The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

OUR VIEW

Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:33 PM

OUR VIEW: We Grieve Again But We're Looking In The Wrong Places For Solutions To These Shootings

Our nation mourns again at the loss of 17 people in south Florida after a horrific school shooting at a high school outside of Parkland on Valentine's Day. It's taken me a couple of days to try and get my head around what happened before I write what I am about to say.

It seems the nation finds itself again seeking answers to why a 19-year old former student would put on a gas mask, walk inside the school, turn on a fire alarm, and in pre-meditated way slaughter 14 students and three teachers and seemingly seek to kill more by shooting through a teacher's lounge window that thankfully was strong enough to shield more potential victims.

17 people are dead and many injured after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and began firing an AR-15 rifle. The Valentine's Day massacre in Florida was the 25th most fatal shooting at a U.S. elementary, middle or high school since—and including—the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in which 15 people were killed.

One student shared the horror of being caught in the violence:

"The police came through the hallway to get us and in the hallway, I saw a big pile of blood, like, kind of smeared as if they were dragged away, and I saw two girls probably dead in the hallway," she said. "And then, coming down the stairs, there was some more blood and outside the building there was another guy – I think it was a teacher – who was, [I’m] pretty sure was dead."

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel stated, "It's catastrophic. There really are no words.”
President Trump comforted the nation on Friday saying America as a whole was praying for the community of Parkland and those who lost loved ones in the tragedy. Well at least most reasonably minded Americans. "We are reminded that God hears our sorrows and is grieving with us," said the president.

Sadly, like clockwork, the liberal press, liberal politicians, and just ignorant political hacks and commentators, turned to their only reasons this type of violence would occur in our nation which is in their mind too many guns and mental illness.

Senator Kamala Harris' (D-CA) response was typical liberal speech urging action on gun restrictions saying, " When you see the effect of this extreme violence on a human body, and especially the body of a child, maybe it will shock some people into understanding,” Harris said. “This cannot be a political issue. We have to be practical. I support the Second Amendment. But we have to have smart gun-safety laws. And we cannot tolerate a society and live in a country with any level of pride when our babies are being slaughtered.”

Ms. Harris would be better to remain quiet on the matter of babies being slaughtered since she took nearly 100K in donations from Planned Parenthood in 2016 whose website's abortion page tells those who come there are only two ways to handle an unwanted pregnancy - take the abortion pill or come into the clinic for the real thing. Forgive me for sounding cruel here but until Ms. Harris stops her support for the real killing and slaughter of babies - she needs to shut up!

I submit to you what happened Wednesday was neither because of mental illness or guns, even though one could argue this psychopath was in his own sick world mentally deranged. His defense team leaked to the press Friday he had heard "demons" tell him how to carry out what he did.

Whether demons told him how to do this or the Easter Bunny, Nikolas Cruz deserves and should get the death penalty and electric chair. I pray he finds Jesus but his deeds scream for the ultimate price for the dead he left in his wake.

What Cruz did was pre-meditated and well thought out. This was not some random act by a mental patient seeing little gremlins float through the sky while on a drug-induced experience.

He is a domestic terrorist and cold-blooded killer, plain and simple. In that sense he is mentally ill, but mental illness is not why America is sinking into a violent abyss that we are not coming out of anytime soon.

Jack Brewer, a former NFL star and current member of the Parkland, Fla. community argued America’s youth need a new foundation in the wake of this. I'd argue it's not just America's youth, but the entire nation that needs a new foundation and to turn back to God!

“These kids need prayer and these kids need a new foundation besides social media, besides the music that they listen to that’s polluting their minds,” Brewer said Thursday on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria.”

The practical thing we must do is to invest in school security to ensure nothing like this happens again. We could take away every gun in America and the violence would continue. If we take the guns away, evil people will use bombs. If we gather up all the bomb making material, they will use knives. If we take the knives, they will use cars. Evil people will perpetrate evil on others because their hearts are EVIL!

The gun debate is one worth having if it’s done with the attitude that we need to ensure military style weapons are not available to those wanting to do harm. Geraldo Rivera had an awesome suggestion that we increase the age at which a teen can purchase a gun. Nikolas Cruz was not able to buy a beer at age 19, but he was able to purchase a AR-15.

That is a pathetic commentary on the laws of our nation That needs to change. But again, it's never been about the guns, it's about the heart!

We need to hire ex-police officers, firemen, and military people with skills to monitor parking lots outside every single school in America. No one that has ever shot up a building or school came in from the roof. They entered a front door unless they were a student themselves who brought a gun inside.

We need to inspect duffle bags and backpacks on a daily basis. The liberals will scream about that and claim it’s an infringement on civil rights but would we rather inspect bags or attend funerals of our kids? I don't think it's a hard choice.

With all the money being wasted in Washington D.C. can we not spend a little money on investing in the security of our most precious treasures who attend our schools in this nation. I don't think that is asking too much. With all the millions spent on the Mueller probe trying to destroy President Trump we could have paid for security forces to deploy across every school in this nation!

Our prayers go out to the hurting today in South Florida. It's been another week or mourning for a nation which has mourned quite a bit over the past several years.

We didn't discuss the failures of law enforcement in this tragedy, we will save that fire for later.

This editorial is about honoring the families of those who lost their loved ones in this senseless tragedy. And a senseless tragedy it is.

May God bless this great nation of America and heal us of this violence that is destroying us. Without His help we are certainly doomed!
 

Christopher McDonald, Publisher, Editor in Charge

Great Smoky Mountain Journal