Coumbia Mall Sooting

Darion Marcus Aguiliar

None of us would know Darion except for his tragic shooting in the Columbia Mall which took two lives before turning the gun on himself.   The 19yr. recorded a life of unhappiness -- which resulted in his taking a taxi with a 12 gauge shotgun to the mall -- please tell me how somebody can do that without being reported?  Then an hour after arriving at the mall, the event happened without any yet apparent connection between him and those he shot.  How many more times must we watch another "unhappy" albeit emotionally disturbed person get loose with a gun and take the lives of others?  It seems even more compounded in tragedy to recognize that nothing will be done to prevent the next incident. 

Please excuse this inane comparison--of all things, I do not wish to gloss over the deceased and their families with this comparison to a Star Trek episode.  The Clingons and the Federation have two small bands in a shootout on a planet.  The residents get so sick of "your violence and primitive lives--they are too painful to observe" that they immobilize all weapons between them. Nobody can kill anyone anymore.  Kirk and the Clingon Capt shout at the residents that they have a right to their violence. They are told--"then go elsewhere."  Where is the button we all long to push to immobilize weapons?  Or, is that degree of science fiction reduce us to muzzled animals who cannot bite each other.  Is the price of our freedom to give it up entirely? How do we grow and advance into a civilization that does not murder? 

The only possible answer lies in a society that will finally have no use for guns and will give them up because live will seem too priceless, the great pearl of great price, and we will tire of such a primitive way of life./