Readers' comments

"I just need to say can we blame two teenage boys? That would be easy. Yes, they were disturbed, sad individuals who turned to violence as a way of expressing their anger and emptiness. A society that teaches us to fend for ourselves, a society that has gradually lost community in the truest sense of the word, will rush to the ballot box to vote in a new football stadium but not to help our schools, our children. We put priority on big houses and fancy cars."

— Boulder County woman

"I'm so concerned about this lost generation of kids, 10 years my junior. This incident has affected me so profoundly that I find it my responsibility to go back to college and get my teaching certificate; and become a permanent part of the solution of love and acceptance and understanding for these kids who are so desperately crying out for direction."

— Lafayette woman

"How many more must die before it becomes apparent: guns kill people, concealed or otherwise. That this Legislature has been dominated by the NRA'a agenda of arming this nation state by state is obscene, hideous, and truly disgusting. As our social policies degrade and our schools become war zones, our representatives can do no better than waste our resources on wrongheaded policy — how do they sleep at night? For the few brave enough to stand up to the demagogues and fascists, I say God bless. May the others burn slowly in the hell they are creating here on earth! "

— Boulder man

"I believe that no amount of school security could prevent a 'suicide mission'. If people are at that irrational stage of thinking, do you think a police guard, or a metal detector is really going to stop their plans? One guard, one teacher, one student, it's all the same to them. If they don't have a problem killing themselves, fellow students and teachers, a guard or a few metal detectors sure as hell won't bother them."

— Kristen Waters, Omaha

Message from the victims in Heaven

I wasn't ready to die.
I shouldn't have died.
No one asked me.
But I'm gone, and you must go on too.
You will be okay.
I will go on in, in your heart, in your memories.
My body may no longer be here
But I am not far.
You can still talk to me,
Understand that the silence is just me listening.
We can still meet whenever you want,
Just close your eyes and I will appear.

For the life I lived, I have no regrets.
I am fortunate
For I know you loved me.
We share so many happy times
Full of laughter and cheer.
Keep these with you
And smile, not cry, when you think of me.

I'm in heaven now
And God explained it all to me.
You watched over me all these years
And now it's my turn to be your angel.
I love you.

— Nipa Shah, reader

"I don't know how anyone is surprised at what happened . School is just a reflection of what's really going on in our nation. How we don't really know how to have support for our anger and frustration and our grief. That we're so busy earning a living to buy material goods instead of loving each other."

— Female student at Naropa Institute

"I listened with concern to what Governor Owens had to say on television last night about societal factors that can lead to violence while at the same time appearing to minimize the effect of liberalized handgun laws.

I would like to suggest that the pro-handgun movement and the pernicious, evil influence of the National Rifle Association is part of the same culture of violence that no doubt contributed to Tuesday's tragedy. Adults and children alike are exposed to television and movie characters such as Rambo who are bent on "blowing away" their opponents. In this view of life, defending one's honor, person, and property through violent means is portrayed as heroic.

Submit that to the extent we allow and encourage people to arm themselves against the remote possibility that they will encounter a situation which requires them to defend themselves and the even more remote possibility that such arms will be effective promotes the same cultural image the governor criticized in regard to violent entertainment."

— Boulder man

"This is a horrible tragedy and people will be looking for answers as to why — TV, video games, movies, the disconnectedness of our families and communities. There is another place we might look — our obsession with war to settle disputes. The ongoing carnage in Kosovo gives children the message that violence is an acceptable answer to interpersonal conflict, and tragedy begets tragedy."

— Boulder County woman

"There is no way to make sense of this event. One wonders though, how much more evidence is necessary before we comprehend and move to reduce the horrific social costs incurred by our insistence on living with guns."  

— Superior woman

"Shock. Tears. Sadness. These tragedies feel symptomatic of some larger social ill, but what is it? The question feels more important than the answer, which I'm sure could be debated into numbness. Let's not allow ourselves the easy way out by saying this grisly act was just perpetrated by 'wackos.' That way lies hopelessness and disintegration and ultimately despair."

