Root cause is lack of gun control
I want to send my sympathies to all the students, their families, faculty, and administration at NIU.
Given my wife is a faculty member at NIU, I know how hard this is for her and her colleagues.
There have been, and will continue to be, speculations about why this tragedy occurred and the appropriateness of the actions of NIU's administration.
In addition, media commentators are offering suggestions on how to avoid this type of tragedy in the future.
These suggestions range from training our children how to react to a gunman in the classroom (e.g., fight or flight) to advocating that guns be carried by everyone to defend themselves (reminiscent of the Wild West).
As some of these astonishing suggestions are aired, let us not forget the root causes.
We allow easy access to guns, even when an individual has a history of mental illness. I know the NRA likes to say that "people kill people, not guns." Sadly this misses the point; they are not mutually exclusive.
People with guns kill people. Until we decide to change our gun laws, we will unfortunately continue to see these types of tragedies.
Kevin O'Neill
North Aurora