Unabated, the madness rages on....

From the Columbine High School Memorial

"It brought the nation to it's knees, but now that we've gotten back up

how have things changed; what have we learned?"

Sadly we live through yet another school shooting.   13 plus years removed from the shootings at Columbine.

I have no answer to this question, how have things changed, what have learned in the years that have passed.

As a community that has lived through this too many times, from the shock and horror at Columbine, to the shootings at  

Platte Canyon High school to the madness at the Aurora theater less than four months ago, I fear that little has changed.   The body count continues to grow and to borrow a line from Mayor Rudolph Guliani as we learn more about the young children that were killed today the pain will be more than we can bare. 

Communities will rally around the community in Conneticut.  We will donate millions of dollars, people will rush to give blood and it will never be enough to ease the pain and the loss. 

The mother of Jessica Redfield  began to her plea to the media to focus on the victims and their families and not publish photos of the coward who murdered 27 people and the media will publish the photos of the killer.  I grind my teeth every time I see a photo of the Aurora shooter.  I want to see pictures of Jessica and Alex, and Mckalya, and the others that were killed last summer.  I don't want any of them to be forgotten. I fear that as long as we remember and talk about the killers instead of the innocents that this cycle will never end. 

The politicians will not act.  They will state that nothing can be done.  The second amendment and the right to bear arms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  The guns used at this latest crime might have been obtained legally and why oh why does a private citizen need a Glock that can squeeze off 100 shots without blinking. 

I have already seen the posts on Facebook and Twitter stating this is not a gun control conversation, but a conversation about mental health.  I am trying to stay away from social media.  Now is not the time to throw another log on the file. 

For now we will turn to prayer, we will donate money, donate blood and we will go on with our lives and hope this won't happen again.  Hope won't be enough to stop the next shooting.  And when the next senseless shooting happens we will debate about the need for stricter gun laws, how do we identify the shooter that lives quietly among us and wonder what signs did we miss.   We will donate more money, more blood and then we will move on. 

I don't know what the answer is.  I fear deeply that the shootings will go on. 

Tweet