I thought Dan Rather made some good points in his commentary:

Gun control advocates will think this is the perfect storm to rally people to their cause. Those who want tighter immigration controls will likely use the fact that this disturbed young man was an immigrant...albeit a legal immigrant...to say we need to restrict immigration. And security advocates will use this as a call for more locks, more security checkpoints, more guards, and more surveillance cameras. But the facts are that the vast majority of gun owners do not use them to harm others, the overwhelming majority of immigrants are peaceful, law-abiding citizens, and...most days...the benefits of living in an open society far outweigh any benefits one might gain from more locks, more checkpoints, more guards, and Big Brother looking over our shoulders. Perhaps the biggest story here is just the unfathomable tragedy itself. Maybe the only real story here is about the individuals it has touched. We try in our human way to find lessons and meaning from such senseless events. But there are no easy lessons for us to draw upon...no simple changes we can make to prevent them from ever happening again.

Great quote, Pausanias. Well said.

Hear Hear Pausanias!

And for another 2 cents of mine @ the sudden hunting 'issue'; All you who oppose hunting, are you also vegetarian (Soz Spelling(You all know where I'm going, I suppose?)?

And for my two cents, you are a troll asking about the country as a tourist and now you put your opinion in as if you know what's going on. No one said hunting for food was bad with guns. Those are not hand guns.

My only question is why did all those people stand around and allow themselves to be gunned down like sheep at a slaughterhouse by a mad man. Doesn't matter where he came from. A single, even if armed, person could be taken out by overwhelming numbers, if only someone had acted. This was proven to be true by the passengers of the 9/11 flight over PA. There would have been casualties but.......... Lets Roll.

Thanks for posting that, Pausanias.
That is exactly how I feel about this tragedy!

Anyone who watched Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" will recall that this was a focus of the documentary. Canada allows guns and does not have the same level of violence. I don't think the answer is necessarily stopping guns, or video games, or any other "thing."

American society is, sad to say, not positive. Kids are not supervised enough. Parents work too much to support lifestyles beyond their means. Status symbol and certain "indicators" of wealth are of the utmost importation. Inner city culture is in disarray. I don't think there is any easy answer.

Mah gives us a simple answer -- the decay of society -- and then says there are no simple answers.