It is like an endless looping video tape. While the names and faces change everything else seems to stay the same.
Yesterday Santa Monica Police Chief, Jacqueline Seabrooks went in front of the cameras to explain the details of a mass shooting in her town. She is just the latest in a long and obviously unending line of authorities to stand in front of a bank of microphones relating how her department finally brought down some heavily armed and quite demented fool. He was carrying an assault style weapon--some reports say it was our old friend, the AR-15--and he was in possession of an amount of ammunition that officials estimate could be as high as 1,300 rounds. He was dressed in black and was wearing a vest that would deflect, or at least slow down bullets. It would seem everyone prepares thoroughly these days before tripping off into the deep end of the pool. Well, there is no doubt that the thinking lunatic should always be detailed oriented.
The police have yet to officially release the shooter's name, but the LA Times is reporting that he is John Zawahri and he would have turned 24 years old yesterday.
Before Mr. Zawahri opened fire on the general public he shot and killed his father and brother, then set the house they were in on fire. He then carjacked a vehicle with a woman driver, who at first took him to be either a secret service agent, or a member of a local police SWAT team.That is because the President of the United States was in town. To her horror as she drove him toward Santa Monica College he began shooting at passengers on buses and anyone else he took a disliking to.
In one of those odd and unfathomable quirks that some homicidal maniacs display he promised her if she didn't do anything "stupid" he'd let her go and luckily for her he kept his word.
He then killed two people in the school parking lot. USA Today is reporting they were a father and daughter. Finally, as he entered the school library, he shot and killed a female bystander. Students in the library saw him coming and barricaded themselves in a room. Before police shot him to death Zawahri fired a number of rounds through the walls of the room, trying to kill those inside.
Various sources say Zawahri was once enrolled at the school, that he was upset his parents were getting a divorce, and, of course, there was a history of mental issues when he was younger. Why sure there was. These evil twists don't go around the bend at the drop of a hat. It takes some time to work the ol' psyche up to a murderous state, not to mention collect more guns than the national police of Belize have on hand. Indeed, the circumstances have to be just right. The people around you have to either live in a fantasy world of denial, or just simply ignore all the symptoms because--well--that's the easiest thing to do.
There is no word on where, or how he secured his armament, but odds are he bought everything legally. It is either that or he stole it all from a family member, or some other patriot who was going to save the republic from the evils of socialism and gun control. The only thing certain at this time is he began his deadly tour nearly as well outfitted as, Ted, by God, Nugent.
So now I'm supposed to rail against the NRA, gun manufacturers, idiots with erectile dysfunction who buy assault rifles, and politicians who don't have the guts to expand background checks even a fraction. Unfortunately, in this country, doing that is rather like shouting at the wind. No matter how angry I get the gale still blows.
Yes, there are too many cowards among us who believe they can't safely leave their homes without carrying a firearm. There are too many politicians who don't give a shit about public safety, or health to do anything about what is a curable disease. In America the addiction to guns is far more pervasive and deadly than any addiction to meth, heroin, and crack.
Let's face it, we're a nation of killers, or at least a nation who fancies the idea of killing. We certainly love all the tools of killing.
As the late cartoonist, Walt Kelly once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
And there I go again--shouting at the wind.
Hey, you do what you do.
6-9-13
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