This afternoon, a teen gunman opened fire with a rifle at a prominent Omaha, Nebraska mall. Once all was said and done, eight innocent victims had died, the shooter had committed suicide, and countless lives were left in ruins. This attack comes in the wake of the prominent death of Washington Redskin player Sean Taylor and less than a year after the massacre at Virginia Tech.

Considering this new tragedy, I think it's fair to say that our Nation has a problem. A big problem.

Setting the Iraq War and 9/11 aside, I came of age in the era of Columbine. Sure, there are other events that have defined our times, but, for me, none other better exemplifies the visceral expression of internalized, isolated American violence. I remember reading the stories and listening to the eyewitness testimonies of kids my age, watching as their friends' lives evaporated in a hail of bullets. Leaning my head back, I could envision the raw emotion of the scenario; it was crippling, all-consuming. And it began to inform my opinion of a disconnect.

Now I'm not an empath, but I feel a palpable sense of urgency surrounding the vendetta-style mass murders committed by these youths. Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shootings, relied on Shakespeare to express his inward well of emotion to one student whom he stalked in the years leading up to the incident. He wrote the following passage on the whiteboard of the one whom he stalked:

By a name, I know not how to tell who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word.

Ignoring the context surrounding the line in its native Romeo and Juliet, I read utter despair and an absence of communication in the line. The evident self-loathing and communication break eventually culminated in a horrible upwelling. The same is true of the secret journals and videos kept by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teens who murdered 13 at their high school before turning their guns on themselves.

Violence pervades our culture. It's in our video games, movies, pro sports, and many other aspects of our lives. People have long tried to make hay of video games like Grand Theft Auto and Doom when they question what has led our society down this dangerous road. But the problem isn't violence. It has never been violence. The problem, for me, is obvious; it's communication and the inability of troubled individuals to get the help they desperately need.

Don't get me wrong: the perpetrators of these crimes are culpable. But, to some extent, so are we.

What forced Harris and Klebold underground? What drove Cho to his actions? What leads countless others to pick up a pistol and say to themselves, "This is my last, best option?" That is a question I simply cannot answer. Looking for answers in the riddles of cryptic Shakespeare lines and decade-old journals can only be so effective. Moving forward, we need to ask ourselves what can we do as a society to prevent more senseless tragedies from occurring. We do need to ask ourselves what can we do to ensure that desperate youths don't see the barrage of bullets as their last, best option.

What do these options include? The follow aren't authoritative or exhaustive, but I am of the opinion that we can go a long way if we have substantive discussions on the following topics:

-Gun control. We must pass legislation to ensure that certain weapons, which can snuff out life as quickly as someone sneezes, stay out of the wrong hands. In the case of Cho, that he was able to purchase multiple pieces of automatic weaponry with as checkered a mental past as he had amazes me. According to federal law, those with an unstable mental background are prohibited from purchasing firearms. But a disconnect between Federal and Virginia State systems means that Cho circumvented this legislation. As a result, lives were lost.

The Second Amendment is in the Constitution for a reason. Our founding fathers wanted to afford America's citizenry the right to defend itself. But that sentiment was cast in the late 18th century. With modern times and modern weapons, a few exceptions must be enacted. Assault weapons, for example, have no place in a family home and should be banned, all game-hunting uses aside. Beyond that, we need to ensure that our systems of communication are effective and enough prohibitions are enacted. We need to balance our Constitutional right to bear arms with the fact that times have changed.

-Mental health. It's a touchy topic, but one that must be discussed. As the purported "best" nation in the world, we must ensure that our health care reflects that label. You know how I feel about universal healthcare, but this is a special sub-topic that has a fond place in my heart. The brain is a complex tool, one our best scientists work day and night to better understand. In the past, when there's an illness of the brain and of the body's chemicals, often it was hard to get decent treatment. My late Grandmother used to take lithium for her bipolar disorder, but she would self-medicate in other ways. There are many people in my life, friends and family, who have had their lives turned upside-down due the mental health issues of friends and loved ones. Many of us have.

While mental illness used to be taboo, thank goodness it's finally coming into the mainstream light. I know how hard it can be to admit you have a problem and to ask for help, and I can only imagine the challenge of someone who struggles with a mental disorder. Asking for help on something you cannot fix or control is one of the greatest challenges any person can face. And many do so alone until they can get treatment. Accordingly, we must ensure that our top minds are afforded the resources they need to continue their essential research and develop cutting-edge medications and procedures. At the same time, we must elect President who will sign legislation to afford our nation the healthcare it deserves.

-Communication. At times, I see a big communication problem in our country. People can walk down the streets in pure isolation. I felt shards of that visceral, palpable urgency. Life is hard, and people are just trying to survive the day.

The solution to this one is easy. Stop and say hello to a passer-by. Thank people for effort. If you are emotionally outgoing, I promise that it will rub off on your fellow human beings and we'll all be better for it. That's how I live my life. I try to bring a little cheer to others by being kind, considerate, and as helpful as I can. And, when I'm feeling rotten, I try to not let things get to me or to take anything too personally, lest I lash out at other poor people trying to survive the day. And, at the same time, we must have proper oversight to ensure that government agencies between jurisdictions talk to each other.

Could any of the above helped Harris, Klebold, or Cho? Could it have helped Robert Hawkins, the youth whose life reached a head in the Omaha, Nebraska mall? Would it have saved any of the innocent victims of these horrible attacks? Again, I don't know.

But in an era where such desperation exists, it can't hurt to try.