The blame game.

Byline: The Register-Guard

As Americans struggled to come to grips with the horror of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech University, some swiftly succumbed to the urge to find something or someone to blame. It must be part of a coping mechanism that kicks in when a calamity occurs.

Though Cho Seung-Hui's homicidal rampage struck with the sudden fury of a tornado, the two-hour span between the first 911 call and the bloodbath at Norris Hall spawned a torrent of questions about whether Virginia Tech officials and Blacksburg police had adequately warned students and staff.

The heartbreaking clarity of hindsight never fails to find mistakes that the all-too-human agencies caught up in a catastrophe might have avoided.

Then came the predictable accusations from both sides of the gun wars. Another school slaughter by a disturbed assailant who had no trouble getting his hands on weapons because of the nation's lax gun laws. Or the flip side: Another school slaughter that could have been prevented but for ill-advised rules prohibiting weapons on campus.

The truth is that Cho Seung-Hui is to blame for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. It is left to the living to learn what they can in the hope of preventing something similar from occurring in the future. There's little to be gained from trying to salve unthinkable grief with after-the-fact blame.