at least this one’s dead

the death of my wife’s slayer
brought no comfort to me
now a shape for loneliness
for a dream

-Silver Bride by Amorphis

What happened

What really happened

In the aftermath of the school shooting in Maryland (best time to talk about it) I’ll point out one thing:

the resource officer didn’t prevent the shooting

The school resource officer killed the shooter, preventing further violence.

That’s to be commended.

He stopped the shooting
He did not prevent it from happening

And there is something I don’t believe

I don’t believe that the parents of the 2 injured in this incident

or the parents of all the maimed and deceased from other school shooting over the years

Can now rest from their sorrows
Can bury their pain
Can forget the horrible loss they’ve suffered
And will be at peace with the fact that their children will grow up with a terrible physical reminder of their experience

Or not grow up at all

all because this one is dead

I could be wrong
But I don’t think those parents will be all that comforted tonight

(and for what it’s worth I don’t celebrate anyone’s death. In situations like this it was unavoidable that the officer take one life to protect the lives of other. But a human being is dead. I find no pleasure in that fact no matter how justified)

Update

This incident seems to fall outside the definition of a “school shooting” where we’re usually talking about a mass shooting

This likely fits into the category of domestic violence

Which is also a problem.

Maybe we should talk about that too.

Update

And now Jaelynn Willey’s dead

I doubt it’ll come as much comfort to her parents as they miss her presence, that the man who shot her is dead.

Because the violence that man started was prevented from going any further

Which is great

But it wasn’t prevented

And now she’s dead
And no one wins
Not in this lifetime