What has happened to our sense of values?
Was watching the news today and this evening, appalled by what I was seeing again, by history repeating itself.
On Thursday, Valentine's Day, Steven Kazmierczak, armed with three handguns and a brand-new pump-action Remington shotgun he had carried onto the Northern Illinois University campus in a guitar case, stepped from behind a screen on the stage of a lecture hall, and opened fire on a geology class.
Kazmierczak killed five students and then himself.
University Police Chief Donald Grady said that the 27-year-old had become erratic in the past two weeks after he had stopped taking his medication. But that seemed to come as news to many of those who knew him, and the attack itself was positively baffling.
Investigators learned that a week ago, on February 9th, Kazmierczak walked into a gun store in Champaign and picked up two guns, the Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun. He bought the two other handguns at the same shop, a Hi-Point .380 on December 30th and a Sig Sauer on August 6th.
All four guns had been bought legally from a federally licensed firearms dealer. At least one criminal background check had been performed... Kazmierczak had no criminal record.
Most of us have seen this story plastered all over the media, so I'll go no further about it, but it did get me to thinking on multiple tracks; about history repeating itself, about media coverage, about my own beliefs in the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), and thought about why such things happen.
Had been writing an angry reaction to this entire story when I happened upon LeeV's journal on this topic... and it stimulated another thought, and that had to do with values. This is the reaction as I posted as a comment, with a few additions:
Maybe if we who are parents would put down the remote controls to our television sets for an extra ten minutes a day and discuss values. with our children, it might make a difference.
It really wouldn't be that hard to do. Values could come from many different sources... things that shaped our own lives when we were young; spiritual things if a religious family; our success (and failures, being honest); even silly pranks that we may have pulled at a young age (this from J.R., who's reading this with me)... it's your own choice here.
Values are not chuckling over the latest episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons, or who was the best talent on American Idol. If one wants to find values to discuss from television, there's always the Discovery Channel, A&E, the History Channel and such.
Right now one of our local channels is running the film Hotel Rwanda, the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, when almost 1,000,000 Rwandans where massacred in a 100 day period. You can see the trailer here, but it's a pretty brutal subject.
My son had seen the previews for this film, we talked about it (I've seen it before), and it was his choice to watch... and yes, we will discuss it later. It's been called an African Schindler's List, another film that he's already seen. And yes, this one will help shape his own values.
We agree on many things and differ on others, for he's always been encouraged from a very young age to not follow the crowd, but to shape his own opinions, his own sense of values.
Without values, we end up with situations like the tragedy we saw at Virginia Tech and the others that we've been seeing in the news. And values like this have to be taught from home, and not from our school systems.
It takes just a few extra minutes each day to do this, that's all.
The news today reported that Steven Kazmierczak's father, Robert Kazmierczak, appeared on the porch of his Lakeland, Florida home and pled for privacy, telling a reporter “Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make.” Reporters had been trying to contact Robert Kazmierczak after it was discovered his son was responsible for the killing of the five students before taking his own life.
The Polk County (Florida) Sheriff’s Department had been requested to notify Robert Kazmierczak that his son had died, and shortly after being notified Kazmierczak found several reporters in his yard.
He made a brief appearance, saying “It's a very hard time. I'm a diabetic.” Kazmierczak requested that the reporters leave, then broke down in tears and went back inside the house. It has been reported that he recently lost his wife as well. It's very hard imagine putting one's self in this grieving father's shoes.
From all that we know, all that has been reported, Robert Kazmierczak had instilled a sense of values within his son, so maybe my thoughts above are only a partial solution to this ongoing problem.
Many years ago, as young Marine, I took an oath that I would l support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and have lived by that oath... once a Marine, always a Marine. I was raised with firearms, and learned to shoot at an early age, skills that I proudly carried into my adult life. Was at a certain point fulfilled by my shooting skills as a expert and sharpshooter, both with pistols and rifles. Times change, though, and I gave away my last personal firearm, a 9mm Beretta automatic pistol in the early 1980s as I just hadn't fired it in a number of years, even on a range.
But now my own beliefs in our right to bear arms as outlined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution are in grave doubt, and as a result of all of these wanton acts of firearm violence, am now looking more closely at the Brady Campaign to prevent Gun Violence.
Sometimes we all have to take stock and re-examine our own values.
And now I have a film and its values to discuss with my son...
