When I first heard about the Virginia Tech shooting, it was because a co-worker with whom I’m relatively friendly came into my office to talk about it. Someone she knew from church was at the college, and she was, quite understandably, worried (thankfully, he turned out to be okay).

After hearing about the shooting, I took a moment to pray for the safety of my friend’s friend, as well as for everyone touched by the shooting — including the shooter himself. As I said about the family and friends of Kevin Underwood, I fear that the people who loved the shooter yesterday will find themselves second-guessed and criticized by people who are desperate to find some way to explain this*.

Honestly, I think that it’s far too easy to place blame in these sorts of situations, to jump to the conclusion that someone must have been able to do something to save Jamie Bolin. We want to believe that Kevin’s monstrosity was always present, and it must have been obvious, but the people around him were either incapable or unwilling to see it and do something about it. We’d like to be able to think that people who would do this sort of thing are easily identifiable because the alternative, that sometimes, very, very dangerous people are able to blend in with the rest of us without arousing any serious suspicion from the people around him, is terrifying.

I don’t know a whole lot about this shooter at this point, other than his name. Still, I can’t imagine that there isn’t at least one person who knew him well enough to care about him, but who was (or will be) shocked to learn that he was the killer.

In hindsight, it’s altogether possible that this person (or these people — I’m going to stick with the singular for simplicity’s sake from now on, though) will look at what they knew and believe that they should’ve put the pieces together and realized what was going on. It’s likely that this person will blame themselves. That’s something that they’ll have to address and come to terms with themselves — it is not something that should be exacerbated by outsiders looking in who’re just desperate to find some way to explain this.

Ultimately, the shooter is to blame for his actions. His friends are not to blame. His family is not to blame. If they did something to directly encourage it, if they were so involved as to be considered accomplices, then they are to blame for their actions, but they are not to blame for the action of the shooter, who, from all accounts I’ve read, was acting alone.

* Incidentally, if you were worried that video games — which seem to have somehow escaped any blame in the media for the Underwood case — might also get off cleanly in this one, you can feel better now. Jack Thompson has it covered.

[EDIT: Second footnote deleted because I had removed the reference before actually posting and forgot to remove the footnote. I've never claimed to be perfect. ]