When the unimaginable happens, it's a human impulse to look for explanations.

And so, no sooner had the nightmarish reports of the massacre in Virginia circled the globe, the discussion became a search for answers, on blogs across the Net and in media reports everywhere.

The conversation began in subdued tones. Shock and disbelief and, for the families with loved ones on the Virginia Tech campus, a frenzied barrage of questions marked the initial response.

All too soon, questioning gave way to hasty assertions.

On one news blog, the commentary turned almost immediately to speculation about the gunman's immigration status. Surely, the writer insisted, the actions of Cho Seung-Hui, the legal immigrant who took his own life after the killings, proves the national policy on immigration is too lax.

Others offered predictable calls for stronger gun laws. Still others took the opposite tack, suggesting that the mayhem would have been contained if more people were armed in self-defense. Neither course seems mandated by Monday's events.

However people position themselves on such issues, there ought to be agreement on one score: Now is not the time for basing sweeping conclusions on a single event.

It is the time, first, for comforting the grieving families, and for all to grieve the lives extinguished by violence. And those who survived will need all the attention their caregivers and loved ones can muster to begin the healing.

What happened was senseless; knee-jerk reactions won't make it sensible.

Here at home, assuming that the campus slayings prove the need for armed guards at the University of Hawai'i is premature, to say the least.

Cho's mental state was not overlooked by vigilant teachers and counselors, who responded to signs of trouble in his behavior and classwork.

And linking the event and Cho's Asian ancestry is simply misguided and ignorant.

There is no single person or thing, other than the killer himself, to blame. Rather than rushing to judgment, we as a nation need time to listen to ideas and reflect on ways that might make us safer, not use this case as a means to pursue an agenda that was set long before the tragedy took place.