Lethal Exhibitionism

We had a tragedy occur today.  A gunman named Adam Lanza, familiar with the school's security procedures, walked into an elementary school, shot the principal and others then proceeded to his mother's class, shot her and continued shooting until 27 people died before killing himself.

To continue to pretend that evil does not exist in our world is a lunacy of unfathomable depth.

All people are fundamentally evil.

What we do with this truth defines us as a society and world.  Do we stand up and take adequate measures to protect lives, or do we flail about in a futile attempt to control that which cannot be fully controlled?

If we do nothing, it will happen again; and it will be worse.  Each of these massacre-style shootings carries with it a thread.  Each successive event is an attempt at topping the last news-worthy event with an ever more horrific, shocking, and news-worthy action, and the creativity of mankind is seemingly infinite.  The next event will be worse unless tangible steps are taken to prevent this.

I introduce another truth.  People are afraid of death.  We must use this truth to reduce the likelihood of another event happening, or in the event of preventing it entirely reduce the consequences of such events to provide additional levels of deterrence.

You might argue that Adam Lanza did not fear death, but I will wager that he did.  People who commit these kinds of acts are highly deceived, but Satan will not simply leave it at deception.  He will remove the blinder from you once you are too far gone, leaving such guilt that suicide is the only recourse.

The first, and most obvious answer is more guns in school.  At least one person, preferably who knows how to use it effectively, needs to have a gun at every school.  This will lessen the impulse to become infamous for the next horrific act by providing immediate and tangible defense against a deceived person.  If you can kill the shooter before he can do significant damage, that eliminates, or at least complicates, the exhibitionist factor.  Even the social psychological factor alone will serve as a social deterrent.  This would be extremely similar to having Air Marshals that fly incognito on aircraft.  Every knows that they are there, and the effect of that knowledge produces a stronger deterrent against anyone weighing the success of such an event in terms of exhibitionist thought.

It does not however, address the possibility of the single person with a gun becoming so deceived as to commit a similar act.  As such, a more broad-based social deterrence is necessary.  I would definitely go so far as to recommend that all teachers who wish to should be able to have a 0.38 pistol in their possession at all times under some manner of protection, and the principals and office staff should have access to something of a heavier and more deadly capability, say a shotgun.  If the firearms of sufficient power are equally spread amongst staff, and suitably protected as to prevent unauthorized access, this would provide an incredibly strong and broad-based deterrent against bringing lethal exhibitionism into our educational institutions.

This idea is akin to mutually assured destruction on a more global level.  Taking this step would apply the idea of mutually assured destruction on a broader and more social level.  The only other viable option that I see is to provide more security guards at schools to prevent this.

Either way, we need a significantly increased protection in our public places, and equal firepower in place seems to be the only adequate answer to this continuing problem.