Thinking about the murders in CT. Watching the news–interview with a psychologist, who talked about how "these guys" are always isolated, and blame others for their troubles. Also I note that the kindergarten-teacher mother was really into the gun collecting and shooting. I see a connection, not the obvious one. Troubled people have always been with us. But now troubled people live in a gun culture, where they are easily available and just a normal part of life. 300 million guns in America have not made us safer.
It’s easy to demonize the perpetrator. That’s exactly what he did: demonize us.
Why do we think it’s normal that a kindergarten teacher would be a weapons aficionado? Personally I think there’s something dark here. And I’m not blaming anyone. It’s just very odd.
Years ago when I was in graduate school, I dated a fellow from East Africa. He had been born in a small village high on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and had somehow found his way to a PhD program at UCLA. He told me the story of how he had walked in to a Wild Western-theme bar in Westwood, where they had cutesy signs, “Check your weapons at the bar.” He told me how terrified he had been that people might be walking around Westwood with handguns, and ran out. Raised in the wilds of Africa, he found such an idea unspeakably uncivilized. This was in the 1970’s and probably most of were not carrying handguns in our purses. It wasn’t socially acceptable yet.
Who is responsible for this fierce aggressiveness that is all about us?