The questions have started.

t's about 36 hours after the events at VA Tech shocked us all into the reality that life truly is short, that tragedy strikes at random, that our young people can hold great promise, and that heroes come in many forms - sometimes as a 76 year old engineering professor who having possessed the survival instinct to live through the Holocaust and communist rule, made the choice to sacrifice his life so his students could escape out a classroom window and fulfill the futures for which he'd been training them.

But the politics doesn't seem to want to stop at the water's edge.

Gun control. That's the issue du jour.

Brian Williams asked President Bush about it Tuesday. The editorial pages are out in force. Of course, the argument is a ridiculous one. Insane even.

Writing more laws in order to prevent criminals from breaking the current laws makes about as much sense as threatening to punish an apple by not letting it play the guitar.

Exactly.

If the young psychopath who shot dozens of people at VA Tech was willing to lock his victims in a building, line them up and shoot each victim multiple times, does any one believe that any gun law could possibly have prevented him from visiting his horror on those poor people?

Of course it wouldn't have. Gun control laws are not only unconstitutional in almost all their forms, but finally - and almost more importantly - are practically ineffectual at preventing criminals from getting guns.

Let me repeat that: ... at preventing criminals from getting guns.

Criminals, by definition, have no intention of respecting or obeying the laws of the land. They violate the social contract by their mere intention to commit crimes, and therefore cannot be relied upon to not use any means necessary to obtain the tools of their nefarious craft.

Let's remember the real story of the tragedy we've all lived through this week: 30-some-odd lives were snuffed out. Sons, daughters, friends, fathers, sisters, brothers. Too tragic.

Let's not waste our time, our humanity, and our good sense playing politics with an event that needs no such commentary.

The sad truth is that there's nothing anyone could have done on that campus to prevent those horrific shootings.

Laws won't fix this. What will?

PART II COMING SOON