I don’t mean to disparage the intent of the Florida survivors who are now passionately pounding the anti-gun message. Yet, immediately after the shooting, I saw and heard several young people who claimed to know the shooter. They, with disdain in their voices, described a person who was off, didn’t fit in, was a juvenile delinquent and on and on. They just knew he was trouble.

If we are to really get to the heart of things, we need to discuss the responsibility of the students, their parents and the school, in how they worked (or didn’t) with and around this troubled, mentally ill youth. We should address bullying and shunning, maybe those actions should be considered worthy of detention or suspension, perhaps schools should reconsider the merits of mixing special needs children with those who don’t think they have problems. Why put these special kids through the BS. But, that’s a money deal and we can’t have that, can we?

My point is… long before there was a gun issue in this case… there was a moral issue…. But, there isn’t any glory in addressing that… There isn’t a bus to Washington to discuss that… But maybe that’s the band-aid they need to cover the gaping ‘moral hole’ beneath and behind and surrounding this horrible, horrible event. There should never have been someone to be worshipped as a hero, there never should have been seventeen dead to mourn over, but it started way before the gun was involved.

Anyone with an ounce of intelligence would agree that this troubled young man had no business owning or handling a gun. It’s time to step up and fix that ASAP. It’s time to close all the gaps and holes and mistakes involving background checks. It’s time to reevaluate our school systems. It’s time to reevaluate our parenting. Yet, I don’t see a bus load of kids going to Washington to discuss all of that.

Just yesterday I read of another terrible action committed on school grounds. Twenty-four stabbed randomly in a crowded hallway at the start of school. In my hometown, only weeks ago, a credible bomb threat, put all students in lockdown including my grandson, until authorities could find the young man responsible and the ‘for real’ bomb he threatened to use.

Where are the buses of protestors to Washington in those cases? We the people are herded to and fro in a never-ending battle of power. The NRA is accused of these manipulations, and without any doubt on my part, there are just as many if not more who wish to ban, not just assault weapons, guns altogether, on the counterpart. So a constant media frenzy about guns, but not so much when it’s bombs or machetes.

This young man in Florida should be interviewed closely. We need to hear from him, the bottom line of his action. We need to deal with just how the system failed him. We need to start there. We need to find a better way to nurture our kids, all of them.