The truth isn't always simple, especially when people look for answers as to why something terrible happened.

When the news came from Newtown, Conn., that a shooter had murdered 26 people -- 20 of them small children -- and then had taken his own life, people had lots of answers. Depending on their own personal agendas, the answers ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said it happened because we had taken God out of our schools, but<a title="Mike Huckabee" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/mike-huckabee-sandy-hook_n_2315340.html"> he backed off some</a> from that when people started asking him if he meant God had been responsible for the death of 20 6- and 7-year-olds.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1843" title="476567_509542165744160_154535176_o" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o-300x235.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="235" /></a>Liberals are blaming guns, conservatives are blaming everything except guns and some folks are even blaming the mental health system.

I love the ones who try to blow off responsibility completely by running some ancient quote from Ronald Reagan that when a crime is committed, it is the fault of the individual who committed it and not society overall. The irony there is that it was during Reagan's administration that the mental health system got decimated.

That was also the period when the National Rifle Association became one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, and when the culture seemed to fall off a cliff.

<!--more-->So while I'm not saying Reagan is to blame for this, an awful lot of what is wrong with our country today had its genesis in the 1980s. For one thing, that was the decade that a lot of groups started preparing either for Russian invasions, the Biblical apocalypse or all sorts of other disasters that started stockpiling weapons.

That was the decade that James Watt, the only Secretary of the Interior who seemed actually to <em>hate</em> the environment, was quoted as saying we didn't need to protect the environment because Jesus was going to return and take care of everything <em>during our lifetime</em>.

Yeah, he really said that.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1844" title="05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="180" /></a>Somebody more important actually said something far worse. Reagan's friend and inspiration, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, probably stood even farther to the right than he did. Thatcher actually argued that there were no such things as communities, that there were only individuals and families. In other words, you're on your own.

And of course, if you're on your own, you need guns to protect yourself from everything bad out there.

One of the horrific ironies of the Newtown shootings is that the shooter's mother was something of a survivalist herself and had not only purchased the military-grade weapon her son used but had taught him to shoot it.

She was his first victim.

Yes, the causes of something like this can be complex. Clearly we have to do a better job of identifying those who because of mental illness may be dangerous to themselves and others. Yes, our culture can best be described as toxic. The high levels of blood and gore, violence and mayhem, desensitize us in a way that is tragic. But other countries watch our movies and play our video games and they don't have this problem.

In the end, if it isn't the only cause, clearly the easy availability of weaponry is the major problem we face. We need to stand up to the NRA and ask them if they really believe we shouldn't have background checks at the point of sale because they <em>inconvenience</em> legitimate buyers.

I'll tell you what. Anybody who wouldn't undergo a little inconvenience if it made it harder for criminals, lunatics and even terrorists to get guns, well, he's part of the problem and not the solution.

Can we just agree to do smart things?

Sensible things?

Things like agreeing that if we can do anything at all, we can try to protect our children?

It would be a good start.

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