26

26.

6 adults. 

20 children.

DEAD.

For no other reason than some punk got up with a hair across his ass hating the world, and decided to "get even". 

Yesterday morning a 20 year old boy (I'm not naming him, he deserves no amount of fame; not even the fame of infamy) got up and shot his mother in the head, killing her.  He then stole her car and traveled to the elementary school where she worked as a substitute kindergarten teacher.  He bypassed the security system put in place by the new principal a few years ago and made his way to the office.  Once there, he used the guns he had stolen from his mother to begin killing the adult administrators.  He then killed a janitor who was running the halls warning people what was happening.

Then, he went to the kindergarten classroom and began the truly horrific part of his march of death by killing the teacher and the children.  One by one, he killed 20 children.  5 & 6 year old kids!

Once they were all dead, he then turned the gun on  himself and committed suicide, escaping justice and denying the community the chance to get answers to the question they'll be asking for a generation:  WHY?  His cowardice knows no bounds.  He was even carrying his brother's ID, leading to his initially being named as the shooter.

We'll never know why he decided to do what he did.  We'll never know why he tried to set up his brother to take the blame.  We will never know, WHY?

We will be subjected to around the clock news coverage for the next few days, with various talking heads and "mental health professionals" giving their opinions on what & why.  They will profess expertise on the matter of "emotional disconnect" and various psychosis and diagnosis of this syndrome or that condition.  They'll talk about his "home environment" and how that may have contributed to his actions.  They'll wonder whether he suddenly developed this condition, or whether it was the result of a long slow build-up of escalating behaviors of rage and violence and that no one happened to be able to connect the dots. 

All of this is a waste of airtime.  We can't ever know, but, being human; being thinking, reasoning beings, we all have the need to settle what happened and why, at least in our own minds.  I'm no different, although my answer likely is:

He was evil.

Don't give me the excuse, or give him the cover, of "Oh, he isn't to blame.  He had a tough childhood.  He was suffering from a mental illness.  We need to have compassion and understanding, not condemnation."

BULLSHIT.

He wasn't "suffering".  His victims suffered.  Their parents suffered, and will suffer for the rest of their lives.  Their friends suffered, and will for years.  All of the children who went to that school on that day have suffered the shock of a terrorist attack and the knowledge that some of their school mates are dead and that their world is no longer the safe, wonderful, magical place they believed.  The police and other first responders who had to confront the scene initially and those who will need to spend days with the contorted corpses of murdered children have suffered and will continue to suffer.

He didn't suddenly "snap" and strike out with whatever was at hand at a single person or immediate group.  His actions show that he moved with conscious intent, perhaps even some element of planning and anticipation.  His actions were the result of several conscious decisions:

First, he made the decision to hurt his mother.  As the first step in the fulfillment of his desire, he decided to murder his mother.  Whatever his reasons to want to hurt the woman who gave birth to him, it was his decision.  No one forced it on him.  Second, he made the decision to steal guns from his mother in order to fulfill his desire to kill. Third, he decided to steal his mother's car and make the drive to the school where she worked in order to hurt her more by killing the people she worked with and to eliminate the children she loved.  Fourth, he devised a plan to evade the security in place and gain entry into the school.  Fifth, he decided where to begin and who would be his first targets, the first to die.  Sixth, he made the conscious decision to go to the kindergarten classroom, the children his mother taught, to commit his atrocity.  He didn't harm or even threaten any of the older students or their teachers, unless they happened to cross his path and get in his way.  Seventh, he consciously, and with full intent, killed those children.  One by one.  Finally, he decided to avoid the consequences of his actions by committing suicide.  All of these were conscious decisions he made, not orders he was following.  His were the decisions, his is the responsibility.

There is only one thing worse than the events of yesterday morning and it's aftermath.  It's the entirely predictable attempt by those with a political agenda to use this tragedy to their advantage.  The gun control extremists and other "community activists" will begin demanding stricter laws and greater restrictions on the 2nd Amendment.  They will point to this as an example of the "gun culture" of America that is running amok. 

The actions of the shooter were evil.  The attempts of politicians and others to capitalize on the event for their own purposes is obscene.  No amount of increased gun regulation would have prevented this tragedy.  If it wasn't a gun, it would have been something else.  On this same day, in China, a man entered an elementary school and slashed dozens with a knife.  A couple years ago, Norway was the scene of a similarly horrific mass shooting, and they have some of the strictest gun regulations in the world.  Restricting access to legal ownership of firearms isn't the answer.  Criminals aren't interested in whether they are breaking the law in obtaining a gun.  But gun control activists aren't as interested in saving the innocent and protecting society as they are in controlling society and limiting the individual's right to self defense and individual freedom in the name of security.

Evil will always find a way.  No amount of legislation will prevent attacks of the type we've seen in the last few years from occurring.  It's a cultural sickness resulting from the gradual breakdown of civil society.

All we can do, what we must do, is recognize the face of evil and deal with it.  We can no longer blind ourselves to potential consequences in the name of "tolerance" and a false compassion.