The Parkland School Shooting and Decline of Common Sense…

At 2:30 pm on Wednesday, February 14th, 2018, local police responded to a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in affluent Parkland, Florida.  Seventeen people, mostly students, were killed, and another 14 injured.

The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, age 19, is a former student who was expelled due to threats made to other students.  The Superintendent of public schools in Broward County reported that Cruz was reassigned to another local school.

Officials and parents are puzzling over why this  killing occurred and how similar events in the future can be avoided.

Many suggest “guns” are the problem.  Cruz owned his AR-15 legally despite many signs of hateful and crazed behavior.

In fact, the FBI was made aware of a YouTube post in September 2017 by Cruz.

From The Sun:

“Writing underneath a documentary clip about the notorious 1966 University of Texas clock tower sniper, a commenter called Nikolas Cruz wrote: “I’m going to [do] what he did.”

“A man calling himself “BentheBondsman” released a clip alleging that someone commenting under the gunman’s name wrote: “I want to be a professional school shooter.””

I heard an FBI spokesman this morning say there was no way to identify the source of those YouTube comments.  Really?  Or was this just a lame excuse for FBI failure?  We hear the frequent pleas of FBI and law enforcement to citizens: “see something – say something.”  A YouTube viewer saw something AND said something to the FBI.  And nothing happened.

We hear of those who report suspicious activity by Middle Eastern or Arabic/Farsi speaking individuals only to later learn of a lawsuit or bad press against either the reporting individual or law enforcement for “discrimination”, “harassment”, or a bogus “hate crime.”

In our  increasingly liberal churches we incessantly hear the out of context command of “don’t judge”, or friends mindlessly parroting “take the log out of your own eye before you judge others.”  But we all have logs.  Does that mean we are to never judge?  Foolish!

Some say this was a "senseless act" and Cruz was "mentally disturbed." These are the excuses used by those who don't want to bother to dig deeper and understand the sense this made to the shooter.

Sure, the shooter had a troubled life. A lot of people have a "troubled life" but the vast majority don't kill because it.  But some do.

In this case his “troubled life” was made known to multiple agencies who. did. nothing.

It is absolutely true that there were "a lot of signs." The students knew it.  The school administration knew it.  The Superintendent of schools knew it.  So Cruz was transferred to another school?  Sounds like the shuffling of sodomizing Catholic priests form one diocese to another.  And the FBI knew it but did nothing despite someone saying something.

The school leadership,  Broward Count Child and Family Services, the Sheriff's Department and the FBI, all of these entities had a hand in ignoring the problem.

Are schools too big and impersonal?  The student enrollment of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is over 3,100.   Students generally, and especially existing and potential troublemakers specifically, get lost in the huge bureaucratic system and social system in such a large school.

Possible solutions: Drastically downsize schools.  This is more costly, yes.  Would this be worth the price?  Very likely.  Are parents and voters willing to pay the price?  Probably not.

Other alternatives for parents who care more:  Sacrifice to send to small private schools or home school.

Many schools across the nation have tighter security than this school apparently had.  They keep exterior doors locked.  They screen visitors before they buzz them in.  They keep those out who are unknown or seen as a potential threat.  They keep armed security (teachers or law enforcement) at entrances at school openings and closings.  None of this was done at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  In fact, the two law enforcement officers at the outsized school reportedly never saw the shooter.  For a huge, sprawling school with over 3,100 student, do we really believe two trained security officers is enough?  A security assessment is essential.  Maybe 5 or 10 trained officers are needed for this size school.

Here is the broader problem:  We have become a culture whose highest value is “judge nothing; tolerate everything.”

We have a cultural and political environment that frowns on the promotion of traditional morality in the schools that used to be based on (dare I say it) Christian Biblical Standards. These standards were an integral part of our public education system until 50 to 60 years ago. We've fallen so far down the slippery slope due to this lack.

Our churches and Bible studies focus on not judging anything or anyone.  They are too often led by those who value “not offending” more than Biblical truth.  They take Scripture out of context to stress their culture-driven value system.  Very little that was considered immoral 50 years ago is considered immoral today.  What ever happened to Biblical concepts such as “admonish”, “reprove”, “rebuke”, or “correction?”  Those who stand by Christian self-discipline are derisively called “fundamentalists”, “extremists”, or “haters.”  Christian values have deferred to a declining culture of extreme permissiveness and out of control tolerance. 

Here is this culture’s mandate:  We certainly don’t want to offend anyone by calling them out on their crude, rude, or otherwise disturbing behavior.  After all, we all do it. In fact, even the Bible says [out of context] “judge not” and “take the log out of your own eye.”  Anything else is immoral.  Who are we to judge others?  And above all, don’t report it to any authorities.  We don’t want to be accused of being a snitch or a hater.

The above paragraph reflects some of the reasons we have become what we are as a culture.  Yup, we all “mind our own business.”  That mindset is a convenient excuse to not be bothered.