And now 28 are dead: 20 of them are children from ages 6 to 7. 12 are girls, 8 are boys, all killed by multiple bullet wounds. Six school staff members were killed the same way while protecting the children. The last two murders are the mother of the shooter killed in her sleep by her son, the shooter, aged 20, Adam Lanza. Adam took his own life, the 28th death.
Adam’s mother, Nancy, had home-schooled him because he had a learning disorder, although though he was considered intelligent. The shooter’s father, Peter, was divorced from the mother and is an executive for G.E. living in Stamford, Connecticut. He provided $200,000 a year in alimony and child support.
We look for reasons it happened as if we live in a bubble and the blowback of gunshots popped us from it. And we’re told the president shed tears in his initial comments on the tragedy. So too did Governor Dan Molloy when speaking of it. NBC’s Chuck Scarborough was looking red-eyed as well, all perhaps thinking of their own children. Yet, the president requests drone bombings on our stated enemies, Al Qaeda or other terrorists to eliminate them or, in error, killing 29 innocents at a wedding celebration; or to creates a no-fly zone, as in Libya to unseat the leader of a sovereign state, killing 60,000 people.
We live as in a bubble, as if we don’t know we have nearly a thousand military bases around the world and 250,000 troops that man them. By 2020, the military is yearning for total military domination of the world. What we forget is that we illegally initiated the Iraq War, preemptively attacked Afghanistan, repeatedly have struck our ally Pakistan, brutalized Somalia, backed terrorists in the Syrian conflagration, and on and on, killing all the way. In fact, we are the most violent nation on earth.
We live in a bubble, not realizing that our violence rubs off on certain individuals who are homegrown or homeschooled terrorists of another kind, of their own insanity or naiveté, acting it out whether in a movie theater, a shopping mall, a college campus, a high school in Columbine, a Mosque in Wisconsin, or anywhere in America where they can bring hell on earth not peace to men of good will. This is the real blowback that momentarily breaks the bubble we live in, allowing the sins of the fathers to fall on the heads of their children. Let that one fact be known; and also this . . .
Monday, as I walked past a school on West 108th Street at 2:40 p.m. in New York City, eastwards towards Amsterdam Avenue, there were 6 or 7 children playing with very realistic looking plastic machineguns that fired pointed plastic bullets placed in the clip above the trigger. And they were shooting those bullets at each other. And only one parent, an African-American man, was standing there waiting for his child to exit the school, having heard about the Newtown Connecticut event. There were no teachers in sight, no principle expressing outrage at the violent play of kids; just an emptiness as the kids kept picking up their bullets and reinserting them in their plastic machineguns and fired them. Today it’s plastic, tomorrow cold steel with real hollow-point bullets. This is the dimension we are in.
And in a few years these children will be young men. And they will crave the real guns with real bullets to prove their manhood, their exceptionalism, to take their brothers’ lives away on the battlefields or the streets turned into same. Yet no one saw it but that black parent and I that day, and we talked about it, but neither of us went into the school to demand this inappropriate play be stopped by those in charge, thus becoming complicit for lack of right action in the moment.
And in Newtown we know, the shooter’s dead mother had legally purchased a .223 caliber Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle: lightweight with a high capacity, also popular with law enforcement and military, commonly seen at shooting competitions. Two men convicted in a series of sniper killings in the Washington, D.C.-area in 2002 used a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that they fired from the trunk of a car at randomly picked victims. Some models have a detachable magazine that can hold up to 30 rounds. The medical examiner in Connecticut said it appeared all the children and school staff were shot with the same high-powered rifle, some repeatedly, some at close range.
There was also a Glock 10 mm and a Sig Sauer 9 mm, both popular with police and military personnel.
The Bushmaster and the other two weapons were found near the body of Lanza, who killed himself at the school. The make of that weapon found outside the school was not clear. Investigators are combing gun shops and ranges in the area, and looking into the ownership of the weapons involved. Lanza’s mother had legally registered four weapons, and his father had two.
What’s more, Mrs. Lanza frequented firing ranges in her area to hone her skills, the same that led her to being gunned down by her son. The mother was practicing with these guns to protect herself when the economy crashed and the lumpenproletariat raided her tony community. And this is the blowback that bursts the bubble. A few hot tears freeze in the cold-hearted aura of death. When will we make the connection between our actions, what we condone as Americans, as who we say we are, the heroes of peace and democracy. We are in fact part of the hand that pulls the triggers of those who murder the innocents.
