The Adam Lanza School Shooting - my thoughts

In our “happy” middle-class lives I don’t wonder how much pain is hidden behind the polite ‘hello’s’ and how much sadness is buried behind the friendly ‘how are you’s?’ I am thinking now of that young boy called Adam Lanza. Only 20 years old, he shot his own mother before going to a nearby school and killing 20 more women and children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. There must have been a world of sadness and angst in this young man. Of the handful that could be found to even remember this boy from high-school, all that they could remember of him was that he was polite, not a trouble-maker, very intelligent but not very sociable. Oh, and he usually sat alone on the bus.

The big question in the US right now is “WHY? Why would somebody do this?” The truth is, in the last 20 years there have been 13 shootings very similar to this one in the US alone. “Why?” is the wrong question. It’s perfectly obvious why these killings happen, at least it is to me. In the furore of buzzing emergency vehicles, armour clad military personal, inquisitive reporters and dramatic political speeches, its easy to soak in the drama and demand loudly (but mostly rhetorically) “WHY WOULD SOMEONE DO THIS?! We were all so happy before this strange kid came along and messed up our perfect world! WHY?”

But let’s imagine for a minute that this solitary young guy didn’t shoot up the school. Let’s imagine that he didn’t kill his mother and then go on to shoot himself. What would have happened if that fateful day had just been another “happy” day and Adam had quietly carried on with his life? Well, we know from all the interviews that his father would probably still be none-the-wiser about the emotional turmoil in young Adam’s life. The father divorced and moved out two years ago. His brother wouldn’t either. He also moved out and doesn’t see his younger brother anymore. Since high school Adam’s peers don’t see him anymore either, but they never really knew him anyway so “seeing” him probably wouldn’t have eased his burdens. Apparently Adam’s mom really loved him though, and she was the only person that stayed with him. But in all her love for him, she probably pushed him too much with the way that she always drove him to excel academically. Even when they were practicing at the shooting range she put high expectations on him…

So what would have happened with this troubled young man if he hadn’t shot up the school? The answer is – nothing. Absolutely nothing. The “lanky goth” would have carried on living at home, playing shoot-em-up games on his computer, on his own, with a world of trouble and pain inside but no-one to share it with. I am not justifying this kid’s actions, I am merely re-phrasing the question. The question that we should be asking is – in a world full of selfish, comfortable, “happy” people whose only care is for ourselves and our own, why do we not see more school shootings? This well publicized tragedy warrants all the attention it has received, but what about all the silent tragedies happening around us? What about the troubled, tortured souls all around us who suffer silently?

Just this weekend I had the misfortune of injuring my face while I was surfing. The real misfortune was that it happened in Campsbay, where people are very rich and “happy”. I walked back to my car with blood streaming down my face and passed many very contented looking beach goers. They were contented to walk on by with no more than a curious glance and a few murmured words between them but no offers of assistance. I won’t go on to describe the dramas that I had at the Emergency wards where I enquired for assistance, to no avail. Suffice it to say that if I were not included in a warm, loving circle of family and friends who took care of me and doctored my face, this world would seem to me to be the same cold, unfriendly place that Adam probably knew. If a bleeding face is not a loud enough plea for help, what hope does a reserved 20 year old have who is lonely and bleeding on the inside?

Adam was not as fortunate as I am to enjoy a bit of the society that Jesus had in mind. The kind of society which loves other people not because they are sociable, likeable or familiar but because they are created by God and therefore they are precious. Until we can learn to love as Jesus loves let us not bother with silly questions like “Why do people do this?” and rather pursue more sensible questions like “Who? Who can take our selfish, human hearts and teach us how to love?”