The events that happened at the Montreal college are truly terrible but I find it sad that the media and certain groups are willing to take advantage of this tragedy to further their own cause. By that I mean blaming the availability of guns, videogames and certain lifestyles isn’t fair. Instead society should focus on the root causes of these problems, namely bullying in school, the lack of intervention by the proper authorities and lack of direction from parents.

Bullying is a major problem in our schools. As a kid who grew up as a “geek”, I felt the affects of bullying and taunts by “the cool kids”. I have no fond memories of my elementary school years and to make matters worse, I felt that I was bullied by my teachers as well. I remember my grade 3 teacher very well not because he was competent but rather that he was often my worse nightmare. I was a slow learner and suffered from ADD (although I don’t believe it’s a “disorder”) and every time I got comfortable with learning, he’d publicly berate me in front of my classmates (stands me up at the front of the class to tell me I’m useless). I’d even get humiliated for simple things like using crayons and colouring pencils to draw at the same time. I can rant for hours about him and I dream about what happened all the time. What I would give to have 5 minutes with him now in a windowless room, I’m not a defenseless child anymore…

In school, there was little recourse for bullying from my experience anyway. I found that teachers and principals generally look the other direction or are too busy to take the matter seriously. I remember feeling the sense of hopelessness. I’d hate to go to school these days, now it’s the bully who’s the victim of society yet those who are on the receiving end get nothing but scars. There’s no treatment for us.

Despite all I went through, I was lucky because I had loving parents. There was little they could do to stop the bullying (what are their options really?) but they were there to nurture me through the tough times. When I acted out they definitely were not afraid of dishing out the discipline and that is as important too. It’s easy to have kids but it’s difficult to be good parents. Was the shooter the product of a “broken” home? Parents have a responsibility to make sure their kids turn out right, too often these days kids get everything they want. In a me first world, you don’t have to think about the consequences of your actions.

What bothered the Montreal shooter? He says it himself…

The website http://www.vampirefreaks.com, which the Star found last night, reveals Gill as a lonely, conflicted, self-described 25-year-old Goth freak from Montreal who hated authority figures like police, principals and teachers and singled out “jocks” for high school bullying.

Looks familiar doesn’t it? Every time there’s a school shooting, the shooter suffers from similar issues. Blaming it on guns or videogames is just a copout. Guns used in crime are often gotten through illegal means in Canada. Banning them doesn’t solve the issue especially when they’re so readily available in the US. If videogames were a large contributing factor for violence, you’d expect a country like Japan or Korea (which has more videogame players per capita than anywhere else in the world) to lead the world in violent crime but guess what, they’re among the lowest.

I love videogames and airsoft is a very violent hobby to take up yet I’ve been told by several people that I’m one of the “most non violent person” they know. I guess I take it from my dad, he is a huge videogame addict yet it doesn’t consume him. At the end of the day, it’s still just a game…

Feel no remorse for the killer, he does not deserve any sympathy. Let’s however truly learn the lessons from this terrible incident, the root cause of what caused the shooting. It’s not videogames, it’s not guns. Listen to what he has to say it really is that simple!

Sorry I got off track a little bit and I lost my focus…