Guns

Each murder ends a life. Each murder changes lives. Today, a troubled individual shot to death children and adults in an elementary school in Connecticut. He also murdered his mother. Experts, most of whom have never lost a loved one to violence delivered by gunfire, will declare--with the confident detachment of onlookers--that guns do not kill people.

Seven months ago, in Ellicott City, MD, I walked the floors of the sanitized aftermath of a killing field--the offices of St. Peters Episcopal Church. I stood on the vacant spot that marked where sister-in-law Candy Squared was shot, sitting in her chair at her desk. I skirted around the fresh laid plywood floor where the other woman died, most likely trying to flee. If the mentally ill person who shot and killed both women had not had a gun--if he had been forced to use a different weapon--perhaps both or even one of them would have escaped.

Madness will envelop some lost souls; anger will feed others and the consequences can be horrific and unfocused. Once again today, as in May, I wonder bitterly: Why does my nation--why do my elected leaders, neighbors, friends and those who share my blood--support laws that supply killers with weapons that multipy death with such cruel and aching certainty?