I Can't Say

I can't say whether his mind was full of hatred or whether life had screwed him over repeatedly until he snapped. I can't say that he has always wanted to kill, but finally ran out of self control and succumbed to his desire. I can't say that he is a sociopath and just wanted to know what it would feel like to open fire and kill as many people as he could in a very short period of time. I can't say for sure that he is just evil.

I can't say what his reasons actually were or whether he feels that he succeeded on his mission. I can't say whether he feels that he was a success before this happened or whether he views himself as a failure.

I can say is that he screwed a lot of people's lives up this morning. Obviously the people he killed and wounded, and their families and friends as well. There are a whole slew of cops, firefighters, medics, docs and nurses who will never forget today, a few of them will likely be a little screwed up for a while, maybe a long while. A bunch of the  people who chose the wrong theater last night and were lucky enough not to be shot are going to be screwed up, hopefully for not too long.

I can say it only took a few hours to see the effect that his actions were going to have on the rest of the nation, on people that weren't any where near the incident, but were just witnesses through TV or other instantaneous media.

I can say that it was painfully obvious the various news networks had only a few minutes of facts that they needed to stretch into hours of continuous coverage.  I can say "experts" began appearing on the networks in short order, some spewing inaccuracies and speculation. 

I can say that the term "what steps can we take to ensure that something like this never happens again" was heard before I finished my breakfast, as was "it's too easy for people like him to get  their hands on guns".

I can say with some degree of certainty, that right now, some disenfranchised individual is watching the extraordinary amount of attention being paid to some wacko's actions and is wondering if that is a way that he can be heard.

*****

Glad I wasn't there. Deepest condolences to the victims, their families, friends and other all of the other affected people.

Finally, a tip of the lid to the men and women who responded to the scene, Schmoes who just wanna keep the wolves from the door.

Thanks for reading, lets hope for better days.

Schmoe