On October 1st, 2017 a
psychopath killer raised the bar to at least 58 killed and more than 500
injured in one event. In the field of mass killings the next one will have to
be creative to be able to top that. The chilling thing is we know that right
now, someone is thinking in just such terms.
Now authorities are searching for a motive.
Here are two reasons why he did what he did, no matter what other reasons might
turn up. He committed this unspeakable act because, simply put, he could. He
was able to afford to buy the 47 guns he owned and all the ammunition, and
because he could afford to rent the suite at the hotel. This may not sound like
a motive, but it just might be the only reason he did it. It is difficult to understand why a
millionaire white American man would actually want to kill his fellow Americans
with such total abandon, but he could do it, so perhaps he did it to make the
name for himself as the darkest killer of all time on American soil.
He also knew that the nation would be
shocked, angered and dismayed by his actions and they would all know his name
because his co-conspirators, the police and the media would see to that.
However, Fareed Zakaria, the noted CNN broadcaster devoted a full hour’s
programme to the LA shootings and steadfastly refused to mention the name of
the shooter because he would not cooperate with the man’s expectation to have
his name publicised. Hooray! Fareed, you got it! Hopefully this is the thin
edge of the wedge and the rest of the media and the police will follow your
lead.
We, the public do not need to know the name
of the perpetrator. To us it is not important but to him it might be the most
important reason for committing the act in the first place as being his 15
minutes of fame.
This man committed an act of terror that was
no different than if he was a so-called ISIS fighter, and he deliberately
thought his actions through with very meticulous planning. We really have to
correct the saying that “not all Islamists are terrorists, but all terrorists
are Islamists.” That was never correct, not since the Texas tower shootings way
back in the mid-‘60s. The man who brought down the Oklahoma City building was
as American as apple pie.
The irony is that it is reasonable to
assume that a lot of the Country music fans that were either killed or injured
were likely gun lovers as well. How tragic to be caught in a killing field
where the rain was deadly fire from the guns you dearly loved.
The real problem I have with this incident,
and all the other mass shootings that evoke the same shock, anger and dismay is
that after the Sandy Hook shootings, by an American white boy that took the
lives of so many very young children, absolutely nothing was done against gun
ownership, so in my way of thinking that rules out shock, anger and dismay for
all future acts of gun violence.
A gun is manufactured for one reason. That
is to turn something living into something that no longer lives. The proper use
of a gun is to do just that. In a comparison with Japan in 2015, there was one
act, only one person died from gun violence compared with about 4000 in the
U.S. Clearly this is a matter of
mindset. Gun ownership and gun use in
Japan is unpopular. In the United States the very opposite is the case. Not only
are the 3% of Americans who own most of the guns in America largely accepting
of ownership they also seem to have a pre-disposition to use them against other
Americans. That is where change has to start, in the hearts and minds of those
who are so crazy about their guns.
There is a school of thought that holds
that if everybody owned and carried a gun no one would start shooting. No-one,
that is, except somebody who would like to start an all-out massacre just for
the fun of it. I hope there is nobody who thinks this could not happen.
You have met the enemy America, and the
enemy is you! In the first 265 days of this year there were 263 acts of mass
murder committed in the country.
You have the problem and you have the
solution. Now it is up to you. Please don’t tell me that you will be shocked,
angry and dismayed when the next bigger event comes along.
Copyright © 2017
Eugene Carmichael
