The Slaughter of Innocents

"The Slaughter of Innocents" is the headline on Drudge today. It pretty well describes the horrific massacre at the school in Connecticut where a lone gunman killed his mother and 20 kinder-gardeners.  I am stunned and saddened. The poor parents. The poor kids that had to watch. The victims, who had to suffer. The sheer terror of it all.

Pundits are blaming video games, television, the goth culture, bullying, and of course guns. Everything except the person responsible (or irresponsible). This is not normal behavior for human beings. Killing oneself is especially peculiar. Yet, many of these tragedies end in suicide. It's a pattern. If psychology really is a science (I'm skeptical about that, but hopeful in this case), then it ought to be able to identify and classify personality traits that are predictors of this kind of behavior. Making reliable predictions is what real science is able to do. We should be able to treat afflicted individuals without infringing on their inalienable rights.

There seems to have been an up-tick in the reporting, if not the incidence of these kinds of tragedies. We really need to focus what would make a person feel compelled, or think it's OK to kill innocent human beings. In addition to the usual suspects (television, video games, guns), we'd better include environmental extremists, who tell us that humans are the worst thing for the planet, and Senator Barack Obama, who voted for partial birth abortions, and against a measure that would have made it illegal to allow babies who survive an abortion, to die alone in hospital janitorial supply rooms. To be intellectually honest, we should at least throw those ideas into the hopper for consideration.

As one blogger pointed out, "it’s not the weapon, it’s the psychopath who preys on the undefended... it’s the reason we have the right to bear arms. Mass murders occur in places where personal arms are prohibited. In the worst cases, it’s one’s own government that’s the perpetrator." Of course, the 'progressives' will never believe this. It is the reason we must utterly defeat progressivism.

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Maybe the coarsening of our culture goes hand-in-hand with the lessening of our freedom.

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Update: I hate to admit it, but this article is much better than mine.

Update II: Here is more to suggest the real societal problem is how to detect and deal with dangerous mental illness:

• I Am Adam Lanza's Mother
• School adviser: Gunman a loner who felt no pain

We're wasting our time wringing our hands over gun control. We must heal the sick minds - or quarantine them.