28 people dead. 20 of them children.
I have said since year one of my current teaching assignment that I can picture the school shooting that might happen in my building. I can see the stairwell where the shooter would start. I can imagine how easy it would be to get a gun (or several) into the school. I can even play the scenario out in my head in a hundred different ways. Why? Because I live in America, where the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States proclaims that we need an armed militia to protect ourselves against the potential threat of an out-of-control government. And in the meantime, Americans use their ready access to guns to kill other, unarmed Americans. Children. Little kids who just went to kindergarten today to learn about words and numbers. What kind of devolution of humanity is going on in the world?
My 11-year-old daughter went to school today and had a great day. She graduated from D.A.R.E., met the mayor and the chief of police, listened to other kids proclaim their devotion to a drug-free life (however deluded that might be...). She played in her first-ever band concert, with a solo on the bells. She celebrated with her friends in various ways all day. What she did NOT do was get shot. Some crazy, fucking lunatic did NOT come into her school and shoot 20 of her friends, the principal, a counselor, and six other people.
How does any student, any teacher, any parent prepare themselves for such insanity?
They don't.
When the shooter comes in the building, I'm sure he or she (statistically, it's a he) is remarkably calm. He has the guns, the ammunition, the weapons secured under a coat or a hoodie or in a bag. He goes to the place where the most harm has been done to him or where he can do the most harm, and he retaliates for whatever harm he perceives has been done to him. Innocent people die. Well-intentioned people die. People who have devoted their lives in the service of others die. Children, who have yet to devote their lives to anything, die. And for what?
If you have kids, hug them. If you have parents, call them. If you love anyone, let them know. Because the bastards are out there, and they're armed with government-protected weapons to fucking mow us down when we least expect it. Any generic 20-year-old man in America has some of the most ample opportunities of any person, any place in the entire world, and this particular person decided to take that social advantage and butcher a bunch of six-year-olds. Ridiculous. I'm glad he killed himself; I just wish he would have started with himself and left everyone else alone.
It's a travesty when people can't go to school or go to a movie without having the fear of a mentally ill psychopath shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. Get your shit together, America. Guns are being used to murder other people in this country ... a lot. Are we Los Estados Mexicanos or Les Estados Unidos?
This (like Columbine and V. Tech, et al) makes me physically ill.
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