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The why is the most haunting question
Published 12:20pm Thursday, December 20, 2012The seemingly senseless act of violence this past week in Newtown, Conn., only seems so because we do not know, and may never know, what drove this young man to such desperation.
What we do know, or have heard through the media, is that the shooters own mother, who was apparently his first victim, had herself purchased the weapons used in the crime. She, it seems, was intent on protection against some unknown boogeyman. Turns out the boogeyman lived in her house.
Just a few days prior to this incident a church pastor, no less, shoots his own boogeyman who turns out to be his granddaughter.
Paranoia may destroy ya?
I believe it was Jesus Christ himself who warned his followers: He who takes up the sword will likewise die by the sword.
Lee Hamness
Underwood
Guns are important to the weakest among us, especially in high crime areas. Guns are an equalizing force when faced with a stronger aggressor. I don’t imagine protecting the weak is a consideration to the democrat party, which refuses to protect the weakest among us (the unborn).
“When Seconds Count, The Police Are Only Minutes Away”
Your misinterpretation of that proverb is quite silly. Shall we disarm police, so they do not “die by the sword”?
Perhaps you haven’t noticed Mike Van Horn, the un-born are not “among us” precisely because they are “un-born”. However once they are “among us” it is the Democratic party that actually cares about them and protects them. Unlike your party which does everything it can to restrict pre-natal care, free care at planed parenthood, pre-school, school lunch programs, food stamp programs which go mostly to children, although your party gains renewed interest in children once they come of age to become cannon fodder and loses interest once again when they are wounded and no longer useful to the war machine.
The unborn are alive, able to live outside the womb after a time in a pregnancy. An “unborn” baby is alive.
Richard, when your head is in the sand, you are still “among us”, no?
If they were born, they would not be called “un-born”.
“With one exception since at least 1950, all public mass shootings, in which more than 3 people have been killed, occurred where concealed hand guns were banned.” ~John Lott 12/18/2012
Jared Lee Loughner, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Cho Seung-Hui, Matti Saari, and Russell Williams were mass or serial killers, and all were atheists. Perhaps Adam Lanza as well. Maybe we need more atheist control.
Perhaps we should put the blame on atheism for encouraging and fomenting the thoughts and actions that lead atheists to engage in criminal and violent behavior.
I think you’ve had Atheist control for centuries. At one time it was called the Spanish Inquisition and the Reformation, later the Salem Witch Trials. Today we simply call it “Religious Intolerance”, the kind you hope to inspire with your intolerant comment.
If you want to make the argument that the people you mentioned committed their crime in the name of Atheism, go ahead, I’d like to head it. Because I can make the case that Timothy McVeigh, Anders Behring Breivik and every abortion clinic bomber and abortion Doctor killer committed their crimes in the Name of their Christian religion. Further, Adolph Hitler, a Catholic saw his life work as a fulfillment of the scriptures, and mentions god in his speeches many times.
Lastly, lets not forget the big one…the Christian Crusades. Which were central to the writings of Tim McVeigh and central also in the 1500 page manifesto of Anders Breivik.
You make my point.
Then your point must be that I’m right.
There is one criminal whose actions could have prevented the school shooting–The mother–who by being a gun owner failed, as so many do, to properly keep her guns safely stored and out of the hands of a mad man. (Maybe its not guns that kill people but careless gun owners who fail to take basic responsibility for their weapons and let crazies get guns.)
Why not blame the perpetrator?
Why would we blame the perpetrator when we can blame President Obama? You remember him don’t you….Captain Zero, the Dictator, Dictator for life?
“When the debate is lost, Slander becomes the tool of the loser” Socrates
This is a rare occurance, but I actually I agree with Larry on who is to blame in this situation, as well as all of these incidents.
There are two criminals whose actions could have prevented the school shooting–The parents–who by being absent in their training, failed, as so many do, to properly train up a child in the way that he should go so that when he is old he would not depart from it, and bringing them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, thus creating a mad man. (Maybe its not parents that kill people but careless parentings fail to teach basic responsibility for their offspring and raise crazy people.)
the only way to stop pyscho people with guns (and they will get them pretty much anyway they can) is a trained teacher/guard that has a gun to stop him or her. how did this discussion morph into the garbage being posted on here. for gods sake, even the second coming merle posted on this.
Q. How many NRA leaders does it take to change a light bulb?
A. More Guns.
And when some armed psycho teacher/guard shoots all of his or her students the answer will no doubt be to arm the students.
A good guy with a gun was unable to stop the carnage at the Gabby Giffords shooting and counted himself fortunate that he didn’t accidentally shoot the man who had disarmed the Giffords shooter.
Lee says: The why is the most haunting question. Then he goes on to suggest that anyone who owns a gun for self protections is paranoid. Perhaps he believes that we should all turn in our guns and simply trust the government to protect us, which I am sure every evil person will immediately comply with.
Larry blames the carelessness of the gun owner for allowing a mad man (her own son) to have access to the gun. Although he has a valid point, he missed an even greater problem. Young men have had access to guns for hundreds of years in this country, but the mass shootings in schools has increased significantly in recent years.
Tom suggests a way to deter or prevent some of the casualties, but he doesn’t address the “Why”, which Lee asks in his letter.
I presented the only true answer as to the “Why”. The parents failed to teach Godliness and live Godly before their children, and thus they raised a mad man.
The BTK Killer, Dennis Rader, killed 10 people in Wichita, Kansas over a 30-year period. He was married with two children, a Boy Scout leader, employed as a local government official and was the president of his church congregation
The Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway confessed to killing 48 women over a 20-year period in the Seattle, Washington area. He was married, held the same job for 32 years, attended church regularly and read his Bible at home and at work.
Living Church of God shooting: Brookfield, Wisconsin
Mar. 12 2005
Living Church of God member Terry Michael Ratzmann, 44, opened fire at a church meeting at a Sheraton hotel before committing suicide. Total injured and killed: 11
Criminologist James Fox, who studies mass murderers and serial killers, says it’s misguided to blame perpetrators’ families for their crimes.
“We’re a nation of finger-pointers,” he said. “We blame them for having raised a monster.” But often, he and others said, families are just as surprised as the rest of us — and just as traumatized.
When young people turn violent, we naturally turn to parenting to explain what went wrong, even though research suggests that hidden, often undiagnosed mental health problems — as well as perpetrators’ relationships with peers, teachers and others — can play a much bigger role.
“Obviously parenting has an effect,” Fox said. “But to create this kind of outcome, the parent would have to be … a tremendously bad parent. And you generally don’t find that.”
It is not so much the gun owner was the shooter’s mother that is my point, though she was close enough to him to know he must have had anti-social tendencies, it was the fact she didn’t properly store her guns that means she must share the blame, just as surely as the gun owner who has a gun in his car and has his car stolen, only to have his gun used in a crime by the car thief.