Why Sandy Hook?

         The horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, with 20 children and six adults dead this past Friday, seemed to come up numerous times at my family dinner. Why? Think about how the media presents and sensationalizes these killers.  But the real "Why?" that my family members asked was: why would anyone do this in the first place? The thought of suicide is devastating to begin with, but why kill all these other innocent people too - in this case, innocent, young, totally helpless children? My brother was talking about people who feel they are outcasts, never got along socially, "If you are going to go out (kill yourself), you want to go out and be remembered. They know they'll never be remembered any other way." Sadly, according to the American Society of Suicidology, "in 2005, 32, 637 people completed suicide. Of these, 4,212 were completed by people between the ages of 15 and 24." Do we hear about all of these deaths? No. The ones we do remember are the shootings in which the killer "went out with a name." 

         In years to come, what will we remember about the Sandy Hook shooting? We'll remember Adam Lanza - he got his notoriety - the attention he never had.  We won't remember the victims and their names. In fact, isn't it ironic that I'm blogging about him right now? My mom brought up the school shooting that happened in the Hubbard Woods School in the 1980s. The first name was Laurie Dann, the shooter. It was not how many people were wounded or shot, but the actual killer. I think this says a lot about how our media portrays these devastating events. But, how else would they? Adam Lanza will never be just be another young man who committed suicide, but his name will signify a historic event in history that may be remembered for generations.