Accountability

I was involved in an interesting conversation about accountability yesterday.  A group of people were discussing the shooter from Tucson and how the media is looking for someone to blame for his shooting all those innocent people.  The press is asking why the police officer let him go after stopping him for running a red light.  Some Democrats are blaming Sarah Palin and other right-wing extremists for their "hate campaigns" against Democrats. (I would refer you to my previous post Intolerance of the Obama supporter).  Other articles asked why his parents didn't intervene.  Everyone is looking for a reason, someone to blame.

While I understand that we all want to understand why and how a human being could do this to people he didn't even know.  It is human nature to want to believe that there is some outside force that would make people suddenly do bad things.  If 9/11 and the ensuing terroristic acts taught us anything, it should have taught us about the ability of humans to just not care about others.  In this case, as in many others, there is no one to blame but the actor.  The shooter did what he wanted and in retrospect, there was little indication that should have led people to stop him.  He is and should be held fully accountable for his own actions.  Punishment should be dealt accordingly.

Thoughts anyone?