Shoot The Messenger

Now here's an interesting spin: The most recent school shooting in Sparks, Nevada is under investigation. Part of what is being examined is an anti-bullying video that includes a dramatization of a child taking a gun on a school bus to scare aggressors. Maybe it has something to do with Oscar Wilde's suggestion that, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life."
It's not that hard to imagine that a troubled mind might seek any sort of solution to the problems confronting it. Cherry picking evidence from a larger context is something of which we are all susceptible. Adding to the weight of this particular series of misconceptions is the fact that the twelve-year-old shooter watched the video at school, where lessons are learned. Concerned adults showed this to a bunch of kids who were supposed to take a different lesson away from it. It would be so much easier if this student would have stayed up the whole night before, drinking Red Bull, listening to Marilyn Manson, and playing Grand Theft Auto Five. That's the line we expect to follow.
It's also a lot easier to blame Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution" for any kid who chooses to take their own life. It's a lot easier to say that this kid never should have had access to his parents' weapons. Blame the Bible for that whole "eye for an eye" thing.  It's a lot easier to blame anything other than the kid who picked up a gun and killed. How could this child, not even a teenager, come up with such a horrible plan? It must have been the movie.
Or maybe the net is bigger than all that. Maybe it's all of us. Everyone who saw the pain and did nothing about it. Everyone who knew that middle school is torture for even the most popular of kids. Everyone who was a bully. Everyone who was bullied. Everyone who didn't stop it. Or go back to blaming the movie. It's ironic, and it's safe.