Another School Shooting

Yesterday we experienced yet another horrific school shooting.  Our hearts ache, and we search for solutions and meanings.  Unfortunately, there are few of either.

The knee-jerk reaction is to simply ban guns; as if those hundreds of millions in circulation would just up and disappear, and as if the evil that truly causes these events would just shrug its shoulders and not seek another method of meeting out mayhem and death.  

A sober and unemotional view of the situation knows that a ban is folly.  It'd be nice if it were that easy.  It's not.

So what then?  Certainly, this case will teach us something as the shooter was taken alive.  I can't ever remember a shooting where that was the case, and the perp will be studied endlessly to see what we can glean.  

More than that, the stories are being told about the shooter are that people EXPECTED him to do something like this.  What do we do with information like that?

We can't talk civilly to each other anymore (don't believe me - just watch the gun arguments by the talking heads this week).  We don't go to church anymore.  Our fathers aren't involved in raising their kids anymore.  We attribute the absolute worst to people that oppose us; easily dropping terms like Nazi and racist to fan our hate.

We don't care about each other anymore.  We look for slights and when we perceive them we lash out in hatred.  Most times it's done via a social media screed.

But sometimes it's done with an AR-15 in a school.