Posted earlier on JargonTalk (Beta 2.0) - Values
Technorati Tags: values, Robert Kazmierczak, NIU, shootings, firearms, valentine's day, violence, honor, Hotel Rwanda, JargonTalk, Lexidiem, Brady Campaign
Yes, if we just spent a few moments with our kids talking about the things that really matter, how much of this kind of violence and tragedy can we prevent? The whole second amendment issue has long been a catch 22 for me. It all bears a second look and some serious consideration.
Thanks for this, you are saying what needs to be said.
Random violence has really been in the news so much here in the UK too - not so much shooting as its not easy to get hold of firearms but knife crime and gang beatings and murders seem to happen every day in our cities. Alcohol is responsible for many of these incidents as youngsters may not be able to buy guns but they can and do but very cheap alcohol. People are suppose to be 18 to buy it but surveys show that 13/14 yr olds can go to most of the big supermarkets and buy alcohol unchecked. Almost every day there is a new story about some poor man who has remonstrated with a gang of drunken youths for vandalism or noise outside his home and been stabbed or beaten to death for trying to protect his home and family.
Not to brag, but my Parents instilled vlaues in me from day one. Until I was five I wasn't allowed to watch any television that wasn't Christian oriented. All my life going to church on Sunday has not been an option. I went with my parents no and, ifs or buts about it. I was taught morals, respect, compassion and the importance of holding strong to my values and I've lead a better life because of it.
And some of my friends on Buzznet are close to this shooting.
It quite frightens me.
I am not sure what I think of somebody going crazy with a pistol at school. I am not sure if you can prevent that sort of thing with morality teachings or classes on ethics. We live in a society that thrives on death. People are indifferent to what goes on until it effects them personally.
I used to like the Code of Conduct. It used to mean something to me and it seemed to fit the other soldiers I worked with... Including the ones who were not American, but were more or less conscript-like. However, I am a sworn defender of the constitution of the United States of America... at least that is what it says in my contract, and it does not mention the Code of Conduct in that agreement.
You can lead a horse to water...
Maybe the thing that disturbs me the most is that we are now the "most heavily armed country in the world ," as someone in the media put it. The Small Arms Survey 2007, published in August 2007, noted that the US has 90 firearms for every 100 citizens, (or roughly one for every seven people worldwide), making this country the most heavily armed society in the world. And last fall, the media of course had a brief field day with this.
On a per 100 civilians basis, the numbers broke down to: US: 90 firearms per 100 civilians; Yemen: 61; Finland: 56; Switzerland: 46; Iraq: 39; Serbia: 38; France: 32; Canada: 31; Austria: 31; and Germany: 30 firearms per 100 civilians. The absolute figures break down to this US: 270 million firearms; India: 46 million; China: 40 million; Germany: 25 million; France: 19 million; Pakistan: 18 million; Mexico: 15.5 million; Brazil: 15.3; million; and Russia: 12.7 million firearms.
The Small Arms Survey is published by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, and is recognized as the principal international source of impartial and reliable information on all aspects of small arms. Its blend of information and analysis makes it an indispensable resource for policy-makers, government officials, and non-governmental organizations.
Still wanting another authoritative opinion and not to follow the general media hype, I did some further digging at the US Naval War College, for they often publish articles of interest to the maritime services at an academic and/or professional level, and are intended to inform, stimulate, and challenge readers, and to serve as a catalyst for new ideas. They have many of their publications available as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files.
Within the Naval War College Review, Vol. 59, Issue 1 is found an interesting 22-page article, U.S. Policy on Small Arms and Light Weapons, by Loretta Bondi (2006), and this one is well is worth reading. Ms. Bondi is no lightweight in this area, as one can see here in her bio.
As noted earlier, I was raised with firearms, and had learned to accurately shoot both a rifle and lightweight shotgun before my teen years. But I was also taught to have respect for firearms and for life in general. It those days, if you aimed a firearm at anyone, even in jest, you stood a good chance of finding yourself knocked on the ground and having your butt severely kicked by an angry instructor (or relative). So in essence, we were both instilled with a sense of some basic values, and taught some fundamental concepts of respect for others.
And are we becoming a world that that has lost its sense of values?
Now there are kids running around with firearms that were illegal when we were growing up and if you can pass the background checks ( easy to do if you want to lie ) You can pay a tax to own a gun that the possession of would have cost you to be locked up for two years. Now it depends on if you can afford the right lawyer. You are right, people have to have values for a sociality to survive
The fact that this has happened *again* is just tragic, and I've never been more scared of going off to college in the fall.