After reading through the comments about the
events surrounding the heinous act of violence that took place at Isla Vista,
California, I figured I would write something that would attempt to put this
into proper context, considering we often lose it whenever there’s incidents of
gun violence.
This is not about gun rights. This is not about
gun laws. This is about is about Elliot Rodger, a young man just four years
younger than myself, that decided to resort to violence to achieve his
objective – to wreak havoc and gain vengeance for years of social (and apparently
sexual) isolation. Saying that he had access to guns is too easy to attempt to
rationalize why the tragedy was able to take place and why it was not able to
be prevented. The fact that his family knew of his videos, reported to police,
and police, after an apparent welfare check, really could not find anything
that would even hint at something like this occurring is frustrating and
painful, yet ultimately cannot fully explain what took place. But that’s the
nature of random acts of violence and their aftermath: we try to explain why so
that there could apparently be some sort of action that could take place to
prevent something like this from happening. However, we never really have an
honest discussion about what really leads to people to believe that aggressive
acts of violence is indeed the ultimate (and only) solution to whatever
personal issues that they have.
On the surface, based upon what has been reported,
we know what drove Rodger to do what he did: he believed, for whatever reason,
that he always got the short end of the stick of any interpersonal relationship
he’s ever had and thus, saw it as a metaphorical motivation for a personal
vendetta that he had against society. However, what we don’t necessarily understand
at this point – and quite frankly, we probably never will – is at what point
did Rodger decide that a blaze of violence was his only of getting the revenge
that he was seeking. I mean sure, the psychologist pundits will be quoted
profusely in the upcoming days and weeks ahead as the media takes a look at
these events, as well as other well publicized mass shootings that have taken place in recent years, and they will allude to a criminal psychological profile in which
the majority of the public will have very little critical understanding of, but
it never tells the whole story.
Yet, resorting to violence to settle scores is
indeed part of a social fabric, not just here but in many places around the
world. Why Elliot Rodger murdered six people as a way, in his mind, to prove
whatever point he was trying to make, is the same reason why (maybe not explicitly,
but damn sure implicitly) someone got gunned down over “beef” on the streets of
Chicago, Detroit, or St. Louis. Why Elliot Rodger believed that violence was a
vehicle for self-empowerment after years of lacking it, is the same reason why,
in some form or fashion, political groups and full blown terrorist
organizations kidnap, rape, and kill for the purpose of displaying their power.
And whether it was Isla Vista this year, the Washington naval yard in 2013,
Aurora and Newtown in 2012, Virginia Tech in 2007, Seattle in 2006, the D.C. sniper
shootings during 2003, or the high school shootings of the late 1990s and early
2000s, something snapped in these men that ultimately led them to turn to
violence and claim lives as a way to achieve their vile catharsis.
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