Asymmetrical Information

HOW LONG UNTIL THE PLANE-CONTROL

HOW LONG UNTIL THE PLANE-CONTROL advocates come out of the woodwork to condemn the lax laws that allowed the Bishop kid to smack a plane into a building? Or, for that matter, the gun control advocates who tried to use Columbine to push through gun control laws that wouldn't have prevented the tragedy?

When I saw the news story, I wondered why the pilot had crashed the plane on a weekend, when there was no one around. The answer, I guess, is that grandma couldn't drive him to flying lessons on a weekday. Alienated, suicidal teenage kids are dangerous, and the media and the internet seem to be an excellent source of ideas for venting their rage on others. As a friend pointed out, if Dylan Klebold hadn't been able to get guns, his backup plan was to blow up the school -- and he apparently would have been able to do it. There is no easy solution for any of this (although I think that if the media adamantly refused to publish the names of any of these kids, it would help). Nonetheless, I suspect we'll hear a raft of ideas for quick fixes in the days ahead.