Victims deserve effort to eliminate mass shootings

Our hearts still ache.

Forty-nine people were killed in the Orlando, Florida, mass shooting last week. Dozens more were injured, and many still remain in hospital care.

We mourn for the families who lost sons, brothers, daughters, sister, aunts and uncles. Dinner tables will have empty chairs, families left hollow. Orlando, a place associated with happiness, is tending to a fresh wound that will scar the city for a long, long time.

The shooter in this case went to a gay bar in town to unleash his demons. He was killed during the response. His victims were not armed. The 49 dead and dozens injured were having a good time, enjoying their freedom. We are sorry and saddened that these people are gone. They were loved. And they will not be forgotten.

After every mass shooting, questions arise. What led the shooter to do this? How might have this been prevented?

These are natural questions to be asked, but we must be careful in placing motives and solutions.

In the hours following the massacre, many people were quick to point fingers.

President Obama was quick to point the finger at lax gun control.

Sen. John McCain was quick to point the finger at President Obama for inept foreign policy.

Some were quick to point fingers at radical Islam.

Some immediately made assertions that this was a hate crime fueled by homophobia.

Some argued that it was a mental-health issue.

As more information is learned, it appears that parts of all of these may be true.

The shooter, Omar Mateen, was by all accounts one very disturbed individual. He had what can only be described as a troubled childhood. A childhood acquaintance told CNN Mateen had once threatened to bring a gun to school as a child. CNN reported the child had 30-plus discipline incidents during his school age years. He was reported to have made threats in the workplace. His ex-wife told journalists he was abusive and mentally ill. Some reports have emerged that he himself might have been gay or bisexual, having interacted on gay online platforms and propositioned other men. He may have been living a double life. He was on the FBI’s radar after using threatening language at his job. Despite all these signs, the former security guard still had the ability to purchase an assault rifle and wield terror. There is no doubt terrorist ideology played a central role. He had been watching videos linked to ISIS before the attack, and on Facebook and in calls to police and media, he claimed his murderous action was in support of ISIS.

Could it be plausible that Mateen, in searching for an outlet to relieve his self-loathing, sought out ISIS as a justification for the damage he was wanting and planning to do? Or did ISIS give him, an already troubled individual, the inspiration for a mission he otherwise would not have acted upon? Did he have an extreme upbringing, scarred by a bizarre and judgmental father, that fertilized his hate? What is the role his wife played in this matter? Did she know enough she could have prevented it? We still don’t know. Regarding some of these questions, we may never know.

As our country grapples with this tragedy, it’s not prudent to believe there is a single factor behind it. We need to examine all aspects logically and sincerely; and not politically.

Gay people were shot in Orlando. Three people were killed and more than 200 injured by terrorist brothers during the Boston Marathon. Twenty-two people were killed at a Christmas party in San Bernardino, California, in an act of terrorism tied to Islamic extremism. Children were shot in Newtown, Connecticut. Black churchgoers were shot in South Carolina. Moviegoers were shot in Colorado.

Sometimes these shooters had ties to terrorism; sometimes they did not. Sometimes they targeted minorities. Mostly, they wanted to do as much damage as possible. By a common-sense definition, if not clinical, each was mentally ill. No sane person kills others en masse like this.

There seems to be no one trick that will prevent these tragedies. Solutions won’t be quick or easy. To borrow from President Lyndon B. Johnson, peace is a journey for 1,000 miles. It must be taken one step at a time. It’s time to set politics aside and work toward solutions, even if they are small steps.

Our hearts break for Orlando, as they still do for the victims in all the recent mass shootings, terrorism-related or not, in the United States or not. We owe it to them to make our best effort to limit the damage or eliminate altogether these senseless killings of innocent people.