I would like to see some cites for your assertion that school shootings are becoming local news rather than national. Also anything that shows that there has been a rise in school violence of the Columbine type in the past year, or in the years since it happened. I am sure anxiety's are greater in the spring but I think it is more complex than that.

I am a gun owner, but I am not for easy access of the type we saw in the Columbine incident. I tire of folks acting like this was caused by gun laws. It was caused by many things. Inattentive parents, and counselors, for one. Violators of the laws which regulate the sales of firearms, would be another. School bullying would be another. And we could go on and on. I completely agree that we must never forget this incident, and that analysis of the root causes of it are critical. But the sloppy kind of critical analysis that most of my liberal friends use is counter productive. I tire of hearing them point at an inanimate object as the "cause" as opposed to figuring out why two boys would rise to the level of violence they did.

Guns, shotguns, rifles, pistols, were plenty available in the '50's and '60's when I was growing up. Most houses on my block had them. There was the occasional accident, but very few shootings with malice. I want to know what has changed in our society. My belief is that until we settle the problems spawned by hopelessness among the poorer youth, we will continue to experience these types of incidents perpetrated by young ones using illegally obtained weapons. Society will spawn a violence prone underclass anytime one is in times like these where the gap between richest and poorest is widening, and there are no prospects to escape the poverty legally. Create real opportunity, with a doable route, and the young ones will find their way out. Resolve the hopelessness of the bullied, and they will not look to other means to strike back. Create tolerance among our youth, and curiousity among them about each others differences, and they will find that what they have in common outweighs what is different.

All the best,

Mick