When I hear about the most recent event in the rash of massacres in schools, churches, shopping malls and other 'Gun Free Zones', I invariably replay the scenario (somebody gets mad or depressed, arms himself, goes to a 'Gun Free Zone', kills several people and ends by killing himself) and wonder ... why didn't he just kill himself first, and save everyone else the agony of innocent victims?"
I guess I'm not the only one with this thought, because today (March 6, 2008) someone who who was mad or depressed did exactly that.
On the radio as I was driving to work this morning, I heard a report of a student in Alabama who walked into a high school gymnasium, fired one shot into the air (the ceiling) to get everyone's attention, then shot himself in the head.
The maniacal adolescent couldn't resist the urge for public suicide, but at least he spared the rest of the community the loss of multiple friends and family, horrible gun-shot wounding, and the knowledge (on the part of the potential victims) that when confronted with a maniac determined to 'take them with him' they groveled, cowered, hid, ran or were spared only because of the eccentric quirks and pique of a madman.
At the very real risk of being considered an unfeeling rationalist, I consider the outcome of this tragedy A Good Thing.
I wish more madmen were so considerate.
The Gun Control wackos should agree with me on this (although they probably won't). Haven't they always cleaved to the "If It Only Saves One Child" mantra? Well, here -- for reasons which we shall probably never know -- one madman decided to spare his friends/classmates/community the very real pain of being murdered, or watching others of their friends/classmates/community being slaughtered like sheep.
If you twist your head, squint your eyes and think on it in exactly the right way, this poor deranged individual performed a public service. He demonstrated his madness as an object lesson, (a) without forcing his friends/classmates/community to consider the forces which pushed him into this ultimate expression of angst, and (b) saved them from becoming the communal object lessons of his own inner resentments.
Yes, I am ever saddened by a child who suffers so, and who voluntarily decides that violence and suicide is his only possible relief.
I wish and hope that others can learn from his example. Why impose your own pain on others, when it is as easy to short-cut the learned process by shooting yourself FIRST!
Of all the Gun Free Zone shooters we have collectively experienced over the past several years, this may possibly be the most socially responsible of the bunch.
I think we should award him a medal.
Posthumously, of course.
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