Three mass killings over the course of a week! There is no way to make sense of this kind of violence and reconcile it with a civil society. What possible answers can there be to this kind of carnage taking place in our society?  It is natural to ask questions and seek answers to what triggers this kind of violence, and what society’s response should be, but people have to be careful about using these incidents to push political agendas. 

First of all, it is important to state unequivocally, any ideology that drives people to gun down their fellow citzens is evil. That goes without saying. The families of victims find themselves overcome by unconsolable grief and they ask the eternal question why. 

What do you say to someone who lost a father, a brother, a son, a daughter, a grandmother or a sister under such horrendous circumstances? 

The thought that a person would never see his or her loved one on this earth ever again is heart rending in itself, but add to that the absolute horror of knowing how that loved on died, and it is is so much harder to bear. It is impossible to imagine the pain that people go through under these circumstances. 

This following is not meant to minimize people’s pain and anger, only to state what is a hard ugly truth, and that is that evil exists in this sinful world. 

As human beings, as Americans we must be there for our fellow citizens in times like these and  despite what the mockers of prayer may say, offer a prayer on their behalf and let them know that you support them. Be a shoulder to cry on, be there just to listen, to just be present without saying anything, or to offer a comforting word when needed. In addition to all of this, as a nation; we must also look for ways to try and stop these incidets from recurring. 

In the search for answers leaders and citizens must keep in mind that external applications are not the only remedies to solving these deeply rooted societal problems. Sure, new laws may be neccessary as part of an overall approach to tackling these issues, but people bent on committing evil acts do not worry too much about breaking the law. By definition, these people are law breakers. If Americans were forced to turn in all of their guns, people would still find ways to commit murder, because the heart of the issue is not the tool that people use to kill. It is the individual!

Despite what you may hear in the media, these incidents are not happening more frequently today than they did in the last fifty years, neither are mass shootings unique to the United States. In fact America is not even in the top 10 among nations when it comes to mass shootings. 

That may be difficult to absorb and accept because of all the emotions that wrap people’s minds when they do happen, and because of the hypersensationalism that takes place in the media when these mass killings do occur. 

Today, because of the internet, news seems to travel at the speed of light, and in the age of the 24 hour news cycle, incidents like the mass shootings that took place over the last weekend appear to happen more frequently. 

Do not misunderstand the call to keep things in perspective. It is not an attempt to minimize these awful acts of violence that do occur. In an ideal, perfect world none of these acts of violence would take place, but we do not live in a perfect world. Bad things happen! Once again, that is the sad ugly truth.  

The best that we can hope to do this is keep  the occurence of these godawful incidents at a minimum, and as noted earlier, currently these acts are at the lowest they have been in decades. 

Pointing this out does not bring any comfort to those who have lost their loved ones, and society should never become callous and or lose sensitivity to these things. Data and statistics do not mean a thing to the mother whose daughter will never again be walking through the front door simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Society should not be comfortable even if only one of these incidents happened once every ten years because this behavior simply is not acceptable in a civil society. 

People should be putting their heads together to find ways to confront this issue. At the top of the list should be the question of evil and what needs to be done to stop people from lashing out in such a violent manner.