A mature society can accept the fact that, occasionally, human beings do very destructive things;a confident society does not have to search for special meaning in every act of human degradation. We will never really know why he did it. However, what we can do is talk to each other a little more, look out for each other, and not turn away when someone is hurting (emphasis mine).A "confident society" does not view its members as potential psychopaths ready to go on a shooting rampage. Sadly, however, there are many who call for government action to treat law-abiding citizens as immature imps needing paternal observation. A government that treats its citizens as such is a government that citizens need protection against.
What happened at Virginia Tech was a tragedy, and we will probably never have a clear explanation as to why it occurred. But let's be confident enough not to have another PATRIOT ACT style overreaction.
