We need to pray for the families involved in the Connecticut school shootings. What a horrible traumatic experience for all of those involved, children, their teachers, and their families and friends. I can’t imagine the heartache involved in losing your child in this manner. Thank God for the brave acts of the teachers who tried their best to shield their students. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. I believe their unselfish acts of love and protection are the core of the American people. These random acts of mass violence, however, seem to be the new ‘Norm’.
The following is a list of school shootings in America. The madness of one individual being able to take the life of so many innocent children, causes so much suffering for so many people for so many years to come. The good people of our society are being forced to live in fear and uncertainty of our family’s safety and well-being.
Our constitution gives us the right to bear arms and to protect ourselves from harm, and the unlawful entry of our homes and businesses. The cry now is to give up that right by confiscating all the guns in America. But we have given up so many rights already with the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act. Where does it stop?
Here are some statistics on school shootings in our country:
Over 100 people have been killed and dozens of others injured in several school shootings in the US over the last 20 years, with the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 being the deadliest, claiming 32 lives, including two Indians.
According to a list of some violent incidents at US schools compiled by CNN, on Feb 27, 2012, a student opened fire at Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio, killing three and wounding four others.
On Oct 2, 2006, Charles Roberts IV, 32, went to the small Amish West Nickel Mines School, Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and took at least 11 girls hostage. Five girls were killed and six others wounded. Roberts then killed himself.
On Nov 8, 2005, a 15-year-old student opened fire on a principal and two assistant principals at Campbell County Comprehensive High School, Jacksboro, Tennessee, killing one of them and critically wounding another.
On March 21, 2005, Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and another adult, four fellow students, a teacher and a security officer at Red Lake High School, Red Lake, Minnesota. He then killed himself.
On March 5, 2001, Charles “Andy” Williams, 15, killed two classmates and injured 13 at Santana High School, Santee, California. Williams was sentenced in 2002 to at least 50 years in prison.
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, killed 12 fellow students and one teacher at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, before committing suicide in the school library.
On May 21, 1998, after killing his parents the previous day, 15-year old Kip Kinkel returned to Thurston High School, Springfield, Oregon, armed with a rifle. He killed two students in the school cafeteria, a 16- and a 17-year old. He was sentenced to 112 years in prison.
The following is an op-ed by Gregory Gibson of New York Times posing an open question about school shootings and gun control:
My wife and I learned about the Connecticut school shootings on our way home from the cemetery; where we had just finished observing the 20th anniversary of our son’s murder.
Our son Galen, who was 18, and a teacher, were killed on Dec. 14, 1992, by a deranged student who went on a shooting rampage at Simon’s Rock College in western Massachusetts. Galen was a gifted kid, and Simon’s Rock seemed like the perfect place for him. He’d never been happier. The killer, however, had a vastly different reaction to this environment. After run-ins with college officials, he vowed to “bring the college to its knees.” He bought an SKS at a gun shop down the road, and obtained oversize clips and ammunition through the mail.
In the wake of Galen’s murder, I wrote a book about the shooting. In it I suggested that we view gun crime as a public health issue, much the same as smoking or pesticides. I spent a number of years attending rallies, signing petitions, writing letters and making speeches, but eventually I gave up. Gun control, such a live issue in the “early” days of school shootings, inexplicably became a third-rail issue for politicians.
I came to realize that, in essence, this is the way we in America want things to be. We want our freedom, and we want our firearms, and if we have to endure the occasional school shooting, so be it. A terrible shame, but hey — didn’t some guy in China just do the same thing with a knife?
Still, whatever your position on gun control, it is impossible not to react with horror to news of the shootings in Connecticut. Our horror is nuanced by knowledge of what those families are going through, and what they will have to endure in years to come.
More horrible still — to me at least — is the inevitable lament, “How could we have let this happen?”
It is a horrible question because the answer is so simple. Make it easy for people to get guns and things like this will happen.
Children will continue to pay for a freedom their elders enjoy.
Gregory Gibson is the author of “Gone Boy: A Father’s Search for the Truth in His Son’s Murder.”
Father we ask that you would comfort these families and friends in their time of sorrow and loss. May your Holy Spirit surround each suffering soul with your love and peace, while giving them the healing for their souls. We do not understand the evil that is in the world, other than that there are demonic forces at work around us. We also know that there are angels at work around us, as seen in the acts of these heroic teachers. Good and evil, why do you allow it? You said the suffering of this life is nothing to be compared with the glory that we will share with you. But why do innocent children have to suffer for the madness of one individual? We have no answers, and you remain silent, other than allowing us to ‘feel’ your presence of love and assurance that you are with us in the suffering. We at least thank you for this comfort. This is what we are asking you for, comfort for the suffering, with healing for the wounded souls. In Jesus Name….Amen….