A day later
It is reported that a man in cammo trousers and a black jacket was found walking in the woods near the Sandy Hook elementary school and was arrested. As he passed the onlookers he muttered, “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.” He was handcuffed and placed in the front seat of a black police Escalade SUV, flashing blue and red lights and eye-balled by many. At some point, he was taken away and no news has been heard about him since. So it goes. The news, the facts, they appear and disappear like footprints in the snowy woods.
Was that Adam’s ‘handler,’ the one who gave him the command to fire on those innocent children and teachers who bravely faced the murderer to protect or hide their soon-to-be slaughtered students? Who was it? Is this real? Is this really happening?
The Pope sent a letter of regret and sorrow. Did he shed a Papal tear?
The Congregation of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church gathered that first evening, overflowing crowds to help understand why 28 died, why they lived, why god would a thing like this? But did god do it or was it a troubled 20 year-old boy-man, home-schooled in the dark arts. The day after, the Church received a notice of warning as parents mourned there, “I’m going to kill, I’m going to kill.” Is this another sick puppy? Do we not have other precedents?
Following in the footsteps of the devil
On April, 16, 2007, at the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide (another 6 people were injured escaping from classroom windows).
On July 20, 2012, James Holmes, after leaving 12 people dead and as many as 57 injured in a movie theater, in Aurora, Colorado, has mailed burnt currency to his University of Colorado psychiatrist, according to court testimony on Monday, KUSA-TV reported. He is presently awaiting trial in Denver.
On the afternoon of August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman, an engineering student and former Marine, killed 13 people and an unborn child, and wounded 32 others in a shooting rampage located in and around the Tower of the University of Texas. Three of the fatalities were killed inside the university’s tower, with 11 others murdered after Whitman fired at random targets from the 28th floor observation deck of the Main Building, that is, before Whitman was shot and killed by Austin Police Officer Houston McCoy. Prior to commencing his mass murder at the University of Texas (where he was a student), Whitman had murdered both his wife and mother in Austin. Whitman was the deadliest of them all.
Yet, on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado, a shootout occurred when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve students and a teacher, and wounded 23 others, before they both committed suicide. The massacre made headlines nationwide and around the world, making Columbine a household name, and causing a moral panic in American high schools. What is a moral panic? The realization you are living in a bubble until the blowback bullets can splatter it and you.
Jan. 8, 2011, former Representative Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), was shot in the head, making her partially paralyzed and blind by 24-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, who also killed six others, and was sentenced to seven life terms in prison, amid powerful testimony from the survivors of his shooting rampage in Tucson at a political rally that day.
On August 5, 2012, the Oak Creek Sikh temple was the site of a mass shooting, leaving six people dead and four wounded. Temple members also held a vigil after the shooting at Azana Spa in Brookfield. The lone gunman eventually killed himself.
On balance in 2010, the latest year for which detailed statistics are available, there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms. The FBI crime statistics are based on reports to FBI bureau and local law enforcement. The figures are not complete. There are no stats for Florida (where Trayvon Martin was murdered by self-appointed community protector George Zimmerman). He claimed he was following the “Stand Your Ground Law.” There were no figures complete on firearm murders and data for Illinois.” But even so it provides a detailed picture of attacks in the US.
The influence of news/entertainment media
This news comes immediately after these horrific events and vanishes in the ‘normal’ news cycle thereafter. As to television and film, endless movies for theaters and TV are produced, glorifying gangsters as diverse as Tony Soprano and gangster mayor of the past ‘Nucky Thompson” of Boardwalk Empire, with endless scenes of shootings, hackings, beatings, bestiality, as a substitute for humanity and genuine entertainment.
Add to that, the war movies, the glorification of violence in films like The Hurt Locker, Black Hawk Down, Platoon, Dr. Strangelove, et al. Is it any wonder life imitates “art” in the American sensibility, that violence is inherent in every aspect of American life, let alone slaughtering children? And when we watch Israel endlessly gun down Palestinian children (far more than the Palestinians do), some point it out, others don’t care, because the misguided Israelis are our allies. We live by the gun; we die by the gun, as in a bubble. And the bubble is broken only by murder’s blowback.
