How should we respond to another mass shooting?

Once again our country has been struck by a mass shooting, this time at a community college in Oregon.

Ten were killed by a man armed with four guns, who, according to reports, asked students to stand and cite their religion before executing them.

Foremost and most urgently, this is a time for grieving for the city of Roseburg, the family of the victims and those who attend and work at Umpqua Community College.

Secondarily, but just as important, this is a time to address the issue of mass shootings in our country.

While we don't agree with his politics, President Obama was correct in his assessment when he said, "Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it. We've become numb to this."

After each of the mass shootings that become national stories, intense debates ensue over gun control. Statistics can be bent and presented on both sides of the argument for and against gun control.

Limiting gun use is a hot debate, and it is much more complicated than sound bites or social media rants can express. We will leave the gun control debate alone for now.

Whether you believe more control is necessary or whether you will defend gun-ownership rights, there is something that is obvious, and that no one can deny: America has a violence problem.

The debate over guns, how accessible they should be and their role in the deaths of so many Americans, while important, is a narrow view of this problem.

The problem lies in the hearts and minds of our people.

Whether the cause of violent deaths is a matter of mental health issues, anger, hate, racism, drug crimes -- the violence inflicted within our borders is heartbreaking.

To solve the issue of mass shootings, it is going to take a nuanced and holistic approach that involves identifying signs of unstable and combustible people and knowing how to deal with those types of problems. It will involve being more tuned in to people and knowing how to respond.

It will involve finding ways to keep our schools and businesses secure and safe.

Following several of the other school shootings, school districts here and across the country amplified their security efforts. Perhaps the best immediate reaction our society can take in response to such a shooting is to review and confirm that we have reasonable measures in place. We've seen security increased at movie theaters, as well.

College campuses are trickier than elementary and high schools, where more buildings and bigger student populations create bigger security challenges. Training of shooting situations remains appropriate. As we've reported several times in the Southeast Missourian, experts teach teachers to try to be as disruptive as possible in mass shooting situations.

Some reporting on the Oregon shooting suggests that students were hiding behind desks and backpacks, and that some were shot directly in the head execution style. Those same items, backpacks and desks, or books or staplers, could be used to hurl at the attacker. More education of this style of response needs to be distributed to the masses. It would cut down on the number of deaths in these situations.

It is appropriate that our nation should be having a debate about gun control. Mass shootings, gun deaths and violence should concern us as a nation. Debate makes us better, makes us think harder, and maybe helps us come up with solutions.

But mass killings can't be solved with gun control alone, at least not any time soon. There are too many guns in circulation to think that simply limiting gun licenses would put a stop to murderous motives.

Instead, it takes a nation attacking the problem from multiple fronts.

The president is right. While we offer our prayers and condolences for the families involved, those alone don't seem to be adequate.

We must learn from this tragedy as well as others, chip away at the causes and bolster ourselves against the violence that shows no signs of stopping any time soon.