I read something on Facebook about a shooting, and I must admit, I thought "Oh, not another one". From a distance, it's possible to become somewhat hardened to mass shootings in the US.
Then I saw a news headline about what happened in Newton and felt sick to my stomach. It's not a parent thing, it's a human thing - because what person wouldn't feel appalled and upset?
It's incomprehensible. I can understand the sort of twisted logic that might prompt a bullied high school student to lash back at his peers in the worst possible way - still inexusable and horrific though it is. A grown man slaughtering children is just beyond any understanding.
Yet it's the second time it's happened in the comparatively short number of years I've been on Earth. The mass murder at Dunblane happened when I was a teenager. You have to wonder what sort of planet has produced not just one, but two, entities of evil like Hamilton in less than 20 years.
After Dunblane, school security became massively tighter here. Parents who'd previously been lax about uniform demanded it be enforced, heavy doors were fitted at the entrances to school buildings. Gun law also massively tightened up and is becoming tighter still; there's no "right to bear arms" culture here, and many in the shooting lobby agreed that, if it prevented another school massacre, it was worth it (and these measures have been very effective).
But that's for people in the US to think about, another day. Right now all my thoughts are with those poor children, their teachers and their families. I wish I could think of something I could do to make a difference, but really, there is nothing and no-one that can heal those wounds right now.
Like you, we here in NZ don't understand the "right to bear arms" mentality. And from what I've read from my many US friends, many there don't either.
ReplyDeleteOh, and thank you for this line: "It's not a parent thing, it's a human thing - because what person wouldn't feel appalled and upset?" So true.