Looking forward from Blacksburg

The tragedy at Virginia Tech hovers over us, in part because this event shattered our belief that colleges and universities are safe havens. As father of a high school junior who will soon head off to college, I have to take into consideration what that will look like for him. Totally protecting a college campus isn't possible, but that doesn't mean no steps should be taken, that we shouldn't learn from what happened.

In part, we're not ready to have that conversation. To politicize VA Tech as a gun control versus gun rights debate at a time when the people on that campus, and indeed people across the country must grieve, is at best insensitive -- and that insensitive debate is already underway. Though I'm on the side of gun control and would hate to see a college campus full of gun toting students, that debate needs to wait for a moment.

But, when the conversation begins in the coming weeks, we must look at real solutions. Ron Brownstein raises this very issue in what I think is a sensitive, non-politicized way in this mornings LA Times column.

BUT THAT doesn't mean we should not constantly search for better ways to reduce the threat of random violence. The issue isn't whether we might have prevented the Virginia Tech attack if we had closed a particular legal loophole last month. It may be that no combination of plausible policies would have deterred this rampage. And it is almost certain that the next horrific attack will present different facts.The better question is whether we are doing enough to diminish the overall risk of violence in our society.

In part we can look to the initial responses to 9/11 he suggests. After 9/11 we didn't say, well who would have thought people would fly planes into buildings and then leave it at that. We would and should start asking questions, like was their sufficient counseling opportunities available to this young man and whether "Bush's decision to de-fund the Clinton program that subsidized the hiring of more local police" had some effect, and of course we will need to reopen the debate on availability of guns.

And so, he concludes: "The ineradicability of evil ensures that we will never be free from terrible days like Monday. But we will compound this tragedy if we fail to learn from it."

And we must learn from this tragedy! In the meantime, however, may we grieve with those who grieve and comfort those who are at this moment comfortless.