The Accountability Shotgun
At what point can accountability stop at an individual? Why does this country seem to go to polar opposites regarding accountability? It's either no one's fault or it's hundreds of people's fault. There's no individual accountability anymore.
I saw yesterday a series of articles regarding the Va-Tech murders that took place some time ago. Unremarkably, it turns out the gunman who killed 32 people and then himself had some mental issues. That's not a news flash to anyone I think. I mean... really people. The gun was clearly a nut job. And not a fun not job like David Cross or Paris Hilton... who are also nut jobs, but they're funny.
No, when this guy went off the rails he went postal. Hilton goes off the rails and ends up on a coke binge with various parts of her anatomy on in the internet. They're both nuts.
Anyway, the articles were discussing basically all of the assorted people or organizations that could have or should have determined that Johnny Gunslinger was a nut and stopped Operation Shooting Gallery from ever happening. Or as one headline said, "Va-Tech Could Have Prevented Many Deaths" had it had better prepared.
I went to college and worked for several university organizations, including one that was a front line group for dealing with students en route to insanity. No where did I see a plan or procedure for what to do if a kid opens fire. I'm thinking few schools outside of West Virginia have plans for dealing with armed, suicidal kids.
They're also faulting the parents other schools for not identifying the problems that the kid had or sharing information about his previous mental issues. Well... there are a hell of a lot of privacy laws out there these days that stop that. Just FYI, you can't go running around screaming "looney" these days. Which is fine. For every pistolier in training out there, there a hundred unthreatening nuts. I'm a good case in point. Not a day goes by where I don't exhibit some behavior that's abnormal or openly hostile. My current pharmacy grocery list looks like Jerry Garcia's and at least once a week a threaten to burn my office down.
If you've read this blog, you'll know I'm not all there.
If I go on a shooting spree tomorrow, people will dig through my life and find all sorts of reasons why it should have been seen coming.
However, the FBI has dug through my life (twice) and seen fit to award me with all sorts of clearance and physical access to places that they don't let unelected crazy people anywhere near.
Hindsight is 20/20.
If Tech could have stopped Nutty McTrigger from killing those people, they would have. No question. But it's not their fault those kids and teachers died. It's not the parents, it's not the high school guidance counselor, it's not his doctor's, it's not the music he listened to, the people he talked to in the lobby of a hotel five years ago, it's none of that.
The guy was a nut. He murdered 32 people and then killed himself. The accountability died with him.
That's frustrating because people like to feel that they can get their pound of flesh for an injustice and with the killer killing himself... people feel cheated.
It's tough to swallow, but sometimes crazy happens. Sometimes crazy is deadly.
I think it might be better to focus on helping the families move on instead of trying to come up for a million and one hypotheticals regarding "if only".
Have a good holiday weekend everyone and don't do anything too crazy.