On Tuesday October 1st, tragedy struck a community college in Oregon. Christopher Harper-Mercer fatally shot nine people before killing himself. Unfortunately, this tragedy is not uncommon in our society. These statistics come from the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34424385

"There have been 294 mass shootings - defined as an incident in which four or more people are killed or injured by gun - so far in 2015, more than one per day.

Over the same period, there have been 45 shootings at schools, and 142 such incidents since the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary on December 14, 2012 - although those figures include occasions when a gun was fired but no one was hurt."

As politicians argue about gun policies and reforms, I agree that something needs to change. Since I have no authority to argue the politics or legalities of gun policy, I wanted to talk about the other issue involved in these tragedies: character and integrity."

Especially in the case of school shootings, these are young people killing their classmates, and we have to wonder why.

In the TV series One Tree Hill, (don't judge me I have a point to this) they brought attention to this issue in 2006 in the episode "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept."

While it is just a TV episode, I think the show made some important points about high school cultures and the small incidents that build up to have tragic results.

One critic who reviewed the episode, Cynthia Boris of DVDVerdict.com, wrote, "To put it simply, it's the Columbine episode. (And how sad is it that you all know what I mean when I say that word.) For this one episode, the pretty and popular heroes of the show take a backseat to a chubby, bullied young man who has been humiliated for the last time."

"The creators struggled with doing this episode because they did not want to glorify or make light of school shootings. They wanted to make a statement about how these kinds of incidents affect more than just those directly involved."-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Tired_Eyes,_Tir...

The episode was controversial, but important. It sent the message that how we treat people matters. The episode ended with this voiceover...

"Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred. How did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it?

What happened to us, that we now send our children into the world like we send young men to war? Hoping for their safe return, but knowing that some will be lost along the way. When did we lose our way?

Consumed by the shadows, swallowed whole by the darkness. Does this darkness have a name? Is it your name?"