GRIEF, HORROR, sorrow and sympathy — after a tragedy like Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech, these are the appropriate first responses from not only typical Americans but the nation's political leaders. Part of any president's job is helping the nation grieve, and President Bush, as he has before, assumed that responsibility gracefully with his appearance at Tuesday's memorial for the young people senselessly slaughtered the day before.But in the face of tragedy, the responsibility of political leaders is not just to look back in sorrow. Their job is to look forward toward practical steps that might reduce the risk of repeating the awful experience. It's too early to say conclusively what lessons public policy should take from Monday's rampage. But it's not too soon to say that is the question Washington should be asking once the immediate shock has passed.
That may seem obvious, but it's not. In these circumstances, the understandable first instinct of many Americans is to focus on the private factors that shaped the shooter's character — family, friends, religious institutions. Confronted with such chilling evil, most Americans would probably agree with William Faulkner, who said that we cannot legislate what is in men's hearts.
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