Column published in last week's issue of The Madison County Journal
By Dallas Bordon
If you’re like me, you’re a bit
anxious when you drop off your child at school each morning following the
tragedy in Newtown Connecticut. We might wonder if it’s possible that tragedy,
like the shootings in Newtown that killed 26 people (20 children), could happen
in our community. The tragedy that occurred in Newtown, a quiet small town with
a low crime rate, proves that it can happen in any town. “I never pictured that
anything like this could happen in our town” echoed the words of one resident
of Newtown.
One victim’s dad Robbie Parker, told
the media “I can’t imagine this happening; this has to be some sort of
mistake.” Parker’s daughter Emilie was among the innocent children killed by 20
year old Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary. In reality, tragedies like the
one in Newtown Connecticut can happen anywhere at any time. It’s easy to think
that there is no way our county could have such a tragedy happen such as that
of Newtown or Littleton Colorado.
Now, it has to be something that crosses our minds
when we say our goodbyes each morning while dropping off our kids. It seems
with the tragedies in Newtown, the one a couple of years ago at Virginia Tech,
and at Columbine in Littleton Colorado in 1999, that schools have become a
battle field and an easy target for some cowardly lunatic to open fire.
What drives these people to kill the
innocent inside of our educational institutions? Councilors spend time trying
to figure out the mindset of troubled people like Lanza or Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold--the gunmen at Columbine, and never come to a conclusion to just
what they were thinking. What drives this madness of these killers to take
innocent lives before killing themselves?
Blame is quickly given to different
attributes like popular video games where you can get a high off blowing up and
killing hundreds of people. But unlike a video game there is no reset button that
you can hit when it happens in real life.
The majority of these killers are
labeled as social misfits who like Lanza, remained in a bubble voluntarily sheltered
from society. Or like Harris and Klebold who enjoyed targeting the athletes in
the Columbine shooting spree. These two guys were said to be victims of
bullying from mainly athletes within the school. But still, the bullying or
being labeled as a social misfit doesn't justify a person or persons to start a
shooting spree of innocent people.
Where do we place the blame behind
these senseless killings? Where does the rage come from?
Following these tragedies, many
people want to see improved gun laws. According to reports, the guns used in
the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings were legally purchased and licensed by the
mother of Lanza. Current gun laws do not
require applicants to disclose any treatment for mental illness or if someone
in the home with access to the guns suffers from mental illness. We have all
heard the saying that guns don’t kill people; people kill people. There is a
concern of some citizens that teachers should be equipped with guns that are
locked up in their classrooms. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but I will
always wonder that if the staff had access to a weapon could they have used
them in defense and limited the number of casualties at Sandy Hook and Columbine.
Just what is a good solution?
It was a sad and sickening day for
the nation after the Columbine and Newtown shootings. Innocent teens at
Columbine, kids ages 6 and 7 at Sandy Hook and many staff members gunned down
for no apparent reason. There are no answers to tragedies like this.
Emilie Parker’s father Robbie, while
fighting back tears, offered this plea on that tragic afternoon “let’s not let
this tragedy turn into something that defines us, but something that inspires
us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people.”
As we pause to remember those killed
in Newtown, we can also pray that God will comfort the families of the victims and
protect us all.
