The Sandy Hook Shooting—What is Wrong With This Picture?

Waking up to the news Friday morning was humbling, to say the least. The day started out as usual for my family–my husband returned home after dropping off our boys at school, our three year old was safely tucked into her pink bed, and I was sipping hot coffee by the fire. From the outside looking in, this seemed like a perfect Rockwell moment…until you pan in, and look closely at the devastation unfolding on the big screen in front of me. Pan in more and you’ll see a single tear streaming from my stunned eyes. All I remember thinking after hearing about the CT shooting, was, ‘School kids? Who would want to purposely murder innocent school children?’

I then started flipping through the channels as I like to educate myself on various perspectives, and immediately, not an hour after this life-changing moment for these family’s lives, the agenda-talkers were on the warpath. I remember one gentlemen stating that “this would never had happened if we had stricter gun laws, stricter psychological testing, and if the US would enact tougher bans.” Another channel had a psychological expert, which having a psychological background, I found intriguing to listen to. His comment included remarks about the “ the shooter being most likely depressed and perhaps he had a psychotic break”, and “shame on the parents for not addressing the issues, as if they had, this individual would have never been able to obtain a gun and these children would not be dead.” Then the President came on. Although I am not a fan at all, I did appreciate his genuine heartfelt sadness. He has daughters around the age of some of the deceased children and I understood and shared his emotion. Who knew that out of all of the sound bites of the morning the President’s would have made the most sense to me? And what was wrong with these other 15 or so “experts” that I had to endure listening to all morning as they babbled on only to be heard in an effort to push their agenda and brainwash the masses? Where was the empathy? The tact and regard for these family’s hearts? Where was the God that this country was founded on? What was wrong with this picture?

I began to tear up thinking that maybe I had it all wrong. Perhaps I was the crazy one who was out of touch with reality. Maybe banning guns was the answer. Maybe we need psychologists on the worksite now and in the schools, and security guards in every classroom, and the National Guard outside of banks, schools, churches? Oh wait. That would make us a third world country. That would mean we would have less freedoms than ever before. That would instill panic into our poor children’s lives every time we set foot outside to go anywhere. That would mean we had no way of defending ourselves when the true bad guy came knocking on our door. Sigh. So again I asked myself, “What is wrong with this picture?’. What do we make of this incident and what are the answers to the questions about guns, psychological testing, the responsibility of the parents, the why’s, the why not’s, and who or what is exactly to blame for this?

My perspective is that of a mom, wife, patriot, psychological expert, political activist and foremost a Christian.  The battles this world and its people face have more to do with good and evil than politics and personality disorders. I have read the diagnostic manual (DSM-IV) from cover to cover and I have yet to truly diagnose people who commit such heinous, unbelievable crimes. Some say it is due to a psychotic break; others swear if we responded to the signs, he could have been helped. I have to disagree. Psychotic break, too much free time, too many guns in his possession, a bad day, or bad parenting, this “person”, who I will not name, chose evil.

Whether guns were banned or not is ludicrous to even discuss and I am honestly, sick of the discussion.  As a responsible gun owner, I can tell you, I have never had the urge to go postal on anyone, let alone innocent school children. Psychotic break, too much free time, too many guns in his possession, a bad day, or bad parenting, this “person”, who I will not name, chose evil.

“There were family issues that could and should have been addressed.” Well, his parents are allegedly dead at the hand of this young man, and to assume for even a minute that the parents used their power to force this child of theirs to murder 18 school children is not only ridiculous, but unprofessional for any expert to even mouth the words. This was the nonsense I heard from more than one person on the news channels and radio. Again, I say Psychotic break, too much free time, too many guns in his possession, a bad day, or bad parenting, this “person”, who I will not name, chose evil.

I believe God is very much involved in the lives of those in this great nation and I also believe that due to the freedoms the government continues to strip from us along with the choices they continue to make to outlaw, ignore, and outwardly remove God from our foundation will only open the door to the evil that would prefer to take God’s place. I do not believe in forcing God or Christianity on people, as it is a choice. But, we MUST never forget that this country was indeed founded on Godly principles including the Ten Commandments. One only needs to look at our money, our Declaration of Independence, and our laws to see that this is so. Fine, remove God and His moral principles, and replace them with what exactly? The desensitization of America is what is wrong with this picture. The act of denying our roots, ignoring the true battle between good and evil that is often talked about and recognized throughout history, and therefore weakening our very foundation, is what is wrong with this picture. It will only continue as we give way to the assassination of everything moral, principled and good in this country. Guns are not the issue. Whether this young man was breastfed or spanked, is not the issue. Whether we as a country align behind good or evil in my mind is the issue, and my prayer and hope is that we get back to what our founding fathers fought for, spoke and wrote about. This needs to happen quickly and purposefully, before evil reigns and good has to go into hiding.

Written by Dr. Bridget Bell Melson