Florida shooting: Talking points will never prevent murder, Kennedy says
The high school shooting in Florida is tragic and sick and sad, and I hope we have a moment to rationally discuss this awful event before devolving into predictable tail chasing. Anti-gun Democrats are already talking about background checks, Second Amendment advocates are talking about mental illness, but maybe we're missing a much bigger picture.
From what we know about this unstable murderer, he had his own tragedy muddying up an already damaged brain, losing both adoptive parents in a short period of time. This sick orphan didn't have the oversight and consequences a normal teen might need to navigate a sharp world, but he didn't brood in secretive silence about his dark intentions.
There were so many warning signs about this bastard, the red flags were purple. The FBI, the school, his friends, local cops. Everyone seemed to know he was violent and capable of doing exactly what he did. Maybe because he reportedly advertised in a YouTube posting, "I’m going to be a professional school shooter."
His ability to unleash holy hell didn't happen overnight, and getting kicked out of school and told not to return only blackened the darkness and justified his murderous longing. That kind of sickness needs to be discussed, identified and treated long before it manifests into helpless Monday morning quarterbacking.
He used social media to advertise his desires, just like the kids who were being slaughtered and hunted used it to document and livestream the trauma in a way we've not yet seen.
You can ban guns, you can enact the strictest background laws, but how do you convince someone not to indulge their murderous rage that inflicts unspeakable pain on so many people? No one has satisfactorily tackled that one yet, and as long as there is a dehumanized disconnect in damaged brains, talking points will never cure this kind of murder.