Doubtlessly you've heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech (I initially saw the news reported as "VT" and thus keep calling it Vermont Tech). There's a veritable uproar. And it's upsetting. People, ideally, should never have to live through (much less die due to) something like that.

So we find ourselves looking at this awful act of violence. Within minutes, the fingers are up and pointing. We're asking ourselves what we've done to allow this to happen. The faculty and local police didn't do their job properly. Cho's family failed him. Gun culture is to blame1. Jack Thompson, naturally, is ready to go within hours with video games. Koreans? To hell with all that

It's looking more and more like he was legitimately insane. Schizophrenic, most likely. It explains a lot and it's a pity that no one picked up on it. However, that really isn't so easy.

People keep harping on about the tell-tale signs that Cho was a danger. His writing was apparently disturbing and unnerving. He was quiet, a loner. He was hospitalized for being a danger to himself and others. So, who should have nipped this in the bud?

You can't. I've known people who exhibited each of the qualities above. Some close friends have shocked me with the kind of rage and violence they can conjure up. My first couple years at college were spent with nary a friend and I'd sit quietly and awkwardly in the farthest corner of the class. Someone very dear to me was once sent to an institution for a few weeks due to violent threats she was making against others and herself. None of these people are going to kill anyone else. They probably won't even kill themselves.

There's very little you can legally do when you suspect someone liable to lose it and go on a killing spree. It's imperative that we keep it this way. If -- in an extremely hypothetical situation -- everyone were to seek the arrest of everyone in America who exhibited these warning signs, hundreds of thousands of people would be turned over to the authorities and have their lives subsequently ruined. The percentage of these cases that would end up damaging others if left unattended would be practically nil.

We need to react to this tragedy rationally before making changes on either a large or a small scale. Last time we got all in a tizzy over a one-time instance and let our emotions take control, some American Muslims got terrorized, the Patriot Act happened, and we wound up in Iraq forever, an unpardonable and irrational extra four years of Bush, the blood of hundreds of thousands on our hands (and so you know, just today, seemingly coordinated car bombings killed 172 people around Baghdad today, making it one of the occupation's bloodiest days).

I've heard a lot of the coverage of this incident so far. Outside of the heart-breaking outpour of sympathy and support for the victims and the community, I don't think I've heard any productive discussion. Blaming people doesn't help and trying to find answers where there aren't any is futile and (because there aren't any) aggravating.

Finally, he was Korean. So what? Stop mentioning it like it matters.

1 Not that I don't have problems with America's gun culture. I just don't see this as a springboard to any effective discussion.