Weak Links

"Knowledge is a tool, and like all tools, its impact is in the hand of the user.”  The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown

I'm rereading THE LOST SYMBOL, not because I want to but because I needed something to read and picked up the book at the grocery store without checking it very closely.  Nothing about the cover or its blurbs were familiar upon my cursory examination but once I got home and turned to chapter one, I recognized the words and as I flipped quickly through the pages, the story came back to me.  Resigned, I settled in to reread and found elements of the story very relevant to this time, especially the quote above.

There's been a lot of talk about the tragedy in Tucson and what may have caused it.  Some think the toxic political rhetoric played a part.  Some think the lack of gun control or regulation played a part.  We'd all like to believe the madman who held the gun is solely responsible.  It would allow us to ignore our own role, no matter how remote, in creating the chain of events that led to this end.  Well, I believe the quote above is true.  The gun IS the tool.  The impact of that tool IS in the hand of the user.  There's really no argument there.  But I also believe in cause and effect chains.  As a principal, when a student was brought to me for some infraction, I always tried to get the whole story, not to somehow reassign responsibility and relieve the culprit of his or her guilt but because there is generally a beginning and the student in front of me is only the end.  Though not exclusively, more often than not there is a chain of events, any link of which with a different action on the part of various players could have created a different result.  Does that nullify the responsibility of the person in front of me?  No, not at all.  Does it make the persons along the chain equally responsible.  Not necessarily, though there is something to be said for intention or lack thereof when one is part of a chain of events.  There have been many times when the student caught and brought to me has been set up to take the fall.  The degree of responsibility lies with the degree of intent.   Is it important for those in the chain to understand the role they played in the event, intent or not?  Absolutely.  Did I expect each participant to learn something from this event and to change their future behavior should a similar opportunity present itself.  You betcha!  That I was no longer in the classroom did not relieve me of teaching duties.

So yes, the culprit at the end, most directly responsible for the ultimate wrongdoing, should be dealt with accordingly.  The tool --in this case, a gun --can not be good or evil.  The user is the one responsible for the impact of the gun's use.  But to ignore the other links in the chain is another kind of irresponsibility.  Allowing the unregulated manufacture of guns and ammunition clips with excessive capacity that can have no real sporting purpose and employing language that promotes violence in the minds of those most susceptible to such rhetoric assures that the same weak links remain weak and create another chain of events resulting in another tragic end.