SNAP

The news is full of yet another tragedy. On Valentine's Day a young man entered a large lecture hall, and, in a spray of bullets, ended the lives of 5 young people. The news was full of repetitive reports, all asking 2 questions: "What can be done to prevent this from happening"? and "What caused this young man to snap"? Though I do not claim to be a genius, this is, to a large degree, my area of expertise. I truly believe I have the answer to both questions.

What can be done to stop this from happening?

Disarm the citizenry. I have several friends in my place of work, whom I respect greatly on many levels. They share 1 thing in common. They are all "outdoorsmen". For reasons that I do not comprehend, they have a need to run around outdoors shooting at animals, small and large. They kill them, skin them, cook them and eat them. And they like it. They share them with those who want a share. For some reason, their preference for this activity supercedes the need of the rest of society to be safe from everyone else who has a gun because they are so readily available in this country. I know, I've heard it. If you take guns away from citizens, only criminals will have guns. Think again. If you don't believe me, look at the statistics for school shootings in England or Japan. They are people just like us. They have as many disgruntles, angry and unhappy people. They just don't have guns.

What caused this young man to snap?

Nothing. Nothing caused him to snap because he did not snap. People do not snap. Today, finally, there was some indication that the shooter had a history of mental health problems. I'm sure they were severe. I'm absolutely certain that there has been a pattern of escalating problems, a series of symptoms and signs there for other people to read. I'm also certain that other people have seen these symptoms and signs. They may or may not have known how to interpret them. They may have attempted to intervene. If they did try to intervene, it was likely with little success. The laws governing mental health care today favor the least expensive intervention in the name of protecting individual rights. In reality it's a way to avoid responsibilty for those incapable of taking responsibility for themselves. The media assists by refusing to give full coverage to the story in the name of not inspiring others to imitate the offender, as though the incessant coverage would not do that in any case. Delusional people will pick and choose what they believe. Movies and video games, fiction or reality, it's all the same to them. If we were to really know what happened in this poor man's life, in the last shooter's or the one before, what we would see is a common pattern of repeated signals that there was a problem, growing more and more serious, readily visible to those who knew him. Why these things grew to mass murder in them is something I cannot say, but that they were headed for violence would be obvious.

I always reccomend The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker. A book for young men and women that will keep them safe, teach them to understand violence in others and is just interesting. I buy it used just to have copies. It's not a happy thought, but it is true. Some things you need to be afraid of. Knowing when to be afraid is a gift. Knowing what to do is a blessing.