Heart of hate

"A note for the gun grabbers. Work with us on finding the "something". Grow up and realize that guns are not the problem. These kids in Colorado yesterday broke numerous laws. So you want some more laws on the books, which can also be broken?"

When I was a kid growing up in Robbinsdale, there was a Coast to Coast hardware store in town. They sold everything - including guns. Since guns have always been legal, many families had at least one gun in the house - mostly for hunting. And kids learned how to shoot at an early age. I learned to shoot with a .22 rifle when I was a pre-teen. Many kids did. No big shakes. Plus - this is the bottom line - nobody had any inclination to go shoot someone - in school or otherwise.

Not only that, most kids my age grew up owning many, many toy guns. Some fired caps, some did not. We played army, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, you name it. All the time, we pretend to shoot someone, or someone shot us. Of course, once shot, we would die in dramatic fashion. But we all knew it was just play. Nobody was tempted to go out and really shoot somebody - in school or otherwise. 

So what in the world has happened? Why this spate of school shootings? Twenty years ago there was Columbine. Yesterday, there was a high school in Colorado not that far from Columbine. And of course the worst school shooting in most people's minds was the carnage at Sandy Hook elementary. Very young children slaughtered. Every school shooting has been awful. I think we can all agree on that.

But is it the fault of the gun? If it is, why not before? Why not when my parents were in school? Why not when my grandparents were in school? Why not when I was in school? Why now? Sorry gun grabbers - this has nothing to do with guns. It has everything to do with a heart of hate. Somehow, something tripped a switch which turns some school kids into murderers. What that "something" is, turns out to be one of the greatest mysteries of our time.

But what if there were no guns? For starters, once your heart turns to hate, you can kill just about anyone with anything. That is a cold hard fact. The killers at Columbine had enough explosives to kill lots of students. Fortunately, they did not work. Or knives. Chasing someone down and stabbing them is not hard for someone, who has the determination to do so. There are a hundred different ways to kills someone, should that be the objective. If this sounds foreign to you, it should. Most of us have no clue about this kind of aberrant thinking.

Here is the bottom line. And this bottom line has been discussed before by many smarter than I. Until we figure out what that "something" is, which flips the switch on some of our young people, this carnage will continue. Guns or no guns, it will continue. I don't know if it is the music, the video games, the insularity of internet addiction, the movies, family life, or some of all of these. But we need to focus in on what is happening - and soon. 

A note for the gun grabbers. Work with us on finding the "something". Grow up and realize that guns are not the problem. These kids in Colorado yesterday, broke numerous laws. So you want some more laws on the books, which can also be broken? Our youth are our seed corn. We can't afford to let this continue.