— Boulder man

"We wonder how it could happen here. We shouldn't be too shocked. After all, we've been training them since they were old enough to grasp a joystick in their little hands. The winner is the one with the highest body count. Oh, and extra points for brutality.

What am I talking about? Ultra-violent, shoot 'em up video games our kids spend hours playing. No age requirement. You only need a couple of quarters or enough allowance to buy the game. My 5-year-old daughter is drawn to these death machines whenever we go to the movie theater or the pizza shop. I keep her away, but each time she is more desperate to see why the other kids are so drawn to them.

Few parents have the time or energy to maintain vigilance all of the time. The kids go to the mall. A fairly safe environment, right? But then they go and spend hours and a small fortune in the video arcade. Or, your son just bought a new computer game. He installs it himself and plays it while you do the laundry. You're happy that he's not just sitting around watching TV. How many parents actually take the time to see what it is these games do, what they teach, what it is they reward? We're all guilty because over the last 20 years we've let these games get more violent and invade our lives.

What can we do? While the devastating loss in Littleton is still fresh in our minds, we need to act. We need restrictions on these violent games. We as parents need to not allow our children to spend their money to play these games. If the money isn't there, the games will go away. We need to write letters and make calls to the developers and marketers of these games and we need to complain to establishments that offer these violent games to our kids. We need to contact our elected officials to let them know that this is unacceptable to us.

Of course, this is only one of the problem areas we need to address as a society to try to prevent this type of senseless violence in the future, but I think it is one of the areas where we can have a major impact. "

— Lafayette woman

"How many school shootings are we going to have before we start making changes? Changes like maybe the school counselors need to be a little more in touch with the students. They need to especially talk to students that are withdrawing, that are outcasts, that are different. Then they'll phase guns out of our society. There's too many weapons in our society."

— Boulder County man

"How did these boys get guns? How did these boys assemble bomb-making materials undetected? Were the parents oblivious to the activities of their children? These are questions that have to be answered."

— Boulder County woman

"How could teen-agers get such an arsenal of weapons, rage and hate? How can such extreme pain and torment and self-hate develop for so long without notice and concern and appropriate response and attention? We need profound healing for our shared angst and cultural pathology."

— Boulder County woman

"I have a 15-year-old son and I would just like to express how grateful I was that I got to go and watch my son play a baseball game, and see a lot of community support at Centaurus High School. I just feel very strongly that this has something to do with isolation and how isolated kids feel."

— Lafayette woman

"It's incompressible the grief and sadness these two young men have caused. I want to express my deepest sympathy to the parents of all the children who died or were injured in this holocaust."

— Boulder woman

I am writing in response to the tragedy that occurred yesterday at the Columbine High School.

There will be many theories about what happened and why, and what should be done. There will be discussions about the school systems and their "responsibility" to protect their students and ferret out the potential perpetrators before they act. There will be discussions about gun-control and the governments "responsibility" on a local, state and federal level. In reality, there is not just one level of responsibility and one solution.

I hope the discussions include the group of people I feel should beheld the most accountable. The parents.

As an educator, I have seen an increasing lack of parental responsibility for the actions of their children. This responsibility should start from day one, with the parents control, discipline, and education of their kids, and most importantly, the setting of good examples.

For parents to not know that their kids are making bombs, or have easy access to guns and ammunition, to not know or to not do anything about this or the fact that their kids behaviors are on the dangerous fringes of the society in which we live, shows a distinct lack of involvement and caring for their offspring. These parents are responsible for what happened.

While I am a firm believer in gun control, perhaps we also need a law that holds parents legally responsible for the actions of their children under the age of 18, and perhaps by knowing this, some parents who need to, will give a little more care to the raising of their children.

— Boulder woman

"Nothing will matter until we bring God back to our schools, our homes, our community and our country. We reap what we sow and we have sowed a godless society that has no morals, hope, or compassion. Until we return to the roots of being one nation under God we will witness this continually. God save us all. "

— unknown