Another School Massacre

I found out today about the massacre at a Florida public school. 17 people dead. Families in agony. A 19-year old mentally-ill kid with a gun. The media and masses reporting while political leaders deliver response speeches. Everybody's got a thought or a feeling about it, except me. I will post the sad faces on Facebook responses, and I will say the appropriate compassionate response, but I honestly don't know what I think or feel about this. It's not the first time this has happened, so it's not shocking. It probably won't be the last time, regardless of more gun laws or not. I want to share my opinion or my stance, but really all I have in mind is a ton of unanswered questions.

The first question is obvious — Why did this happen? There is no answer. Some will say because we need more gun control. Some will say because we need to pay more attention to the mentally-ill. Some, more radical, may say that it's because children need to be with their parents instead of some factory of babysitters. They could all be right or wrong, and I wouldn't know for sure. What if it was all planned? What if Cruz was a hired hitman sent on this massacre mission to give gun control activists another shot at convincing loyal Constitutionalists that the people shouldn't have guns? What if some radical right-winged group hired him as a hitman to dissuade people from believing in tax-payed for public education? Sure, these are all just conspiracy theories, but most people don't stop to think about the "what ifs," and they could be just as right or wrong as the other answers.

How am I supposed to respond? I'm just an innocent bystander listening to reports. I'm not personally affected by the incident because I didn't know anyone involved in the massacre, not the students, teachers, or criminal. Do I own a gun? No. I can't get one even if I wanted one because I have a mental illness. My husband doesn't own a gun either, and he couldn't get one if he wanted to because he's a convicted felon. We really don't have that much interest in owning guns, but we are very aware of the current gun laws in effect. Still, if we went psycho and wanted to get guns to go on some insane shooting spree, I sincerely doubt that we would go to a gun shop and fill out forms to purchase guns even if we weren't barred from getting them. Seems like if you're going to plan such a heinous crime, you would probably obtain your weaponry from other criminals. Doesn't that make more sense?

I'm not trying to defend the 2nd Amendment. I've done enough of that in the past trying to be loyal to the Constitution because I thought it was well-written and logical for a good democracy. I really don't care anymore what happens in regards to guns. I won't have one either way so I couldn't care less. What bothers me more is that the people of my country spend more time humming the same old songs and arguing the same old arguments, instead of really asking questions and really trying to think outside of the box. We say we want solutions, but we keep banging our heads on the same old supposed solutions that never solve.

After 911, propaganda had us believing that terrorism was the culprit and one guy was to blame. After we caught him and destroyed him, did terrorism magically go away? When I tell people 911 was an inside job and that there is no way the Twin Towers collapsed as they did just because of an airplane crash, people call me crazy and a conspiracy theorist. I'm not the only one who thinks this. Where do you think I got the idea? I asked questions. I found other people who had asked questions and had found some other answers. They taught me. I didn't call them conspiracy theorists. I called them true thinkers. Not just taking in whatever information the media or even family and friends present, but digging further into it. Trying to see past propaganda into the real motivation for something so incredibly insane. Who has to gain? Who has to lose? Why does it matter?

Any criminal investigator's first question is "What is the motive?" With this current massacre, the media is stating that Cruz is mentally ill, that he attended the school previously and was a discipline problem. That all the signs were there and nobody "caught" this "problem"... I don't buy it. It's too simple and it's too well-written. I could be wrong, but my questions keep swirling through my mind.

"What was Cruz's motive?"

"How did he get access to such weapons if he was already diagnosed Mentally-Ill?" A law was either broken, or he obtained them illegally.

"Should I be more upset about guns? Or the lack of safety in public schools?"

I don't have the answers. I'm sorry, but I was a teacher and I will continue to teach critical thinking. That means learning how to ask questions.