How does one begin to comment about the
massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut?
What can one say about the slaughter of 28 people, 20 of them
young children?
Well, let me try if I can.
Like everyone else, I am profoundly saddened, dismayed and
bewildered by what happened today. My thoughts are with the
families of those who are no longer with us.
I realize that it may be too early for “analysis” especially
when the victims haven’t been laid to rest. The following is only
intended to try to put what happened today in some kind of
perspective.
Given the age of a majority of the victims, I suspect there will
be intensified calls for tighter gun control laws and I also
suspect there will be greater public support for these measures.
The death of young children is very hard to take. What parent
doesn’t see themselves in the shoes of those in Newtown? This would
include President Obama.
But when President Obama
speaks of ” taking meaningful action” it is hard to conceive
that he is talking about anything other than stronger gun control
laws.
Let me put it this way. If I thought that tougher gun control
laws was all it took to prevent this from happening, I would be on
board. But easy answers not only never solve the problem they often
create more problems.
No gun law can ever abolish evil. Indeed, evil can rise anywhere
at anytime. As Bill Hemmer of FNC pointed out there hadn’t been a
major crime committed in Newtown in two years. Let us
also remember that the gunman shot and killed his own
mother before proceeding to the school where his mother
worked and then killed all those people.
Sadly, the
killing of schoolchildren is not unprecedented in this country.
Of course, most people remember Columbine. I particularly remember
the 1988
school shooting in Winnetka, Illinois which resulted in the
death of eight-year old boy while four of his classmates were
seriously wounded. The 2006
school shooting in the Amish community of Nickel Mines,
Pennsylvania which resulted in the death of five girls also sticks
out in my mind. Unfortunately, this scarcely scratches the
surface of the school shootings that have taken place over the past
quarter century.
Let’s consider that gun ownership has been part of this
country’s history since its founding. The same cannot be said of
massacres of this nature. What this tells me is that something has
changed in the character of this country over the past 25 years.
These changes in character and culture won’t be easy to diagnose as
there are multiple symptoms. Even if we do manage to come to a
general consensus as to the diagnosis and then somehow find some
kind of cure, it will take many years before we can remedy our
character. And even if we do that, evil is never far away.
