college officials should have been more effective in warning the student body, they cannot change that now.
However, as a society, we can look at measures which might prevent such a tragedy from happening again. As individuals perhaps we can reach out to some troubled child in our neighborhood and make him (or her) feel loved, respected, and valued for what he is. We can be channels of God's love to those around us. That may seem like a small thing, perhaps even a seemingly futile effort.
However, don't you remember people who have influenced you by their unconditionally love? I do. Who knows what impact our caring may have on a troubled young mind? Finally we can pray; that also may have more impact than we will ever realize.
— Jane Vajnar
Contributing Writer
