He Brought a Rifle, a Shotgun, and a Pistol to Mass. Schoolchildren Paid the Price.
Michael Simpson said his 10-year-old grandson, Weston Halsne, was nicked by a bullet as he sat by the church windows on Wednesday. His voice shaking as he left the area around the school, Simpson said the violence during Mass on the third day of school left him wondering whether God was watching over. “I don’t know where He is,” Simpson said.
School’s open and it’s open season again. This time, it’s schoolchildren, praying in church at the beginning of the year, and a shooter, dressed in black, opening up from the parking lot. He had brought a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol to mass. Two killed, at least 17 wounded, and the shooter was his own final victim. School’s open and it’s open season here in the United States of America, where the tree of liberty is freshly watered and another city is reeling from another unfortunate exercise of our precious Second Amendment freedoms. The police chief said:
“During the mass, a gunman approached on the outside on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass. Shooting through the windows, he struck children and worshipers that were inside the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
Why, one asks, why is this still incomprehensible? Evil is universal, but we choose to arm it, bestowing on it the honor of being one of our fundamental freedoms. This was the second mass shooting in Minneapolis in 24 hours. Watch now. Somehow the gun fondlers will blame the fact that Minnesota has relatively strict gun-safety laws and the debate will enter bizarro world again while “thoughts and prayers” becomes first a cliché and then a punchline. The mayor of Minneapolis came closer to the truth of it.
Mayor Jacob Frey called this an “unspeakable act,” adding, “children are dead.” He said children and families should be able to go to school and church without fear. “Don’t say this is about thoughts and prayers right now, these kids were literally praying,” Frey said.
So were the people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh back in 2018. So were the people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, back in 2017. So were the people at Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina, back in 2015. So was Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, back in 2009. There is no magical zone of safety projected by the word of God in this country now. I don’t have any answer for that gentleman’s question about where God was Wednesday morning in Minneapolis except this one.
Too many guns. Too goddamn many guns.
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