Who do we Blame?

Even though I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult a while ago, it relates perfectly with the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school. In the book, Peter goes to school one morning and shoots twenty eight people, killing ten of them. And while it would be so easy to just automatically hate Peter, shun him and his family and few friends, some still do not. But those who don't are still left with the question: who do we blame? Do you blame society? The parents? The teachers? The friends? The school? Can we blame any of these people? Is it different in real life?

Shockingly, no one has actually directly blamed the killer of those kids for the Sandy Hook elementary. Democrats have been blaming gun control -- or lack of. The Republicans, however, challenge that. They do not think that this has happened because of gun control. Also that it is in the constitution to have the right to make and use guns. So can we blame guns? I personally do not think it is fair to outlaw guns for hunting. But what about other guns like machine guns? In both real life, and the book, the killers had access to both hunting rifles and machine guns. But in both cases, they only used machine guns. I think that this proves that while we should leave laws on hunting rifles alone, laws on machine guns are necessary.

The Republicans, however, do not blame gun control for this incident. They think that the reason why the killer shot those kids was because of a mental illness. In the book, Peter's lawyer also said that mental illness was the reason he shot all of those people. He referenced Battered Woman Syndrome, where a woman is so afraid that her husband will beat her that she unknowingly beats him in his sleep, even though he wasn't posing an immediate threat. Democrats still say that even if the killer did have a mental illness, guns killed those children, not a disease. So even if the killings were a result of mental illness, the crime wouldn't be committed without guns. Others can argue that in that sense you can classify all crimes as a mental illness of you search.

So who is right? Everyone. And no-one. You can blame the government for not having better regulations on gun control. You can blame doctors for not noticing the mental illness. You can blame the parents for not brining up kids the "right way". You can blame teachers for not teaching consequences well enough. You can blame friends, grandparents, authors, salespeople, waitresses, employees, employers, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands wives, society, government. You can keep searching and searching for someone who must be the cause of your misery. But there is no use. Because only you have control of your actions. And if you are mentally insane, then you don't have control of your actions. You are merely a puppet. So though I do not think that killers are innocent, they are also not guilty. For if you say that that one person, guilty, then so is the rest of the world for not doing anything about it.