There is No Answer, There is No Reason

This is the fourth time in less than four years. There is no reason. There is no answer. In less than four years, we have experienced four episodes of senseless mass murders, rampages on innocents – school children. Teachers. Innocents. These are no longer able to be categorized as “random” or “freak” incidents. These are becoming far too common. Why? There is no answer. There is no reason.

Young people, who are not functioning in society, whose degree of dysfunction is not recognized, who have access to weapons that should not be out there. Assault weapons. Weapons that were used for heinous assaults. Evidently, precautions that should have been in place in the homes where these weapons were kept were not in existence. Why? There is no answer. There is no reason.

Yes, our country was founded protecting the right of its citizens to bear arms. But that protection was given at a time when wild things, animal and man, roamed the countryside freely. That protection was given when there was no agency for law enforcement readily available. That protection was given in a time when our country was wild and largely untamed. There is a quote, which I cannot attribute properly because I do not remember the author, that states that “if a man needs more than one bullet to down an animal when hunting, he should take lessons”. Protection within your home? Again, a single shot should slow down the intruder. There are tazers, there are other devices. Get a dog.

There is no answer. There is no reason. My heart breaks for the families of those lost in this most recent horror. My heart breaks for those who witnessed the mayhem. My heart breaks for these innocent children and teachers who will not thrill to the music of the season, to the lights, to the gatherings of family and friends, to the joy.

My heart breaks for a society where horror has become commonplace. Where you cannot feel comfort when you send your children to school. Where that very wholesome appearing, quiet kid next door harbors so much anger, so much frustration, that he feels a need to take lives. And where the weapons of so much destruction are so readily available.

My heart breaks because there is no answer. There is no reason.