No more - never again!

 

"The sickos will choose the softest of all the targets to make his or her statement. We need to wake up, gear up, and train up. If what happened this week was not a wakeup call, I don't know what is."

I know, I know - we end up saying this every time. "No more - never again!" And then it happens again. Another type of school, in another part of the country. People struggle to understand the "why" once it is over. That answer never seems to come. Many times (as in this one) the shooter ends his own life once it is over. Nobody to question, no answers given.

One security expert explained there is one thing all of these shootings had in common. The coward who pulled the trigger needed a "target rich" environment. One where the victims would not shoot back. Like a school with young innocent children. Or a church, where people go to worship. Those seem to be the most common locations for those sickos. Soft targets, innocent targets.

Many churches in the area have people attending who are volunteers in the church security group. As such, they have gone through active shooter training. They are armed, and they are trained. I would like to say that most schools have that also, but that would not be true. Most schools rely on having a sign at the door which reads "Guns are prohibited here". They think that will do the trick. It never does.

Will we ever learn? Mental health illness is on the rise. What was unthinkable just a few decades ago, is almost common today. And it is not the gun - it is the will to use a gun. Rather than just search for the answers which will never come, we need to come face to face with grim reality. This is not going to stop. So long as there are soft targets, and people who are sick enough to exploit them, this will go on.

We need to harden our schools and churches. We need to arm and train our teachers and staff. We are done with all the Pollyanna namby-pambies who say, "We don't need all that as it will never happen here." It can and it will. The sickos will choose the softest of all the targets to make his or her statement. We need to wake up, gear up, and train up. If what happened this week was not a wakeup call, I don't know what is.