Accident investigators are often fond of saying that disasters "don't just happen," that they are caused by a series of little failures that magnify the effect of each other.
The recent shooting incident in Tacloban City, involving two high school students who managed to get a gun, slip past security and shoot away at their fellow schoolmates, is no different.
It exposed a series of failures at various sectors, all contributing to the gunman's inexplicable decision to take out his rage at his peers and kill three of them in the process.
More and more details have cropped up as authorities have begun their investigation, highlighting this chain of failures and lapses that, if broken, might have averted so much carnage and trauma.
Issues with the shooter’s family relations.
The influence of social media and peer pressure.
A society where violence is not just tolerated but accepted and encouraged as the norm.
Lax implementation of firearm laws that somehow enabled these minors to procure guns.
Lapses in security inside our schools, highlighting the sorry state of our education system.
The list could go on and on. But one chief takeaway from this incident is how true the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is.
Resolving this heinous crime and preventing this kind of incident from happening again will take more than simply lowering the age of criminal responsibility or a blanket ban of social media among minors, as the Marcos administration and some sectors are now reportedly willing to enact.
Every Filipino has a stake in ensuring that our children will not grow up to be people who are willing to settle scores with vitriol and break the chains of violence that has plagued our society for decades.
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