Brief thoughts on the latest mass killings

By Tom Quiner

I’m not surprised.
It’s a horrible thing to say, but the latest mass killings in Santa Barbara didn’t even make the front page of the Des Moines Register.
Mass killing is losing its ability to shock. They keep happening, typically perpetrated by some disaffected young person looking to get revenge against a world that hasn’t treated them the way they want.
Quick thoughts …
1. Heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the family. It’s easy to view the victims as abstractions, but they’re not. Real people have had their lives turned upside down. I offer sincere prayers to the victims’ survivors.
2. Half of the victims were killed by knife. A deranged person will find ways to kill, regardless of the weapon. The problem is not guns, the problem is diagnosing, treating, and perhaps even confining the dangerously mentally ill.
3. It’s not easy diagnosing, treating, and confining the dangerously mentally ill. The ACLU has made it tough. And the police are not properly equipped to do the job, evidenced by the fact that Santa Barbara police confronted the killer on three separate occasions, characterizing him as …

“perfectly polite, kind and [a] wonderful human.”

4. Are these mass killings more rotten fruit from the “self-esteem” movement? I don’t know. It’s probably a stretch. The self-esteem movement has produced an army of narcissists who demand that nothing make them feel “uncomfortable.” The latest mass killer raged against young women because he couldn’t find any to have sex with him. He felt ‘uncomfortable’ about this. The solution for a nutcase? Kill as many people as possible.
I’m probably grasping at straws, like the rest of the world, as we try to understand what to do about mentally ill people who want to do you and me harm.
No one will be surprised when the next attack takes place.