Are we warped to the core?
Does this indicate America is violent to the core like a rotten apple spoiling the barrel of humanity? Or is all humanity the same? Your guess is as good as mine.
The president said, “We must change”
With a depth of compassion and gentleness, quoting scripture, Obama seemed to reveal a gentler, kinder side of himself in his speech to Newtown and the world. Click here to read or hear the full transcript.
Today’s the first day of the rest of our lives
Hopefully something is learned after being burned so many times by dealers selling military-grade weapons on the open gun market, particularly gun shows where no background checks are needed to buy them. Also, we need to get gun sales off the Internet, where the same lack of rules applies. Also we need to create some balance to the constitutional “right to bear arms” that doesn’t include the sale of “expanded bullet packs” and the prior named weaponry. This is not what the founding fathers were thinking.
We should not expose the lives of children and adults to the violent whims of the seriously disturbed using these weapons randomly. On the larger scale, we should begin a further withdrawal of troops worldwide and a change in the nature of our foreign policy. Let us not be the world’s policeman or dictator, but its friend and fellow builder of sustainable environments; the helper in abolishing ignorance, starvation, sicknesses. Let us make our reason d’être creation not destruction.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer and life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.
Dear JM, Although the medical examiner has declared that all the casualties at the elementary school were caused by a .223 rifle, CNN reported on the day of the atrocity that Lanza carried two pistols into the school and that the Bushmaster .223 was found in the trunk of the car he drove to the scene.
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/17/%e2%80%98bug-splats%e2%80%99/
RE: Tony Vodvarka,
Dear Tony,
There are many inconsisties, facts changed, facts missing, facts obscured, like the man I mentioned walking from the woods in cammo pants and a black jacket, who was arrested and said to crowds, “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.” And then we never hear anything about him again. This is par for the horror shows. The same is true of Aurora, now with a similar total lockdown on any more info. Holmes is still sitting waiting for a trial. I don’t think we’ll ever know what really happened and who was behind it. And what about Sen-Hui Cho, at Virginia Tech. His sister was purportedly described as working with the Pentagon in some capacity. At Columbine, your marvel at the fact that its young cannibals had a stash of guns and ammo in their basements and their parents, who worked in the defense industry, had no clue. The obfuscation just rolls on and on, providing a great distraction to the issues of the “the fiscal debt cliff”, cutting taxes or entitlements, and providing enough funds to Hurricane Sandy victims to rebuild. We live in a bubble. When the bubble breaks with gunshots, we get a brief glimpse of reality.
JM.
Dear Dave,
I have mentioned pretty clearly that America is the most violent country on earth, and that the President who leads it can kill with drones or the NDAA as quickly as he can mourn the dead children and teachers. See my reply to Tony Vodvarka above. On one level, these massacres are our drone strikes, and aside from mourning the innocent dead, these events provide distractions from Congress resolving the USG leaping over the debt cliff, cutting taxes for the rich or entitlements for the elderly, and/or properly renumerating victims of Hurricane Sandy to rebuild their homes and communities. Frankly, expect more slaughter, more rhetoric on assault rifles, and more of nothing done. This is the New Normal. Until the bubble bursts and the bullets’ blowback hits us.
Regards,
JM.
Yeah
The blowback will hit you, and hard. Define assault rifles. You can’t, you only see the hood ornament and never see the engine. Ignorant people talking bout guns and farming all are blowhards. And should be restricted from talking about such things, since the First Amendment was never untended for people to talk about those things they were ignorant in and needs restrictions.
We need columnist restrictions, after all the pen is mightier than the sword.
You may choose to delegate this responsibility to others, as Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama have, but your right to life is not inferior to theirs. It is equal. President Obama has no more right to live than you do. You are his equal from the standpoint of what your creator, and his creator, endowed both of you with. So we have established that you have the right to live, as does the President. And if the President has the right to defend his life with deadly force, and indeed the responsibility to do so, then, should it be necessary, so do you.
This debate should end right there. Up until all of these people in political office disband their police forces, their Secret Service details, throw down their own arms, armored cars, body armor and other defensive means of interdicting assault they have nothing — not even a moral argument — behind them in their demand that you disarm and become an intentional victim — no matter who you are.
