It was every parent's nightmare. In the wake of the tragedy at Columbine High School where scores of students were injured and killed by suicidal and alienated peers, we can expect numerous theories and plausible explanations. Everyone will express shock and outrage and demand new laws that will prevent a reoccurrence of this nightmare and the NRA will probably be blamed for lobbying against stringent gun controls.
But as I watched the live cable coverage of the siege at the school and watched the parents scurry to the scene searching for their children, all I could think of was that these heartbreaking scenes of carnage are becoming much too familiar. The small towns may be different and the numbers of dead may be increasing but the eerie sensation is still the same. What's happening to this country? What's happening to our youth?
This latest atrocity was allegedly committed by a group of students called the Trench Coat Mafia. This group originally targeted jocks and minorities but witnesses to the assaults stated that they giggled as they killed indiscriminately. Fellow students described them as kids who always dressed in black clothing under long black trench coats. We can expect to be bombarded with pictures of these social outcasts and read details of their sorry lives for weeks to come and the community of Littleton will be searching for answers.
Many psychiatrists and justice officials are advocating early detection of problem students by school administrators. Anyone watching the television coverage in Littleton noticed one strange peculiarity. The adults interviewed had never heard of the ``trench coat Mafia,'' but most of the students knew of this ``weird'' group. Clearly communication between school administrations and students need to be facilitated and perhaps a system can be established where the anonymity of whistle-blowers is protected.
One educator interviewed suggested that one preventative method to ensure safety would be to require metal detectors at all schools in the country and to stop their open door policy by having guards posted at all entrances. This may make the school safer but won't stop a crazed student on a rampage who'll probably start shooting in malls and supermarkets.
Attacking the NRA is futile because I really don't think they're the problem. Most members of the NRA practice stringent safety controls. Their weapons are kept secure and are routinely maintained and they monitor their children's safety carefully. Strict gun controls only make it more difficult for ordinary citizens to acquire guns to protect themselves. Criminals have no problem acquiring weapons and disregard any laws imposed. Let's be realistic. Effective gun control will occur only when we quit manufacturing them. If that's too difficult let's restrict ammunition. Guns don't kill people, bullets do.
Blame is even being placed on the Leonardo DiCaprio film, ``Basketball Diaries,'' which contains a dream sequence with similarities to this tragedy. The parents of a school-shooting victim in Kentucky are currently suing producers of this film. Let's look everywhere for reasons before painfully looking inside our home lives.
Maybe Colorado's rarefied air makes the state too enlightened to consider the simplest explanations but if my son and his friends were dressing in long black trench coats I'd be sure to lock up any weapons I'd have lying around. How can these kids be building pipe bombs in basements without the knowledge of their parents? Were these youths living in a vacuum bereft of quality adult supervision? What on earth was going on in their home lives that drove them to murder and suicide? Why didn't their parents check their children's web page for clues to their madness?
But how does one explain these tragedies? Is it violence in television and video games? My sons play these games all the times yet they have no interest in guns or mayhem. Is it the prevalence of guns in America? Britain has the toughest gun control laws in the world and yet on March 13, 1996, a lone gunman in Dunblane, Scotland massacred 16 elementary school children and their teacher. Explain that.
One thing all these horrible incidents have in common is the presence of evil and the absence of love. All the perpetrators felt unloved and resorted to evil solutions.
On MSNBC, Brian Williams interviewed Suzanne Wilson, whose 11 year-old daughter Brittany was killed in the Jonesboro school massacre. He asked her what advice she could give to the parents of the slain students in Colorado. This brave woman, whose tragic loss is still very much with her, expressed her deep sorrow for their loss and said that she herself would never had been able to make it without the help of a higher power.
Churches, synagogues and mosques fill up with the grief stricken when tragedies occur. Prayer vigils are held and the name of the Lord is called upon and even cursed for His absence and lack of protection of the innocents. But these hate-filled evil incidents rarely occur in institutions where the word of God is not considered anathema.
One of the Columbine students interviewed related how her teacher had cautioned them to be quiet and to pray. When the public school board hears this, will she be fired? Separation of Church and State was never supposed to imply distance from spirituality and faith but sadly this seems to be the result of the 1960's judicial school prayer decisions. These decisions made it clear that we are a secular society that must erase religion in all areas deemed, ``public.''
Is it too strange to wonder that where God has been banned, evil will flourish?