School Shootings: Take Responsibility

* Re “5 Hurt in Gunfire at High School Near San Diego; Student is Held,” March 23: So, in less than a month another high school shooting rampage has devastated yet another group of students and parents. And in less than a month yet another round of righteous finger-pointing and bleating defenses will begin:

* It’s not guns. Society has had guns for centuries, but only now are kids blazing away at school.

* It’s not violent entertainment. Video games, titillatingly violent music CDs and gory movies aren’t that powerful.

* It’s not bullying and social cliques. Playground bullying and classroom pecking orders are as old as the hills, so why is it that only now are bullies and high school castes the root cause of murderous rampages?

* It’s not parents. With all the bad influences outside their control, it’s a wonder all kids don’t snap and shoot their fellow students.

The list goes on ad nauseam. Perhaps now, people will finally consider the notion that all these influences combined finally push some kids over the edge. It’s time to clean house, not just one room.

DAVID KOPF

Aliso Viejo

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* Re “Kids, Guns and Parental Responsibility,” March 19: A parent’s deadly game: To lock up your guns securely, or not to lock up your guns. Ah, there is the game of Russian roulette to end all games. My child is a good child and won’t kill anyone with my guns . . . or maybe not. I don’t believe in guns in the house. However, when parents with a child under 18 are so careless with their guns that a child can use them to kill and injure others, perhaps it is the parents who should be locked up.

ELIZABETH LoPRESTI

Los Angeles

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* How sad that Pam Herring [in Jonesboro, Ark.] seeks meaning in her daughter’s death by suing the shooters’ parents. Not surprisingly, there’s a lawyer willing to take the case. We can’t litigate good parenting any more than we can legislate it, and even the best of homes can turn out bad kids. My sympathies are with Gretchen Woodard.

GREGG DANIELS

Fillmore