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They echo across the ages, through each and every tragedy. The grieving families, the traumatized classmates, the community that never knew the victims but feels them in their skin, in their bones, in their fallen hearts.

Jonesboro, Ark.; Littleton, Colo.; Red Lake, Minn.; Nickel Mines, Pa. Add Blacksburg, Va., to the roster of fatal school shootings.

All of us, once again, are bound together in an endless loop of struggling to make sense of the sudden loss of youths who were simply trying to make something better of themselves.

Seung-Hui Cho chose - or was driven - to return us to this awful place as he carved a new form of chaos this week on the campus of Virginia Tech.

We've been here before. And every time, we've seen the common thread of a mental illness untreated or mistreated or never diagnosed at all.

And every time - every single time - we've turned the conversation to gun control.

Joanna Salinas wouldn't mind turning it toward something else. Something like insurance parity for mental illness, greater public awareness of what mental illness is and how to cope with it, more clinics with more therapists, an abolishment of the stigma that reduces mentally ill people to something less than human - to "nut jobs" and "crazies."

Salinas, president of the New Mexico chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, isn't alone. Sherry Pabich, president of NAMI's Albuquerque chapter, said Kendra's Law - a means of ordering mandatory treatment for mentally ill people - should be a cornerstone of every state's health care system.

"If they (Virginia) had had the Kendra's Law, then the people that were stalked (by Cho) could have petitioned to have him evaluated," Pabich said. "His roommate could have. The professor who requested he needed to be evaluated could have."

New Mexico's Legislature rejected Kendra's Law this year, partly because of fears that there aren't enough beds and therapists to help even the people who ask for it themselves. Pabich vows the push for it will continue - along with statewide programs like Albuquerque's mental health court and community treatment teams.

Still, there's so far to go, here and nationwide. For that, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, is once again riding the white horse.

Along with Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, he's pushing for an insurance parity law that would expand the benefits he first managed to enact in 1996. His bill would order insurance companies to cover co-payments, deductibles, hospitalizations and annual and lifetime limits to the same degree they do for physical ailments.

That would help 113 million Americans, Domenici said. But only those who already have insurance. And only those who manage to find the type of mental health care they need.

He knows those odds get slimmer and slimmer year by year - even as the chances of another Virginia Tech, another Columbine increase.

"This brings back into focus the terrible deficiencies that exist in the United States of America regarding the delivery of health care to the mentally ill," Domenici said. "I believe we should use the fact that we now know what is happening and is going to keep happening if we don't change the law."

His parity bill has been stalled by negotiations with the House - though Domenici hopes to finish those soon. When he does, he's prepared to embark on an almost colossal venture to build clinics and add therapists to communities across the nation.

"There are more insane and mentally ill people in jails this morning than there are in hospitals or community health centers," he said. "We need a huge national debate on what we want to do about this. I want to prick America's conscience about it."

If he can't, then Blacksburg should. If 32 stolen lives can leave one lasting legacy, let it be this.

Nelson is The Tribune's managing editor. Call her at 823-3651 or send e-mail to knelson@abqtrib.com.