A plan to massacre hundreds of innocent victims, blow up the school, rampage through the neighborhood randomly killing and winding up by hijacking an airplane to crash into New York city. Grown up things. Over a year this plan was hatched, not by Middle East terrorists with a political agenda… No, high school kids at the dawn of their life, with no more motive that to "Show Them".

We have had a week of "Whys" and "What do we do now's" and "Who's to blame".

The easy answers come first… We have to have more involved parents, we have to have stricter gun control, we have to have metal detectors at schools. Too often these answers are from someone who thinks they have to have the answers. Take the President, the knee jerk reaction is stricter gun control. He can't blame teachers who did nothing about Nazi symbols on clothes, did nothing as students shouted "Sig Heil". He can't blame parents, they vote… he must pick an easy demon. Guns and gun manufactures are good targets.

But I would say the answer is deeper and more difficult. We have heard that there is a culture of death in the movies, video games and the internet. We live in a violent culture.

But the problem is children doing adult things. Terrorist attacks, killing, blowing up things. These are things that only adults did in the past. Now children are doing adult things and we wonder why.

I say why not. We live in a culture where children are encouraged (at least not discouraged) to do adult things. Look at Jon Benet Ramsey… a 6-year-old trained to do adult things. After being introduced to exciting adult things; grown up clothes, make-up, adult hairdos… would she want to go back to dolls and doll houses?

Adults can go to an adult bookstore and browse the junk. But kids are not allowed… but that child knows that the Internet is an adult bookstore complete with video, sound and killing. It has ways to play out his fantasies… in fact step by step directions to do bad things. All this under the cover of darkness… anonymity.

Kids have cars as soon as they can drive. Most do not have the financial ability to accept this responsibility (nor the maturity to accept the awesome responsibility). They have the freedom and none of the stricts of that freedom.

They gather at the end of a grove road late at night with a group of friends… again under the cover of darkness… freedom from oversight. Out late at night, no one to say no. Adult things.

They see movies that celebrate violence, sex and killing and the ratings seem to say that it is ok. Let me give you an example from a major Polk county newspaper about the movie "Blast from the Past". Violence; Dad taught Adam to use his fists, and he does so briefly to discourage an abusive former boyfriend of Eve's. Sex: None performed, but there is a lot of talk about sex. Profanity: Quite a bit. The article says that for kids 10 - 12: Nothing very harmful. Why? Why does a kid go to such a movie? It is certainly not helpful.

Kids are having children at almost the point of being able to do it! With no shame, and seemingly no consequences. Certainly not the maturity to understand the consequences to her or the child. Plus a government that seems to say "OK" by paying, providing special schools to avoid embarrassment.

We have a society that allows, even encourages adult actions from children. Why would the child not migrate into violent adult things. It comes naturally.

As I said, the easy answers come quickly… a new law to restrict guns, metal detectors…But the answer is much harder. Putting the genie of "excitement of adulthood without responsibility" back in the bottle.

e-MAIL if you have a comment .