By Carrie K. Hutchens
Thursday, February 14th, forever changed many lives as a lone gunman, Steven Kazmierczak, stepped onto the stage in that lecture hall on Northern Illinois University campus and opened fire, snuffing out six young lives and injuring many more, before taking his own life. What was behind the mass murder and suicide? It is the question repeatedly asked throughout the media, law enforcement and public. The answer is silence.
No one knows what Steven Kazmierczak was thinking, but that hasn't prevented speculation that he may have been planning the attack for some time. The reasoning? He began buying weapons sometime ago. Perhaps he began buying them to be prepared for the massacre? If that is the case, why didn't he simply carry out the plan several weapons ago? Just as fair a speculation -- perhaps there was no intent of harming anyone when the young man made the purchases.
Anti-gun fanatics are prone to seize these horrendous situations as support for their cause. If we removed guns from the hands of people, then this situation would never have happened. Do they really believe that? Can they say that and keep a straight face?
People who are bent on killing others will find a way. And finding a gun isn't difficult at all, if one isn't particular about whether the purchase is legal or not. Nor is it difficult to find other methods, if the intent is there. So are we going to restrict, or withhold, anything and everything that might possibly be utilized to take the lives of others? That would be an enormous list. Obviously, it would be impossible to strip the world of all the potential dangers, even if one was possessed with the determination to do so.
The weapon of choice is, more often than not, secondary in the scheme of things. It is only a dangerous weapon when in the hands of the wrong person(s) at the wrong time. Wouldn't this then suggest that focusing so intensely on the weapon issues is actually taking away from where true focus should be? What happened to the Steven Kazmierczak everyone knew? What was behind his decision to kill others and himself? Were there any signs? Should someone have known? Is there something we are failing to see? Is there something we are failing to do? Why are so many of our young pursuing such a violent path of destruction that destroys so many lives? Why? What has gone wrong? Can we stop it?
There was a time that young people were frequently seen with weapons. A time when teens (and even pre-teens) would hunt on a regular basis and keep their weapons close. A time when, in some areas, it was the norm to see a truck being driven by a teen with a shotgun or rifle or both resting in the gun rack in the back window. A time when wearing a hunting knife wasn't given a second thought. A time when the violent crimes were far less than now. How is that possible?
Teens had weapons readily available, but incidents of them using them were, to modern ways of thinking, incongruently rare. Now, with considerably more restrictions in place, teens are by far more involved in violent crimes. Rather than an old fashion fist fight to settle a disagreement, today's disagreements (real or imagined) often involve weapons being pulled and the participants playing for keeps. The value of life has been on the fast track to meaningless for some time. Now it is becoming too obvious to ignore or play off. It is everywhere we turn. There is no place safe from the explosions waiting to happen; not until we identify and deal with the actual problems that are setting our young people off into uncontrollable and deadly behavior.
The Illinois mystery of murder and suicide may not be solved for a very long time to come, if ever. Wherever the major clues to the truth rest, I'm betting they are not necessarily in the purchase of weapons, whether the weapons were bought legally, whether the laws should be changed and things such as that. I'm betting that the answers to why there are six people from Northern Illinois University campus dead, rests in another direction. A direction that many do not want to look in.
As the parents began to lose the right to raise their children as they saw fit, and children were given more and more freedom to do whatever felt good to them, while being held to little or no accountability for inappropriate behavior, so have many of the children lost their sense of direction and self-value. And as seems to be the norm--as the outside forces gained more and more control--self-control became optional, and some have wandered aimlessly into a world of destruction they had no ability to avoid.
Carrie Hutchens is a former law enforcement officer and a freelance writer who is active in fighting against the death culture movement and the injustices within the judicial and law enforcement systems.
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Friday, February 15, 2008
The Illinois Mystery of Murder & Suicide
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2 comments:
You are so right, Carrie. I grew up with guns and hunting and it was common to carry our shotguns in our cars to school so we could do a little bird hunting during pheasant season after school. What has changed is loss of respect for life and faith in God. The values and beliefs that we grew up with have been replaced by a bizarre mix of narcissism and hopelessness that leaves young people both self-absorbed and full of rage. They somehow know they've been denied an important component of a happy life, but have no clue as to what it is.
Theo, I agree that when our society began to lose respect for life and faith in God, things started changing drastically for the worse.
"A bizarre mix of narcissism and hopelessness" does seem to fit what many young are going through, does it not? I agree with you.
One thing that seems to accompany narcissism, from what I have seen, is that nothing is ever good enough or enough for them. Something is always missing!
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