Shooting at high school in Parkland, Fla.

Live updates: Shooting at high school in Parkland, Fla.; multiple injuries reported:

America has a gun problem and the blood it on the hands of NRA and GOP.

That's the news, and that's the tenor of accusations flowing across America today.

It's the kind of thing that happens with a Republican controlled congress, and with the active intervention of the National Rifle Association because .... you know, the gun rights thingie.

At least, that's the twist the Democratic sooth-sayers are touting.

No word yet on where he got the gun, what kind of gun etc. 
Best guess: he stole the inadequately secured firearm from his parents.

There's enough blame to go around, though; pundits are bound to blame it on the NRA (that has already started, although there is no evidence that the kid was a member of the NRA) ... but there's enough "wrong" to spread it around to the parents, teachers, legislators, etc.

Nobody has thought to blame the kid for being a total ass-hole.

Yet.

Probably, nobody ever will.

When you look at the historic mass murderers ... channeling that guy who shot Lincoln (I still refuse to name him, or other murderers) ... there is one thing they have in common:

RAGE!

They have a "My Life Sucks!" attitude, and rather than accept their own faults ... they decide to take their rage out on the people around them.  Unfortunately, when the person is a teen-ager, the people around them are other adolescents.

Kids.   Just a bunch of other "Lonely Teen-Agers".

The victims are children who are so wrapped up in their own adolescent crisis that they can't recognize one of their own who has gone "over the top".

Well, nobody who has survived their own teen-age angst can tell the difference between someone who is a 'lonely teenager" and a "mass murderer", either.  They all look, talk, walk and act the same.

All the blame that has been, is and will be spread around is probably just bullshit, anyway.

NOBODY can tell the difference between adolescent angst and the rage to kill.   It all looks the same, from the outside (you and me) and from the inside (the teenager's school-mates). 

And was the kid a loner?  Christ, at that age, half the kids in High School are "Loners".
If you're not one of the "elites", you're an "outsider". 

Hell, I was an outsider in High School.  My nickname was "The Zipper" ... or "The Shadow", because I was so skinny that when I turned sideways to the sun, nobody could see me.   (

I took a little pride in that; at least I had an identity; perhaps this kid didn't even have THAT; he might have benefited if he had a sense of belonging ... and a bunch of people might be alive today)

Hell, maybe the kid just wanted to go home, where he belonged.



Dion: "Lonely Teenager"

PS: No, I'm not going to make any "PRO" or "CON" statements about Gun Control here, other than to observe that in the mood that kid was in, he could as reado;u used a knife, machete, or a club to attack his victims.