Sandy Hook Elementary School

God bless the families and friends of all the victims... I struggle to recall a tragedy within my lifetime that has so touched my soul.  20 innocent children and six teachers, all dead by a mad-man's hand.  So utterly senseless that it makes one scream for answers that will never come.

The sense of helpless frustration is compounded by the blatantly biased and myopic means by which the tragedy is being reported in most of the major media outlets.  It would seem that simply throwing the disclaimer that "details are sketchy" is enough to justify the dissemination of patently false information on a 24/7 basis by everyone from CNN to Fox News.

Which leads me to my secondary point (after offering my prayers and hopes for those suffering in CT)...

Far, far too many pundits are making this tragedy out to be the latest in a growing trend in American society... as if America herself is to blame for the deaths of these children.  Far too many people are calling for radical changes to this society because the very freedoms we enjoy are what are giving crazed killers the motive and opportunity to kill children at school.

How often over the last two days have I heard that this "trend" began in 1999 with the tragedy at Columbine High on CO?  It most certainly did NOT begin in 1999... the first substantiated "school shooting" involving a student was in 1853 in KY, where a student shot and killed a teacher over a "disciplinary dispute" in front of 31 other kids.

The worst school-related massacre to ever have occurred in the US happened in 1927, where 43 people died (mostly children under the age of 11) in Bath, MI without a single death being attributed to a firearm.  The killer used dynamite to destroy the school (and himself)... because of personal financial problems.

I'm not making excuses... anyone who lashes out with violence against innocent children should answer for the crime.  The difference, I think, is that our modern society is constantly trying to "lay blame" outside of the perpetrator's actions.  Does "mental health" play a role in such terrible acts?  Certainly... what sane person would do these things?  However, the mental health of people like Ted Bundy and Timothy McVeigh did not stand in the way of their punishments, and no one would EVER call either of them "sane".  Responsibility did not lay with "society" in their cases, so why should it now?

Is society that different now?  America reacted in much the same way in 1966, when a crazed student climbed the clock tower at the University of Texas-Austin campus and killed 16 people and wounded 32 others.  Shock, confusion and a demand for answers... but the "blame" for the tragedy was understood to rest squarely with the man behind the gun, not with his developmental situation, or uncaring parents, or addictions, or society's attitude towards the Second Amendment.

The man was 20 years old... he will answer for his actions in the next life, and we should all be satisfied with that, without restructuring our own society because of his actions.