It took about three days for somebody locally to blame video games. Because - get this - the kid played them. An article in one of the local newspapers quoted Jack Thompson, the grandstanding pop activist most famous for attacking 2 Live Crew, pointing fingers at violent video games, specifically Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. He even volunteered to come to Red Lion, PA to help investigators. (That same article also pointed out physical similarities between the Red Lion shooter and another recent child killer, as if you can tell a kid planning a murder just by looking at him!) A recent editorial referred to Lt. Col. David Grossman, who visited the area on a speaking/book tour in the wake of the Columbine shooting. He claims that video games - "killing games," rather, he's not attacking Tetris - are teaching children to ignore the natural inhibitors against taking a human life.

It's really easy to believe that, isn't it? We watch kids killing soldiers and aliens and cops in video games and we wonder if they're taking that situation into reality.

But obviously, they're not. Why do millions and millions of children play violent video games, listen to aggressive music, watch horror movies and come out fine? And regardless, kids have been imagining killing for centuries. It's part of any child's play pattern no matter how well insulated he/she might be. It's how they learn to deal with the very concepts of death and killing. It's how you did, too. Bang, bang, you're dead. I'm not so sure there is a "natural inhibition" against taking another life. There certainly isn't in the animal kingdom. Only by virtue of our advanced society do we find murder repulsive.

It's ridiculous to draw such a straight line between any media influence and a child murderer. Especially when the overwhelming majority of children come out fine. And in almost every school shooting case, the killers have some sort of weapons introduction outside of video games... most often through an interest in handguns, weapon/military magazines, hunting animals, or actually owning guns. I'd venture that teaching a kid to own, load and shoot a weapon is much more dangerous than allowing one to press the X button multiple times to simulate killing. And another thing... why is this always happen to rural, predominantly white schools?

Our local papers have also been making a big deal about threats he made in the weeks prior, and about lists he wrote of his likes ("sluts") and dislikes ("fat people.") If you were to lock up every teen who keeps lists and threatens others, you'd be jailing 90% of the entire school. That too is part of growing up. Our Red Lion killer was a young kid, mired in the hormonal difficulty of adolescence, and he made a series of bad choices. Plus, his stepdad had an easily accessible handgun collection.

There is no simple cause - not even gun culture - and we'll never know what was inside his head. All parents can do is stay involved with their kids, model good behavior, and teach them responsibly. And even then, you're going to have kids that put on a good face but still harbor darkness.