Friday’s school shooting in Connecticut now puts that small school in the ranks of the deadliest mass killings to date. According to the FBI, four or more dead in a single incident qualifies the crime to be labeled mass murder. What makes this particular incident heinous by a factor of 100 is that it was perpetrated against children. The school housed Kindergarten through fourth graders. Twenty children lay dead and six adults. There’s not one of us who doesn’t feel sick to his stomach when we think about it.

My information on this came the same way you received it. Through endless coverage and updates on TV and the Internet. There is little doubt that I don’t know more than you concerning this. We probably know the same and there’s a good chance you know more about it than me, as you watch the updates and I write.

The purpose of this is not to inform. The purpose is to share the heartfelt sorrow for the victims and their families. Many of whom had probably spent the week decorating and laying presents under a tree, or had plans to do such this weekend. Imagine those families who now have an empty house and just ask over and over, why? Their world shattered by the senseless act of one individual.

And what of the families whose children survived the assault? How do you explain to them what they witnessed?

“You can’t,” as one psychologist put it. “You hold them and tell them you love them and that they are safe.”

The shooter has been identified. His life will now become an open book over the next few days as police piece together his comings and goings and put him under a microscope. His motives, psychological stability and possibly an answer as to why he did what he did might come to light.

God’s inhumanity to man pales next to man’s inhumanity to man. The point of all this is not to exemplify a tragedy in a small New England town. What it does show is the vulnerability we must all live with. The person was known to the school. His mother taught there. Schools try to put security in place, but in the end, if someone wants to target something, there’s really not much that can be done to stop them short of keeping armed guards on the grounds.

The schools lock down. It’s a drill that’s practiced here in our own school system. It works to keep a lot of children safe, but not all. In the initial minutes of an attack, there is the greatest damage done.This gunman did not walk the halls randomly shooting. He picked a classroom and systematically executed those inside it.

We as a community enjoyed much the same life as did that small community. Families with loving parents who nurtured their young, an above-average school system and neighbors who care and watch out for one another. I guess it was just happenstance that I caught the initial breaking news casts of the story. In those first few minutes, the police were advising parents to stay away from the school. Right, like that would work.     

Here is where the story goes from heart-wrenching to inconceivable. Those bodies of the slain children still lay in the school. All the victims have been identified. They cannot be moved until the medical examiner completes his investigation. The parents must wait in the adjacent firehouse. Unable to see their children, they grieve and await updates from authorities about how the investigation is progressing.

The medical examiner can order autopsies. Bodies must be X-rayed and bullets removed with or without a parent’s permission. The state medical examiner’s office is nowhere near the sight of the shooting. It might be days before parents can take possession of their slain children.

We all grieve for that community. We all would like to believe it couldn’t happen here. The sad reality is it will happen again. In a state in another part of the country, in another community, perhaps in another part of the world, it will happen. It might be time to allow teachers to carry concealed weapons. I know it’s counter-productive to what just happened, but it is a deterrent. Unfortunately it would get mired down in political agendas and endless school board meetings.

And from what I could determine from reading on the subject, the general consensus is that teachers should not be armed. I guess the simple solution is not so simple. So I’ll just say I was wrong to bring it up rather than erase it all together and you’d never know the difference. And hope that we will keep those of the more vociferous, opinionated nature at bay.

I did notice that more and more school officials, politicians and even the President quoted scripture to help ease the pain of what happened. Funny how a government that prohibits such things in schools would turn to it in a time of tragedy.

My opinion does not reflect the views or opinions of Penobscot Bay Pilot. I felt someone should say something. And my writing in no way helped relieve my grief that I feel for the families who lost loved ones.