

Tragedy brings familiar list of 'solutions'

11:46 PM, Jul. 28, 2012  |  Comments
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More than a week ago, 70 people were among those who ventured out into the late night in Aurora, Colo., to catch a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

Twelve would never return home. Fifty-eight others will spend the rest of their lives scarred in some way from the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

And, in the backdrop of such carnage, the horror inflicted by suspect James Holmes and his arsenal unearthed the usual partisan positioning.

Is more gun control needed - especially regarding assault weapons?

Or, conversely, should laws be relaxed, allowing more citizens to carry concealed weapons?

And what about all those violent images in movies, TV shows and video games ... too graphic, too pervasive?

Whatever one's beliefs, simplistic, politically expedient posturing will no more deter such horrendous acts than it did after the mass killings at Colorado's Columbine High School and Virginia Tech.

Would more guns in that theater have helped, as some have suggested?

Even the best marksman likely would have had extreme difficulty pinpointing the shooter in a darkened, smoke-filled theater of panic.

And, with other guns blazing, how many more would have been killed?

Others say it's time to crack down on high-powered assault weaponry. That somehow the type of weapon - not the user of that weapon - is to blame.

Then there are those who wring their hands over the violent content of movies and videos. Or insist that somehow fame (so let's not say his name) is the guiding force.

These are predictable reactions because they lend themselves to a very familiar equation - cause and effect - and thus control.

It's easier to focus on these issues than something much more elusive, sinister, uncontrollable - the human mind.

Of course, there are efforts. In the midst of gun and Hollywood movie activists, critics and experts comes a parade of child psychologists and parenting experts and mental health professionals.

If your child is ...

Look for these signs ...

This may be helpful to a degree, but let's not kid ourselves; the diagnosis and treatment of the mentally ill still remains a complex and oft-misunderstood process (the "is he faking it or isn't he" commentary running nonstop during Holmes' first court appearance being a prime example.)

Faking it? Faking what? That he's out of his mind? Does anyone need more proof than the carnage he left behind?

So, where does all of this leave an impatient, sometimes calculating and political public?

Simply, unsatisfied.

We want something we can't have - an answer.

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