As yet another high school shooting spree has occurred in our fair country, it seems everyone is trying to make heads or tails of the situation.

In the wake of any heinous crime, rumors fly about who or what perpetrated the act.

Remember the Oklahoma City bombing? Who didn’t hear the theory that the suspects were members of some middle-eastern terrorist cell?

The rumors fly, and every podunk yokel in the country formulates his or her own story about “what really happened.”

On Wednesday, the Des Moines Register reported that members of the “Trench Coat Mafia,” a group the shooters were reported to be members of, “kept to themselves and followed shock rocker Marilyn Manson.”

Is this not a tired excuse for any type of social deviance? Haven’t we heard enough about how KISS or anything else causes children to act violently? When I read that I thought to myself, please don’t tell me anyone still buys this crap.

As usual, I had drastically over-estimated the intelligence of my fellow Americans.

Yesterday I was having lunch in downtown Ames, and I overheard a conversation between three middle-class women at the table next to me.

I caught on that they were talking about the shooting in Littleton. Then I heard one of the ladies say that the shooters were “into Marilyn Manson,” and they “painted their faces up and everything.”

Well, at least the system works. Middle-class women have a scape-goat, and luckily it’s someone they don’t particularly like anyway.

If bad music can be the root of a school shooting, why is Marilyn Manson singled out among all lousy musicians? You never hear: “The gunmen, who reportedly listened to Phil Collins …”

And what about country music? The number of people killed in school shootings is insignificant next to the number of people killed by rednecks with shotguns.

I guarantee you a number of murders in the bible belt were perpetrated while listening to George Strait or The Dixie Chicks, yet no one blames them. Go figure.

After a tragedy, people don’t want to understand the truth, they want to feel safe. We are a paranoid culture, and we will believe anything that helps us sleep a little better at night.

So, we’re more than happy to believe that middle-eastern terrorists or made-up rock stars are to blame for every event that disrupts the day-to-day lives of white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll sacrifice just about anything for the illusion of security. We’ll empty our pockets, walk through metal detectors and take an anal probe if it makes us feel a little more safe.

But these types of precautionary actions are not safety, they’re paranoia. Even though we may try like the dickens, we cannot prevent random acts of violence.

It’s oddly appropriate that the latest trend in random violence in this country is school shootings. Most schools take stronger “security measures” than your average prison.

Even when I was in high school, which was before this shooting trend really got rolling, security was becoming a big issue. The thinking seemed to be the same as at many high schools; lay off some part-time teachers and hire some more security guards.

When are we going to draw the line as to what we’re willing to sacrifice for security? We’re never going to be able to make a school completely safe.

So, basically we have to accept that horrible things do happen. We need to get on with our lives without worrying about things beyond our control.

If you want to believe that certain kinds of music, or D & D, or whatever cause school shootings — fine. But realize you’re not doing anything but deluding yourself. No matter how much you purify the cultural pool, violence will still occur.

Also realize that by increasing security, you’re doing very little to prevent violence and very much to infringe on your personal freedom.

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Ben Godar is a junior in sociology from Ames. He doesn’t like Marilyn Manson, but Marilyn likes him.