As the shock of the Virginia Tech tragedy begins to wear off, it's time to return to making sure that a tragedy of this proportion is never repeated. Instead of creating a culture of fear, the Virginia Tech shooting can serve as an opportunity to eliminate the root causes of these tragedies. To keep this from happening in Ann Arbor, the University must recommit itself to mental health issues and the state and federal governments need to better enforce current gun control laws.

Among the many news stories about the shooter Cho Seung-Hui, the common conclusion was that Cho was a disturbed and mentally ill individual. While some prefer to leave it there, we must ask why Cho did not receive the treatment he obviously needed. Although the answer to that is complicated, it's fairly apparent that, although Cho was flagged as potentially dangerous, long-term emotional resources were unavailable to treat him.

But the problems of mental health care at Virginia Tech are indicative of problems throughout the country. At the University, the Counseling and Psychological Services office is underfunded and overbooked. Students often have to wait if their situation is not deemed an emergency. Even when they do receive treatment, CAPS is based on a short-term strategy that avoids the long-term support that is sometimes necessary.

The problem doesn't stop at campus resources. Even if the facilities are available, the inherent stigmatization of mental illness is a barrier for those who are willing to seek out help on their own. Like most colleges, the University is able to expel students who are labeled as a "danger," so seeking help can mean giving up an education.

By eliminating these counterproductive rules and opening dialogue about the importance of mental health support, the University can make it easier for people to come forward and avoid the anxiety that is often coupled with counseling.

But proper treatment can only go so far when the gun control laws in America are not properly enforced. In Cho's case, he was able to obtain a weapon, despite being flagged as a threat by Virginia Tech, because his condition was never relayed to the state. This sort of communication breakdown is common at both the state and federal levels and is partly to blame for many of the gun-related deaths each year.

However, all of these improvements cannot guarantee that tragedy doesn't strike. In these situations, students want to know what they should be doing and it's the administration's job to communicate with students during crises. Already, other universities have announced the creation of emergency text-messaging alerts to inform students of threats and how to proceed in the event of an emergency. Knowing that the University will properly handle a similar situation is an important part of making students feel safe.

Recognizing that the reasons for this tragedy go beyond the individual shooter and are certainly independent of the shooter's race, we can then move on to an understanding of how to prevent these tragedies. By working with the psychiatric facilities and gun control laws already in place, we can dually remove the motivation and means for these shootings. Doing that is the best way to honor the Virginia Tech victims.