Evil Visited Us Today

By Fidel "Butch" Montoya

The news from Newtown, Connecticut last week, that shook the nation out of complacency and left us shocked beyond disbelief that a mad man had carried out another horrific nightmare where 20 elementary students were shot, along with 7 adults.  The gruesome shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were too awful for many of us to comprehend the early news reports coming out of a picturesque small town nestled in an area of rolling hills and peaceful solitude. 

As more and more dreadful details came out of Newtown, the sickening realities of the shootings were too difficult to accept.  Many of us immediately thought of our own children or grandchildren and could not face the pain inflicted upon parents waiting to see if their children ran out of the school.   In the back of our minds, we were questioning how could such a horrifying incident happen in an elementary school, where we expect our children to be safe? 

As Governor Dan Malloy who tried to make sense out of the ghastly circumstances that left some parents unable to believe their small children had been slaughtered in their classroom, solemnly said, “Evil visited us today.” 

Yes, evil personified by a young man whose own mother worried of leaving her son alone. She was too terrified as if she sensed the evil in her son and was afraid he would not be able to control the demonic presence controlling her son.                                   

Adam Lanza, the deranged and allegedly mentally ill young man of 20 years old, finally lost control of his demons and the evil that drove him to kill.  One law enforcement officer claimed he had the weapons and enough ammo to continue his deadly shooting trek in the hallways of a school where students were told a wild animal was loose in the school. 

How does one lose one’s sense of reality and without remorse, kill small children who had barely begun to explore a new world with friends, of numbers, colors, words, and teachers who would help them understand this exciting journey into their futures.   

This is the difficult dilemma we now face again as a nation that worships its right to bear arms, especially automatic weapons.  A nation so bent on fear and uncertainty, some are forced to purchase automatic weapons for protection and a sense of well being.  We have read the news reports that often claim some of these weapons outgun weapons used by police officers on the street.

The cry to do something rumbled slowly at first across our country and then the rumblings became stronger and stronger as people begin to realize we could not continue down the same path of buying and owning automatic weapons.  Just maybe Americans may begin to understand we must develop a unified front to get these automatic weapons off the streets, and to prevent the sales of these weapons that were built to kill other human beings. 

President Barrack Obama who came to Newtown to express his sympathy on behalf of a stunned nation, the strain and tension he felt could be seen on his face and in his words.  “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We can’t accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”

Even as the President called for an end to these tragedies saying we can’t 

tolerate this anymore, and that we must change.   In Colorado, gun buyers literally waited in line in gun shops to purchase their weapons of choice setting record gun sales the very next day after the shootings.  

The number of gun buyers overwhelmed the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and created a backlog of background checks on individuals wanting to purchase these weapons of mass destruction.  Many potential gun buyers waited in line because they feared the government may soon ban automatic weapons. 

Somehow the show of force from the President who said he was going to push for change to end these tragedies, to our Senators and Representatives in Washington, D.C. who now find public opinion forcing them to consider if our country is ready to change when it comes to banning automatic weapons and changing our laws.  Banning automatic weapons and clips of ammo that can pack over 100 bullets are just two of many changes members of Congress are talking about changing.

In 1999 in Littleton, Colorado at Columbine High School where two students loaded with automatic weapons, home built bombs scattered throughout the school, and a battle plan to kill other students, marched systemically down the halls catching other students and teachers who were caught off guard by bursts of gun shots in the hallway, lunchroom, and ultimately in the school library were most the student victims were shot.

Demands for tighter control on automatic weapons were similar to what we hear today, doing something to prevent these weapons from being purchased and used to kill innocent people.  Politicians made their speeches, newspaper editorials called for new laws, but in a dramatic show of force, the NRA at it national convention in Denver shortly after the Columbine High School shootings, marched in the streets in defiance of those politicians who dared to control their right to purchase automatic weapons.

Along with other incidents where high automatic weapons were used to kill students in other schools and colleges, the horrific shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in July left us stunned and mortified by the cold blooded determination to kill unsuspecting movie goers, who may have thought at first, it was part of the movie or some grand scheme to promote the movie.

Again, a young graduate student whose mental health had been questioned by doctors who had completed evaluations on him, with one who  even wanted to have him hospitalized or taken off the streets because of the fear that this young man, could do the unthinkable.  But no one took the initiative to follow the red flags, and we saw the results of when a person in need of mental health assistance ends up killing innocent movie goers and causing so much human destruction that night.  Hoping to kill police officers who no doubt he figured would go to his apartment to search for evidence; he set up booby traps so police officers might have become victims as well.

The real question for all of us to answer is will a ban on automatic weapons, and more stricter laws to prevent more of these horrendous crimes , really stop the violence?  As much as our country needs to see a change, how do we stop the fear we have to protect ourselves and family, and to defend ourselves while enjoying a movie out, a special dinner, or some other form of entertainment?  Will more laws fix the shooting epidemic we are facing?

Evil has visited our country again and what President Obama has called, “indescribable violence” has left its scar on our hearts again.  How do we legislate against evil?  How do we pass new laws that we know cannot control human behavior?  How do we make sure our weapons are secure at home so our children don’t have access to them?

I pray it would be so simple to just wave our magic wand and do away with evil and all of these gruesome killings.  How do we enact an automatic weapons ban, knowing like other criminals, if there is a will, there is a way to get their hands on these weapons of what President Obama called “unconscionable evil?” 

Until we change or allow God to transform us, and renewing of our minds, another law on the books will not put an end to these sad and horrible scenes of death.