Sunday, 22 July 2012

An American Tragedy


What a horrific tragedy befell America on Friday morning when a crazed lunatic decided to cause death and mayhem in a cinema.  My deepest condolences to the victims and their families and I am sure the well wishes of the world go out to them as well.  It is too awful to contemplate, that someone would decide to methodically and deliberately do such a heinous crime. 

Some articles I have read have argued that the particular film he picked to perform his evil act may have something to do with the shootings, but surely a film does not create a mass murderer.  Others may say the fact someone of his age can readily buy automatic weapons and ammunition, adds to the likelihood of such a terrible crime occurring.  Yet sane people do not walk into cinemas and decide to kill people. 

Maybe it’s a mixture of many things that happen to converge at once, in one person at that particular moment.  It is with terrible sadness that such things can occur, but occur they do.  Perhaps since the killer survived, psychologists can try to get to the bottom of the reasoning behind what he did, and why a youth who had no background of violence or misbehaviour would decide to create a hellish fantasy, which ended with him murdering at least 12 innocent human beings in a cinema.

When I go to see the film I will be thinking of what happened, and as with many others it will be in my mind that it may happen when I am at the cinema.  Luckily I don’t live in a country that allows its citizens to carry automatic weapons, or any weapons for that matter.  And this at least gives me more hope and less fear that I will not have to ever see such a terrible crime in person.

If you carry a gun because you feel it is your god given right to, just think why you actually carry it.  Will it stop someone from killing you?  If an innocent person was sitting in that cinema on Friday morning with a handgun when the shooter arrived, did it help them survive?  Unfortunately guns don’t make you safe, they make you less safe.  A world without weapons would be much safer than a world with them.  Maybe it’s time for America to realise this, is profit from gun sales worth lives.

How many more times does it have to happen before something changes?

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