Another School Shooting

There has been another heart-wrenching school shooting. This one was at a tiny Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania. The man who attacked the school reportedly sent all of the boys outside before tying up all the girls and shooting them, execution-style, at close range. Three girls were killed, and seven other badly wounded girls were transported to nearby hospitals. The attacker killed himself.

This is a despicable crime on many levels. The killing of innocent people. The fact that the dead were children. The fact that the killer only wanted to kill girls. This is a sick and disgusting crime that should never have happened. I cannot comprehend what might drive a grown man to execute girls who had done nothing to him. This is only too reminiscent of the shootings in Colorado last month in which a grown man took six girls hostage, raped them and killed one of them. It is reminiscent as well of the killings of 14 women at l'Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1989.

I don't know what can be done to stop these crimes, but we have to find some way to understand what could possibly have driven all of these killers to do what they did. There must be some way to stop this kind of thing from happening. I just wish I knew what that was.

In this case, banning guns would not have helped. The killer was armed with knives as well as guns and could just have easily used those weapons to carry out his crime.

My deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the families of the three girls killed, and my wishes for a quick recovery go out to those girls injured. The killings and attacks in the last month make it all the more important that every man do his bit to end violence by men against women and we should all do everything we can to aid the White Ribbon campaign coming up.

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 851