The day after yet another mass shooting, this time at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, everyone is scrambling to put all the pieces together as to why a young man would go on a killing spree. The politicians are talking about gun control, and the media is squawking about missing queues given by the perpetrator. In truth it is a combination of the (2) two and blame falls at the feet of both our government for failing to ban assault rifles and all those who knew this young man as being disturbed but did nothing to call attention to it.
A nineteen-year-old who was lost with nowhere to turn allegedly committed a heinous act. It has been reported that the alleged shooter legally purchased the assault rifle. You would think that by now, Congress would have insisted that an AR-15 would not be allowed in the United States as a weapon to be owned by any citizen. It has been established that this type of weaponry is meant for one purpose only and that is to kill other human beings. Oddly enough, the current state of politics insists that we the people do not want our second amendment rights violated. I ask you, how it is a violation to ban an assault weapon meant for war? No one is saying take all the guns away; we are just begging at this point to be able to have the confidence to send our children to school and get them back in the same condition.
One student who survived the ordeal was on CNN last night where he stated, and I am paraphrasing here, “that he along with other students thought if anyone were behind the shooting it would have been the young man that they currently have in custody.” The school knew that the shooter was a disciplinary problem which leads to his expulsion. The suspect posted deep and direct threats on his social media, but still, no one called attention to it. Time and time again, people with emotion and mental defect get ignored until a tragedy occurs. A support system is vital in a child’s development, and this shooter was lacking that support for quite some time. Being a teenager can be sorted. It is no excuse to murder. Again, the combination of no assault rifle ban and failing to give the teenager attention makes it more than just his burden to bear. #prayforparkland