A Crime Magazine exclusive, by Eponymous Rox
(click link above to read without a paid subscription)
NOTE: Today's update on the tragic events in Newtown Connecticut this week supplement the other earlier posts below this one, as well as the special Crime Magazine article referenced above. For any readers who are not fully familiar with this developing story, please be sure to read those pieces too.
Women and Children First
It's notable that there were no adult males killed in the Sandy Hook Massacre on December 14th 2012, and some are suggesting that this might not be just a coincidence--even the children who were mercilessly butchered by Adam Lanza were mostly girls.
Violence against women and children is on the rise this century, both here and abroad, and, while not all mass shooters display such discriminating 'tastes' in selecting their victims, it's not unlikely that Adam Lanza did.
In fact, some sources say there is no indication that the disturbed youth targeted any male staff members in the school rampage, and that it's possible many of the younger male victims were actually shot when they panicked and fled from a hiding place that one of their (female) teachers had hastily secured for them.
That brave young woman was gunned down placing her body between the children and the shooter, by the way. As were all six of the adult females slain on this gruesome day.
Where, then, were all the adult males when this slaughter was in progress? Well, nobody's really saying.
And Superman, Thor, the Hulk, and Captain America...?
All of them also missing in action.
But with or without the protection of men, the overall safety and security of society's "most vulnerable" members is a pretty fair measure of just how "civilized" a civilization actually is.
If women and children and not safe from criminals when alone in their homes, if they're not safe in their public schools, if they're not safe on their neighborhood sidewalks, or in parking lots and shopping malls and grocery stores and movie theatres...well, that says an awful lot about the state of their nation.
And what it's saying isn't very positive.
Patently False
Media sources continue to falsely report that the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School unwittingly allowed demented Adam Lanza into the building by overriding the brand new security system for him.
The system in question is designed to activate an automatic lockdown of all the building's exits and entrances at 9:30 AM when morning classes are usually scheduled to commence.
Not only does it defy logic that the principal would deactivate this built in safety feature for a masked intruder, but it does a grave injustice to this selfless and courageous woman who knowingly sacrificed her own life by lunging at the gunman when he broke in.
In short, it's very clear that the principal did everything humanly possible to prevent Adam Lanza from gaining access to the children under her watch and care, many of whom were at that moment assembling in the auditorium and in various nearby classrooms.
In her desperate effort, the school's principal was aided by the school's psychologist, and both of these women were gunned down together in "execution style" in the main hallway.
So, in reality, investigators think Lanza probably arrived a few minutes too late to simply walk into the school unnoticed, and, thus, shattered the glass near the main entrance by calculatingly spraying it in a hail of bullets from his semi-automatic rifle.
They also theorize the attack was preplanned and that the heavily armed shooter may have been targeting those two particular female staffers anyway, as he reportedly had an "altercation" with them and two others just the day before, when he first attempted to illegally enter the facility.
These four staffers had succeeded in barring Lanza on that occasion, and so the deranged young man returned on the next day instead, with a vengeance.
Although Adam Lanza probably had a concealed weapon with him the day before, when he did come back again police say he was armed to the teeth, having already shot to death his mother in her bedroom, apparently while the woman was sleeping.
Not incidentally, the fourth female of the group that had evicted Lanza the day before the massacre survived the subsequent mass shooting event only because she hadn't actually come to work that day.
Not much else is known about this major fracas at this time however, because authorities are still investigating the incident.
Social Equality & Sociopaths
Someday soon, as a result of all this much-too-frequent bloodshed, and as a result of more women and children now being without a male for whom they think they can rely on daily for protection, males and females will begin to be socialized from birth in the exact same way.
But, until then, they're not: By and large, most females are still raised to be submissive and their male counterparts are still being raised to be aggressive--ideally as breadwinners and protectors of women and children, rather than their predators.
Which is to say, that the next time an event of this grievous nature occurs, (and it will) hopefully the males nearby will do more than just flee and hide with the children.
Because the heroics the women of Sandy Hook exhibited under fire, such as rushing the shooter to tackle and disarm him, were precisely what must be done in such extreme situations. And these acts are best performed all at once, without hesitation, and as a group rather than individually or in pairs.
Men too, are still much taller and stronger than women are, and although the fight or flight mode in both sexes is very strong, and the flight instinct most commonly the one that is triggered under stress, a little training is all that is required to correct the mistaken belief that running away from a gunman is "safer".
In fact, running away is what that weak-minded, and very often weak-bodied, young man wants people to do. That way he not only feels more powerful than he usually does in "real life", but he can kill at liberty and in far greater numbers.
As was the case with 20-year-old mad gamer and psychopath, Adam Lanza.
Talking About Talking
A choked up President Obama is visiting the desecrated town of Newton, Connecticut today to offer the thousands of victims of this most recent act of senseless brutality his condolences, support, and some solace.
In addition, Obama has publicly vowed to open a "meaningful" dialog now about guns and violence, particularly as it pertains to the rising crime wave among the young and these now-commonplace mass assaults.
Discussing discussions is a good start, of course, but advocates for gun control will be the first to say that it's also a long overdue move, with too many dead having piled up during an inordinate and unjustified delay.
What's more, if these proposed talks fail to address the role of violent videogames in this surge of violence, and if the billion-dollar gaming industry itself is not also forced to come to the table, this will all be for naught.
Remember, Klebold and Harris, Jared Loughner, James Holmes, Adam Lanza...all these young mass murderers and many, many more just like them were violent video-gamers. All of these dangerous psychopaths methodically trained as expert marksmen via simulated single-shooter programs and a "harmless" little joystick.