Another tragic and senseless shooting took place in Oxford, Michigan, last week —this time at the hands of a 15-year-old student, now in custody, who killed three students and injured eight others including a teacher.
And as one can expect, politicians will issue statements expressing their condolences and saying such nonsensical statements like “we mourn the loss of these students and teachers,” or “you are in our prayers.” Of course, we use the term “nonsensical” loosely because prayer always matters and lending one’s support to others in time of need remains essential within the framework of the human family.
Nonetheless, examples like these have become so commonplace that they only dominate the news cycle and social media for a few days before becoming footnotes on the pages of life.
Meanwhile, homicide rates in D.C., Baltimore County and many other metropolitan areas remain on track to exceed rates not recorded since 2019.
We know that guns don’t kill people—people kill people. Still, the real question that remains unanswered is why are we seeing this ominous spike in homicides?
Baltimore County officials attribute the rise to behavioral health-related incidents and killings resulting from domestic abuse. However, we believe that the stress placed on Americans because of the pandemic has also led to the homicidal frenzy which continues to plague the nation.
People are hurting everywhere in cities big and small. People need help. And people need assistance and direction in developing solutions that will help them solve or at least alleviate the problems that seem to be so overwhelming, mentally and emotionally.
Shooting classmates in a high school, attacking innocent people at Metro stations or at ATM machines or aiming bullets into a crowd of strangers in a drive-by shooting are all inappropriate actions and do nothing but exacerbate the problems we collectively face.
It’s time to stop the madness. And it can be done, one person at a time.
(Reprinted from the Washington Informer)
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