Shakespeare once said, “All the world’s a stage and the people merely players.” Government officials want to take this as gospel by declaring a clear-cut cause for last week’s shootings in Littleton and creating a script for schools to follow to prevent similar incidents in the future. Many “town meetings” have been held locally and nationally this week, discussing school violence, security and prevention of future tragedies. Even CNN held such a meeting.

Ames and Iowa State officials collaborated this week to hold a town forum Wednesday night to discuss violence in Ames schools.

The government has jumped on the prevention bandwagon as well, expressing sorrow for lives lost while at the same time using those lives as examples of why items on their political agendas, such as gun control, have become necessary to pursue.

On Tuesday, President Clinton announced his plans to support new laws that would regulate guns and explosives, according to ABC News. Under his proposal, the legal age to own handguns and assault rifles would increase from 18 to 21. An individual could purchase only one handgun each month after a three-day waiting period, and safety locks would be required on all guns.

The law also would hold parents responsible if they knowingly allowed their children to obtain guns and injure people.

In reaction to the Littleton shootings, a bill was introduced to the Senate Monday night to restrict broadcasters and cable television companies from airing violent shows when children are likely to be watching, according to the Associated Press.

The FCC would determine what constitutes violent programming, examining shows on all channels except for premium movie stations.

But measures like these will not be the magic cure for all the youth violence in America. There is no single cause for the Littleton shooting and other school tragedies that recently have occurred, and there is no single solution to prevent children from accessing weapons to commit the crimes.

Many schools already have tried to step up security for various reasons.

During my four years at Ames High, a school very similar in size to Columbine High, I witnessed a gradual increase in security.

By the time I graduated in 1997, Officer Bob Selby was employed to roam the halls and students couldn’t go anywhere without written permission. The administration decided that putting more than 30 underclassmen in one room for study hall was just too risky.

Two years later, security has increased even more. All who enter the building must have a valid excuse for being there with written permission to be in the halls, while students are allowed to enter and leave the building through a single set of doors.

So what’s next — metal detectors at every door? Where will schools draw the line? And do they honestly think these precautions will help?

Anyone sick enough to gun down or blow up their classmates is not going to let a few guards with a metal detector stop them.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were mentally disturbed. The problems that tormented them were not the kind parents expect — no parents expect the worst from their kids.

Many organizations want to blame video games and hard-core rock for the boys’ problems. These are cop outs, not warning signs. If every kid who played Quake or listened to Korn were suspected of violent tendencies, there would be very few American children categorized as stable.

The fact is, youths capable of committing atrocities are few and far between, although I can imagine a couple kids in my graduating class who might have come close.

In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday, 40 percent of teens can think of a classmate troubled enough to attack schoolmates in an attack similar to the Littleton incident. The poll also reported anti-social and potentially violent cliques.

Al Gore released a statement last week which said Harris and Klebold were not representative of American youth. But he’s dreaming if he thinks that is the case. A primary origin for the boys’ mental problems was the teasing they endured for years from “jocks” and “preppies.” There never will be any way to stop that.

What these kids did has crossed the minds of every teenager who has ever been teased. The only thing separating the gunmen from everyone else is the sickness that made them carry out their plans.

The official discussions about teens and violence are created with good intent, but there simply is no way to control all the factors which could prevent such a tragedy from happening again. There are always ways to beat the system and slip between the cracks because kids are smarter than adults give them credit.

If all the people really are players, there certainly are no government bodies that can pose as Shakespeare to script our actions. Trying to prevent another Littleton through tighter social control can only provoke more incidents.

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Carrie Tett is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Ames. She is city/state editor of the Daily. She’d like to give a shout out to her man, Coco.