Last night, in Florida, a mother of four lost two of her children Her thirteen year old son shot and killed his six year old brother, then committed suicide. A sixteen year old brother was also shot. An older brother was not home. The mother was at work. I cannot imagine the grief that comes with losing just one child. But for this mother, the grief must be and will continue to be unimaginable. How will she deal with the unspeakable horror that two of her children are dead because of a murder then a suicide?
The news account suggest that a food fight led to the deadly shooting, Why would a thirteen year old boy believe that a gun was the solution? Was he just trying to scare his brother? Did he know the gun was loaded? Was the shooting an accident? Did he take his own life because he could not deal with the shock and guilt of having just killed his brother? All those questions will remain forever unanswered, buried with the young teenager who chose to handle a problem with a gun.
There will be questions about the gun. Where was it kept? Why wasn't it secured so that an angry boy couldn't use it to shatter his family? There will be endless days and nights of grief and wondering why this tragedy happened and could it have been prevented. There will be yet another debate about guns and gun safety and the need to ensure that those who have guns ensure that those weapons are kept secure and out of the reach of children. But many children are exposed to guns at an early age and taught how to shoot. So where do we draw the line? How to we stop this tragedy from happening again and again?
What will be even more appalling than this tragedy will be the people who will still believe that nothing should be done to try to prevent this from happening again. This is not a second amendment issue. This is not about wanting to or trying to take away anyone's guns. This is about children killing children. This is an epidemic that we can and must stop!
