Her uncle Jeff Elliott told The Oklahoman newspaper that she was an avid reader, was learning German and had almost mastered Latin. She was home-schooled, he said, and had worked at a department store for about a year to save money for college.

She spent several years of her childhood in Oklahoma, but her father’s Navy career also took the family to Florida, Texas and then to Virginia.

"Lauren had such a sweet innocent heart," Jeanne Meadows, who attended church with McCain, wrote to MSNBC.com. "I can bet you at the last moment of her life she was most likely praying for the gunman and forgiving him."

Billy Graham Rapid Response Team Sent to Virginia

Throughout the world, Christians are praying for the family and friends of the victims of the Virginia Tech killings that took place earlier this week. The Christian community has responded to this tragedy in a variety of loving and supportive ways, including the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) that has deployed its Rapid Response Team to the Virginia Tech campus.

The BGEA is asking that you forward the following information to anyone you know who has been impacted by the tragedy.

"In the midst of this tragedy, do you need someone to sit and talk with? The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team is on the Virginia Tech campus to offer comfort and a listening ear. Counselors and ministry volunteers specially trained in grief assistance are available to meet with you one-on-one, at your convenience."

If you or someone you know has been affected by this incident, please call 1-888-902-2004, 24 hours a day, and the BGEA team will help you connect face-to-face with one of their team members on campus as soon as possible. Your call is completely confidential.

Formed in the aftermath of 9/11, The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team exists to bring a ministry of presence and prayer and appropriately share God’s love, comfort, and hope with those affected by a man-made or natural disaster.

The Team has deployed more than 700 trained chaplains and ministry volunteers to the Gulf Coast region since August 2005 to assist with post-Katrina counseling and sent chaplains to the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota following a fatal high school shooting in 2005, among other crisis response efforts.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4, NIV). This is our hope and prayer for you during this difficult time.

Media Commentator Takes Issue With Gun Ownership as Root Problem

Robert Peters, President of the New York City-based Morality in Media, which works to promote standards of decency in media, had the following comments in response to the many news stories pointing a finger at the availability of guns as the underlying cause of the Virginia Tech and similar senseless shootings:

"Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in North Central Illinois I often felt left out when friends went hunting for rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, deer and more.

"My dad never took us hunting, even though his father had hunted and even though we had a rifle in the home that he taught us how to use when I was in grade school. After my grandfather passed away when I was in college, we also had a shotgun and handgun in the home.

"Fist fighting among kids was common, but never once did any of us (or our parents) use a gun to shoot someone else. To my knowledge, the community I grew up in was not atypical.

"Not surprising, my own growing up experience makes me wary of those that point a finger at the availability of guns as the underlying cause of the dramatic increase in gun-related murders.

"The depiction of guns back then in films and TV also had an impact on us. I still have a picture of my older brother and I with our cowboy six guns and holsters; and I still have fond memories of playing war in the woods with our toy rifles and my favorite gun, a plastic carbine.

"But I think I am on safe ground in saying that we didn't grow up fantasizing about shooting other human beings in real life just for the sake of shooting them or for exacting revenge.

"How then do we explain why so many young people today use guns unlawfully?

"One obvious part of the explanation is the decline of religion and, along with that, the decline of morality. There is nothing more basic to morality than, 'You shall not kill.'

"I think another part of the explanation was the abandonment in the 1960s of the Hays Code that governed the film industry for three decades. Among the Code provisions was one that regulated the depiction of murder. Murder was to be presented in a way that would not inspire imitation. Brutal killings were not to be presented in detail. Revenge was not to be justified.

"Broadcast television helped further desensitize youth to criminal violence; and the advent of cable TV and home videos brought the unedited, amoral deadly violence of Hollywood directly into home. Hardcore rap lyrics also extol criminal violence, including use of guns.

"And today, video games provide youth with on-hands instruction in how to kill.

"Without question, the increased availability of weapons designed to take human life has contributed to the increase in mayhem, but typically supply follows demand, and what has helped create the demand for such weapons is a popular culture that glamorizes their use.

"All this is not to say that society shouldn't restrict the sale of guns and perhaps prohibit the sale of some guns altogether. Even assuming that the 2nd Amendment protects the right of citizens to keep weapons (as I believe it does), reasonable regulation should still be permissible.

"It is to say that we would have much less to fear from the availability of guns, if we would stop glamorizing their use in popular culture. On the latter point, I recall seeing a statistic that less than 5% of New York City police officers ever fire their guns. You'd never know that from popular culture depictions of life as a major city law enforcement officer."

Award-Winning Reporter Sees Link Between Virginia Tech Shooter and Violent Movie

Among the many shocking images in the package sent to NBC News by murderer Cho Seung-Hui, was a snapshot eerily similar to a character in a violent film. The parallels between Cho and poses struck by the villain in the movie "Oldboy" provide not only clues for investigators but further evidence of a connection between media violence and aggressive behavior.

Teresa Tomeo, an award winning reporter and anchor, is the author of a new book "Noise; How our Media Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families", published by Ascension Press. Tomeo is a veteran broadcast-journalist with 26 years of experience in both the secular and Christian media and has also been writing and speaking on the topic of media awareness for seven years.

"We saw a connection between the school shootings in Paducah Kentucky and the fantasy scenes in the film 'Basketball Diaries.' We saw it with violent video games, specifically the game 'Doom' and the gunmen in Columbine. With Cho, we see him angrily posing with a hammer in his hands ready to strike. The image, according to the New York Times, is a carbon copy of a scene right out of 'Oldboy.' We also see the connections between media violence and countless other senseless acts that take place every day. Medical organizations and research groups have been studying this problem for decades. Another report released earlier this year showed a dramatic increase in violent programming on prime time TV. "It's time that both the media and media consumers take this issue seriously," said Tomeo.

In her book "Noise," Tomeo discusses how both media outlets and media users need to share in the responsibility. She provides evidence to show the many influences of the media, as well as guidelines for families on how to make a difference in their homes and in the culture. She also takes media moguls to task for repeatedly deflecting the bulk of responsibility on viewers and listeners.

** Michael Ireland is an international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News Service of Lake Forest, California. Michael immigrated to the United States in 1982 and became a US citizen in September, 1995. He is married with two children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station.