Last Thursday, while most people were planning for Valentine’s Day, heartbreak struck the campus of Northern Illinois University.

A 27-year-old former student, Steven Kazmierczak opened fire with four guns on campus, killing five people and seriously wounding 15 others.

This tragedy is the latest in a string of campus violence, capping a week in which there were five separate school shootings.

Now, some will argue that this is a sign that we need to seriously overhaul security on school grounds. Others will say that it shows the failures of the mental health system in our nation.

The reality is, the blame for Thursday’s events lies solely with Steven Kazmierczak. The shooting was a tragedy, and people should understand that.

Turn on the news on any given day and you’ll see horrible events. A bus flipped over and killed five people. A mother of two drowned her infant son. A fire broke out and burned someone’s house to the ground.

Tragedies happen. With the national media attention, any bad event will get a lot of play on every major news outlet. Thursday’s tragedy was front-page news because it had to be. However, the reality is that these things happen. As horrible as it is to hear that five people were shot and killed while sitting in class, this is no worse than five people being shot and killed while sitting in a restaurant, or 25 people being blown up in a café in Iraq.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not discounting the tragic nature of the events. I’m just saying that people should respect that things like this are inevitable.

The worst thing we can do as a nation is to take this and use it as a political rallying cry. That would be the worst insult to the memory of the victims of NIU.

There is no truly effective way to forever halt school violence, or violence in general. Thinking we can end violence is just na’ve.

People will argue that NIU is a product of our country’s lax gun control laws. Others will argue that it’s a sign we should have looser gun control laws. Still others will say that it’s the health care industries’ fault, or the fault of campus police, or Kazmierczak’s peers failing to notice a friend in need.

People go crazy sometimes. And when they do, they can’t always be stopped. Kazmierczak was a sociology graduate student at the university and was highly regarded by his professors and peers. He earned a dean’s award in 2006.

There’s hardly a less likely candidate to go on a shooting rampage. You might as well start frisking the university president on his way into the office or set up a metal detector in front of the football locker room.

The lesson here is this: Tragedy can strike at any time. By understanding that, maybe you’ll think twice before hanging up on your friend or flipping off the driver in the lane next to you.

Be a good person. Life is short, so return someone’s smile or hold the door for that kid rushing in behind you.

-Sabrina Norris-Turin is a pre-journalism and Spanish sophomore.

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.