I have fought against Government intrusion into my privacy and civil rights for many years (dogs; pit bull types specifically) and what I have learned through many years of fighting against BSL is that people who talk about Government like they are a friend or “just trying to help” really do believe that my sacrificing my rights for the “greater good” and for “public safety” is the morally right thing to do. They have misplaced their trust and faith in Government to help them and be there for them when they need them.
People like me do not think or feel that way. We believe in ourselves, the people, the Citizens and our rights and responsibilities to look out for ourselves and our families without the intrusion of Government. We consider attempts by the Government to erode our rights (“help”, “be our friend”) as suspicious and worthy of a great scrutiny because we believe as the founding fathers did that the natural entropy of Government is to oppress the people.
“the greater good” and the promise of “better public safety” are just a lure and a ruse to extract my rights and transfer them to the Government – especially in talking about gun control because when logic is applied, it clearly shows that armed citizens ready to act as a first response in any situation that threatens their life or the lives of their charges yields far superior results than attempting to remove the rights of the people, ban “things” for which there is a great demand and that the people have a right to, or “boil the frog” by removing small parts of the right here and there.
I think you’re spot on with your observations although I always thought Dr. Stangelove was an anti-war film.
Joe Stalin (not the most popular guy in history) said that when a man dies it’s a tragedy, when a million men die it’s a statistic.
We rarely read or hear that 30,000 people die in motor vehicle accidents in the US annually. Very few are aware that some 40,000 people in the US will die prematurely due to the passage of ObamaCare instead of a single payer system.
We always hear about plane crashes, school shoot ups, people going postal, etc. Why? Is death more manageable in smaller bites? Are the larger statistics more indicative of a system based on death as opposed to the “smaller” body counts created by insane loners and mistake-prone individuals, thereby letting the system off the hook?
I was at my local health club on Friday when the loudspeaker system announced at 9:30 am the observance of 26 seconds of silence for the victims in Newtown a week earlier. I observed 28 seconds of silence. The mother and son are as much a product of a killer system as the innocent victims, young and old.
In a rather hostile TV interview by RT about the Sandy Hook atrocity, the admirable Paul Craig Roberts staunchly stayed on message, repeatedly stating, “you can’t have a police state and an armed population”. Our present police state has tightened the noose after each of our “Reichstag fires” of the last twenty years, Oklahoma City, 9/11, various random massacres, resulting in successive “Enabling Acts” that have erased Habeus Corpus, destroyed the privacy of one’s home, militarized the domestic police forces that have become practically unaccountable, created a penal gulag of millions of prisoners and made us the most spied upon people in history. Given the almost unanimous participation of the corporate media in the call for “banning”, it seems we are facing a serious effort to at least partially disarm the American people. Patriots should familiarize themselves with the CIA-supported Operation Gladio, its “strategy of tension” and the bombing of the Bologna train station in 1980 which killed eighty and wounded hundreds. The shit that we have rained down upon the rest of world in the last seventy years always comes home or, as Malcolm said of the JFK assassination, “chickens coming home to roost”.
Newtown has all the hallmarks of state sponsored terror, just as Aurora did.
Like many such events, there are initially multiple accounts of more than one shooter who later seem to vanish into thin air leaving a lone, vulnerable patsy.
Without exception, all the school massacres involved shooters either on, or withdrawing from psychotropic medication, usually SSRI’s such as prozac.
There are many examples of horrific acts of violence being committed by people on these drugs.
Bill Cooper wrote in ‘Behold A Pale Horse’ about the use of drugs, hypnotic suggestion & psychotronic weapons to elicit such events in order to justify the disarmament of the American people. He was murdered by police.
You’re being played America. They had the gun legislation ready to go. They want your guns because us slaves aren’t allowed guns. Only power is allowed to use force.
Government has a bag of tricks to manipulate us with, & those who own government also control media.
Newtown was staged. Some of those who we are told lost children are obviously acting. Within hours of their children being murdered, these parents are on television smiling & remembering cute stories about them! Fake. No tears.
Facebook remembrance pages set up before the actual event.
Pictures of children who aren’t dead & who aren’t who we’re told they are.
You have a right to bear arms as human beings. Your government, just like mine, are mass murderers & happy to sacrifice our lives & liberties to increase their power & control. It is they who should be disarmed, not the people.