No Easy Answers in School Shooting

By Joe G. Biles

Monday, March 5th, the world heard about yet another school shooting and now, like others before it, the previously nondescript Santana High School in Santee, California has the nation's attention.

Reportedly, many of alleged shooter Charles Andrew Williams' friends had been told about the shooting in advance, but failed to report the threat, citing their belief that Williams was "just kidding."

Chris Reynolds, boyfriend of the suspect's mother, also heard the threat but was reassured by Williams that he was "just kidding," and again advanced notice of the shooting spree was unreported.

Now, two bodies are on the deck and 13 more, who were wounded in the shooting, have to pick up the pieces of their almost shattered existence. Like after Columbine, the country now seeks answers--or more accurately, someone to blame.

Since Williams did not have the courtesy to make his crime a murder-suicide, there will be a trial. Witnesses will have to testify and the whole painful matter will be brought up again. As I write this (10:10 PM, March 6, 2001), Williams has yet to be charged, so it remains to be seen whether or not he will face the death penalty for his alleged crime.

No matter what happens to Charles Andrew Williams, the American people will still search for somethone, something else to bear the responsibility for his actions. Perhaps the answer will be found among those that failed to report Williams' threat. Perhaps the answer will be to blame society, or art or some aspect of technology. But who is really to blame?

Are Williams' friends to blame?

No. One of his friends, Neil O'Grady, told the Today Show, "We thought he was joking... We were like, 'Yeah, right.'" Chris Reynolds described Williams as "an all-around nice kid ... always polite." No one had any way of knowing what would transpire, and at an age where people jokingly say many stupid things, no one could have known what Williams would do.

Should we blame TV (music, the media, etc.)?

No. Excuses aside, no one is totally responsible for anyone's actions but his or her own. Steve Austin, Marilyn Manson and Howard Stern did not mess with Williams' head, nor that of anyone else. If you cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, you have major problems and should not be attending a public school anyway. Censorship will not prevent future acts of violence, but will only serve to tarnish our individual liberties.

Should we create new gun control laws?

No. Not to be sound like a broken record, but "Guns don't kill people, people do." And when gun ownership is made criminal, the only people that will have guns are the criminals. Only criminals commit murder. Aside from the fact that the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected, the gun control argument just does not make sense as gun control inherently cannot prevent gun crime.

Maybe if there had been prayer in school...

This sounds like a stretch but someone will undoubtedly bring it up. To say that having religion in public schools would have prevented this crime is nearly tantamount to saying that God allowed Andy Williams to kill those two students because The Supreme Court Has Been Bad. The way I was brought up, God does not let bad things happen to innocent people. Bad people do them to innocent people.

Besides, when was it established that the Supreme Court was wrong? The Founding Fathers instituted the seperation of Church and State for a reason.

One need only to look at Ireland, Iran or Soviet-Era Russia to see what happens when the government starts getting involved in matters of faith.

Who is to blame?

If convicted, Charles Andrew Wilson. That should be enough. Any more would be to abrogate our own responsibility for our own actions. As Americans, this is something we should never be willing to do.

The other question is, if Williams alone is responsible, how do we prevent something like this from happening again? The stone-cold truth is that there is little we can do without giving the wrong answer to the previous question.

Gun control, censorship--all these things, if instituted, depend on our acceptance of the idea that the welfare of the group supersedes the rights of the individual. Once you make this leap, you may as well build Auschwitz. The end result is the devaluing of human life, which is the same end to which Andy Williams acted March 5th.