@Bob Nelson 35Whelen - what can be done? Unfortunately nothing. Perhaps being more vigilant on angst-riddled teenagers, but then again we come to whose responsibility this would be. Schools can barely teach, let alone care for people individually. Too many parents are either absent or working full time to make ends meet. Churches are empty and increasingly ridiculed in our society.
Disarming the law abiding for the sins of criminals is as morally repugnant as it gets--all you need to do is see who's always rushing to wave the bloody shirts of the newly dead to agitate for less freedom for us and more power for them. You almost get the sense that they don't view these as tragedies, but as opportunities. And lest anyone doubts me, this is exactly why the weekly carnage in places like Chicago and NYC is shrugged off--
we already have fewer freedoms there, while
they already have the power they want. If it was lives that they really cared about, this wouldn't be the case.
The sad part--and I normally NEVER post about politics or current events, but this obviously struck a powerful chord within us all--is that when you have a society that overvalues nihilism and narcissistic acts at the expense of tried and true "boring" values developed over millennia, you get things like this. In a nation of 350,000,000 people with an increasingly disunited culture and politicians siccing us against one-another, it's actually a miracle that it happens only X number of times a year.
Realistically, the only thing that will stop bad guys intent on mass murder is more law-abiding citizens carrying guns. Sad and imperfect, I know--but none of us has a magic wand and I am never for symbolic gestures masked as good intentions.
