I once again find myself overwhelmed with the kind of emotion that grips my throat and renders me numb with cold while at the same time I am seething with rage.
In this case, the horrific events unfolding in Sandy Hook, Connecticut - a young man, 20-year old Adam Lanza, shot and killed his mother in her home and then proceeded to Sandy Hook Elementary school where he took the innocent lives of 20 children and 6 adults.
I have cried buckets of tears for the victims of criminal acts over the past years. I found myself completely unhinged at 9/11 and was consumed with grief when I visited the World Trade Center and the Visitor's Center commemorating the victims of that tragedy. I have wept over the loss of life in the various unprovoked attacked on school children and countless other acts of violence which have snuffed out the lives of so many innocent people.I ask myself why it affects me so deeply. I don't have any relationship to any of the victims, yet I feel their loss as deeply as if it was one of my loved ones. The fact of the matter is that I cannot begin to wrap my head around what kind of warped phyche spawns an individual who hunts others in order to gratify some dark and demented urge to kill or seek revenge for some perceived wrong.
Combined with my grief I feel an equally deep seated sense of anger and rage. How does this happen in the western hemisphere, where we pride ourselves on being educated and above the kinds of violence we see other less developed or less educated countries.
A friend posted on Facebook that he is sick of hearing the old response to gun violence - "guns don't kill people. People kill people." and while that statement may demonstrate a point, he further stated that, "it's easier for people to kill people with guns than without them'. Too true!
I am angry that people like this young man can get their hands on the kinds of weapons that guarnatee such horrible carnage.
The NRA and supporters of the second amendment will trot out the ubiquitous "right to bear arms" argument, but in my opinion the right to bear arms is no longer relevant, nor should it be viewed as a right. In an emerging nation where the constitution of a newly forming country felt the necessity to spell out the rules by which they would defend their rights (again, relevant to that era not this one), I understand the application. HOWEVER, in this day and age I don't for a minute believe that anybody other than an officer of the law or a recognized protector (guard/court officer/soldier) should need or be allowed to have a gun. In particular a hand gun.
I don't know what the answer is - all I know is that I am weary of the destruction that guns cause and despair for the world that seems to be devolving at an alarming rate.
In the meantime my deepest sympathy goes out to all of the families who have been affected by this terrible act. I grieve for the children and caring adults at the school and for the remaining members of the Lanza family who will live with the stigma of what their son and brother did to this community. So very sad.
