"Guns don't kill people; people kill people."

How many times have you heard that saying?

Whether it was the reported automatic weapons, or if it was the two young men responsible for Tuesday's incident in Littleton, Colo., the result is the same. Fifteen people are dead and 23 people were treated at hospitals.

Guns. Violence. America's youth.

Words that people don't want to associate with one another, but because of seven school-shooting incidents in the past 19 months, this country is now forced to deal with the issue.

People can scream and yell about gun control, and there might be something to their argument. Guns are too readily available to kids. But when it comes down to it, are the guns that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used to blame? No.

People might point at television programs and motion pictures as something to blame. And it is true, there is a lot of violence seen through this venue. But these things are made for entertainment, for people's enjoyment. And that is just what they are - entertainment. So can they be blamed? No.

The problem that needs to be addressed is deeply rooted in all Americans. The problem is the American family and its dysfunctions.

I am not saying that Harris' and Klebold's families are dysfunctional. I didn't know them. And I don't know anyone in the families they've left behind.

But there is no way someone can tell me that no one knew what these kids were up to. And if no one knew what these kids were doing, doesn't that seem like a problem to anyone else besides me?

In today's America, people seem to be so worried about what they are going to do next and how much money they are going to make doing it that no one seems to want to slow down and see what the true national problems are.

The American family has fallen apart. And this is a problem.

I am not targeting people who have been divorced or children whose parents have gotten divorced, because it is not just those families. But parents need to be involved in the lives of their children. They need to sit down and talk with their kids.

Parents need to make time for their kids. People need to make time for people.

The nation is mourning the loss of the students and teachers, but at the same time people are breathing a sigh of relief because it was not their kids or their school. But let me tell you something, these were your kids that died and it did happen at your school.

These were America's children who died Tuesday.

This will more than likely happen again. This time it could happen in Athens, or it could happen at the high school you went to. Would it have made that much more of a difference if it did happen here?

It really shouldn't. These are America's children. This is America's problem.

We, as a country, are strong enough to go into Yugoslavia and try to solve a problem with that country's people. But we seem to have no answers for our own problems. More Americans died Tuesday at Columbine High School then have died in that military effort.

So while this nation has been asking the questions of "Why did this happen?" or "How could this happen?" the problem continues to worsen. And if America doesn't act quickly, the problem will continue.

I am not telling you anything new, anything you haven't heard or read before. But how much longer do children, our children, America's children, have to continue to kill before the rest of the nation decides to do something about it?

People need to look inside themselves and ask "What can I do to help?" Whatever it is - if it is trying to stop being racist, if it is to become more educated about guns, if it is trying to help children understand that television and movies are just entertainment -- it will help.

This is our country. This is the United States of America. We, united, have to help solve this problem.

It can be done.

Trem, The Post's managing editor, can be reached at mt320795.