Restrictions and Scapegoats
It's not about Gun Control or Video Games
April 20, 2007
It took Jack Thompson and his moral "majority" a few hours (or less) during the breaking news of the tragedy at Virginia Tech to appear on television to blame the actions on video games. It took advocates and opponents to gun regulation only seconds to post their thoughts online.
Sadly, in the face of tragedy, I think we as humans gravitate to restrictions and scapegoats because it's an easy way to explain the situation.
Not many people seem to want to take on the harder and far more righteous task, of examining (and not guessing or assuming) exactly why and/or how this tragedy came to be. At the same time, many more are gravitating to the awful and elementary mindset of assigning blame (false or otherwise) to the events that unfolded at VT that day.
In other words, people tend to be reactive and discuss the action of the day, rather than being proactive and working towards ways of preventing tragedies like this ever happening again.
That may sound a little callous, but let me explain. As awful and as sad as it sounds, beating the dead horse known as "the gun control debate" or blaming video games and music, will not bring back the 32 people that were senselessly murdered.
I would not ever pretend to imagine what it must be like to go through what the families and friends of the victims are going through right now. I have lost close people in my life, but to endure that kind of shocking grief is something that many of us just cannot comprehend. I can understand, however, the anger that some of these people must be feeling towards the now-deceased murderer.
As time moves forward from the VT tragedy, the grief will never fade and never be forgotten. However, I don't think I am too far off the mark by boldly suggesting that as time does go on for the families, that they would be more likely to focus on advocating what CAN be done to help prevent this from happening to anyone else's son, daughter, brother, sister... you get the point.
So, what can be done?
This isn't the first time a situation like this has happened. Did the murderer exhibit specific behaviors consistent with others who have perpetrated similar crimes? If so, can these behaviors used as diagnostic identifiers, or key indicators, into providing them with help before it's too late?
I believe that if such indicators can be easily identified in an objective manner, certain individuals that fit these profiles could be given counseling - before they go postal.
That sounds so obvious, and yes, I am aware, there have been reports that the Virgina Tech murderer was offered counseling at some stage.
The problem with that is by offering someone counseling when they clearly need it, but they don't think they need it, they will refuse. Obviously, it's a free country, and anyone who hasn't committed a crime (yet) shouldn't be forced into some kind of treatment that they don't want to undertake.
But perhaps if the counseling offered was free, would it then be more of an incentive for people to take up the opportunity?
I, for one, would rather let my tax dollars go into funding free counseling or therapy for vulnerable people with a potential to violently snap. It would be far less a price to pay than the loss of numerous innocent lives.
I don't claim to know all the answers, and I probably never will. But perhaps if people like Dr. Phil and Mr. Thompson stop blindly using such tragic events to justify their misleading crusades, and start focusing on ways to proactively prevent these events, the world might be a better place.
The other issue is with the development of coping skills. One key factor that seems to be prevalent between the perpetrators of these massacres is that they have difficulty in dealing with their depression or mental-emotional issues. They lack coping skills.
This can be tackled as an early age. We can teach kids coping skills as a part of health education curriculum in elementary school. Mental health and emotional health are highly overlooked in western society - and often misunderstood. Teach them while they're young.
Will some slip through the cracks? Possibly - no educational approach is perfect for every single student. But this could be a start.
Let's leave the video games alone for a bit. Let's forget the gun control issue for a change.
Let's focus on the harder issues right now - and deal with the core issues at hand that may help us prevent another Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre.
