School shootings happen far too often in America. The epidemic of schools being shot up is a definite problem in society today and one that is rather unique to this country in particular. Every time a school shooting happens it seems like every pundit in the country rushes to their own personal soapbox, whether it be twitter or television, to tell the public why guns should be banned, or not be banned.

Such a reaction, from both sides, is sickening. With how quick people respond and the reliability of their outcries one begins to think that there is something going on behind the curtain of this discourse. It seems to me that people in positions of power are using these tragic events to further their own agendas on the topic of gun control in America, as opposed to actually looking at the problem we are facing and asking the questions that will lead to an answer.

People love to talk about how kids are shooting up schools, but no one ever seems to ask why. So there’s a place to start, and probably a much more important question to ask, why are these kids shooting up their schools?

Here’s another question, what can we do to stop people from shooting up schools? Can we monitor behavior better? Watch out for signs more vigilantly? Take warnings about this matter more seriously? One imagines that in the real world events of this degree of seriousness would be handled by a number of extremely well-qualified adults, whether they be part of the school’s staff or part of the police force.

What I want, what we all want, is something that we cannot have, which is, a definite answer. An answer to what to do, of how to solve this issue. What I don’t want is to turn on the news after these types of types of things happen to hear people talking all about the kind of gun the perpetrator used to commit their act of violence. But we have to do the hard thing here, and accept that in looking at this issue, there is a complex web of conflicting and clashing pieces that make up this terrible problem.

I don’t know what the answer is, or if there is one, but every time I see someone go on television hours after a school shooting and talk about banning guns, I feel we’re stepping away from the root of the problem.