4 people or more dead qualifies as a mass murder. So a young man takes his parents’ assault weapon, an AR-15, probably legally purchased, and he goes and kills his mother as she lays in bed, and then uses the gun against children. No, not the Adam Lanza story; this time it’s the Nehemiah Griego story. The story is similar, but in this case, Nehemiah killed his parents and siblings and didn’t shoot at strangers. After murdering his mother, he killed his nine-year-old brother. He then killed his 5-year-old and 2-year-old sisters. Then he waited for his father to return home, and he killed him. His father was a pastor, and his father was the one who taught his son how to shoot. It is said that Nehemiah was in fact planning to go to the local Walmart to shoot up strangers after killing his family, but he changed his mind.
The family asked the media not to politicize Nehemiah Griego’s death.
“Our family has differing views on gun rights and gun control,” the family statement said. “What we do agree on is that those who wish to score political points should not use a confused, misguided, 15-year old boy to make their case.
“He is a troubled young man who made a terrible decision that will haunt him and his family forever,” the family said.
I remember someone saying something similar after another mass shooting. He was the brother of a victim, and the brother chastised and yelled at some famous TV personality for trying to “politicize” his brother’s death after she asked him a simple question about guns and gun control. This brother’s sound bite became overused fodder by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and all the other talk radio goons.
I used to agree with the view that we shouldn’t politicize incidences like this out of respect for families. I don’t agree any more. Since there was a threat of public mass murder, it’s not a private matter. As Colin Goddard, one of the Columbine survivors said, “I’m not here because of what happened to me. I’m here because of what happened to me keeps happening to other people, and we have to do something about it.”
It’s not about “political points.” It’s about stopping the bloodshed. It’s not about one family’s tragedy. It’s about how one family’s tragedy could have been shared by many other families. I’m sure the Griego family wants time to grieve, but let’s not ignore the fact that there’s an epidemic of gun violence going on right now. Let’s not forget that Nehemiah was planning to shoot strangers at Walmart–this “family problem” could’ve easily become another public problem. It’s been barely over a month since Sandy Hook. No doubt the Griego father heard about the tragedy at Sandy Hook, and yet he himself didn’t feel it necessary to give up his gun, especially with a son who had mental issues. While I can certainly empathize with the family’s right to grieve, it’s wrong to ask people not to start conversations that can help change the laws to protect their own families.
I agree with you. The apparent randomness and actual frequency of these incidents leaves one wondering if my own card will be pulled at some point by some disturbed person.
I also agree with the people that point out that mental health issues go hand in hand with this, however.
Buried in this Time article, towards the end, is a pretty good point about detection and prevention:
the public’s most important opportunity comes before any shooting starts.” Most shooters belong to the communities they target and go through predictable phases before they kill anyone, from fantasizing about the nurders to planning them. “We have to pay attention,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be a police officer who fires a shot; sometimes it’s a teacher who comes forward and says, ‘hey, this guy is really dangerous.’”
In this city’s subway system, after 9/11, they have been constantly reminding passengers that “if you see something, say something.” I don’t see why a similar approach, in conjunction with some restrictions on gun ownership, would not work in this situation. I think we need more education on the sort of profiles of people who are more likely to do this and more encouragement to participate in prevention using this information.
Oh, definitely.
Great article too. I was astounded by this:
I do wonder though if it’s possible to predict outcomes accurately, even with mental health training. In the case of this particular young man and in the case of Adam Lanza, both were homeschooled. Both also learned shooting from their parents. God knows what they were thinking, although it seems that the Griego father was a pretty isolated, religious guy.
^ The parent’s, man!
That’s assumming they did not realize that their kids were capable of this. If they did, but were in denial, then I wonder if societal stigma plays a part in that.
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